CA TOP RANK HOLDER MAITREYEE ADVISES: KEEP YOUR COOL

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MAITREYEE Narayansingh Rajput, who hails from Panchal, a small village in Maharashtra, stood first in the CA Final Exam. Daughter of retired high school teachers, she did her schooling in Ratnagiri and completed her education in Pune and Kolhapur. She shares her journey of success.

Fast Facts
Name: Maitreyee Narayansingh Rajput
Exam: CA Final All-India
Score : 596
Roll No: 17525
Location: Pune

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Q.When did you decide to take up CA?A . It was in Class 10! So, inclination towards commerce was natural. Maitreyee joined Brihan Maharashtra College of Commerce (Pune) to pursue BCom. My parent’s untiring support helped me consistently excel in academics. Maitreyee got the third rank in Senior Secondary School at Kolhapur district level followed by first rank in Higher Secondary School Exam at Pune district level.

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Q.Do you think articleship and coaching is a must?A . Yes. For coaching, Maitreyee joined A S foundation, Excellent Academy and Swapnil Patni’s classes. In my opinion, coaching is important but at the same time it is also not sufficient. Personally, I stress on self-study. On the other hand, the articleship is the most crucial part of CA programme. Students get excellent exposure to various areas of finance and accounting. It would be difficult to swim in the accounting world, if you don’t have a hand-on- experience. I worked with two firms – Sastakar Vaidya & Co and P G Bhagwat.

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Q.Share your time management mantras.
A .I started full-fledged studies six months in advance. I used to study for eight to 10 hours a day. I had made my time-table and tried to stick to it. For practical subjects like Accounts, SFM, Costing – I invested a lot of time in practising.

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Q.Any tips to cope with tough papers?A .In the last few days, I started solving ICAI’s previous years papers. I used to self conduct exam for myself. It was a challenge to beat time! I used create an exam like ambience on my study table. For me, Information System Control Audit (ICSA) and Indirect Tax (IDT) were easy papers. Rest of the other subjects were pretty difficult, especially Costing and DT. In the Costing paper, I kept my cool and solved those questions about which I was confident. The tougher and tricky ones needed more time, so I approached them at the end.

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Q.What next after this euphoric moment? An MBA?A .I have not made up mind for further studies. I want to relax and settle down in a good job. I want to give my best at the job I take up next. For me focus is important. I will start thinking about MBA once I am fully confident about my job.

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Suggested reading :

• Direct Taxes: Vinod Gupta
• Accounts (Accounting standards): D S Rawat & M P Vijaykumar
• Indirect Taxes: Dipak Gupta
• Law: Munish Bhandari
• ICAI practice manuals
• ICAI publications (Recent circulars, notifications, case laws, suggested answers and RTP)
• Coaching class notes