To Clear Chartered Accountant (CA) Exams- Some Useful Tips

To Clear Chartered Accountant (CA) Exams-    Some Useful Tips

Become a member of one of the most respected chartered accountant fraternity is the dream of each student appearing for the exam. Chartered Accountancy Exam is organized by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and is held in May and November every year.  The duration of the chartered accountancy course is 4.5 years after clearing the 12th exam and 3 years after clearing graduation in any stream. The duration of this course increases with the number of attempts.

An exam with an average of 8-10% as passing percentage is clearly the tough course for students to pass. Hard and persistent studies have no alternatives and along with studies, if students can practice following tips than it will enhance the possibility of clearing his/her exams. These tips are other than normal examination tips like start early, sleep well, draw realistic timetable etc.

   1) Increase writing speed: You know the exact answer to question asked in the examination but knowing the answer will not convert into “marks” till you write on answer sheet. So, the practice to increase writing speed is extremely important during preparation of exams.

Immediately buy rough paper notebook and try to write at least one page every day while copying the contents from study material. You will notice that It took 15-20 minutes to write a single page and with this speed in an examination time of 3 hours you can write max 9-10 pages. Practice enough to write 6-7 pages in an hour with a writing speed of at least 1 page every 10 minutes.

     2)  Practice Formats: Every minute saved in the examination can be used by the student for other critical stuff like re-reading all the attempted answers, to give more thoughts to technical questions etc. In case of paper like accountancy, practice the exact format of Revenue account, Profit and loss account, Balance Sheet and practice to mention other small things like Rs in thousands/Lakh, reference of note number etc. To draw right format is non-technical but important step for scoring additional point in exams. Continuous practice of formats while solving accounting, costing, tax questions can easily save time during exams and also add additional marks.

     3)  Identify your strength and weakness: Student need atleast 40% mark in each paper and 50% mark in aggregate to clear any group of CA intermediate/Final exam. Identify your strong and weak subject and study with focused target to score atleast 40% marks in weak subject and 60% plus marks in strong subjects to achieve aggregate target of 50% marks.

     4)  Do focused Studies: Many students buy multiple text book authored by various author to practice subjects like accountancy, costing, tax etc. Please note everyone has limited time for preparation of exams and any group cannot be cleared by mastering in a particular subject. You have to attempt all the papers and has to study every subject in a limited span of time. Do focused study and spend more time to clear the “concepts” of the subject.

     5) Revision before exams: Student generally gets a day off before next exam for any revision. While preparing for exams make small notes, rephrase key points on the right hand side of study material etc which will help you to revise the subject in short span of available time and also boost the confidence level.

     6) Tutor another student: This tip is for student who had already appeared the same group/exam in earlier attempts. It is really boring to study the same subject which was already tried multiple times. By tutoring another student not only earns money but will also increases the clarity, gives different prospective of same problem while solving the queries of your student.

There is no alternative to hard work and with some different steps/efforts you can easily achieve your goals. I like to conclude this article with few lines on “efforts”. Albert Einstein is widely credited with saying, "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results." Success is not directly proportional to effort; Success is absolutely about what you focused on and how effective you use your time to achieve your goals.

Nalin Bhandari Chartered Accountant Cell:+919930018666