NEVER DO MY MISTAKES
The inspiration to convert my trend Never Do my mistakes was the response which I received from the fellow members of CA club. The administrator of CA club and one of the top members of the club encouraged me to convert my trend into an article. I just took an effort to redraft the trend in form of an article. The people who have read my trend may feel this article is repetition of my trend.
The intention of writing this article is to warn aspiring chartered accountants the possible mistakes they may commit and the after affects of committing the mistakes.
1) Be determined to do CA; do not join the course because your friends or relatives are joining the course. Do a self analysis of your self before joining the CA course. Remember to be successful CA you need three or more years of dedication. I joined CA without knowing what it takes to be a ca, just joined because my friends joined the course. Though my friends discontinued the course half way I continued with the course. My friends are well settled in life and my life is not yet begun.
2) After joining the course do not look back, Go ahead and complete the course at the earliest. I left a well paying job in the year 2007 to do my articles. But lost track mid way. I many a times saw my friends who were in the corporate world and felt bad for leaving the corporate. The biggest mistake I did in life.
3) Never waste your time during articleship period. ICAI rules have banned transfer during articleship period. Thus there is no point cribbing about nature of work, colleagues, boss and etc. Make the maximum use of your articleship period. During work you should be able to learn at least 20% of your direct tax. Most of the firms practice in direct taxes. Do not say that I was not given direct tax work. Remember 3 idiots movie, knowledge is from every where. Learn from your colleagues. Most of CA firms all flooded with magazines and law journals. Find time to read them.
When you take any assignment in your office, do not follow blindly what the previous person has done. It is better for you to understand the concept and apply it.
To quote an example, most of us just copy previous year audit report and changes the dates. If we had just taken an effort to read the audit report we would have learnt many a things. During Novemeber-2009 exam one of the questions in the auditing final paper was to draft an audit report. I want to cite one more instance where we do copy and paste. While preparing financial statements in excel most of never check the links. We do not try to find why the figure is linked in that particular place. If at all we checked the link it would have helped us to understand financial statements in a better way.
4) Study regularly do not waste time. One accounting standard a week, will make you to master AS in 7 odd months. Padhuka’s book on Guidance note for passing CA examinations states that, we should study at least five hours during articleship period.
5) If you have joined coaching centers never miss a class. Think in advance and join classes at appropriate time. Do no crib that I have work in office. Plan your classes. I had a senior in office; he was in charge of all important audits in my office. But he never missed a class. When I was in charge I missed many a classes. My senior cleared in the first attempt and I did not clear after three attempts also. The problem with CA students like me is that we take coaching classes as college or college life. We sit in coaching classes and never come back home and study. We miss coaching classes in the name of work, in college life we use to miss classes in the name of pleasure and enjoyment.
6) If addicted to some thing forget it for three years. I was addicted to TV and internet which has ruined my life. The best way to avoid any kind of addiction is your religion.
7) Select a book and stick on to it. Do not collect humpty number of notes from different coaching centers and study the same subject in different ways. You will never complete the syllabus. My mother being a lecturer use to say that in my college days and I use to follow it. Once I joined CA I forgot the golden rule.
8) If your handwriting and English grammar is bad, improve it. I failed in my first group of CA final exam in my first attempt because of my handwriting. I had cleared all the subjects but went by average. Revise your high school mathematics also. High school mathematics is useful for your MAFA and cost management papers. So before attending coaching classes for this subjects revise your high school mathematics.
9) Remember first attempt is the best attempt. The boss gives the maximum number of exam leave. The enthusiasm which you have in first attempt never stays with you when you go to the second attempt and so on.
10) There are many common topics in the first group. So strike all the common topics and study it only once. To cite an example dividend is the common topic both in the law paper and audit papers.
11) Make your own notes as much as possible. It is very difficult to study other wise one day before the exam. Practice writing for theory subject also. It will help you to complete the paper.
12) Give importance to ICAI material. The current ICAI study material is thousand times better than the former editions.
AFTER AFFECTS OF MY MISTAKES
EMPLOYMENT: - It is very difficult to find a suitable employment. I am from metropolitan city of
RELATIONSHIP: - We will find that our near and dear one start deserting us. They seldom pick your calls, reply to SMS and mails. Remember man is a social animal and we need people around us. It is difficult to leave without social life. A CA failed student if not settled in life will not be comfortable in family or other social gatherings.
There is proverb in kannanda which say “who will cry for a person who dies every day”. In the same way who will cry for the person who is ruined his own life. So do not blame your near and dear ones.
WEDDING: - Many may object the appropriateness of wedding in this site. However I like to say that weeding is the fact of life. We may find better offers when we where only graduates and settled in life than a failed CA final student. No one will like to marry a semi qualified accountant.
I hope that this article will be useful to you. I wish all the members of CA club all the best. God Bless you all.
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