Tips for Preparing for CPT/ IPCC/ CA Final Examinations

The biggest challenge for students is not the complexity of the subjects, or the vastness of the syllabus. It is managing your time that is the most difficult. It is extremely easy to go badly wrong on time management, by underestimating the time you will need for completing the syllabus more than once, thoroughly.

Here, we outline a simple approach to the challenge. Of course, you need not follow this approach exactly. You can modify it to suit your requirements, temperament, etc..

Step 1

First, plan backwards from the scheduled examination dates. For example, if the dates of the examination are 1st Nov to 9th Nov, assume that

• The last day for preparatory study is 29th October.  After that, you allocate the time for the paper falling on the next day.
• The last revision before the examination will take 10 days (assuming 1 subject per day, with slightly longer time for three papers.
• The penultimate revision will take 24 full days.
• Therefore, your syllabus needs to be completed 34 days before Oct.29th, viz.24th September.
• The first, completely thorough study will take the rest of the time available. So assuming you begin your own preparation on April 12th , you have exactly [19+31+30+31+31+24=165] days. If this seems a lot, hang on. Now map reality onto this figure.
• Block days on which extraneous planned circumstances will keep you away from your studies. Examples are:
  • Your birthday, and your friends' birthdays (say four ½ days)
  • Diwali (at least 1 day)
  • Important visitors or functions to attend (say, 2 days)
  • Attending college (in case of IPCC) or office (in case of Final) (at least 50 half-days beginning July)
  • Attending Institute courses like IT and GMCS (say, 30 days)
  • Attending classes (hopefully, you would have finished these classes by the time you begin your own preparation; or even better, not attended them at all)
  • Other unplanned loss of time (say 7 days)
• These time-robbers will reduce the number of days available for covering the entire syllabus is down to just about 100 days! This gives you the first feel of how tough the time management challenge can be. You can gain time only by giving up something you really would love, like attending your friends' birthday parties.

Step 2

The Second Step is to take this time budget of 100 days and multiply it by 11 (if you plan on studying 11 hours a day, not counting 30 mins to 1 hour to review and plan the next day's work). Thus, you will have a budget of 1100 hours. Now, you have to allocate blocks of time, say 3 hours at least (at a time) to various topics in each paper. This is a time-consuming task, because it needs you to make a preliminary study of every single paper, if only to estimate the time required.

Remember, allow for time for reading, understanding,  memorizing, practicing and making your brief notes with mnemonics, etc. – so that the next time you cover the same ground, you have many less pages to flip!

The result of this will look something like Schedule A: Time Budget given below.  This is the second shock: you thought that maybe, the total number of hours required will be significantly less than 1100. In fact, it has turned out to almost exactly match the time available. 1,074 hours means you can afford less than 3 days of slippage!

Step 3

The Third Step is to prepare a time-table. The considerations in making this will have to be highly individualized. For example, are you at your most alert in the mornings or in the evenings? Are you better at remembering “theory” topics or the “practical” topics? Do you feel sleepy after lunch, and hence would like to factor in a small post-lunch nap?

You might consider dividing the day into three or four “zones” -- Morning, Afternoon, Evening, Night.

The result will look something like Schedule B: IPCC Study Time-table. This has been made by dividing the day into only 3 zones. This has been given only for illustration, and will not exactly match the number of hours. Also, this has been given for dates from May to November, rather than April to October.

Before filling in the topics, first “mask” all the planned time-outs: Diwali, Birthday parties, college attendance, and so on. Only fill in the rest. Thus, though you have about 1075 hours to fill in, it will extend till the 20th of September at least. Check the overall time allocations by cross-tallying the  results. And then, print out the first month's time-table and use it everyday to drive the pace and scope of your study.

The biggest value of such an approach is how easily you can discern whether you are on, ahead of, or behind schedule. The real value is when you see that you are behind schedule, it allows you to pace your work and do what is required to be done so that you can catch up.

Please take the Schedules as merely illustrative; please prepare your own time budget, and time-table and then stick to it.

MOST IMPORTANT

The most important part of preparing for the examinations is to remain mentally strong throughout. It is easy to feel defeated by the enormity of the task at hand. But it is important not to given in to such feelings. Fill your mind with positive thoughts. Visualise your success. For example, it would be great if you could take the last examination's merit list rankers' list, and write down your name there. Say, at No.10. Then tell yourself, that you have to pass in the Top 10. Tell yourself this every day, and several times every day. Especially in the morning, and at the beginning of each “zone” or study session. Self-belief is everything, and is crucial for success.