Meet Mr. Sanjay, all India 1st Rank holder of CA finals, May 2014. A very confident individual, hailing from Jaipur, surefooted in his plans and strategies believing in practical application of knowledge has proved his mettle again in CA Finals after being the 2nd Ranker in IPCC. He likes to hit the gym, go for running & play cricket to be physically & mentally strong. A very determined boy who believes that there is no alternative to hard work but does not believe in following a monotonous routine. Let us find out his story & what he has planned for his future.

Thank you, Sir!

Ya, I'm actually feeling, how in a day everything changes. It’s because of the hard work of 3 years that in the span of one day everything has changed. It feels great!!

Actually, first of all, I just looked at the marksheet. When I looked at the marks, without checking the merit list, I was like “Ohh, No!! These are very less marks and it’s very difficult to achieve a rank even in top 10”. But after that, I just went through the merit list and I was like...“Oh great!! This is First Rank; this is it, this is the maximum” The reaction was just after I saw the mark sheet, I was like a bit low and just within a second as soon as I saw that 1 written over there, I started jumping.

After 10th, one starts deciding whether one should opt for Science /Commerce or the field one actually wants to do. We seriously start thinking about it, after 10th for the first time. I had interest in Stock Markets, Finance, Funds and Interests. I always heard people saying about interest status, this and that. I was always interested in this Commerce field so I opted for it and after 12th, I had the option to go for SRCC as I scored well in 12th or to pursue CA. So, at that time I decided that CA is always going to be a very good course as compared to B.Com from anywhere. After that, I prepared very normally for CPT just along with 12th and just after 12th in March, there was 12th Exams and then in June, it was CPT and I got All India 6th Rank in this. At that time, I started feeling that this is the field that I am interested in and I should pursue it seriously. Then afterwards, I gave IPCC. There is very less time between CPT & IPCC. In IPCC, I got All India 2nd Rank. After that, I studied hard along with articleship. I did articleship in Jaipur and I had the opportunity to do Statutory Audit of various banks in Delhi and some government undertaking audits like Mines, Mineral Companies and many bank branches in Jaipur. So, it was a nice experience. I learnt a lot and after that I started preparing for Examinations. Right from the last 8-9 months before the final exams, I started preparing seriously. Last 4 months, I took the challenge and I went through all the various coaching classes and after that, it was like... I had put in my everything. I had missed it by 1 mark in IPCC and it taught me a lot. It always helped. So, missing it by 1 mark actually paid up to me in Finals.

Here, I'd like to quote a phrase. “Learning all the rules of cricket, doesn’t make someone a Sachin Tendulkar!!” So, if you have learnt all the rules and all the laws and you don’t know how to apply it, then it’s going to be useless. Articleship, it does help. Specially, the taxation paper, “Direct Tax”, is a very tricky paper. One of the questions I remember was about a chit fund and there was a client who had the chit fund business. I had done this, so at that moment, I read the question and I knew how I should write the answer. So that 1 question was of 8 marks and 8 marks make a difference. It was a difficult question. Very few students could actually attempt it and that 1 question actually made me feel so proud that I have done something.

When I started my tuition classes, I had some outstation audit. Till IPCC, it was like very smooth – you take tuitions and according to your will, you can attend the classes. But, when for Finals, I took the tuition and after that my boss decided to send me for an outstation audit then I realized that, practical implementation is important so everything has to be managed. So, these were the hurdles which I faced as I had to go for outstation audits whenever required and had to manage time for the studies. But only by overcoming these hurdles, one can achieve the best.

What I would say is- I used to play and watch a lot of cricket, a lot of movies and even when I was bored with the subject, I always had open head earphones and I used to play music along with practical subjects. So, it helps to de-stress and apart from that, playing some physical activities; sometimes for a month or two, I used to go to gym - hit the gym, just start running, put down weight, jumbling and weight-lifting, running sometimes in the morning. I bent and just ran 2 -3 rounds of the stadium near me. So, these were the small things which I did. So, daily, if you make the same routine, it becomes just boring. I used to change my routine – like sometimes I used to go to the gym in the morning, sometimes played cricket, sometimes attended the parties of relatives/friends. So, I hadn’t confined myself to a same single routine but kept on changing my routine. This, in turn helped me not to take stress.

I'd say my strategies were - starting the first reading of any subject is not from examination point of view. The first reading that you do – it is to learn not from exam point of view but something beyond that will help throughout your life. The second reading after that, should be from examination point of view, where we try to learn the points and remember the things. And after that, when the third reading comes, it’s the mould point and after that it is the exam. So, three readings and after that, exam was my strategy.

One thing I would like to state is that- there a few students (I don’t know why), they often have the tendency to go for selective course – like making patterns year wise. However, I never followed that strategy. I used to study everything – like from AS-1 to AS-31. I never used to choose selective topics but covered each and every point. So, this was the thing which I kept in mind. I didn’t give importance to one or few topics but studied everything for all the subjects.

In case of practical subjects, I used to cover a lot of single questions before the exams – only the concepts. Here we are not to grab the questions, solutions, thought and put it down in the exam. It’s the concept that is important so that whatever question comes, we can conceptually solve it.

In case of theoretical subject and law, I used to mark/underline the things during the 3rd reading that I wanted to study before the exams. So, those underlined things, I used to study completely day before the exams.

You know in one day, you cannot change yourself. It is never going to happen that you listen to something and on the exam day, you will get that and apply it. This won’t happen. So, you would have to analyse it from the very beginning when you start preparing to check your speed. It won’t happen by the first reading but by the second reading, it should be. For eg: If you are doing an Accounts’ question that is of 15 marks, then that shouldn’t take more than 20 minutes to be solved. So, we should consider the time factor also from the very beginning itself, when we have started our preparations for the exams. Sometimes, we undergo 2D study strategy. We just focus on our course but don’t take time into consideration. But, during exams, time is a prime factor which all should consider in mind. So, this is a 3D thing which students have to understand from the very beginning- and that is the time factor so that during exams, they wouldn’t have to leave any question.

This is very big because more than 1 lakh people appear for this exam, I think and to be on top among them- this has proved my worth in studies. I missed it by 1 mark last time during IPCC, so it is now even bigger. At that time, it was such an ironical thing that I couldn’t say to people that I am not happy with this result. I was AIR-2, I missed it by 1 mark and I couldn’t say that I was not happy. So, this time, I am AIR-1 and I am happy and also satisfied. So, this is a big thing.

Next comes, my future plan. Initially for first 3 years, I would like to have an exposure in the corporate world, the industry, finance sector of a company, you know treasury sort of thing. And, after that, I would like to go for something like Management. London Business School or Harvard or ISB, whatever. Do MBA and then again I would like to join some company at a top position. It will help me improve my profile after 4 years practical experience if I am doing MBA and then I can join back the industry. It would help me, to reach the top.

Thank you!!

It has to be my family because when you are studying so much, you have to go for training, nearly 20 hours, you are putting in a lot of stress both to your body as well as mind. So, in such situations, a CA student is bound to be frustrated, stressed and angry. So, at that time, if the people around you are cool, then it becomes easier and people around you, they also start getting frustrated, then it also becomes very difficult. I would like to thank my mother, dad and sister, who were very cool. They allowed me to do whatever I was doing in peace. So, it helped me. They also motivated me and sometimes also used to forbid me from studying more, if I kept on studying continuously.

Actually I am not a member. But, sometimes, I just do visit it randomly. Sometimes, you just read the random comments, communications or whatever chats people are having. Some of them are CAs, some of them are Final appeared students, some of them have passed, some of them have failed. As, I said that time is an important factor, I had read about this on CAclubindia- that students are not studying throughout the year considering time and then in exams, suddenly, time is the factor. So, this thing when I read in CAclubindia, that day itself, I have noted it in my diary that I have to consider the time right from the day I start preparing. Sometimes, you just don’t know the people but from their blogs or some chats and you get to learn something; that this is also a thing, so in this way CAclubindia helped me.

Message for the CCI Community is that – result of CA goes very low. Pass percentage is very low so failure is not an end of life, it is only a part of life. Once, if you fail, you have to bounce back. So, you need to work even harder and after that you have to try more with a more disciplined approach. If we are failing, there are things which we are doing wrong; so we need to find out first- the things that we are doing wrong, after that put an effort to correct them and then in a disciplined and systematic manner, study so that we are able to pass out with flying colors. I would wish all the luck to all the students of CAclubindia!!

Thank you Sir.