AUDIT STUDY PLAN

Hello Everyone,

I am sharing few tips which helped me secure All India 2nd Highest Marks (76 Marks) in CA Final Nov
18 examinations under guidance of Sanidhya Saraf Sir. This is just a synopsis of what I did, every
individual can have his/her own strategy as per one’s calibre and time availability.

Audit Study Tips:

➢ Complete your classes at least 3 months before your exams so you have sufficient time to
revise, you can use any crisp and precise classes which are exam oriented so that you have
maximum time for self study.
➢ I personally divided the course into 3 areas depending upon my skillset:
1. Core Strong Areas (40-50 Marks): In this I had a target to score 75% marks and this
includes: Professional Ethics (16 Marks), CARO (4 Marks), Company Audit (10 Marks),
Guidance Note on Independence and Fraud (4-8 Marks), Standards for Audit Report (SA
700 Series) and SA 800 Series (4-8 Marks), Tax Audit (4 Marks), Liabilities of Auditor (4
Marks), Consolidated Financial Statements (4 Marks), GST Audit (4 Marks). In these
areas try highlighting key points as its not practical to learn things word by word, so just
focus on key words and mark them and use them in your answers to create an impact.
2. Moderately Strong Areas (30-40 Marks): Scoring target was 50%, this includes:
Corporate Governance (4-8 Marks), SOX Audit (Since I was Suits fan I read this chapter in
great details) (0-4 Marks), Peer Review (4 Marks), Investigation and Due Diligence (4
Marks), Standards of Auditing (20 Marks).
3. Weak Areas (30 Marks): I really don’t expect much out of this area as this is where you
need to mug up a lot. This includes: Introductory areas (Audit Strategy and Planning, Risk
Assessments etc), CIS Audit, Special Audit Techniques, Bank Audit, Insurance Audit,
NBFC, Cost Audit, Special Audit Assignments, Public Sector, Internal Audit and Remaining
Standards.
(Please see the areas in red are the ones which I used to study and for remaining only
selected questions and that too if time permits).
➢ Study Plan for 1st revision (Time Span 15 days along with a Practical Subject):
1. Start with Core Areas (Time allotted 7 days), give your best in this, read out from the
notes where you took tuitions from and make sure that each topic is thoroughly done,
no selective study for this area. After that questions are to be solved, yes you read it
right they are to be solved, if you break a question’s answer logically you will find that it
has a structure, (Opening, Linking and Closing, let me define them, Opening is the area
which just gives a glimpse of all laws, provisions to justify the answer, Linking is the area
were you link your explanations with the provisions above and last is Concluding is
where you wind up your answer.)
So please break the answers in scanner in the above format and mark important areas in
that so that you don’t have to read the big statements again and again.
Write, write and write, I used to do this in a very interesting manner, I used to select
three exams questions from each chapter and used to write them in the above format
and now I will explain how to write:
a. Write 1: Attempt 1st question in a manner as if you are writing it for an exam paper.
b. Write 2: Just write important areas and close the answer.
c. Write 3: Just write the Opening segment as explained.
2. In remaining days, you are going to revise the above areas for 1 hour daily and for the
remaining areas you can adjust your time by covering some chapters from Scanners
 AUDIT STUDY PLAN

rather than a completely theory book. Make sure that for chapters which you are using
scanner don’t go for theory reading again, and use the process of elimination to avoid
reading repeated questions and doing this will give you questions which are favourite to
ICAI, as per its repeat pattern.
3. At the last day you are going to give a test, you can go for Sanidhya sir’s Test Series as it
has great marking pattern. You might score as low as 20-30 but its okay you still have
time and you are going to revise.
➢ Study Plan for 2nd Revision (Time Span 7 individual days):
1. Start with Weak areas and Moderate areas in a study mode as you would have forgotten
everything studied so far as these are pure theory and to be learnt again. Side by side
you should revise the core areas as these are conceptual and these will remain in your
memory. During these revision use RTP’s questions to write them in Write 2 and 3
patterns.
2. At the last day you are going to give a test, this time you should score around 55-60, as
you need to boost up your confidence.
➢ Study plan for 3rd Revision (Time Span 4 individual days):
1. Start with Core areas and Moderate areas and do selective for weak areas due to time
constraint and this will also give you an idea about last day preparation.
2. At the last day you are going to give a test (use mock test paper for it, do one thing ask
your friend to solve the mock test paper which you didn’t solve and exchange your
sheets for checking, this will save your time).
➢ Day wise preparation tips:
1. Divide your day in 3 parts: a. Read Stage 2. Write Stage and 3. Analyse and Revise Stage.
In read stage learn the areas, write in 2nd stage, and in last stage revise the studied stuff
in a quick manner and check your answers which you wrote.
2. Use Sandihya sir’s voice clips as they are helpful, I used to use them during morning
walks and evening walks as this used to make revision easy and quick.
➢ Preparation tips for Standards on auditing:
1. Post your tuition it is expected that you know the concepts, so now you need to focus
more on memorising stuffs rather than vouching for concepts, so pick 3 standards daily
and go through the scanners which ever you are using this will give you an idea of
questions which can be framed from a Standard.
2. Use any available summary chart or a summarised notes on Standards that will help you
to glance it at a very fast pace.
3. On the risk of sounding repetitive, please follow the process of elimination as the course
is too vast so eliminate repetitive things, this will help in curtailing your syllabus.

I haven’t shared the exam day revision tips, will share the same within a week or so.

Please feel free to share your response and queries on the above matter.

Good Luck. 😊

CA Ashish Agarwal

Agarwalashish1908@gmail.com

Gurugram