The life of a student of Chartered Accountancy revolves just around managing things, juggling between work, studies and keeping themselves “updated” with the recent changes in almost every domain of finance and related fields. And not everyone would understand how hard it is to manage studies with work where both the work and studies are so cumbersome, monotonous and tiring in itself independently.
Out of most of the professions, be it Engineering, Medical, MBA, civil services, architecture, it can be safely assumed that only Chartered Accountancy requires the student to work for 3 full years within the studying period only. And asking the stipend would be just like putting salt on the wounds of the “helpless” student!
Typically, a Chartered Accountancy student has to undergo an Internship cum full-time job which is so conveniently called “Articleship” (can be alternatively called “The Job”). The Oxford Dictionary defines “Articles” as “A particular item or object”. One could easily guess the plight of the student who is called an Article for 3 long years. But still, the word derives its origin from the British who define “Articles” as “A period of training with a firm as a solicitor, architect, surveyor, or accountant”.
As demonstrated above, the “Article” already has a lot going on in terms of mental trauma, and then comes along the pressure of studying along with The Job. This is a serious distress that a student faces during that period as to the management of studies with the huge burden of work too.
To overcome this, one can take resort to a few anecdotes:
1. Creating a documented Plan of Action: One needs to collect all the information on the syllabus and sort it out to the timeline one has and document it to keep a track on the progress of execution.
2, Keeping the Principal/Employer in loop: One must try to keep their employer in loop about the timeline, the study pattern and in fact the progress to give that personal touch and hence making sure they cut you the slack you need for studying.
3. Be a Technology Freak: Try to keep technology as one’s friendly neighbour. The technology can help one keep the notes/study material handy and ready to be skimmed through whenever one gets a little free time during the whole day when one cannot study completely, but could go over a few important notes.
4. Finding a Comfort Zone: Everyone has a time/zone when they attain the highest level of intellectual efficiency. One must try to analyze it and find time around it to slip in the study time during that part of the day.
5. Healthy Living, Healthy Eating: One must not be ignorant to their health and eating pattern. There are some foods that can make one tiresome, restless and fatigue. So one must try avoiding such food and focus on staying “regular fit” and not “gym fit”!
6. Stay Motivated: Everyone has a thing, a video, a movie or something that gets them motivated. Keep that motivating thing available at all times whenever one feels that it’s so difficult to manage studies with work or think “Why do I need to study today, I worked too much or too hard” . That thing will keep one going for sure.
7. Prioritise: One must find subjects which are easy to concentrate on or are one’s favourite for the time when there is a casual break. This will help further the progress of the syllabus without adding to the mental pressure of studying.
8. The Pomodoro method: This method of time management was created in Italy in the 1980s by Francesco Cirillo. The technique suggests using a timer set for 25 minutes of concentration followed by 5 minutes of relaxation. One can use this as a guide or adjust the 25 minutes time according to one’s optimal working time.
9. Review & Evaluation: One must consistently review the progress of the curriculum so as to make any adjustments to the schedule. This is one major aspect of the whole studying process because one has to evaluate to get evaluated!
10. Say No! Please!: One needs to really find a way to say No for real, if one wants to make the most of their productive time. Often, this inability to say No to plans, parties, occasions and FRIENDS leads to ineffective utilization of the time one has on their hands and thus ending up landing far away from the original timeline.
Ultimately, one has to manage the studies and themselves at their own terms but keeping the abovementioned anecdotes in mind may make things easier and would definitely help to reach the goals one has set for them. And as some say, if Work is Worship, then books are the holy relics. They sure will take you down the road of Enlightenment!
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