Effective key exam tips

Divya Agarwal , Last updated: 18 February 2015
Share

I qualified my company secretary examination last year, and luckily was the first one to clear among my peers with whom I started the course. By Gods grace I succeeded in clearing all of my levels at the first attempt and so am called a company secretary comparatively soon. I completed my CS with Graduation i.e. b.com which proved to be a pillar for my studies..

After I cleared, my friends would ask me how did I studied or what I studied and what not .Although I am too amateur in this profession to comment, but would like to give some wide ideas about preparing for the examinations, from my personal experiences to my fellow students. Please correct me if I am wrong

Firstly I would like to highlight the major myths about the professional courses preparation

Tuition classes

I have come across many of the students who feel that unless they spend 4-5 of their day in coaching centers they cannot excel in the exams. And mark my words, its entirely false .Coaching and tuition does certainly helps you in getting across the exams, but only helps. It is not at all a guarantee of sure shot success. I would not comment on CA or CWA classes because I do not have much knowledge about it but, for CS part I can confidently say that self study is the best source to prepare.

Personally I could not get good coaching for my preparation and so I did not take coaching for 75% of my subjects in all the three levels. Although I feared all the time that it would adversely affect my result; but ultimately it did affect, but contrarily in a favorable manner. I got the highest marks in the subjects which I had studied myself among all the other subjects. Self studies proved to be more useful than the classes I took spending my time and money.

So my stand is; If you have a strong practical base and do not face much difficulties solving numerical then certainly self study is the best. As practical subjects requires the most guidance (I am very weak in practical subjects.) And still due to lack of tuitions I attempted accounts in the executive course and financial management in the finals relying upon my self study and passed by flying colors.

Professional courses like CA and CS requires the students to be well versed with the detailed provisions of the subject studied and so the questions asked in the paper are never direct. In coaching the in depth knowledge of the subject is not given because there is no time. So although we feel our syllabus is complete but in reality it does not happen and as a result we are not able to attempt the tricky questions of the question paper. But when we read the module and the course material we get to study each and every aspect of the topic and so are more known to the questions asked in the paper in whatever form it is asked.

In practical subjects the theory part is neglected by most of the students which acts as a serious setback in the exams. Once we go through the module and now know the theory part as well it becomes easy to solve the practical part also. That means double benefit..

So, my suggestion in this regard is , take some guidance before you start a subject; if you need. But try to prepare the subject yourself by going through the study materials as all the answers are present in it itself.

Secondly ; during the examination how the questions should be attempted.. In this regard I would like to mention 2 points.

Manner of attempting the question paper:-

1) Order of attempting questions

a. Always those questions should be attempted first in which we are fully confident, that we can solve it. In which, we can solve the question with maximum marks without wasting any time.

b. Secondly, sometimes we see that we come across questions which have parts and we know one part and not the other. In such case, if the question which we know contain more marks then other , comparatively, we should go for that question. Lets understand it by help of an example:-

* Question 1 has two parts- a and b

A carries 10 marks and b carries 5 marks

You know the part a properly and can attempt b part for 2 marks

*Question 2 again has two parts and b

A carries 8 marks and b carries 7

In this you know a part completely but can attempt b part for 4 marks..

In such cases you should go for 2 nd question; the reason is.; it is not necessary that the question of 10 marks gives us full 10 marks. We may get 8 and the question of 5 marks which we dont know may give us only 1 or 1.5 marks. That is total is 9 or 9.5 marks.

Similarly in second question we may get 7 marks out of 8 and min 3 marks out of 4 marks attempted. So its cumulative goes to 11 marks..So going by the example its advisable to go for 2nd question.

2) Number of questions to be attempted:

I had a friend in school who had a particular habit of attempting her best of questions in so much time that she could not get time for other question. Due to which she got less marks. During the examination we have limited time to complete the paper. And this time should be utilized wisely.

According to me, you should attempt all the question, by whatever you know ( off course if you know !) rubbish should not be written..

If you waste your time in only 1 or 2 question, which you know the best; ignoring the other two, you may pass but with less marks. Because a question of 15 marks will never give you 16. But if you attempt all the questions with whatever little knowledge you have, you may not get 15 out of 15 in those question but 2-3 marks in other questions also which will sum up greater than with what you get by only attempting two question .

Example :-

CASE 1

QUESTION NO.	MARKS ATTEMPTED	MARKS RECEIVED
01	15	15
02	15	15
03	0	0
04	0	0
		Total-30
Case 2

QUESTION NO.	MARKS ATTEMPTED	MARKS RECEIVED
01	14	13
02	14	13
03	3	2
04	4	3
		Total- 31

You can see the difference yourself.

ONE RAMBAN TIP:- I have followed this tip all my academic life and trust me it has never failed.. And the tip is; you should never leave any question un attempted. Even if you do not know the answer write the one you feel can be the answer. It may be right

Conclusion:-

Preparing the subject is utmost important to pass any examination; but manner of attempting the questions also great significance. Go for your examinations with a relaxed mind and write whatever you knowIt will surely help you.

I hope my inputs will help the students reading it, and will increase their passing chances in professional examinations..

Thank you for reading.

By: CS Divya Agrawal

Contact me on:- CsDivya_agr@outlook.com