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ca final may 2018 first group ,self study guide,old syllabus

Mayur (CA final) (311 Points)

07 October 2017

please which subject took first for self study for 1st group ca final May 2018 old syllabus.
i am coming to give exam in may 2018 after 4 years of gap in study die to job & family responsibilities. pls kind request to give study techniques for may 2018/attempt 1st group. reference books ,planning, to score good in most effective way. regards

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17 Replies

Amrita Vashishtha (audit assistant) (2 Points)
Replied 10 October 2017

I too worry about the old syllabus amendment's for first group may 2018. Plz provide the proper guidance to proceed.

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renu (service) (126 Points)
Replied 10 October 2017

Hi Mayur,

I am also sailing in the same boat and lost my confidence as well to pass the exam. Reqeust you to help me for the same

Sathish (CA Job) (175 Points)
Replied 12 October 2017

Dear All

The following is my recommendation considering the time-frame and the added responsibilities. First and foremost never lose hope, there are many CAs who have cleared their exams after joining industry / regular employment. This is a course with all permutations and combinations with every possibilities provided the twin requirements of positive attitude and efforts are developed.

1) Financial Reporting:

I would prefer you take up topics like Valuation, Developments in Financial Reporting (Value Added, EVA and Humar Resource Reporting), Financial Reporting for Financial Institutins, Share Based Payments and Other Guidance Notes. These are manageable topics on which there will be hardly any twists and turns, with examination questions will be mostly based on previous exam / RTP questions.

Then take up Accounting Standards and Amalgamation simultaneously. Ensure that you read one standard a day and revise it the other day with complete understanding with atleast one or two problems in Amalgamation per day. While doing Accounting Standard ensure that you understand the differences between corresponding IND AS (Would recommend to take up book authored by Mr D S Rawat for AS and IND AS).

Atlast take up Consolidation, though the chapter is rich in concepts it carries only 16 Marks in exams and the coverage is little extra compared to other topics.

Ensure that you track a seperate list for library of important adjustments for revision in day before exams along with flow-charts for theory/steps and AS. The recommended book other than AS is by the author

2) Strategic Financial Management:

I would recommend the book of Mr V Pattabhiram for this subject as you will feel the heart is light when reading it from this book as it covers all the concepts with easy to understand examples along with past examination and RTP Questions. The order of preparation can be as indexed in that book. However I would recommend to take Derivatives seperately as the coverage from examination might range between 10 to 20 Marks but the topic is rich in issues.

3) Advanced Auditing and Law:

The best recommended books are the ones authored by Mrs. Surbhi Bansal / Mr. Vinod Kumar Agarwal (For Audit) and Mr. Munish Bhandari (Undoubtedly) for Law. Ensure that you remember the key points by way of charts / mnemonics. Ensure that you write it down after preparation of every topic and revise it multiple times. A month before examination, kindly go through the practice manual of ICAI to know how the suggested answers are drafted especially for practical questions to have a feel of the examiner's expectations. Please do not give more importance to remembering section numbers as the provisions are more important in the answer sheet.

General Advise:

a) Pick one book for every subject (Apart from FR for which a seperate study on AS & Ind AS is required) as per your choice or the recommendations above and believe that the coverage will be good enough to secure good marks in exams.

b) Rather than going through multiple RTPs restrict yourself to the latest one that is published a month before exams and ensure that you actually revise from them by trying the answers on your own rather than auditing the solutions.

c) During the preparation stage of practical papers wherever you have committed a mistake highlight the same in a seperate ink in your notebook so that while revising you will ensure that same mistake is not committed in exams.

e) 100% coverage is impossible and there is always an element of surpise in exams. If there are certain topics (Say financial instruments in case of FR) which even after multiple preparations is very difficult for you to pick up do not fight with those topics rather respect that topic and leave it out of your preparation to progress further. Remember you should be strong enough on the other topics (Especially those in which the questions are directly from past examination problems).

f) Take up model exams before main exams as a good performance there will boost your confidence and an otherwise performance will induce you to put in more effors.

Wish you all the very best for your preparation and the success.

Thanks and Regards

K Sathish

3 Like

BRINDHA.K.R (Audit Assisstant) (50 Points)
Replied 13 October 2017

Hi Sathish, Your advice is a valuable one. Even I face a similar situation and planning to take up exams by nov 18 for both groups. It would be great if you would be able tell the self study books for group 2 as well

Minal Mohite (4 Points)
Replied 16 October 2017

pls advice for refernce book for costing IDT DT isca

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Sathish (CA Job) (175 Points)
Replied 16 October 2017

Dear All

The following are the recommendations for Group II.

1) Advanced Management Accounting:

I would strongly recommend Study Material and Practice Manual for this subject. The reason being I have gone through the latest Study material and PM, the PM is thoroughly updated with all past RTP questions as well. Its quite diffifult to understand it in the initial stages especially for topics like Standard costing. But the harsh reality is there is no single text book that covers the concepts in a student friendly manner.

For instance take the case of Material Usage Variance. It is arrived to assess the efficiency of Production Manager. In terms of quantity its Standard Qty less Actual Qty. An excess usage means that the actual quantity is more than standard, vice-versa is the case of efficient usage. This anybody can understand. However when it comes to converting this into monetary terms we multiply the excess (or) under-usage with standard price and not the actual price. The reason here is that the efficiency or inefficiency of the purchasing manager who is responsible for negotiating the price should not affect the production manager's performance rating. Hence the formula for usage variance is (Standard Quantiy - Actual Quantity) x Standard Price per unit. Only books like Horngren or Colin Drury covers these concepts in a detailed manner. We do not have so much time at our disposal to make an in-depth study. So go for Institute Material and PM.

However ,if you feel study material is quite heavy (which is actually true) you can always go for Padhukas with Practice Manual Problems. Most of them will be covered in Padhukas you can quickly grasp for some additional high quality problems in PM.

Like in the case of FR and SFM make notes of important formulas, formats, steps and important adjustments in every topic. The day before exams should be spent only for going through theoretical concepts and these adjustments.

2) ISCA:

There are plenty of books in the market even with memory techniques, but I would recommend to use study material as base and make self notes with your own mnemonics or charts. Because that will last for long. It all depends on the interest. This subject is covered hardly in 300 pages and you need not slog as much as other subjects in the group. At the speed of 10 pages per day, the entire syllabus can be covered in 30 days. Even allowing some relaxation the same can be covered in maximum 45 days. And let me tell you this can be a game changer and contribute more for your aggregate as nothing can come out of the study material unlike the case of DT, IDT or AMA, even if that been the case the proportion is miniscule.

3) Direct Tax Laws:

I would personally recommend the book authored by Mr T N Manoharan. Many think that this is only good for theory and not much numericals are dealt with. Remember how many books you refer is not important, how many times you read, revise and remember from a single book is very important. Arithmetics will automatically come if you are strong in concepts. Follow this book and make your own notes. This book along with latest supplementary study paper and select case laws will help you to score more.

4) Indirect Tax Laws:

With GST covering 75 marks in the present syllabus, Institute is pro-active in relasing the study material much earlier than any private authors. So I would recommend ICAI Study Material considering the commendable effort which I could see after going through the chapters. In case if you are looking for an alternative you can go for Bangar, which is also a good one. The latest book by them titled "Beginners Guide to GST" is a good book, but they are yet to release a examination oriented book for IDT including GST. So go for ICAI Material as its available right now and you can start your studies much earlier.

Once again wishing you all the best

Thanks and Best Regards

K Sathish

1 Like

kinjal kiritkumar shah (abcd) (30 Points)
Replied 18 October 2017

The Isca module applicable for November 2017 is also applicable for may 2018 Please reply

Sathish (CA Job) (175 Points)
Replied 19 October 2017

Yes, no other notification or updation are provided. The study material is in the below link:

https://www.icai.org/post.H T M L?post_id=13326

Thanks and Regards

K Sathish

(Guest)

Thanks a ton sathish ji..it'll help us a lot for exams..:)

Mayur (CA final) (311 Points)
Replied 09 November 2017

thanks satish sir for valuable advise. Also comment regarding any change in 1st group subject for ca final may18?

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Sathish (CA Job) (175 Points)
Replied 15 November 2017

Hi Mayur

The major change I expect the first group is to have more weightage for IND AS. But ICAI is yet to release a note on the applicability of standards / guidance notes for May 18 exams. Let us wait for the official confirmation from ICAI whether there will be limited testing on second-generation standards alone with major focus on IND AS.

Meanwhile you can focus on other subjects or even within FR topics like Valuation, EVA, VA, Accounting Standards from D S Rawat's text book as it has comparitive study of IND AS at the end of each standard. This will ensure that when you are studying IND AS, (assumin that its going to be largely focussed in exams) you will get a feel that IND AS is not significantly different from AS.

Thanks and Regards

K Sathish

viviyan (article assistance) (22 Points)
Replied 19 December 2017

Dear sir can you please guide me on which PM will be applicable for group 1 old syllabus for may 2018 exams... I heard that we can refer July 2017 edition for the preparation.. is it true?? Or should I wait for Jan 2018 edition??