Have you failed continuously and felt like giving up?
In fact, in today’s article, we have Ronak Jhunjhunwala, a qualified chartered accountant who failed multiple times before finally qualifying as a CA.
Continuous failure in the CA final exams did not stop him from achieving his dreams.
Ronak lost his dad just 7 months before his CA final exams, and he still gave the exam!
The loss of his dad made him realize his poetic side. Today, his poems have been published in two anthologies.
He is a CA from the ICAI (Institute of Chartered Accountants of India).
Presently, Ronak is a senior executive at Wipro, India.
My Path to Chartered Accountancy and Overcoming Failures
I am from Giridih district, a small town in Jharkhand, India.
In order to pursue chartered accounting, I moved to a bigger city, Kolkata.
- CPT: First level. You have to give this exam if you register for the CA course before graduating. I registered for CPT after class 12.
- IPCC: Second-level exam This consists of two groups: Groups 1 and 2. Each group has 3/4 subjects.
- CA Final: This is the final level of the CA exam, with two groups—Groups 1 and 2.Each group has 3/4 subjects.
- 3 years of articleship training: This starts after you clear the IPCC, either both groups or any of them.
Failing the CA CPT Exams
After deciding to pursue CA from ICAI, I enrolled for CA Level 1, or CPT.
To my dismay, I failed the CPT exams. Now CPT (earlier known as CA Foundation) is super easy. It is very unusual for someone to fail CPT.
However, I stayed persistent and gave it another attempt. I eventually cleared CPT on my second attempt.
Overcoming the IPCC challenge
Then came the IPCC exams. This was the second level of CA exams, which consist of 2 groups: Group 1 and Group 2.
I cleared Group 1 in my first attempt but kept failing in Group 2.
Failure in Group 2 almost put me in a state of depression; I stopped going out of my room and completely disconnected from my friends.
With the help of my family, I re-started studying for Group 2 and passed it on the third try.That phase was very tough, but I did grow a lot emotionally.
Starting with my articleship
As previously stated, after passing the IPCC, the next step was to begin my three-year articleship.
I was still in college, so now I had to juggle between college, work (an internship), and my CA Final Coaching.
In India, CA students usually take private or group coaching for their exams. I had done the same.
Though this period was good, I still had a lot to learn.
It helped me gain confidence, and the people I worked with helped me develop myself.
Trying to balance between classes, articles, and studies taught me time management skills.
So I would say the 3 years or so of articleship are very important.
However tough it may be, never opt to do dummy articleship; it is the worst thing ever.
CA Final Exams and dealing with personal loss
I only needed to take my CA final exams to become a qualified CA.
Unfortunately, just 7 months before my CA final exams, I lost my father due to a sudden heart attack.
The period after the demise of my dad was the toughest for me and my family.
I realized that I had to become the backbone of my family; if I broke down, my family would be shattered.
So I was literally transformed from a young, dependent boy to an adult young man who had to take responsibility.
It was during this period that I started writing, as I was not able to share my feelings with anyone. Writing helped me channel my emotions correctly.
You can’t always share your sorrows or problems with everyone; people will take advantage or make fun of you, so I began writing whatever I wanted to share.
So, in short, the loss of my dad helped me discover my spiritual side and my writing skills.
Coming back to CA Final, in that attempt, I somehow appeared for the exams but failed.
This CA exam failure was easy to face. See, if you have faced the death of your father at such a young age, there is nothing worse left to be faced!
While studying for my CA Final, I started investing and trading in the stock market and was able to manage my expenses from the income of my trading activity.
The continuous failure in CA Final exams were disheartening. But I knew I could not let these failures stop me. I was just one step away from my goal.
Finally, on my fourth attempt, I passed my CA final exams.
I am now a qualified chartered accountant.
My Journey as a Poet
I have written spiritual quotes, motivational quotes, love quotes, and bhajans (not recorded yet; it is in the process).
I have an FB / Instagram page Ronak Jhunjhunwala writer. I have also created a spiritual page named Dadi Pariwar, Giridih, and am an admin of a spiritual page named Sri Rani Sati Dadi Ji Jhunjhunu (1 lakh+ likes). This year, my poems and quotes got published in two anthologies.
To Conclude…
In any difficult situation when I am unable to decide what to do, I think to myself, “What would my dad have done in such a situation?” and then suddenly I find the right answer.
Continuous failure in CA Final exams or the CA IPCC did not stop me from achieving my dreams.
Apna dusro ke sukh mein sukh dhundo
Pehle khud se fir dusro se pyar karo, dukh ka yeh upchar karo!
Life is a game, and everyone has to face both good and bad moments, so play your role in this game happily.
This is some Advice in Hindi:
Manzil dur hi sahi, (The destination was far away)
Lekin chalne ka hosla tha, (But I had the courage to move ahead in life)
Saath apno ka na sahi, (My own people left me)
Lekin sapno pe bharosa tha, (But I had faith in my dreams)
Khuda bhi le raha imtehaan meri kabiliyat ka (God was testing my capabilities)
Aur mujhe bhi apne aap pe pura bharosa tha (But I was confident in myself)
