Mumbai's Meet Shah topped the recently concluded CA exam, scoring 642 marks out of 800 marks (80.25 percent) at his first attempt.
"The exam was exhaustive and elaborative, but not impossible to crack. There were questions on taxes, GST. I had prepared well, but I never expected to be the national topper," said Meet to Rediff who lives with his mother Usha Shah in Mahalaxmi, south central Mumbai.
His preparation tips for the exam
I started my preparation soon after clearing the intermediate. Soon, I got through the articleship. But I didn't want to lose touch with studies post Class 12. For the first two years, I would squeeze two hours before my articleship to either study or revise concepts that were taught earlier.
Six months before the exam, I stopped tracking the time/hours I spent. I was busy tracking and updating my schedule as to how much syllabus I had covered. According to my mom, in the last few weeks I was studying approximately 12 to 15 hours a day.
Some of the common mistakes aspirants make
Inconsistency in preparation is a common mistake. A lot of aspirants start their preparation full of energy.They will put in 8 to 10 hours in the first few days of the week ,but are somehow not able to maintain it through the week. By the 4th or 5th day of the week, they begin to slack.
According to me, consistency is the key to cracking any goal. If you cannot put in 10 hours a day, make it 6 hours or 8 hours, but stick to it. Don't lose momentum. Another mistake is not sticking to one source or study material. When exam time approaches, many a times the best of students tend to get carried away.
If a friend or someone in the study circle is referring to an alternate study material for preparation with easy reference notes, they tend to get swayed and change their strategy hoping to benefit.
This often leads to confusion and lack of connectivity in what you have learned, prepared and perfected for months vis-à-vis the notes you are revising for the exam.
Remember what works for them may not necessarily work for you. At the beginning of your preparation itself you pick a study material and stick to it. In my opinion, the ICAI's study and reference material, advisories and mocks/revision tests are sufficient enough to cover all the concepts.
Opinion on private coaching
One can safely say that ICAI's study material is elaborate enough. In fact, it also offers live coaching and need-based scholarships on merit for the deserving.
But it's really up to each one to decide what works best for them.
Strategies that helped him
It's important to have a clear goal and study strategy in place. And you have to keep updating it from time to time. For example, I'd set weekly, monthly goals and track them.
Whenever I realised I wasn't close to my goals, I'd revise and update my schedule every week. Apart from class notes, maintaining handwritten notes also helped me.
Tips for CA aspirants
Simply studying and revising concepts won't suffice. You must have adequate writing practice as well. You must be able to know how much to write for each question to score enough. It also helps you manage your time and improve your writing speed ahead of the exam.
His success mantra
I'd say planning is the first step to achieve any goal. It gives you a sense of direction to evaluate where you are going and if you are headed in the right direction.
I won't say you'd always get 100 per cent. But if you have a plan, you can at least achieve 50 per cent of your goals with 80% accuracy.