I am sharing the following points out of my experience as I have noticed that many bright students miss out on scoring a rank or clearing CA with good marks, only because of IT / ISCA.
- Finish reading the portion once. JUST READ, don’t mug up the answers from the first reading itself. First reading is intended to get familiar with the terms and topics. Use dictionary if needed, don’t feel shy or act smart!
- Be as creative as possible. Imaginary visuals and diagrams help you to understand difficult concepts easily.
- ISCA is a study of IT revolving around audit. Similarly, your practical experiences with audit & IT during your articleship helps you to understand concepts like MIS, Database, ERP, Audit Policy etc. Try to relate auditing during articleship with ISCA, you’ll understand things even better.
- There is no substitute to having a habit of making your own notes. Such notes are blueprints of all the methods (short points, key words/sentences etc.) thru which you have understood each and every answer. Hence, such notes are subjective and useful only to the one who made it.
- There is no benchmark to how many times you should read the portion before giving the exam. People advise reading the portion 3 or 4 times. But remember, the paper checker doesn’t award marks on how many times you have read the whole portion, right answers are needed for that! Look to understand the concept rather than blindly mugging up and reading the portion, endlessly.
- On the day before the exam, look to read the answers of RTPs – current and past 2 attempts.
- During the exam, write the answers point-wise, if possible. In any circumstance, don’t bluff or write unnecessarily lengthy answers. Complete an answer within 2 pages (considering that you have a normal handwriting). Otherwise, you’ll be wasting time for marks that you won’t receive! I’d like to share my personal experience here; scoring a mere 17 marks even after answering the entire 100 marks paper using 1 main answer booklet + 4 extra sheets i.e. not even ½ mark per page.
- RTP says,’6 average answers will fetch you better marks than 5 best answers’. Absolutely true, because the institute expect answers from a student of Chartered Accountancy not a Computer Engg. I applied this theory and managed to clear CA with 77 marks in ISCA. This theory is not only advisable for ISCA but for all the other subjects as well. Answer all the questions asked!
I don’t claim to have pointed out something radically different from those who must have already contributed in this subject, but this is a small effort which I believe would help those students who wouldn’t have noticed these points earlier. Best of luck and keep faith in yourself! Don’t get too disappointed on failing CA and don’t get too excited on clearing CA either, because there is life beyond CA.
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