3 Ranks.....and the means
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Wish I had some more time...
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Being Responsible
At times the actions we take are ex tempore. We may not even have a fair enough idea of the results our actions will lead to. We act in a flash of second. But still the fact remains that those were our actions and we and only we are responsible for the result that follows. Similar is the case of inaction. If you did not act upon a situation for any reason what so ever, you owe the responsibility.
Casting the responsibility of your state of being upon ‘someone’ or ‘something’ out there won’t do any good to you. Whether you are happy, sad, joyous, upset…. You solely are responsible. You are happy because you chose to be happy and similar suit follows for everything else.
You are not upset because of someone somewhere did something to you. It’s you who expected X and when X did not occur you became upset. A cricket fan is upset when India loses a match because s/he expects India to win. Had the expectation of win not been there, the upset would not have been there. One may argue that there is nothing wrong in expectations. True, there is nothing wrong or right in expecting. But then this very Expectation leads to Upsets which no man would enjoy & you are responsible for expecting.
No one can make you happy, you have to be happy. It’s not easy right – to turn a blind eye to what is happening around you and still be happy. Agreed it’s not easy but then is there any other choice. It’s not about partying out when things around you are gloomy. It’s about choosing to be happy rather than being upset.
There are few things about which you can’t do anything. Your boss will be the way he is and so will be your wife. You can’t change people. Each being is different and they have right to be different. The choice is yours – “accept the way they are” or “make your own life miserable by thinking about changing them all the time”
Ultimately whether you are happy or otherwise depends entirely upon you and you solely are responsible for what happens to you.
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Thanks for reading. Please do not construe the above write up as any piece of advice in any manner whatsoever.
Tacts 4 Tax
Tax - Be it direct or its counterpart, as a subject makes things for CA aspirants difficult more often than not. The sheer volume of the Text book one buys for Direct Tax itself is life threatening. You need strong hands to hold it. The plethora of Sections, sub-sections & clauses followed my equal number of amendments, some logical, some otherwise don’t make things easy. And finally there is a risk of redundancy once DTC goes live.
While I was preparing for PE II, everyone whom I spoke to emphasised quoting of sections in answer sheets along with a caveat that if a section is wrongly quoted, you lose all the marks. That was quite risky. I had huge troubles in remembering sections of Business Law, DT and IDT (in finals), forget the subsections. I somehow managed feed my mind with some section numbers which I thought were important and didn’t even make an effort to remember the others. I considered (at that time) the exercise of remembering sections a sheer waste of time.
I would have hardly quoted any section in Taxation paper of PE II. I quoted a couple of Section Numbers in DT of final and did not quote any in the IDT paper. Also there were 6 case laws asked in the examination and I did not quote a single Case Law name in my answer sheet. I wrote the concepts, logic, gave proper reasoning and conclusion. I did not fare that bad in all these papers. The scores were decently good.
This is not to discourage students from remembering sections. If someone can conveniently remember section numbers, please do. These will earn you brownie points and would be really relevant for your score. Everything you write counts.But if you just cant remember them, you need not break head on them.
Good Luck
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Its Exam time folks!!!
Don’t try to start some new topic at this time. Remember its time to build up on what you have prepared till date. Make a revision schedule for each subject and stick to it. Identify the topics which need more attention during revision. Some topics may appear to be new again though it might be your third or fourth reading but that is completely fine. It happens with almost everyone given the vast syllabus.
It is always advisable to take up a mock exam for each subject to assess your exam preparedness. Those who are writing final exam for the first time must necessarily take up some of the model tests as about two years would have elapsed since you wrote your last exam. It is very important to be in exam mode and have some practice before you take up the exams.
This is not the time to prepare notes for exams. I have seen some students hurryingly prepare notes in the last week before the exams. I personally feel that the last minute notes would not be of much assist for preparation. You may not even have time to refer the notes again.
Quick reads of compilations, suggested answers, RTP and formulae (for MAFA, Costing etc) is important. This will tone your preparation with an examination approach. Even a couple of questions from these would assist you in readily scoring 10-15 marks.
Students must avoid talking about their preparation with others during the last couple of weeks before the exams. One may be threatened with the level of preparation done by others and lose confidence on their own preparation. Believe in your own preparation and focus on what you have done rather than focusing on what others have done. You need be cent percent perfect to crack a CA exam.
Keep your revision simple..
Monday, September 13, 2010
How to go about Accounts?
1. Learning Concepts: Though branded as a practical subject, theoretical knowledge plays a significant role in determining how well do you perform in the subject. Students make an attempt to solve the maximum number of problems without giving much thought to understand the concept. This could be quite dangerous. Even one may solve hundreds of problem but there is always a chance that you get the 101st Problem and in case you have not understood the concepts, it would be a real difficult situation. The focus should be on the number of concepts you learn rather than the number of problems you solve. Once you have a thorough understanding of concepts, you can solve any problem from that specific area.
2. Where to prepare from?
Students tend to ignore study material but my own experience with this subject is that one cannot afford to ignore the Study Material. Some problems and explanation given in the Material are of very high standards which help us to have a broader understanding of the subject. Please do refer study material atleast once.
Apart from Study Material, do have a standard reference book at hand. I followed Shukla and Grewal for my PE II and MP Vijay Kumar for Finals. Both books were equally good and were designed for students of all stratums. If you have attended tuitions, you can follow your tuition notes as well.
These should be backed by Compilations and Previous year papers. Once you solve questions from previous year papers, you have a feeling of the standard of questions that appear in the examinations.
3. Accounting Standards:
Students at PE II (now PCC/IPCC) are expected to have a working knowledge of accounting standards and Students at Final level are expected to have advance knowledge of same. Start early and the best option is to read the accounting standards directly in their bare form with the supplementary text (generally provided in a Appendix form in the study material). You can also buy a good book on standards to solve practical problems. Again previous year questions from Accounting standards are excellent source to practice practical questions.
Make it a point to remember the Accounting Standards Number and some basic definitions. Being thorough in Accounting standards not only helps you in Accounts but also in auditing.
4. Key/Important Chapters:
These are the chapters which have carried the maximum weightage in the examinations. Make a study of the previous year papers to have a understanding of the same. During my PE II, partnership accounts, single entry system, insolvency, branch accounting carried a huge weightage. Similarly in finals consolidation and amalgamation carried about 35 marks. The trend may not be continued but having an understanding of critical areas helps you a lot to maximize your score in the subject.
5. Presentation
Presentation in the examination is the key at the end. You may have studied extremely well but if you are not able to present what you learned, it makes no sense at all.
a. Working notes are a must. I used to start the answer with a working note. There is no such rule that you start with working notes. All your assumptions and workings must be presented together at one place as working notes.
b. Avoid using abbreviation like P & L a/c; instead write Profit and Loss account.
c. If you feel that you are running short of time, there is not need of drawing lines and tables. You can simply fold the paper and mark you margins (I did the same in PE II costing and still managed 80 out of 92 attempted). So there is no correlation between drawing lines and scoring marks.
d. Answer to theory questions must be brief and to the point.
e. If the question has figures like Rs. 10,00,000/-, truncate the last three zeros and write on the top of the answer : “Amount in ‘000”. So if you have to pass 15 journal entries you save a lot of time.
f. Use effective use of Calculator functions like M+, M-, GT etc.
g. If you are passing journals, write complete narrations.
h. Prepare multi column ledgers in p’ship accounts etc to save time.
6. Always remember that you get marks for every step you do correctly even though your end answer may not be correct. So just don’t leave a problem because you can’t solve it completely.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Study Room
It is quite important to have a separate study room for preparation. A room where no one disturbs you once you get in. Have everything you need in the room so that you don’t have to come out now and again. Keep your phone out of the room. (It might be uneasy for first few days but you will build a habit soon). Your family must be strictly informed not to disturb you unless when there is an emergency.
If possible, one can look for a single room around your house. I did it on my brother’s suggestion and it worked quite well for me. I got a small room in our locality, quite near to our apartments. A separate room ensured that I could prepare without any disturbance from family & friends (Only a few knew this place).
No TV, No Mobile, No Visitors… In short a peaceful preparation for CA PE I and CA PE II. The possibility of getting into useless gossips did not even exist there. When I was in the room, the only goal was to pass with flying colours. Preparation was focussed and intense. If I have to list down factors for my success, the separate room would be one of the most important factors.
Just look back and see how often you were disturbed while preparing and how much of time that you spent on unnecessary things could have been spent on preparation. I managed to get a separate room at a throw away price. If it is not possible for you to get a separate room at least have a separate study room in your house which is away from worldly disturbances.
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Respect time and time will respect you...!
Many of us enjoy postponing things for tomorrow and sometimes even I do. Sooner or later it becomes our habit and we tend to postpone things even when we really do not want to do so. Visit any Income Tax office on 31st July and you can see how many really postponed filing of returns till the last date.
When it comes to studies an hour lost is an hour of preparation lost. One may argue that one hour of preparation lost can be made up by studying one hour more the next day. However, the fact remains that the additional one hour you intend to put the next day was always available to you and you actually lost one hour. I just wrote about one hour but we are unreasonable in postponing things – days or even months.
I had completed the syllabus of PE I in Jan 2006 (My attempt was in May 2006). Many had not even started their preparation till then. I had three months for revision which obviously gave me an edge over others. I followed the same strategy in PE II and Final – Kicking off preparation early and allowing myself sufficient time for preparation and revisions. The extra time allowed me to practice previous year’s papers as well.
Another reason to start early is to have buffers in case of unprecedented emergencies. You may fall sick, unannounced relatives drop in, a disturbing function nearby etc. You need to ensure that you do not have any regrets of not starting preparation early. I had to shift my house in the last week of July 2009. It took quite sometime to get adjusted in new environment. Since my preparation was almost done my mid July I did not face any problem. Another friend of mine has severe typhoid just one month before the exams. Since he had completed revision by the time he got ill, he did not face much problem in taking up exams.
Students must ensure that they do not waste a single hour of preparation. If you waste an hour a day, you lose 365 hours of preparation in a year. So a student preparing 8 hours a day has lost roughly 45 days of preparation. Students complain that their principal gave those four months of leave which is never sufficient for preparation. What they do not realize is that they can create one and a half month of preparation time on their own.
Remember, Early bird catches the worm.