What Is The Next Step After Failure?

CA Final results were announced on 16th January 2020, congratulations to all of those who cleared! This post is for those who are not partying, those who missed the CA title by either a subject or the aggregate or both.

“Success is not final; failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.' ― Winston S. Churchill

So, the results are out and they are unfavorable. What do you do next? Here is an easy step by step guide to get yourself back on track:

1. CRY AND THEN STOP CRYING

You mourn as much as you want: cry, scream, or take a two-minute vow of silence, whatever helps your cause, do that. This is not to dishearten you or make you feel sorry but rather help you overcome those emotions. One must mourn and take that burden off their chest before they make a fresh start. For the journey you are going to begin has no place for sorrow, so, let it all out at once and then never look back.

2. ASSESS YOUR POSITION

It is time to realistically look at where you stand. Factor in your exemptions, the quality of your previous preparations, the coaching classes yet to be done, etc. and decide what will you be going for in the next attempt. Take some time before you choose between single or both groups. One should not pressurize oneself into both groups but one shouldn’t be too lax and settle with preparing for single. Make the decision which best suits your preparation and caliber. Once, you’ve made a decision, commit. Do not change your goal midway.

3. PLANNING AND PLOTTING

Now you know what you’re aiming for and you know how far your attempt is, it is time to chalk out an infallible plan of action. Failing to plan is planning to fail. It is okay to take an entire day for planning and take help from your elders, your peers or seek guidance from professional counsellors for the same.

“All men make mistakes, but a good man yields when he knows his course is wrong, and repairs the evil. The only crime is pride.' - Sophocles

It is important to know your strengths and weaknesses. Since you have given attempts previously, you would now know which areas you need to work more on. If you’ve given the exams for the first time and find your marks surprising in certain subjects, feel free to access your copies through the RTI route with a nominal charge of ten rupees. Once you have all the aspects analysed and your weak points noted, work out a plan accordingly. If your arithmetic accuracy is weak, keep more time to practice sums. If your writing skills need improvement, make time to write and practice theory questions. Keep in mind that the plan you make may not necessarily cover everything but it should be achievable. The targets you set must be achievable in terms of your capacity. Do not aim higher than your average output per day because that will only lead to back logs and which will eventually just lead to panic. So, make your plans carefully and thoughtfully. Make a plan which is best suited to you as an individual.

4. SIMPLY STUDY

The effort put in the third step would be in vain if you don’t actually follow the plan and study. It would be hard, but as they say, “CA is not a tough course, it is a course for tough people.' You need to be tough, put in the necessary hours and stick to your schedule. While studying, make sure that you don’t just study the topics you find tough or ones you were not able to cover before. You need to study things you had studied before. Human memory can be very deceiving, you may feel you know something from earlier but once you will face it in an exam hall, you will draw a blank. So, do not take those chances, cover everything. You may dedicate less time to the topics you are confident in but do not ignore them entirely.

5. ATTEMPT MOCK PAPERS

'Failure is only the opportunity more intelligently to begin again.' - Henry Ford

Many well-prepared and capable students are not able to perform well because the exam stress gets to them. The easiest way to fight a fear is to face it. If you have a fear of exams, face exams multiple times so that the fear is driven out of your system. Prepare for them in the manner you would for the exam, attempt them with the same sincerity and I assure you will soon notice that with every paper you attempt, you attempt it better. The benefit of attempting PrepCA mock tests is that you get a detailed step by step analysis of your response and thus, it saves you the time which otherwise would be needed to find where you went wrong.

6. KEEP CALM

The day of the exam, all that matters is your ability to reproduce what you know on paper. Remind yourself, that you have studied and you know the answer, even if you don’t. Do not stress yourself, eat healthy, take a full night’s rest and attempt your papers with a calm mind. All you need to do is write the answers to best of your knowledge. It is okay to not know something exactly, it’s a competitive exam, it is expected that you will answer from your understanding. Do not fear attempting a question because you haven’t read it previously, just write what you feel is appropriate. Six easy steps, that is all you need to follow before sitting for May 2020 exam.

'If you fell down yesterday, stand up today.' - H.G. Wells

All the best for the upcoming exams!