Many CA students face a lot of stress, anxiety, and low confidence a day before the exam. But the 40 hours you get between 2 consecutive exams is one of the most crucial phases, and needless to say, you need to make every second of it productive and effective. In this post, let me tell you some dos and don'ts to help you plan this period of time better. Read on...
Pre-Planning
What you can extract from the gap between 2 exams depends a lot on how your prep has been in the weeks and months prior to that. The effectiveness is directly proportional to the comfort and confidence generated from the prior revisions. So in effect, the weeks in the lead up to the exam are a pre-planning exercise for the final revision to be smooth and quick. You would want to cover as much as possible in the 40 hours at disposal and for that, you need the speed. This speed will come only when you have revised everything thoroughly before-hand and have a good understanding of the topic in your subconscious mind.
Study Schedule
These timings are purely indicative and you are free to modify the timings as per your convenience
Day 1: 6:30 pm to 12:00 am --> 5 hours of study + 0.5 hour break for dinner
Day 2: 7:00 am to 12:00 am --> 15 hours of study + 2 hours for food and relaxation
Day 3 (exam day): 7:00 am to 12:00 pm --> 5 hours of study
The Start
The start of the 25 hours marathon prep for the next exam is very crucial. Just like in T20 cricket, the first few hours of this period are the powerplay hours. You need to go slambang, knocking off one chapter after another. For this, you need to do the following:
Take a break: The exam hall is a very stressful place to be in for 3-3.5 hours. As soon as you reach home, take a bath, grab some light food and take some rest. You have done whatever you could have in those 3 hours, and now is the time to take a break - it could be as simple as just lying down on the bed (no, don't fall asleep just yet) or listening to some music.
Unwind: It is natural for the mind to keep going back to the exam just gone by. It will force you to question whether everything you have written in the answer script submitted just an hour ago is good enough to help you clear that paper. The first hour after reaching home is basically going to be the unwinding hour. Try to get your mind away from the paper just gone by and build focus on the next exam.
Keep all your material handy: Make sure that there is nothing new - no new topic, no new chapter, no new study material and no new notes. But be comprehensive - books, notes, PPs, RTPs, MTPs, etc.
Know your target: Take 5 minutes, grab a calculator and make a rough estimate of the pages you would need to revise. Let's say, it comes to 1000 pages.
Know the constraints: Take 5 minutes to calculate the time at your disposal. Set aside 12 hours for sleep (2 nights), 2 hours for food, etc., and 1 hour for travelling and other arrangements. Let's say, it comes to 25 hours of proper study time.
Start revising: Sit down in a peaceful place and start revising. It is a natural tendency for the mind to wander off here and there for the initial hour or so. It will make you think about the exam gone by again and again. You will have to control it and make your brain focus on the chapter you are studying. For this, it is better to first start revising with the smallest and least important chapter in the context of the exam. This will allow the brain to settle down, and also won't hurt your revision because you anyways had a good grip on that chapter. To illustrate this point, suppose you are a CA Final student and have just started to revise SFM after the gruelling first paper of FR. To build focus, first start with the theory portion, maybe an easy and mechanical topic like Forex.
The Powerplay
After getting a good start to your revision journey, it is important to give yourself a chance to revise 100% of the syllabus with varying degrees of effectiveness so that at least you have the confidence of having "seen" everything once before the exam. In subjects like Audit, Law, DT, IDT and EIS-SM, this is going to be next to impossible, but not really impossible. I have always made it a point to revise 100% of the syllabus of every subject across all the 3 levels. So let me share with you my gameplan - you will realize that it is all time management.
From the exercise done in the previous step, you know that the score you are chasing is 1000 pages in 25 hours, at the rate of 40 pages an hour. Put the chasemaster's hat on - Virat Kohli or Rohit Sharma (whoever you like more) and start. (Those who do not follow cricket may ignore reading this line!).
Start with the smallest, easiest and most comfortable chapters. My target used to be 1 page per minute, translating to 60 pages in an hour. You can adjust the speed as per your convenience.
The first 3 hours are the Powerplay hours. Try to finish off all the small and easy chapters in this time frame. These are primarily those chapters which you have total command on - so much comfort that you would not lose a single mark even if you were to write the answer in your sleep. Let's consider that you are able to knock off 200 pages in these 3 hours. The equation now becomes 800 pages in 22 hours at the rate of 36 pages an hour. This is a great momentum to start with.
Before you sleep on day 1 - it is ideal that you do all the easy chapters and at least 1 time-consuming chapter. Obviously, most of the heavy lifting will be done in the 15 hours you get on the holiday, but the tempo has to be set on day 1 itself. Let's say, by the time you sleep, the score required comes down to 700 pages in 20 hours at the rate of 35 pages an hour. While the numbers may seem daunting, this speed is very much achievable with a significant level of effectiveness in revising the entire syllabus.
Make sure that you sleep well and have at least 6 hours of sleep. It is going to be a long day ahead, and you need to stay fresh.
The Middle Overs
I am a morning person, and would prefer to start the day really early. My target for the gap day would be to finish off the entire syllabus before calling it a day. Let's see how that can be made possible:
Start the fresh day with the toughest chapter of the syllabus - a fresh mind with good concentration levels is a great absorber of tough concepts. If I go back to my SFM example, I would be trying to put Derivatives, Security Analysis and Portfolio Management away before noon. And that basically is the major chunk of the syllabus.
By lunch time, ideally you should have finished off half of the syllabus.
Afternoons can be a bit boring and slow. So I would prefer practical topics like Mergers & Acquisitions and Capital Budgeting for this time. Simple reason - these chapters don't require heavy duty concentration, are time consuming and require practice rather than mugging up.
By 6:00 pm, it would be really nice if you have maximum 3 chapters left to revise - ideally 300 pages. The target now is 300 pages in 5.5 hours (0.5 hr for dinner break). This is manageable because you would still have 5 hours of the exam day morning.
By the time you call it a day, it would be ideal if there is just 1 chapter left to revise in the morning. If you have managed to revise the entire syllabus, trust me, you deserve a pat on the back.
Once again, getting a good sleep is non-negotiatble.
The Slog Overs
The exam day morning is meant to just consolidate whatever you have read and revised over the past 20 hours. So let's plan it out:
Finish off all the remaining chapters on a war footing. The maximum time you can devote for this is 3 hours.
Once you have finished revising the entire syllabus, it is time to browse through the RTPs, MTPs and PPs. This exercise takes at least 1-1.5 hours depending on the subject.
You also need to provide for 0.5 hour for revising all the formulae (if it is a practical subject)
If you do manage to get extra time, it would be ideal if you can quickly browse through the index pages or the content pages of each book and copy you have referred to in the past 25 hours. This is the time to be 100% confident for the exam and brush up the core topics of the chapters from where you expect sure-shot questions in the exam. This exercise might need 0.5 to 1 hour.
Your hard stop should be 12 noon. Pack all your books away, get the exam stationery right. Have lunch and take some rest before the real battle.
Get ready for the exam and make sure to reach the exam centre on time. Do not forget the safety protocols for Covid - mask, sanitizer, etc.
Conclusion
How you want to make use of the time available at your disposal is completely in your hands. This post is meant to act just as a guideline. Just keep one thing in mind - time once lost never comes back. And these 25 hours of revision time are meant to be utilized to the fullest. So no daydreaming, no what-ifs, no distractions. The complete focus should be on giving your best in the exam hall and leaving the rest to God.
Hope this indicative plan helps you manage your time better.
All the best for your exams. I am sure all my readers will come out with flying colors!
In case there any queries, clarifications, suggestions or feedback, please let me know.
Thanks for reading :)
PS: Do let me know what other topics you would want me to write and advise the CA students on in my future posts. Your love and support mean a lot !!