If you thinking how you can score 90+ in the CA Inter Accounts paper, you cannot afford to miss reading this post...Accountancy is the life and blood of the CA course, and the structure of the CA Inter exam is such that none of the 14 chapters in Paper 1 - Accounting can be taken lightly. This post will provide you with a detailed checklist for your Accounts prep. So make sure that each point is ticked.
Accounting is no doubt the most scoring subject of Group 1 of the CA Inter exams. In such a case, it is natural for almost all the students to target an exemption in this paper. I myself was fortunate to have scored 94 out of 100 in my CA Inter Accounts exam.
While most students opt for classes for Accounting, I was the outlier. I prepared the subject on my own. This has given me the idea of how to strategize for the subject and score even 90+ in the exams.
This post is all about sharing those strategies with you all.
The Weightage
If you have gone through the ICAI modules (there are 4 of them), you will find 14 chapters and 8 Accounting Standards. The table below shows the weight each chapter typically has in the CA Inter question paper:
Needless, to say, Accounting Standards have the highest weightage in the paper, with a possibility of questions coming from each and every chapter. The marks distribution does not seem to be very skewed, and this makes selective studying so much dangerous in not just Accounts, but also in the entire CA course in general.
The Strategy
Now that you know the weightage of every chapter, let us deep-dive into setting out strategies for maximizing your score.
At the very outset, let me clear a couple of things:
It is much better to score 60 marks in both Accounts and Law, than 90 in Accounts and 39 in Law. Because the first and foremost target of any CA student should be to clear the paper by reaching the magical figure of 50 marks in each paper. Remember that you need 40 marks in a particular subject to pass, but 50 marks in each subject of the group to clear the group in totality. So the target should be 50, not 40.
The strategies discussed here may sound extreme, but still very much achievable.
Strategy 1 | Understand the concepts and become a master at solving the basic questions | Aim: 25 marks
Getting 50+ in the Accounts paper at the CA Inter level is not that difficult. All you need to do is to keep your concepts clear. You may use any books or notes as you feel like. If you are regularly attending classes, or self-studying regularly, you should be good to score heavily from the basic level questions. And the best thing is that this strategy does not require you to devote too much time. During your classes, you need to study for half an hour every day to just brush up the things taught in class on that particular day. After your classes have ended, you need to revise one chapter in a week - just 1 hour of reading and solving 2-3 sums from each chapter. Easy, isn't? This strategy can easily earn you 20 to 25 marks in the exam.
Strategy 2 | Accounting Standards | Aim: 50 marks
However boring they may appear to you, you just cannot afford to ignore the Accounting Standards if you want to pass in the CA Inter Accounts paper. The Accounting Standards are so important that I have planned to write an entire post on how to prepare the Accounting Standards. In short, if your fully prepared here, you can easily achieve your first target of scoring 50 marks out the Accounts paper.
Strategy 3 | Practicing problems | Aim: 60 marks
Strategies 1 and 2 are sufficient for you to score at least 40 marks in the paper. But if you want to target an exemption in the Accounts paper, Strategy 3 is a must. The Accounts paper is all about practice. Written practice alone can take you towards your target of achieving an exemption. For this, you need to do the following:
Class notes: Solve all the important sums full-fledged in writing
Study material: Read all important concepts and theory
Practice questions: Solve all questions in the study material and the back questions. At least 60% of these questions should be solved full-fledged in writing.
Strategy 4 | Solving within time | Aim: 80 marks
In the exam, you don't just need to solve sums. You need to solve the sums in a stringent time limit of 3 hours. So this strategy is about solving all the questions of the class notes and the Study Material under the pressure of a timer. The best thing to do is to solve Mock Test Papers and the best time to solve Mock Test Papers is March or September - depending on the attempt. You must solve these papers in 100% exam conditions.
You can refer my previous post here for more guidance on Mock Tests --> Which Mock Test Series is the best for CA exams - A Complete Guide
Strategy 5 | Reference books | Aim: 90 marks
If you want to aim for extraordinary marks, you will have to prepare in an extraordinary manner. You will have to develop the art of identifying correctly the assumptions to be made in a particular question, the important working notes to be shown, identifying the trick in the question, answering the accounting standards with appropriate rules, facts and examples in a very crisp and to-the-point manner. All these things need something extra - an extra effort. Plus, you will also need to refer to Accounting books of some renowned authors and solve sums from there.
For a list of the reference books, please refer to this post --> Should any reference books other than ICAI study material be used for CA Inter exams?
Strategy 6 | Being the Master! | Aim: Perfect 100
You will have to develop the ability to answer new questions correctly in the very first try. This is only possible when you are the top of the entire syllabus and have mastered all the concepts. The concepts, tricks, rules and standards should be absolutely in-grained in the mind, which will help you to solve questions with utmost ease and confidence.
Conclusion
These strategies need effort and commitment. But they are certainly not undoable. I myself followed these strategies and scored marks in Accounts. And I have bared out all those strategies for you in this post.
I hope this helps to ease out some concerns and doubts as to how you should go about studying Accounts for CA Inter.
Please share this post with your friends as well if you liked it. And please stay tuned for the next post on How to study Accounting Standards.
Thanks for reading:)
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