Presentation Skills

During every May and November, lakhs of students appear for the CA exams. But the percentage of students who pass is very low, around 10 percent. So, what is the reason for failure of the vast majority of students, who opine that they had prepared well, and had known the answers to most of the exam questions?

Well, apart from other factors, we can say with certainty that the presentation skills of these students must have also contributed to it. It is of utmost importance because, after so many months of hard work, the final end result is the answer booklet that they hand over to the invigilator. Whatever content they write in those 3 hours, is going to finally decide whether or not they pass the exam. The medium which conveys that to the examiner is their presentation.

I have attempted to divide the topic into 2 parts. The first part deals with general presentation applicable for all papers.

The second part covers specific points relevant for each subject.

General points (applicable for all subjects):

- Students should maintain a neat and legible handwriting from start to finish of the paper. This is directly related to their speed of writing the answers and planning of time before answering the paper. Refer to the article Timetable Inside the Exam Hall for more inputs on this.

- Question number and sub division number should be mentioned clearly on the top of the page in the answer area as 'Answer to Question No. 1 / 2 (a) and should preferably be underlined

- Each question shall be started on a fresh page only

- Answers shall be written with a good quality blue or black ball point pen

- Students should underline key points using the same pen - underlining key points conveys to the examiner that he/she is a true professional and that they know their subject thoroughly - this provides an edge over other papers and is often the distinguishing factor between a paper that is awarded 40 marks and one that gets 50 marks

- Graphs and diagrams can be used to supplement answers wherever required and shall be neatly drawn

- Students need to always use bullets to present the answers - they are not to answer as paragraphs - as much as possible numbering is to be avoided - very often we do not know how many marks are allotted for every point

- While writing theory answers, students should not write with 'should' or 'can', and instead try and write with shall' or 'would'.

- They should first attempt the answers to questions that they know very well

- Answers are to be written to the point

- Students need to write spaciously, and not be stingy with paper

- For objective papers, time planning should be done as for any other paper

- Since there is negative marking, answers to questions which are doubtful shall be attempted at the end by keeping adequate time for those questions

- Lastly, students shall remember that their paper should be outstanding in order to score really well

- Even they do not know the answer to a particular question, it is advisable to write the concept / provision of law related to the question

- It shall be kept in mind that one needs to fight for each and every mark - nothing comes easy and hence every word written counts

Specific points

(1) Accounts

- The base of good presentation in accounts lies in thorough preparation and practice of innumerable problems

- Theory shall not be ignored as it carries weightage too - most often students completely ignore theory questions thinking that they can come to them at the last which never happens due to scarcity of time during preparation

- Students should be thorough with the various formats of presenting journals/ledgers/other accounts so that they are able to maintain good speed of answering - They shall practice exhaustively with the calculator during their study period so that the speed of solving questions is really good

- The formats shall be neatly drawn and it should be kept in mind that the answer booklet page size is different from the notebook size and students need to adapt to writing on that size on the day of exams - it does not matter if they have studied well - if they present a shabby balance sheet, and keep striking out and rectifying numbers, they stand to lose a lot of marks

- Answer to theory questions shall be written using bullets and shall be to the point

- When answering differentiate between questions, students should draw three columns - the first one to be titled 'basis', the second and third to be the 2 points which need to be differentiated - for every point that answered, the basis of difference shall be written in the first column underlined - differentiate between questions shall not be answered in the form of paragraphs

(2) Law

- Law is an application-oriented paper

- It is compulsory to be well-versed with the section numbers and to quote them in support of the answers where relevant

- For straight theory questions, answers shall be written in bullets as mentioned earlier

- For application-oriented questions where the question asks to state an opinion as an auditor, the below format shall be used as a guidance:

(i) Given

(ii) Required

(iii) Provision of Law

(iv) Analysis

(v) Conclusion

Terms stated above are indicative and can be modified

- If the students are not sure of the conclusion, it is better to not give Yes or No as an answer finally. Remember, marks are awarded for all the steps given above and not just for the conclusion

Success is not by chance, but needs to be consciously worked for. By working on their presentation skills, students can achieve a high score in their exams.