This is a very hot topic of discussion among CA students in the days leading up to the time of form filling. Some students believe exam centers have a huge role to play in their passing or failing the CA exams. But do YOU know the REALITY of the effect of exam centers on your results? Let me throw some light on it in this post...
I know that the present conditions do not favour travelling. But suppose it was safe to travel. How many of you. staying in the big cities, would have preferred to go to your native place in smaller towns to write the CA exams? I am sure there would be many. But why? Is it just because your family's there? Not really, right?
The Notion
Many people have this notion that the pass percentages of the CA exams are pre-decided, even before the question paper has been set. Because of this precalculated pass percentage, the Institute has a system of lenient checking for people writing the exams from smaller towns. It is a belief among the students that the examiners in smaller towns not only compare your answers with the Suggested Answers of the Institute, but also with the answers of the other students also. So if you have studied in a big city, but written your exams from a smaller town, you would be smarter than the others in your exam center, and your answers will also be superior in quality. You have a higher chance of passing the exams and scoring higher than in a situation where you are lost in the midst of intelligent people from the big cities.
The Reality
If the notion among the students would have been true, the pass percentage among the smaller towns should have been higher than the big cities. Also, most of the rankholders should have been from the smaller towns and Tier II/III/IV cities. Is this the case?
Let me tell you the story of one of my best friends in college - a student of St. Xavier's College, Kolkata. I'll represent him as R for simplicity. R was an extremely hard-working student. He was a native of the city of Mahendra Singh Dhoni - Ranchi. He had given the CA Foundation exam (CPT in those days) from Kolkata, and had narrowly missed a rank (those were the times when the Rank List had just 10 Ranks). Now came CA Intermediate (IPCC in those times). He was handling everything well - coaching, college, self-study - everything was going on smoothly.
Then came August - the month of filling up the exam form. One fine August morning, with a worried look, he asked me what I was thinking of doing - whether staying back at Kolkata or deciding to go to some small town nearby (Eg. Siliguri) to appear for the exams. I was naturally surprised and equally shocked. And then he told me the whole story. He was a firm believer of the notion I have already talked about above. I did not say a word. I just told him that I am staying in Kolkata only. He said he would go to Ranchi to write the exams, he was too confident that it plays out that way only. I tried to make him understand that it does not, and travelling to Ranchi could affect his rhythm. But he did not listen.
Came November. And came the exams. I wrote the exams from Kolkata, he wrote the exams from Ranchi. He had just travelled to his native place a week before the exams. When I met him in college after the exams, he seemed to be pretty confident about clearing the exams. He told me his Audit paper had not gone too well, but it should be enough to get him 40+. I was relieved to hear this, as I wanted him to do well. I felt the kind of a student he was, he deserved a rank in IPCC.
Cut down to January - the result day. Surprisingly, the results had been hosted on the website 15 mins earlier than the designated time of 2:00 PM. I checked mine. The screen read PASS. I was relieved. I opened the marksheet, the score was 523/700 - I wouldn't reveal how much I was expecting. I went ahead to check the Rank. The screen read 16. I was obviously happy, but my heart wanted to pause this celebration for a while and enquire about R. There hadn't been a call or even an SMS from him. I was worried but equally hopeful that he would do well.
I called him. He didn't pick up my phone. I started to feel the goosebumps. I called him again. Again, a no response. I shivered a bit, just at the thought of him not getting the outcome he deserved. I gathered the strength. Called him again. He picked up the call this time. But his voice choked the moment he said "Hello". He had been crying. I did not need to hear anything from him further, neither did he speak anything. I decided to give him some time and talk to him in the College the next morning. But I did not know that my worst fears for him would turn out to be so dreadful. While I was being congratulated by every single classmate of mine, he sat there in a quiet corner. It took me some effort to know that he had failed in 3 subjects - Audit, Advanced Accounts and ITSM. It was shocking for me. But he still felt his decision to go to Ranchi was not wrong.
He appeared in the May exams - again from Ranchi. Failed again, this time at the aggregate level. Now I gave him a strict warning to stay back in Kolkata and write the exams in November. For the first time, he seemed to understand a bit. And he stayed back. He appeared for the November exams from Kolkata, and cleared it this time. He came up to me the next morning and gave me a really tight hug.
Moral of the Story
It is all a myth. Whether you clear the exams or not does not depend on the exam center, it depends on you. It depends on your preparation, your confidence, your performance in the exam hall, not on you travelling to some small town and appearing for the exams. It is a ridiculous notion that the ICAI controls the pass percentage to such an extent that the smaller towns will see a higher pass percentage. This is too ridiculous.
The bottomline is - to have faith and believe in yourself. It is YOU who can make anything happen. If you can walk down to the exam center and play that 3 hours game in a fearless manner, no one can stop you from conquering your goal. And as the dialogue of Om Shanti Om goes...
So stop worrying about these petty issues and relying on what crap some people have got to say. Believe in yourself and victory shall be yours.
If you have any questions, observations, feedback or suggestions, please feel free to contact me on the social media handles of CA Exam Strategies or write directly to me in the comments section below.
Thanks for reading :)
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