Interview of CA Pawan Sarda Sir (AIR 2)

Getting a good rank is not a new thing for Pawan Sarda Sir, however getting a rank in CA exams is definitely super exciting for everyone.

After scoring an All-India Rank 2 in CA Final exam, in an Interview with CA Club India, Pawan Sarda sir shared his secrets & happiness. Earlier he had secured an All-India Rank 2 in his 10^th standard, after which he knew that he wants to become a CA, following his brother’s footsteps who is also a successful CA, Pawan Sir’s guiding force and mentor.

CPT (CA Foundation now) preparation laid a strong foundation for him by his teachers and mentors, he focused more on understanding the concept than mugging it up. Articleship again gave him an exposure which helped him more in practical training like how to manage time, stress and how to reach deadlines on time, all of these learnings made all his preparation easy. Taking his thoughts back in time he said: “During the second reading of my subjects, one point came where I could have given up easily but I pushed myself to ignore all the negativities and went forward with confidence and kept faith in myself. That was the time I realized the power of each minute and areas where I could improve.

Firm believer of focus, determination and sincerity, he never gives up no matter how big the problem is. With the twinkle in his eyes, his message to the future CA’s is “Never give up and take every failure in a positive way because it opens so many other doors for you. It’s not about passing or failing; it’s about being honest and to learn more and more with zeal”.

Big fan of cricket and music, guitar player, fond of reading motivational books and loves to hang out with friends, he likes to enjoy every moment of life as he says that we have only one life so why to lose even a minute.

Thumbs up to this inspiring young man, who has the potential to conquer the world.

CA Club India: I would like to congratulate you from CCI.

CA. Pawan Sarda Sir: Thank you very much!!!

CA Club India: So how are you feeling?

CA. Pawan Sarda Sir: I am feeling awesome, actually I am feeling great because of my parents, friends and teachers’ happiness which matters more to me.

CA Club India: Your parents must be very proud of you?

CA. Pawan Sarda Sir: Yes, they are telling everybody proudly, also everyone who knows me are telling others that I know Pawan, he is my friend, he is my junior, my student… so that feeling is really good.

CA Club India: That’s nice, so celebration must be big, I assume. So how big is this achievement for you? 

CA. Pawan Sarda Sir: Personally, for me my achievement was when I could study sincerely, I knew that the result could be anything. You can’t compare yourself with other people. I have set my own standards for studying for this exam so when I was able to meet those standards inspite of doing other things, like my Articleship, spending time with my friends, cricket matches etc. and managing all these, is definitely an achievement for me. But this is not a personal achievement, it’s a team work since everybody’s expectations, blessings, goodwill and everything will be counted. It’s not just my own.

CA Club India: Yes of course it is. So, when did you decide to take CA as your career?

CA. Pawan Sarda Sir: I’d decided it well before my 12th standard, because my elder brother is also a CA. He had already become a CA, by the time I was in 10th standard. I was watching him all the way so I wanted to follow his footsteps. He was my idol right from the beginning. I wanted to live his lifestyle, so I knew that I had to do CA only and this is the course for me. I got 2nd rank in 10th standard CBSE exams and at that time everybody told me that you should go for IIT or IIM or Medical field, but still I thought if there is a decision I have made so everybody should support it and then my family members stood by me, so today I have no regrets when I look back at that decision.

CA Club India: Who was your guiding force?

CA. Pawan Sarda Sir: My brother was my mentor, he used to motivate me all the time and from 11th standard I also joined CAPS Nagpur - CA coaching classes in Nagpur. There I had great teachers who laid the basic foundation and always kept me motivated and inspired. They always told me to focus on the concepts, not to mug up things and that approach definitely helped and thirdly my Articleship was something which I did very sincerely at V.K. Surana & Co. in Nagpur. There I got nice exposure, so again practical experience helped in CA final exam. Now-a-days we can see that many students do dummy Articleships but then ultimately it ends up harming their own interests.

CA Club India: Yes, you are right! So, you learned a lot while doing Articleship?

CA. Pawan Sarda Sir: Yes definitely. I got a lot of good exposure and because of sincere work I got to learn things more than the technical part. I got to learn how to manage time, pressure and how to meet the deadlines so these qualities helped me in studies straightaway. So, CA final exam was just a matter of planning and then mental preparation and then implementation of the plan.

CA Club India: Ok…so what was your schedule that time when you were preparing for exams?

CA. Pawan Sarda Sir: I had got 4 months leave from my office. First one or two months there were cricket matches going on in England and as I am a great fan of Cricket, so my schedule used to revolve around the cricket series with the focus on the studies. I had planned that I would complete my course in 2 months by the end of august and so accordingly I planned to do 2 subjects in 15 days so likewise in 60 days I was able to do 8 subjects more or less, so I had scheduled 2 to 3 sessions. 3 sessions of 3-4 hours each day …and in between the sessions I used to take breaks by listening to songs and watching cricket.

CA Club India: Yes, breaks are definitely required!

CA. Pawan Sarda Sir: Yes, break was important and finally after the first reading, I started reading all the things again in September. So, for 1 month I targeted to complete the second reading in the complete month of September. But sometimes it was getting very difficult, that was the time when anybody could have given up… but if you hold on… if you don’t give up at that time then it becomes easy later on. So, I had somehow managed to complete my 2nd revision also and in October 1st week we had test series, daily we had one paper… so in 8 days we had 8 papers in October. So, accordingly after the first revision in September, for the test series I was prepared because I had already done 2 readings in total… and in the test series again daily I went through the portion-one full day and then I discovered the power in each and every minute at that time… the time management was important…so the test series helped me a lot, we got to write the answers and then exam conditions and we came to know how much scope is there for improvement… so likewise third reading was done and then after the test series ended on 11th October then again we had 20 days before the exams. In those 20 days I finally made my plan for studying just before the exams and the two days which we have before the exams, I think those two days are very important, if you study something for 4 months but if you don’t study the same thing just before the exam, it could be a waste of time then… because when you go into the exam you should have the confidence that you have read everything, everything should be fresh in your mind, so I had made 20 hours plan for those two days.. for that one holiday and another day just before the exam how to complete the entire portion.

So those 20 hours plan I’d made and somehow in all the subjects I managed to complete everything.. all the portions nicely and my target was to read everything 100%, to study 100% of the material, not to leave anything because we cannot afford to leave anything and secondly to solve everything, to solve 100% of the answer sheet because even if you don’t know the answer you can at least write something, there is nothing that you can be completely blank about, so that was my strategy and one more thing was that those 3 hours during the exams are very crucial whatever you study for one or two years that does not count… if you do not do well in the 3 hours. So, I had planned that in the 180 minutes in which you have to give 100 marks paper, so you have 1.8 minutes for each mark so likewise you can calculate that for a 5 mark question you have 9 minutes in hand, for 10 marks question you have 18 minutes in hand…so while giving the answers we can keep a track of time like, how much time is over, how many marks paper is left and accordingly we give importance to each and every mark and if we solve the paper completely, then definitely we are giving examiner more chance to give us more marks.

CA Club India: Alright! So, any hurdles you faced while preparing for exams and any challenge that you had faced?

CA. Pawan Sarda Sir: I would let you know because Indirect taxes was the subject for which I’d not joined any classes and I was dependent on a single book and my own self-study, so after the first reading when in September, I sat down for the second reading I felt that everything is so new, as if I am reading for the 1st time so I was a little bit frightened that time because I hadn’t joined any classes and I’d to do it all on my own and time was limited but then after the test series, I decided to make my weakness into a strength…so, daily I planned and gave 2 to 3 hours to Indirect taxes and daily I studied after the test series for the last 20 days, so ultimately I ended up getting the highest marks in Indirect taxes, that was the one challenge I faced. Among other challenges, I was always somewhere running behind the plan so I used to revise my plan. It is not always necessary that 100% of your plan will be followed, so I used to revise my plan every few days, even the daily plans I had, something or the other used to come up but then somehow there was the determination that I have to do it and there is nobody else who can help me. I took this responsibility and finally it was done. Also, everybody else supported me very well, my family members and my friends... everybody used to motivate me that it is possible. Everybody had the expectation and the faith that I will do very well in the exams…so I just had to give my own best that was my rank as I told you. What came now is the comparison with others, that was the comparison with your own standard… that is the rank for me.

CA Club India: And how would you summarize your journey?

CA. Pawan Sarda Sir: After 10th standard when I entered into CA right from 11th & 12^th, I had my CPT (CA Foundation now) classes, so that time I just had a feel of CA, what is it all about. But then I got 2nd rank in CPT also in 2008. But later we discovered when the Articleship began that this is the real CA, CA is not just about training and scoring marks in exam. Articleship and practical training is the real part of CA. Then we also had IPCC (CA-Intermediate now) exams in May 2010, again then I got 8th All India Rank. At that time, I discovered that within two and a half months you can do IPCC (CA Intermediate now) portion very well.

And other than that, my CS course was also going simultaneously in December (2008, 2009 and 2010) I had my CS exams and I always had very little number of holidays, so at that time I discovered that in very short amount of time if we would focus, we can do a lot, it’s not just about studying…it’s about everything but what you need is proper focus and sincerity, you need to be involved in what you are doing. These are the things I learnt during student’s life. And other than this, at the end, the CA final journey was awesome. After IPCC experience, I had just joined classes for 3 subjects, practical subjects-Accounts, SM and Costing and for others I discovered that self-study is only going to be the way…everybody else thinks that classes are very important but I think self-study benefits you more.

CA Club India: Great! So, what are your hobbies?

CA. Pawan Sarda Sir: I like to watch and play cricket, I am a big fan of cricket. Other than that, I play badminton, I am fond of music, I like to play guitar, keyboard and I also like to sing.

CA Club India: Oh!! you play guitar…

CA. Pawan Sarda Sir: Yes, I played guitar in the CA events also. We have cultural events. I like to read motivational and inspirational books, like to go out with friends, watch movies… I like to have fun basically. It’s not just studies because I believe we have just one life, so whatever you have to do, it is your responsibility.

CA Club India: Yes you are right.

CA. Pawan Sarda Sir: Take it in the right way and then if you do the right thing at the right time and in the right way then nothing can go wrong.

CA Club India: Great! and what is the message you would like to give people who are preparing for CA exams?

CA. Pawan Sarda Sir: I would like to tell them to do their Articleship training sincerely. Secondly, not to give up….it seems easy to give up but at that point of time if you hold on then lot of events are waiting for you, there are lots of positive things which are waiting for you. And then I have even seen my friends fail in exams but then if you take the failure in the right way then it can be a bigger success than passing in the exams. So do not be disheartened by the failures because it is not just about how many marks you are getting whether you are passing in the 1st exam or not but it is about what qualities you are developing. So, I want to give them the message to be honest to themselves, not to show off to anybody what they are, but then be truthful to their own selves.

CA Club India: Absolutely! So, what is the next thing for you after this achievement?

CA. Pawan Sarda Sir: After this I haven’t yet decided finally what to do now. I am just 21 years old, so I am thinking of doing MBA course that is one of the options among many and then I have my GMCS course which will be completed in February. Then I will think whether to do MBA or not.

CA Club India: So, the celebration is going on or you have some plans to celebrate.

CA. Pawan Sarda Sir: Definitely, the whole month will be a celebration!!!

 

 

CA Club India: Wow!! You are sounding quite excited.

CA. Pawan Sarda Sir: Yes. It is a very eventful thing which has happened. It’s not just about me, it’s more about the happiness of my family members and my friends.

CA Club India: Your brother must be very happy.

CA. Pawan Sarda Sir: Yes definitely. My brother is very happy. He cried with happiness.

CA Club India: It was great talking to you, once again I would like to congratulate you from our CAclubinida Team, All the best for you future.

CA. Pawan Sarda Sir: Thanks!!