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Detailed strategy for Strategic Financial Management

Rohan Deshmukh , Last updated: 20 March 2020  
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One of the most interesting subject of CA Final is Strategic and Financial Management.

As we all know, SFM is the most scoring paper of CA Final and most of the practical lovers get more than 60 but however, few of them do not even get passing marks in this subject. The major reason behind this huge failure gap is lack of proper planning.

See the subject SFM is all about practice. Being a practical subject, students should focus on the clarity of concepts. Secondly, students should also focus on the variety of questions. Every question should be on your tips or at least you should know how to start and what should be your approach for solving the question. Here I will explain few points which you can take and make your own strategy with some adjustments as study strategy depends on person to person.

  • Early start-Don’t think that you have a lot of time left before your attempt. Start from today itself. When your start with your studies, you’ll find that the length of the course is limited but when you dig deeper, it expands to another level, so better to start early as soon as possible.
  • Self preparation or teacher- The most confusing question after starting preparation is weather ‘self preparation or a teacher’. Surprisingly, the answer of this question varies from person to person on the basic of their ability. So rather searching answers for the question, ask yourself after going through the study material itself. 
  • Best books- Institute books are the Veda/Bible/Quran for SFM. Refer only to Study Material, Practice Manual, Revision Test Papers and Mock Test Papers and try to complete all the relevant questions mentioned there accordingly. However you can refer to some other books too for in-depth study but it would be just the waste of time because you already have so much to study.
  • Important chapters
    If we would be discussing about IPCC/Inter paper then I would strongly suggest you to prepare
    everything and leave nothing but considering the vast syllabus of SFM and also considering
    other subjects of CA finals, it very difficult to cover everything.
    Thus, understand the weightage of marks of a particular chapter and plan your time devotion
    chapter wise accordingly.
  • Never underestimate any topic
    Do not skip any chapter or topic untouched or unrevised if you are left with some times. Cover
    as much as possible because one cannot expect the possibility of topics from which question can be asked in CA exams. Always remember that questions can be asked from anywhere in the
    syllabus.

  • Mastering the chapter
    When you become confidence about solving problems on your own then you can shift to
    another chapter. Once you are done with the concepts and the easy questions then try solving
    the big and bulky questions on your own because they are the real test of your ability. The
    simple questions are like league matches and practice matches whereas the big questions are
    world cup. If you can solve big questions to the extent of 80% accuracy, then nobody can stop
    you from getting good marks in that particular chapter. Once you are confidence enough then
    you can shift to the next chapter.

  • Amendments-You should note down any special adjustments in the problem. A particular situation in a question may require a particular adjustment. Beware of it and keep yourself updated with those amendments. Also special importance should be given to such amendments because most of the questions are expected in exams from these amendments only.

  • No mugging up
    CA Final SFM is a practice based subject. Therefore never mug up the formulas and questions.
    The more you practice, the more this subject will become easy for you.
    Never try cramming in this subject. It will only backfire you. Just read, understand, read again,
    understand again, practice, practice and practice.

  • Focus on your weak spots- Because you are studying at the last minute, you will not have time to go through all of your class materials or your study notes. Instead you should go for the topics you struggle with or have trouble recalling. In this way you can do multiple revisions of the topics in less time.

  • No written practice-You will not be able to understand whether you know this subject or not unless you practice it by writing. Practicing questions in writing helps you to recognize many minor mistakes which may cost you in exam. Sometimes students know the answer of the question but do not know how to present it in the paper. This problem can only be solved by practicing answers in writing. Make a habit of practicing in writing. Writing test series is the best way to improve your presentation skills. I would recommend PREPCA test series. Almost 27% of their questions got repeated in November 2019 attempt   

  • Self assessment
    In CA Finals, time management is most important as students despite knowing the answers falls
    short of time to finish the paper. Hence, it is advisable to practice question in a time bound
    format. Solve mock papers and apply for test series. As mentioned earlier, choosing PREPCA test series will take you a long way. 
    Test series are the best for knowing how you will be going to perform in the exams and on which
    chapter you should give special attention.

However after considering the points mentioned above, you should revise the entire course at least three times as per your schedule. Here I would suggest time within which you should start your revisions-

  1. First revision should be 2-2.5 months before exams. For your first revision, solve the important questions plus the difficult ones as per your opinion in writing and take a look on easy questions.
  2. Second revision should be 30-40 days before exams. Here you should consider the difficult and important questions for revision. Also, try making summery notes of the chapter.
  3. Third and final revision should be 15-20 days before exams. Here, study only from the summary notes. You can also consider the difficult questions for your last revision.

At last, believe in yourself. You have cleared CA-Inter so it’s just an exam away from affixing those golden letters.

All the best for your exams and your future and thank you for our time


Published by

Rohan Deshmukh
(Tax analyst)
Category Students   Report

4 Likes   8157 Views

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