Hitting the Merit list of CA IPC

CA IPCC exam results are just out and we had the opportunity to interact with toppers and bring to you their success stories and close sneak peek into their motivating secrets.

Meet Shubham A. Kothari, from Chennai all India 2nd rank holder of CA IPCC November 2014. Shubham is a simple & joyful person who loves to play and watch cricket. Shubham is a huge fan of Sachin Tendulkar and also shares birthday with him. He believes in leaving the first good impression in the answer-paper, and believes time & discipline are 2 most important things in CA. He is thankful to his parents & mentors for motivating and supporting him and is all set for CA final without taking the burden of any expectations.

Let us find out what was his strategy & how he has achieved this success:

Thank you. Thank you so much!!

I am feeling great it’s difficult to explain, I didn’t expect rank and all.

Actually I was at home and came to know that I have scored 550 marks, at that moment I thought that I will get a rank but was not sure which rank. And the very next moment I got a call from the ICAI President. He told me that “Shubham, you are the AIR 2nd rank holder in IPC, congratulations!!” I was like, totally shocked!! I told my mom and dad and everyone were happy. So, it was really shocking. I was very surprised (smiles), I didn’t expect.

Ya, everybody said that since this time in IPC you got the 2nd rank but in final you would have to get the 1st rank. But, ya I am taking it in a light sense. So I am not taking pressure to get a rank and all. CA final exams will come after 3 years so I am not thinking about it right now.

Actually, I never had this thought that I would have to get a rank and all. I just didn’t want to write the exam once again (smiles); the thought of studying again so much was really scary, so I just wanted to clear the exam anyhow. And I got a rank!! I didn’t expect it but, ok. I would like to thank my parents who motivated me. My mother used to cook really good food so that also helped me. Then I would like to thank my teachers and faculties, the teachers of where I went for tuitions “MT Educare”. They were just too good. And my friends and everyone.

It’s really big and important for me and my career. I can’t say how big but it is like unbelievable. I have no words to express my feelings. (smiles)

Ya sure!! For subjects like- Accounts, Costing, Tax etc, I used to focus in the class. These are the subjects which you can study in the class itself. These are practical subjects so you can study around (60-40) in the class. If you pay attention, 60% work is done and you can get the requisite amount of concept for those subjects. Then in our class, we used to practice many sums so that was more than sufficient for us to cover up the remaining portions of those subjects.

Then apart from that for theory subjects like Law, ITSM, Auditing etc. – I started preparing these subjects just two months before the exams. Initially, in the 2 months holiday- the first 10 days I spent for Law and Accounts, then next 15-20 days, was for Costing and Taxation. So, 1 month was spent for Group 1. And the next 10 days, was spent for Accounts and Auditing. And the next 5 days, was spent for Group II – ITSM. So, within 45 days, I wanted to complete the first part of the studies and then next, I took up revision. Each subject, I revised for two days and then the exams. So, I revised once before the exams. That was the plan before the exam.

The first 15 minutes one should analyze the paper and plan what questions you are going to answer. The first question should be the correct one. So, that the examiner gets a good impression. Then you should plan for those questions which you are not going to answer. And, then not to take stress while writing the exam. It won’t be possible to know all the questions in CA exams. It’s ok if you don’t know one or two questions. You can try it and get around 3 or 4 marks for that and then you can try scoring good marks for any 4 questions. In that way, you can get 60 to 70 marks. It’s not possible to know all the 10 questions. So, you should try to do 4 to 5 questions properly and for the remaining questions, try to write something for which you can get 3 to 4 marks; so that will do and of course the presentation. I had a good handwriting and maybe that helped me. We used to present our answers well. You can underline keypoints, write the headings in capital letters, so all these small things creates a difference.

To be frank, I haven’t yet decided about my articleship and CA Final. Currently I am enjoying this and am very happy.

Ya, I am a member of CAclubindia.

Ya, like I used to search for some updates around from many pages like CAclubindia, some RTPs or some important questions, even the interviews and all the stuffs were really helpful.

Yes it is a good option but there's nothing like attending classes.

For e.g. If your house is too far away from the classes and those good classes are not in your city or town, then online classes is a very good option. But if you are attending your classes in your city / town, then it’s better to attend the class because at home you may not be that focussed, you might be going here and there. But, in class there is no option, you have to sit there. If you have an option for class, then it’s better to go for the class. If you have no other option, then you can go for the E-learning classes or may be for revision purpose you attend, if you have no good option available.

Ya, I used to play cricket even during the exams. Cricket is the first and the last thing. Whenever, my friends used to call me, I used to go for cricket only. Cricket is really one thing that quickly relaxes one from their studies.

Sachin obviously (smiles). His and my birthday falls on the same date.

Ya, that was one of the reasons I wanted to clear it this time. In case I would have failed it this time I could have not enjoy World Cup decorously. So, that was one of the important factor I wanted to clear this time only. It also motivated me in a way (smiles). I am very excited for the World Cup.

Not about how I prepared myself. Whatever time you spent has to be quality time. It doesn’t matter if you spend 15 hours but if in those 15 hours you are not focussed, it’s of no use. So, it’s better to sit for next time and be focussed. And it’s not possible to cover the whole syllabus. So, you can cover those stuffs which will fetch you more marks. Like in Law, you can spend time on Ethics & Communication. That covers up portion of about 45 marks and then you can easily get remaining 10-15 marks in other topics. So, there is no point in studying the whole course to get 30 marks. So, you can spend time on an area focus. So I would say, time management and discipline are the two most important things in CA.

Thank you so much!!