22-year-old Meet Shah grabbed the 1st position in the Chartered Accountancy (final) examination result that was announced on Friday. It was Shah’s first attempt and he believes it’s his consistency and family’s moral support that let him achieve the result.
Graduated in Commerce from H.R College, Churchgate, Shah has been preparing for this examination for the past three years along with a CA Articleship side-by-side. When asked how he was taking out time to prepare for exams, Shah said, “I kept looking for free time after work and even if it’s just 1-2 hours, I utilized that time for studies. Not losing touch with studies was my ultimate goal, so I managed on public holidays, weekends, or on days when I left work a little early.”
Shah lost his father when he was two years old and now lives with his mother. He is close to his mother and his sister, who he refers to as trusted advisors. “There were days, especially six months before the exam when I used to feel demotivated and dejected. Even in my mock tests, I didn’t get good marks, my mother used to tell me, ‘It’s better to get bad marks in mock tests than the main exam’ and say, ‘Look at mock tests as net practice and get ready to play the main game gradually’, which really pumped me up to prepare well!” said Shah, who did his schooling from St. Mary’s at Mazgaon.
'First rank not planned'
Unlike other students who aim to top the examination, Shah just wanted to ‘get done with it!’. “I just wanted to clear the exams, with decent to good marks. Exams were a little unpredictable but I was sure I would crack it, but getting the 1st rank was not part of the plan,” said Shah, who was surprised and elated with the result. Shah managed to score a whopping 642 out of a total of 800 marks i.e, 80.25 percent, in his first attempt.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, he was introduced to a social group that included practising CA professionals, aspirants, and professors, who collectively conducted sessions for clearing doubts. Shah was one among those who took assistance and also mentored other aspirants! According to Shah, the group - Vision CA - further furnished his performance.
Shah is still evaluating his options for the future. “Maybe I will practice as a Chartered Accountant, or join the industry as a finance professional, or something else that will give a clearer vision for the next 10 years as a professional career,” Shah added, who will be completing his CA Articleship next month.
The CA final exam was held in May 2022 which had 6,657 candidates for group 1 and 63,253 candidates for group 2. Akshay Goyal from Jaipur and Shruti Sanghavi from Surat ranked second and third respectively after Shah.
