“My father is a semi-qualified Chartered Accountant – he cleared the Intermediate exam, but not the Finals. I am carrying his wishes forward,” says Kushagra Roy, All India Rank (AIR) 1 in the CA Intermediate Exams for 2024, the results of which, along with Finals, were announced today, Thursday, July 11.
To help him reach this milestone, he adds, his family’s support was instrumental. “All I had to do was sit and study all day. My parents made sure that I didn’t even have to get up from my desk – they even brought my meals to my room,” he recalls.
Like many CA aspirants, Kushagra started his preparation right from Class XI. While he chose to study for the Foundation exam by himself, he says that he had to join a coaching institute to prepare for the Intermediate exam, owing to a shorter study period (eight months) and extensive syllabus.
He recalls playing cricket to cool off during his studies and mentions being a batsman. When asked if he faced any difficulties during his preparation, he humbly said, “None in particular; it was as ordinary as it could get.”
To him, this victory is not his alone, but also his family’s. “My family has supported me throughout my CA journey thus far. They are elated by the result. I am also delighted, as my hard work paid off,” he says.
Kushagra’s next step is to study hard and focus on his next milestone, the CA Final exam. “I will try to cover as much ground as I can during the articleship, and spend the six-month break before the final exam revising as much as I can,” he explained.
The results of the CA Intermediate and Final exams were released today, July 11. Out of both groups, 35,819 students appeared, and 7,122 cleared the exams.
While Kushal secured the first rank in the CA Intermediate exams, the AIR 1 spot in the Final exam has been bagged by Shivam Mishra.
Academically well-performing since his school days, Shivam topped his Class XII exams and chose to pursue CA during his college days, “Being a commerce student, CA is the only option many of us have. As a result, that’s what I chose,” he says.
Even before securing the coveted AIR 1 in the CA Finals, Shivam performed extremely well in the two exams that preceded it – securing AIR 50 in the Foundation Exam and AIR 20 in the Intermediate exam. Subsequently, he joined a Big 4 company (Delloite, KPMG, EY, PwG) for his articleship.
The tricky part for him, and the most important point is maintaining the balance between his work and studies, he says. “There were days when I returned from my workplace at 11 pm, and I had to still study,” he says.
Moreover, he also recalls being infected by COVID-19 in 2020 – a month before the CA Intermediate exam.
Despite these setbacks, Shivam kept studying and used the six-month break between his articleship and the Final exam to prepare harder.
His efforts came to fruition today when he secured AIR 1 in the CA Final Exam.
“While I knew that I would be within AIR 10, AIR 1 was not something that I expected. I am very happy with my result,” he says. He plans to continue working in the same firm he did his articleship from for two more years, and then start preparing for either the Union Public Service Commission Civil Services Examination (UPSC - CSE) or Masters’ of Business Administration (MBA) admissions.
To prepare, Shivam advises students and aspirants to stick to the material provided by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), and Kushagra asks students to study in a way that lets them revise their concepts at least thrice before the exam.
In addition, both candidates claim that consistency was the key to their success, and advise students to remain consistent in their preparation.
