AMIDST ongoing crisis, students seem to be finding the chartered accountancy stream safer to sail in compared to other options. The number of students applying for entry-level Common Proficiency Test (CPT) is on a rise–a record number of 90,000 students appeared for CPT conducted on Sunday against 76,000 who appeared for the test in June 2008. The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) expects the number of applicants to cross one-lakh mark in next test in June 2009.
ICAI conducted CPT in 221 centres in 114 cities across the country, up from 207 centres in 111 cities in June. Over the last three years, ICAI has been witnessing more than three-fold increase in number of students who clear CPT and enroll for articleship compared to the 2001-2005 period. Today, ICAI with 1.50 lakh members, has about 3.50 lakh students pursuing career at various levels. It may be recalled here that ICAI placements, in September, witnessed average salary going over Rs 6 lakh for over 1,000 students.
“Our ground work to increase goodwill and awareness about chartered accountancy profession among students, parents and teachers has started paying very well now. Next year in June, we are expecting at least 25% jump in number of students appearing for CPT. Meanwhile, we have also experimented with online exams and CPT is likely to be shifted on entirely digital platform by December 2009,” ICAI president Ved Jain told ET. He added that number of CPT candidates would surpass 1.20 lakh next time.
CPT is the entrance exam that a candidate needs to undertake as an entrance-level route to the chartered accountancy stream, which every aspirant needs to clear before enrolling for the professional state. After clearing standard 10th examinations, a student can register with ICAI and prepare for entry-level test while pursuing 10+2. This exam is conducted by the ICAI in June and December. Proposed online test will enable the students to appear for CPT at their chosen timeslot in days to come on the lines of GMAT and TOEFL.
According to an ICAI office bearer, “There is an increase in the number of girl students opting for CA course. Out of total of 90,000-plus students applying for CPT exam, 28,282 were girls. The performance of girls is also better than boys as is evident from the CPT exam results of June 2008 wherein the pass percentage of the girl students was 41.37% as against 36% of the boy students.”
According to an ICAI office bearer, “There is an increase in the number of girl students opting for CA course. Out of total of 90,000-plus students applying for CPT exam, 28,282 were girls. The performance of girls is also better than boys as is evident from the CPT exam results of June 2008 wherein the pass percentage of the girl students was 41.37% as against 36% of the boy students.”
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