About the Author:
This article is authored by CA Ketan Gupta. He cleared his CA Final Examination in 1st attempt in examination held in November, 2014 with the following marks:
Financial Reporting- 44
Strategic Financial Management- 43
Advanced Auditing & Professional Ethics- 51
Corporate & Allied Laws- 59
Advanced Management Accounting- 41
Information System Control & Audit- 51
Direct Tax Laws- 53
Indirect Tax Laws- 67
TOTAL- 409
He did his article ship from Haribhakti & Co. (a well known CA Firm in India) for the 1st 2 years and then switched over to ACC Limited as an Industrial Trainee. The views presented below are solely & wholly of the author and is NOT extracted from any other source of article, website etc. The views of the author and that of the reader may conflict and so in no case the author would be held responsible for any damage, whether financial or mental caused to the reader or any other person.
Ketan had referred to the following books while preparing for his CA Final Exams
Reference Material
GROUP I
Financial Reporting (FR)
FR is divided by the author in the following 3 parts:
1. Consolidation & Amalgamation (40 marks)
2. Accounting Standards (35 – 40 marks)
3. Other Miscellaneous topic (Valuation of Shares, Valuation of Goodwill, Mutual Funds etc) (30 – 35 marks)
Class Notes: All topic including AS
Practice Manual: All topics excluding Consolidation
Consolidation was not done from Practice Manual as sufficient questions were solved in class and almost everything was covered so the author didn’t find any point solving sums from PM.
DS Rawat: Accounting Standards Notes
a. Rarely any question is asked on IFRS or US GAAP which is part of the syllabus. So it is preferable to skip studying such topic during study leave.
b. Chances for asking Questions from RTP are also less so it advisable to give less importance during the day of examination.
Strategic Financial Management (SFM):
SFM is divided by the author in the following 2 parts:
1. Traditional (Capital Budgeting, Leasing, Dividend Decisions, Merger & Acquisitions) (35 - 40 marks)
2. Market Statistics (All other than mentioned above) (60-65 marks)
Class Notes: All topic (Market statistics topic was taught by AN Sridhar)
Authors Book: AN Sridhar
Book by AN Sridhar is very good for self study but if you have attended your coaching classes seriously and well aware of basic concepts then refer S D Bala.
Practice Manual: Theory & Mergers, Acquisitions & Restructuring (Chapter 13)
a. 2-3 out of 5 Questions in Main QN 7(Theory) comes directly from Practice Manual. So it advised to do Theory only from Practice Manual.
b. Mergers, Acquisitions & Restructuring (Chapter 13) covers on an average 22 marks which indeed is quite important. This chapter in Practice Manual covers topic of M&A and Valuation of Shares
Advanced Auditing & Professional Ethics
Joining Coaching class for this subject is not required.
Authors Book: Surbhi Bhansal
Surbhi Bhansal is very good from EXAM POINT OF VIEW. Though you would notice some presentation issues & grammatical error in the content (which would not affect the relevance of the topic), it is still quite sufficient to score 50 plus.
Practice Manual: Everything
a. Most of the answers to question in Practice Manual are covered in Surbhi Bhansal so such question needs not to be done aging from Practice Manual.
b. The Company Audit (Chapter 6) in Practice Manual (not covered in Surbhi Bhansal) is an important chapter and straight forward questions are asked in examination.
Corporate & Allied Laws
Joining Coaching class for this subject is not required.
Authors Book: Munish Bhandari (Main Book)
a. Past 20 years solved problems are incorporated in topic wise which helps you analyze the weight age of various topics.
b. The coverage of the topics in Companies Act, 1956 (& 2013) is quite extensive and are well given , however the coverage in allied law is more than what is required to be studied so the following few topics are to be done from PM only:
i. The Insurance Act, 1938
ii. The IRDA, 1999
iii. The SARFAESI, 2002
iv. Interpretation of Statutes, Deeds & Documents
v. The Banking Regulation Act, 1949 is to be done only from ICAI Module as questions asked in examination is only from those topic covered in the module which indeed is quite limited to as given in Munish Bhandari.
Practice Manual: Only for allied law
GROUP II
Advanced Management Accounting (AMA)
AMA is divided in the following 2 parts:
a. Costing (70 marks)
b. Operational Research (OR) (30 marks)
Class Notes: All topics including OR
Practice Manual: All topics excluding Marginal Costing
a. Around 30 – 40 marks of the paper in November, 2014 attempt paper came from PM. So it shows how important PM is for this subject.
b. As the coverage of syllabus and the no. of question solved for Marginal costing in the class were sufficient, the author didn’t find it to be done again from PM.
Information System Control & Audit (ISCA)
Joining Coaching class for this subject is not required.
90 % of the students find this subject to be the most difficult & this is where their confidence level falls down & ultimate result is you score below 40 marks.
Though this topic is not much liked by the students, it is to be understood by the students that they have to score atleast 40 marks in each & every subject and so equal focus should also be given to ISCA.
TIPS
1. Try to gain interest in this subject.
2. Question should be read atleast thrice and should be understood before studying the answer and further try to link the question with the answer given.
3. Once the complete portions of ISCA are done with then draft a time table so as to revise it every day for one hour in the morning. This would help you keep the subject alive in your mind and would not compel you to learn it again.
Most Important – To be followed only during the day before exam
a. ISCA is one of the subjects which student faces challenge to revise it the day before examination. So it is advised to only try to learn the head points of the answer and read the matter of the answer once or twice to understand what is to be written.
b. During exam, as soon as you get the Question paper, write whatever the head points you remember for a particular answer on the question paper and try to highlight the head points in the answer paper such that the examiner makes up his mind that you are aware of the topic and gives appropriate marks.
c. Further the write the matter under the head point which you remember (Not necessary the language of module or any author’s book).
It is just because of the above strategy author scored 51 in ISCA.
Authors Book: Jignesh Chedda (JC)
a. Those residing in Mumbai would know him. However for those residing outside Mumbai, Jignesh Chedda is well known for teaching ISCA. He is also a visiting faculty of ICAI.
b. The language used in his books goes hand in hand with that of ICAI module. Key memory tips are also incorporated in the book which helps the student in all aspect.
Practice Manual : All topics
Around 60 marks of the paper in November, 2014 attempt was from Practice Manual. So kindly mark all the question of PM in the JC and give more attention to such questions while revising on the day before exam.
Direct Tax Laws (DT)
Joining Coaching class for this subject is not required only if you do what is written below.
Authors Book:
I. Notes by Shrish Vyas (Founder of Prime Vision classes)
a. Those residing in Mumbai would know him. However for those residing outside Mumbai, Shrish Vyas teaches at Prime Vision classes having centers at Andheri & Borivali (place in Mumbai)
b. DT being very vast it was necessary to curb the matter so that the vast syllabus is covered well in time. The notes provided by him are sequentially linked with the various topics and is very concise.
II. Vinod Gupta [Business & Profession(B&P), Capital Gains(CG) & Summary module]
a. B&P & CG comprises of approx 50 marks in November, 2014 attempt. So when such a big stake of marks is on above topic it is preferable to be done from the Best Author’s book.
b. The book comprises of detailed explanation to every topic and also provides answer to Past 20 year’s questions as per the respective Finance Act applicable.
c. Summary module is to be referred for those miscellaneous topics which are not covered in the above reference material. An understanding of such topic would give you an upper hand in examination where sector or area specific questions are asked.
Practice Manual : All topics excluding B&P and CG
Indirect Tax Laws (IDT)
Class Notes: All Topics
Authors Book: ICAI Module for Excise & Service Tax
Class Textbook: Customs
Practice Manual: All topics.
Notes:
a. Studying IDT from the module prescribed by ICAI would not be easy as module itself is very Svast and a systematic approach is required to cope up with the level of language used and so the understanding the topic would be a difficult task. So those who are unwilling to study from module may refer the below mentioned material:
- Bangar for Service tax
- Yashwant Mangal for Excise & Customs
b. Unlike DT, in IDT questions are framed in perspective of the Case law and even reference of case law is asked in the question therefore name of few important case law is to be learnt. However for the rest of the Case laws just read the case law and understand the case and remember the judgment.
Time limit dedicated to each subject based on the above reference material
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DO’S & DONT’S
1. Make a list of all the books you are going to refer, topic wise for each subject before beginning of study.
2. Study at the most 2 subjects in a day. Studying more than 2 subjects would confuse you with the topic studied before.
3. Complete a particular subject completely before shifting to a new subject.
4. Practical subjects should be practiced and should not be read as a novel.
5. Make sure you get atleast 35-40 days to revise all the subjects.
6. Audit, Law, ISCA & IDT are very difficult to revise on the day of exam so it is advisable to make Concise notes of important topics so that it can be revised quickly
7. Papers like FR, SFM & AMA are very lengthy and so try to solve the question in the lowest possible time and only way to achieve this is Practice.
8. Don’t ever go through question paper after the each exam. This would simply waste your time and even hamper your upcoming papers.
9. If any of your paper doesn't goes well then don’t get upset and start preparing for the next paper.
Denouement
Hope the time INVESTED by the author in writing the article would help you in preparing for the CA Final Examination.
You can mail your queries or suggestions on ketangupta38 @ yahoo.com so that initiative can be made to improve the article which indeed will help the FUTURE CHARTERED ACCOUNTANTS
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