Sudhir,
To avoid excessive workload and to balance between articleship and studies, ICAI has come out with an announcement and one of the point states the maximum working hours.
The challenging part of the CA course is articleship and exams togethar. Only those who strike the balance well do well.
Only articleship or only exams has no value. Only chapati, only vegetable, only dal or only rice has no takers. You need all for a perfect lunch along with salad and other items as well. Its impossible to do well in life with only ranks, or only knowledge, or only good communication skills. There has to be everything, something less or more at times is acceptable.
You may read my blog for more details on the same.
By doing dummy articleship and studying for PCC for 18 months its eay to get a rank, however by taking 2-2.5 month leave it becomes difficult. Look at big 4, so many ppl have got ranks in final and pcc as well with so less leave. If they are exceptionals and others are average, others can atleast pass.