How I Overcame Failures and Qualified as a Chartered Accountant

Today I am sharing the journey of Alka Mittal from Raigarh, Chhattisgarh (India).

She is currently working in a reputed Chartered Accountant Firm in Raigarh (India).

Her journey will inspire to – Never Give Up.

You can connect to her – Here. In the name segment mention Alka and we will share her details.

 Note: Chartered Accountancy Exam from ICAI consists of 3 levels – CPT (1st level), IPC (2nd level) and CA Final (last level exam).

One also has to complete 3 years of articleship/internship from a Chartered Accounting Firm to gain practical knowledge.

MY JOURNEY

CA – These two words changed my life.

My journey to becoming a Chartered Accountant involved a lot of hard work and dedication.

I am Alka Mittal a qualified Chartered accountant from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI).

I studied in Hindi while in school.

I was a very bright child and scored 92% in class 10 and 87% in class 12.

After class 12, I was clueless as to what I should pursue further.

During the same time, a friend of mine was going to Raipur (a nearby city) to give the CPT Exam (1st level CA exam from ICAI).

Now, for me to consider CPT meant I was about to pursue chartered accounting.

But here comes the twist: I was a science student, meaning that after class 10, I chose science and not commerce.

So that meant I had no idea about debit, credit, and all the other accounting terms.

CPT JOURNEY

While I was not sure about chartered accounting, my father suggested I give the CPT exams a try.

I said yes, but I had no idea what CA was or what the syllabus, exams, and other requirements would be.

I remember the first day of CPT class where the professor started the accounting lecture by stating, “Since you all know the basics of accounting, this will be easy!”

And in my head, I was like, “OMG, I know nothing.”

I had only 2 months to prepare for the CPT exam.

I clearly remember wanting to skip the June attempt and go for the December attempt (CPT exams are conducted twice a year, in June and December).

But something inside me insisted I just make the June attempt and not postpone the December attempt.

A few days later, a friend of mine agreed to teach me the basics of accounting.

And after two months of hard work, I cleared my CPT exam on my first attempt.

Despite being a Hindi-medium student with a science background, I was proud of myself after passing CPT on the first try.

Now qualifying as a Chartered Accountant was my goal, my dream, my everything.

JOURNEY OF THE CA IPC

Then came CA IPCC (the second-level CA exam from ICAI).

I gave it my all once more and passed my IPCC on the first try.

After I cleared the IPCC, I started with my articleship, and life was great.

Now I had just one more exam to clear—the CA Final—and then I would be a qualified chartered accountant.

I was so close to my dream.

CA FINAL TRIP

Now that I had passed CPT and IPCC on the first try, I was confident that I would pass CA FINAL on the first try as well.

But I struggled to clear my CA final exams.

Many of my friends cleared CA FINAL, but I could not do the same after appearing several times.

I just kept failing.

My parents could not believe that their “super bright daughter” kept failing!

They always had so much faith in my abilities that this proved to be a shocker.

My mother took my Kundali to every Pundit and asked them why I kept failing, and they all said, “Rahu Chal Raha Hain” (in simple terms, “my timing was not good, some bad luck!”).

But I only knew one thing: I needed to become a chartered accountant, and the only way to do so was to work hard and never give up.

I continued pushing and staying positive, and guess what? I cleared my exams and qualified as a Chartered Accountant on July 20, 2018.

I made more than three attempts to clear CA Final, but it was all worth it.

Finally, I proved to myself and to others around me that everything is possible.

My advice to all

• Even if you were super bright as a kid, stood first in school, etc., you can still fail the CA Exams. And if this ever happens, it is okay! Do not freak out, and just keep pushing.
• When the pundit told me about my bad luck, I felt very demotivated and even thought for a while that chartered accounting may not be my cup of tea. However, then I motivated myself and stopped talking to everyone (as there was so much negativity) and proved myself by studying all over again.
• There are many ways to do a single thing if something goes wrong. Don’t feel sad; try another way; correct yourself; and proceed.—She concluded.