Dear CCI Members,
Please find below some useful Exam tips I have extracted from the Interview of Mr. Pawan Sarda, 2nd Rank Holder, CA Final Course, with the Admin of CAclubindia. As per my own understanding these tips are truly wonderful and full of real time experience.
You can check this post in CAclubindia Forum at the link given below:
/forum/exam-tips-from-the-interview-of-topper-pawan-sarda--195537.asp
Hope my below effort will help you a lot:
1. CPT preparation laid a strong foundation for him by his teachers and mentors; he focused more on understanding the concept than mugging it up.
2. Articleship again gave him an exposure which helped him more in practical training like how to manage time, stress and how to reach deadlines on time, all of this learning made all his preparation easy.
3. Never Give up Attitude:
In the words of Pawan:
During the second reading of my subjects around September one point came where I could have given up easily but I pushed myself to ignore all the negativities and went forward with confidence and kept faith in myself. That was the time I realized the power of each minute and areas where I could improve.
For any kind of professional examination it is must to manage time or rather I would say manage yourself.
4. Last 2 days before exams were the most crucial days of Pawan’s life and he decided to keep a tight schedule of 20 hours studies for both the days and according to him this strategy really works for him.
So in this way you can also work out a strategy for yourself keeping in view your strength and weakness. Here I don’t think you need anybody’s help. It is all about you my friend.
Another inspirational reality is:
Indirect Taxes could have disappointed him as he studied it himself but then again he made it his strength and to his surprise he got the highest marks in this subject. Firm believer of focus, determination and sincerity, he never gives up no matter how big the problem is.
I think and as per my experience CA is all about “Never give up” and take every failure in a positive way because it opens so many other doors for you.
Few other points extracted from this Interview and from the words of Pawan are:
i. Academic achievement really requires hard work and sincere study.
ii. Do not compare yourself with anybody because you are really special and can do anything.
iii. Try and set your own standards if you want to achieve anything in life.
iv. Workout on your vision just like Pawan as he decided to do CA well before his 12th standard and pursue the same from the very beginning.
v. Articleship is very important for a strong foundation so take your articleship very seriously.
Importance of Articleship in the words of Pawan:
As in the words of Pawan practical experience gained during Articleship really helped him during the preparation of CA final exam. He got a lot of good exposure and because of his sincere work he got to learn things more than the technical part. Further he got to learn how to manage time, pressure and how to meet the deadlines. So these qualities helped Pawan in studies straightaway.
vi. Respect and follow the guidance provided by your mentor just like Pawan did. According to him his brother was his mentor who used to motivate and guide him from 11th standard. Pawan always follow the advices given by his teachers and they told him to focus in the concepts, not to mug up things and that approach definitely helped Pawan to Top CA Final.
5. Importance of Study break and revision: According to Pawan study breaks were important and finally after the first reading, he started reading all the things again in September and put his best efforts to complete the second reading in the month of September itself.
In the words of Pawan:
But for some student it may be a bit difficult to achieve such hard targets. Here as per Pawan that was the time when anybody could have given up but if you hold on if you don’t give up at that time then it becomes easy later on. So, I had somehow managed to complete my 2nd revision in the month of September itself and also and in October 1st week we had exam series, daily we had one paper so in 8 days we had 8 papers in October. So, accordingly after the first revision in September, for the test series I was prepared because I had already done 2 readings in total and in the test series again daily I went through the portion-one full day and then I discovered the power in each and every minute at that time, the time management was important.
6. 20 hour plan and other Exam Strategy of Pawan:
Pawan’s third reading was done through the practice of test series and then he had 20 days before the exams. In those 20 days he finally made his plan for studying just before the exams and the two days which he has before the exams he think those two days are very important, if you study something for 4 months but if you don’t study the same thing just before the exam it could be a waste of time then because when you go into the exam you should have the confidence that you have read everything, everything should be fresh in your mind, so he had made 20 hour plan for those two days.
With the help of this 20 hours plan he somehow managed to complete everything and all the portions nicely. Actually his target was to read everything 100%, to study 100% of the material, not to leave anything because we cannot afford to leave anything and secondly to solve everything, to solve 100% of the answer sheet because even if you don’t know the answer you can at least write something, there is nothing that you can be completely blank about, so that was my strategy.
One more thing was that those 3 hours during the exams are very crucial whatever you study for one or two years that does not count if you do not do well in the 3 hours. So, I had planned that in the 180 minutes in which you have to give 100 marks paper, so you have 1.8 minutes for each mark so likewise you can calculate that for a 5 mark question you have 9 minutes in hand, for 10 marks question you have 18 minutes in hand so while giving the answers we can keep a track of time like, how much time is over, how many marks paper is left and accordingly we give importance to each and every mark that is important because if there is 15-20 marks paper then automatically they are giving the examiner the less chance of giving us good marks and if we solve it completely then definitely we are giving him more chance to give us more marks.
7. Tips to prepare Indirect tax Law:
Pawan Haven’t joined any coaching class for Indirect tax and he was dependent on a single book and self study. so after the first reading of Indirect Tax in September, he was a bit frightened because he haven’t joined any classes. So he decided to make his weakness into strength. He daily planned and gave 2 to 3 hours to the indirect taxes and daily studied after the test series for the last 20 days, so ultimately Pawan ended up getting the highest marks in indirect taxes. It was one of the real challenge he had faced.
8. Keep revising or update your Plan:
Pawan used to revise his study plan. According to Pawan It is not always necessary that 100% of your plan will be followed so I used to revise my plan every few days, even the daily plans I had, the something or the other used to come up but then somehow there was the determination that I have to do it and there is nobody else who can help me. I took this responsibility and finally it was done.
9. Self study benefits you more:
Pawan’s CS course is also going simultaneously. According to him professional studies requires lots of time and left you with short amount of time. What you need is proper focus and sincerity, you need to be involved in what you are doing. These are the things he learnt during student’s life.
During his journey he discovered that self-study is only going to be the way and because everybody else thinks that classes are very important but I think self study benefits you more.
10. Message from Pawan Sarda to all the Aspirants:
I would like to tell them to do their Articleship training sincerely. Secondly, not to give up. It seems easy to give up. At that point of time if you hold on then lot of events are waiting for you, there are lots of positive things which are waiting for you. So, I want to give everyone the message to be honest to themselves, not to show off to anybody what they are, but then be truthful to their own selves.
Please use these tips in your exam preparation and come out with flying results.
Warm Regards
Ankur Garg
CAclubindia
