ICAI CA Final success story: "Feels unreal, probably the best day of my life," AIR 3 Kiran Manral shares her story

Kiran Rajendra Singh Manral has made it to the All India Rank (AIR) third in the Final exam of Chartered Accountants (CA) conducted by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI). Along with her, Ghilman Saalim Ansari has also managed to secure the third rank by scoring 477 out of 600 marks, the same as Kiran. 

Speaking with EdexLive in an exclusive telephonic conversation, CA Kiran shares her success mantra. 

Kiran is still processing the news after accomplishing this remarkable milestone in one of the toughest exams in India. Sharing her feelings amid all the calls and well wishes, she says, “It’s still sinking in. Although I was preparing for a rank, being in the top three feels unreal. Probably the best day of my life.”

“I got a call from the President of the ICAI CA Ranjeet Kumar Agarwal who informed me that I was AIR 3 before the results were published. Since then there have been calls, one after another. Everyone is happy and shocked,” shares Kiran. 

She attributes her success to her family and friends. She says she decided to pursue CA after looking at her elder sister who is from a commerce background. “I always looked at my elder sister and how comfortable she was with the subject. So, I decided to do commerce after the tenth standard. CA felt the best I could choose after Commerce and it has turned out pretty well,” Kiran added.

Kiran plans to enter into finance and will be looking for finance roles. Earlier, she had done her industrial training from JP Morgan in Investment Banking.

Talking about her CA Final journey, she mentions her difficulties while doing articleship and preparing for the CA Finals together.  “I took time to complete lectures for all the subjects. It wasn't easy to manage along with the office work. Some days the office hours were long. So, I took study leave in the middle of  December, received chapters and focused on self-study.”

She advises other aspirants and students to work hard, aim big and not underestimate their potential. As per her, any student who signs up for CA knows there’s a lot of hard work.  Aiming high was one of the things that worked for her. “Once the study leave started I just went into study mode. There were distractions, I was using Social Media for beaks. We have to manage study time and break time too.”

During her preparation, she would talk to friends who were also doing CA. Talking to friends, seeing how they are doing, asking for help and discussing doubts made her stay motivated in the rigorous journey. “Simply checking in on them, they checking in on me helped me deal with the mental pressure we were going through,’’ adds Kiran on how to fight mental health challenges. 

“I was lucky enough that I had a group that helped me stay motivated and pushed me to aim for the best. That helped me realise my potential because I did not have a rank in CA Inter. she concludes.