Handling of practical paper in CS or CA

RG - A Helping Hand (Company Secretary) (13867 Points)

14 September 2011

Friends,

In my sincere efforts to share useful and relevant stuff with Caclubindia fraternity today I’d like to share something about handling of Practical paper. To be honest I have faced lots of problems during my study time to handle Practical paper. Now let me share something based on my experience for your benefit.

THEORY PART

Let me start in a bit different way. Yes I totally agree that account, costing, FM and Tax are considered as practical subjects, but at the same time it is right time for us to understand that theoretical knowledge also plays a significant role. Most of the time students overlook theory part while preparing for a practical paper like account, cost and tax etc. To ensure success we have to understand that study of theory is equally essential in practical paper for 2 reasons:

1. Special attention to theory part is necessary to answer exam questions

2. If you give some time to theory part from the very beginning it will also help you in understanding the practical concepts.

I’d also advise you to have a look at bird’s eye view of scanner to locate important theory chapters.

PREPARE ACCOUNTING STANDARDS WELL

In case of accounting good preparation of Accounting Standards is very very crucial. So read and prepare the Accounting Standards well with practical clarity. For Accounting Standards I would advise you to use D. S. Rawat book. I would also advise you to refer and practice previous year questions from scanner as the same is a great source to practice practical questions.

The clarity of Accounting Standards will also help you to handle practical question (Theory based) asked in Audit paper.

INCOME TAX

As far as Income tax is concerned, I would advise you to read and understand the concepts well. Further only reading is not sufficient because without learning the use of concepts in practical problems one cannot handle the practical problems.

Also in Income Tax study recent amendments brought in by the latest Finance act. In this paper also you need to know the theory aspects well like dates and amounts to resolve the numerical. In other words if you want to attempt the practical part successfully you have to learn the theory part well.

For preparing Income tax theory I would suggest you to use the book of Girish Ahuja or T.N. Manoharan. Regarding Tax practical questions V.K. Singhania is preferable.

SERVICE TAX AND VAT

For IPCC again there is Service Tax and VAT for 50 marks which are very easy to learn. It’s always better to follow the institute materials for the preparation because all other books may be PCC/IPCC combined and may not have full aspects of service tax and VAT.

Also note one imp point it’s very easy to finish Service Tax and VAT portion because it is not as lengthy as income tax is.

COSTING FM

In costing also theory plays an important role and decides your fate for the exam. Even though this is a practical paper yet theory has vast relevance here as it comes for nearly 40 marks. So the best way to deal this paper is be very good in theory and score the max of those 40 marks. However I would not suggest you to do selective study and about FM it’s not as vast as costing so study FM completely.

For costing Saxena and vashist or Ravi M Kishore with institute module would be a good choice.

ACCOUNTS

Remember account is the most imp and scoring paper. As per my suggestion study the entire subject with all topics thoroughly. Prepare all chapters and then practice at least past 10 years papers under exam conditions & you will feel the difference. I’m sure by doing this yourself confidence will go very high and you will be able to figure out your weak points and can remove them immediately. You must also understand how to do the best time planning for completing your paper in 3 hours.

Again as mentioned earlier in this article study and prepare Accounting Standards very well to score more.

For accounts I’d suggest you to refer Shukla and Grawal with Institute Study Material. For CA Final preparation you may refer M. P. Vijayakumar or Paduka

FEW GENERAL SUGGESTIONS

As per my understanding some of the general points to handle practical paper are as follows:

1. In numerical paper it is very imp to read the paper first. So give it a quick reading and figure out the questions you can attempt well. Fix a certain time limit to attempt the question and try to finish that question in the given time frame.

2. I would advise you to select good books and notes from the very beginning and use them with consistency. Don’t change them again and again.

3. Understanding concepts in practical paper is very crucial. So focus on concepts and practice ample number of numerical questions from reference book, Scanner and Institute study material.

4. This point is regarding attempt of Compulsory Question. Read the Compulsory Question with full concentration. If you are not able to understand the question then there is no point attempting that question as first question. Leave it then and there and move ahead.

5. In practical papers conceptual knowledge plays an important role. So focus on the concept clarity from the very beginning.

6. Make your own notes for the preparation of theory in practical papers. Normally in practical papers you’ll find less theory. So it would be easy for you to prepare your own notes for important and frequently asked questions.

7. One of my mistakes during my study time was: I used to solve practical problems with the help of examples without proper understanding of the given concept. But let me tell you this is not a good idea. Even one may solve endless number of problem but there is always a chance that the next problem you get requires conceptual clarity and in case you have not understood the concepts, it would be really difficult for you to attempt such problem. So the idea should be focus on the number of concepts you learn rather than the number of problems you solve. After proper understanding of concepts, you can solve any problem from that particular chapter.

8. In CA or CS Exams reference to institute study material is very important. Most of the time we ignore study material. But let me tell you some explanations and connected practical questions given in the institute study material are of very high standards. Hence I’d suggest you to refer institute study material.

9. One of the general misconceptions about the practical paper is that it does not require good presentation. So stay away from this misconception and focus on good presentation in practical subject also. Avoid unnecessary cuttings and show your working notes used for solving the problems.

10. You should not use abbreviations during the exam and write the full word like account instead of writing A/c. Further write to the point answer of your question.

One more thing to be remembered in account is --- you will get marks for every correct step while solving the problem. If your final answer is wrong that does not mean that you are going to get nothing. So it is advisable to at least attempt a problem of which you are not very sure.