How to Plan Studies - for CA Inter Students

For Students joining CA Intermediate after passing Foundation Exam :

1.       As far as possible plan to appear for both the groups.  It gives you the benefit of set off of surplus marks for aggregation purpose and there is a chance of AIR.
2.       After Foundation result, you have 9 months for your INTERMEDIATE exam.  For example, if you clear FOUNDATION in Nov. 2020 exam, result will be declared in January, 2021 and your first INTERMEDIATE attempt is due in Nov. 2021.  It means, you get study time between February, 2021 to October, 2021 i.e. a period of 9 months.  Let’s plan for these 9 months -
3.       Generally, first 3.5 months goes for Group I preparation & classes etc.  Next 2.5 months goes for Group II preparation & classes. In short, 6 months will go for first time study of the subject.
4.       It is natural for human being to forget.  Hence, next 2 months should be spent for revising each subject.  You have to prepare brief notes for revision purpose, so that in less time you can revise the whole syllabus. If you find it difficult to do revision on your own, then you may think of joining revision classes or make use of revision video lectures available on website for sale.
5.       Last one month should be used for Self Testing i.e. for Test Series.  You may join the paid test series of ICAI or any coaching institute or download the past question papers of ICAI from website and solve it at home in a time bound manner.  Then check your answers with the suggested answers of ICAI.
6.       From self testing exercise, you will come to know your areas of strength and weakness.  Please improve upon the areas of weaknesses.  The self testing will provide you the feel of exam and then you will be fully confident to take up your main ICAI exam.
7.       Those who don’t do the self testing before actual exam, will make their first trial in either May or November.  This trial may cost you 6 months.  Hence, it is strongly recommended to appear for few tests before the actual exam conducted by ICAI.  Our past experience shows that those students who do self testing at home stand a much better chance of clearing the exam in the first attempt.
8.       Once the exam is over, relax for few days and join ICAI Information Technology Training (ITT) of 100 hours and Orientation Course.  Complete it before your INTERMEDIATE result is declared.  So that immediately after the result, you are eligible to join articleship training.
9.       Those students, who are very confident about their CA Foundation result, may join the coaching for CA Intermediate, immediately after appearing for Foundation exam.  In such case, they will get few extra months for preparation and revision.

For Students joining INTERMEDIATE after Graduation (Direct Entry) :

1.       Direct entry students will have tough time managing their articleship training with coaching classes.
2.       These students may take one group at a time due to heavy schedule.  They may join classes or do self study in the morning and evening time.
3.       However, if you do not find the classes which are suitable for your time schedule, then you may make use of video lectures on pen drive for convenience.  So that you can make your own time table of study.
4.       Direct entry students can also take the clue from points written above for FOUNDATION students.  They also have to do revision and self testing before the exam as mentioned above.

Students appearing for Group I only :

1.       Those students who find it tough to handle both the groups together for any reason, may go for single group at a time.
2.       Such students should first appear for Group I after thorough preparation. Just after appearing for Group I exam, they should immediately prepare for Group II till the time result of Group I is declared.  If they clear Group I, then they can spend the remaining time in revising Group II.  In case, if they fail in Group I, they should revise both the groups in the remaining time and should appear for both groups together in the next attempt.

Important Note for all INTERMEDIATE students :

1.       Those who are committed to do CA, are advised to do B.Com externally.  This will reduce your burden of attending college, completing project book or journal, practical, internal exam etc.  So that, you can fully concentrate on your CA preparation without any disturbance.   ICAI has already done some tie up with Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) in this regard.  CA students are exempted from certain subjects of B.Com.
2.       There is a huge transformation from FOUNDATION to INTERMEDIATE.  You are shifting from Objective type (MCQ) questions to Subjective type (Essay type) questions. Hence, you have to develop the habit of writing.  You need to justify the answer by writing all the steps.  Writing skill is very important for INTERMEDIATE and Final.
3.       Do not study from multiple books or study material.  You are likely to get confused.  Generally, 90% contents in all the study material are same.  But due to difference in the way of presentation of each teacher or author, you will get confused.  Please stick to one literature, one teacher or one author only.

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