New Course Evaluation Form: Fill & Download for Free

Disclaimer: At the end of the day, ICAI is the boss.I am happy that finally there is a change and I have decided to stay happy by not thinking about possibilities beyond that, since at the end of the day …The change was long awaited and over due as well. It has been a decade since the last major change in syllabus. In a Profession like Chartered Accountants, this is like trying to file Returns for FY 2014–15 in FY 2017–18. On the contrary, Institute of Cost & Management Accountants of India (ICMAI) has already resolved to bring New syllabus, every four years. This is not just a resolution, but also very smoothly implemented plan, as ICMAI shifted from Syllabus 2008 to Syllabus 2012 and now Syllabus 2016, trying to keep its syllabus up to date with the trends.Before someone confuses New Syllabus with Devil’s curse, let me explain why changing syllabus is for the benefit of all, with no hardship involved.As I have explained in the past, New Syllabus will be applicable only to students who register for CPT, IPCC or Final after 30th June.For Students who have already registered or will have already registered by 30th June, for any particular level - New Syllabus will applicable to them for the next level.For existing IPCC students, Final will be under new syllabus, similarly for exisiting CPT students, Intermediate & Final will be under new syllabus. The syllabus is not dependent on your exam attempt but your course registration date.So please understand, there is no impact on the efforts that you have already made, books that you have bought or classes that you have joined.Changing course syllabus keeps the students up to date with the trends in the profession, which directly affects their employability. Else, companies would have to invest heavily in training of such Chartered Accountants and they might start considering alternatives.Besides, even ISCA subject has been dropped, IT subject has been streamlined. So if any of the above reasons doesn’t seem acceptable, atleast this would be.On one hand students cry for not getting well paid jobs, and then they also curse ICAI for making any change in the syllabus. “Chit bhi meri, patt bhi meri” (Heads is mine, tails too) will not work in your benefit. So, it is highly important to keep changing the Syllabus as per trends.For beginners, refer New Syllabus[1] & Old Syllabus[2][3] through footnote links.CPC BECOMES FOUNDATIONMore Accounts, Nightmare for Science Stream Students - Good move.Earlier Accounts was for 60 marks, now 100 marks. The increase in marks is coupled with some IPCC topics like Average Due Date, Accounting from Incomplete Records & Financial Statements of Non Profit Organization being introduced at Foundation level. This further strengthens the base for Accounting and for students joining from Science stream, this could be a nightmare.No restriction on other medium students, but learn English before you join CA course - Highly appreciative move.This is what the second paper’s structure says, Law for 60 marks with 40 marks General English. Limited Liability Partnership Act & Introduction to Companies Act has been added to the Foundation level. General English covers Articles, Reports, Emails, Formal Letters, Grammar, Comprehension, Anonymns, Synonyms, etc. Basically, the 10th / 12th standard English subject, compressed into a zip file. Another good move. One reason why many CA students lacked good English skills because there was no restriction on which medium school or college you come from. There is still no restriction, but ICAI has closed that loophole by introducing English. So Non-English medium students will now have to learn English properly and in-depth, before entering CA course.More Mathematics to keep students out of CA course - Good moveMathematics & Statistics has been expanded into a full 100 marks subject rather than the 50 marks zip version. Now this subject is value for study, as earlier too many topics were for too less marks. There is also a 20 marks logical reasoning included. While Mathematics & Statistics may not be extensively useful in CA profession, the knowledge of the same ensures strong reasoning & logical thinking capacity, which is highly important while auditing. This subject will also ensure students do not pass CA foundation in bulk quantity as before, but a check on the same can be maintained.Improved Understanding of Business - Requesting practical questionsEconomics is same as before, with 10 additional marks and Business Cycles as additional topic. Business & Commercial Knowledge is a wonderful subject added, only if the questions are more practical. The best part of this subject syllabus is the following part - “Students are expected to read atleast one financial newspaper and one business magazine.” Wow! This line says a lot. So question paper may contain some practical questions about ongoing issues. If this is true, then it would be a really great move.No more MCQs in Accounting, Law & English. Negative marking for Economics, Statistics & Mathematics - Great moveAccounting, Law & English are some important subjects which test the writing skills of the students. While Mathematics, Statistics, Economics & Commercial Knowledge is merely objective. Usually all subjects are tested at the same standard, however, ICAI took the brave decision of distinguishing the standard of evaluation for different subjects at the same level. This will definitely improve the competitiveness of the Chartered Accountants. Negative marking is same as before. It keeps answering merely by guess i.e. randomness of answering under check.IPCC BECOMES INTERMEDIATEShifting of Accounting Topics - Nothing special hereSome topics of Accounting have been shifted to Foundation while some topics have been borrowed from Advanced Accounting. Good thing is including all Accounting Standards in Accounting & Advanced Accounting subjects leaving behind only advanced issues for Final level. This will help students during articleship.Inclusion of useful topics at early stage in Law - Good moveTopics like interpretation of statutes, drafting deeds & documents, etc. have been included at Intermediate level itself. Consumer laws & brief introductions to labour laws has also been included. This ensures that the student is not completely blank about interpretations & legal documents. With this knowledge student can further build on with the practical knowledge he/she obtains. Certainly, Intermediate level has been designed keeping Articleship in mind and this is certainly a change for good.Learn the entire Costing all at once - Eat with two spoons nowThere’s one extra subject at Intermediate level, as Costing and Financial Management have been split into two 100 marks paper. The earlier Costing syllabus was certainly not enough for 100 marks paper, so now entire Costing i.e. the Costing at IPCC and Costing at Final level, both have been accomodated in one subject. I am doubtful, how good this move would be. Students have faced difficulties in Costing even at Final level because of multiple methods that can be used. Introducing such difficulty at Intermediate level is a big burden on students. All of this to insert one additional subject at Final level. Keep reading.Tax Subject is same as before. - Too much for too less.I still feel and this is with respect to all three ICAI, ICSI and ICMAI - either select certain chapters of tax laws or make them two different subjects. This is too much to read for so less marks, especially Direct Taxes which is a vast subject. Since ICAI’s motive is to accomodate more & more subjects in the syllabus, this is a move that they have made. As we know, at the end of the day …Advanced Accounting looks like dead end of Accounting - Not sureICAI has included Guidance notes in Advanced Accounting. There are only 5 other topics in Advanced Accounting which means each Guidance Note will now be tested in much deeper sense. In my opinion, it is too early to introduce Guidance notes. The syllabus of Foundation or Group 1 Accounts could have been spread over and shared with Group II Accounts, but ICAI seems to have decided something. I am adding an attention flag, it doesn’t seem appropriate.Audit subject seems quite improved in content - Very Good Move.The Auditing subject under the old course was too simple & pointless. Now the subject has been divided into topics as we have in Audit Plans. This is a significant improvement from the old syllabus as now it seems to include more practical subjects. We will only know how much they have improved the subject when the books are published, but as of now, looking at the topics, it looks convincing.Business Economics seems repetitive - Not so good moveFinancial Management is same as before, and now it feels like the only subject which is true value for marks. There is no cramming of topics in this subject and 60 marks is appropriate. However, the balance 40 marks Business Economics is like History of Finance & India Economy, which is good stuff, but these topics are already covered in Class 11th & 12th. Students already get the basic knowledge of Economics before CA course, so Business Economics seems repetitive. Again this would be a purely theoretical subject from the syllabus, a big question mark here.IT subject streamlined, SM same as before - That’s awesome!In original draft syllabus, ICAI had kept Information Technology subject in tact, but they have now streamlined the subject. As you can see the name is now “Business Information Systems”, thus, certain topics from ISCA will be introduced in IT subject. Only topics which are really very relevant have been retained. Strategic Management has been kept in tact. I wish there are more Case Laws in both IT and SM, it would have made subject more relevant. In CMA course, there are case laws from industry mentioned in Study Material, for students to understand concepts practically which are not asked in exams. I hope ICAI either now or later introduces such case laws.FINAL STAYS FINALFinancial Reporting has fewer topics, means more difficult- Not sureThe syllabus of Financial Reporting stays same except for exclusion of certain topics and shifting them to Intermediate level. Now although looking at syllabus, a student may think of it as a scoring subject, I feel the Financial Reporting subject will get more tougher because the topics which have been eliminated were the easier ones. This seems like a Lion’s den to me. Accident prone zone. Guidance Notes are going to bring in tough questions.Financial Management now looks interesting - Very Good moveThe old syllabus didn’t cover valuation in depth. Now there is an entirely new chapter on valuations. Besides, introduction of Islamic Finance is a great move. It would be an interesting topic to read, not sure about exam questions, as they would probably be theoretical. Interest rate risk management has been added considering the need of hour. The syllabus seems better, but I expect inclusion of Practical case studies like ICMAI modules which helps in understanding the practical aspects which students cannot learn in articleship.Advanced Auditing subject seems same - Requesting Case StudiesAdvanced Auditing subject has only been consolidated in a better manner. The subject under old syllabus lacked case studies and I feel the same would happen in new course as well. The way we learn Auditing and the way we apply in real world is different and this gap can only be filled in by Case Studies. Dear ICAI, Auditing is our key subject. Please include Case Studies here, make it more difficult but more practical so that it guides in real life situations as well.Allied Laws is like ‘Yeh bhi padhlo, woh bhi padhlo’ - Worst moveEither increase the weightage of Allied Laws or reduce the number of laws. ICAI did neither of them, but only included more laws without improving the weightage. This subject looks so crammed up. It was already so crammed up, and now they further added more laws to it. Now there are 17 Laws for 30 marks! I won’t say a word further about this, since you know, at the end of the day …Strategic Cost Management & Performance Evaluation, Copy cats! This war between ICMAI & ICAI is getting hotter - Great moveThis is an open war with ICMAI. In Cost & Management Accountant course, you have exactly the same subject at Final level with same name and same topics. This subject is certainly introduced to keep competition with ICMAI in check. This is great subject, in my opinion. It was the biggest difference between CA and CMA course which has now been eliminated. This subject might be partially practical and partially theory. Quantitative techniques have been reduced to four topics which is a good move. I wonder, would ICAI and ICMAI merge in future? They are eating each other’s scope, crossing the lines & raiding territories. When will this war come to an end!ISCA teachers go Jobless; Faith in ICAI restored - Legendary move!In draft curriculum, ISCA was retained with some relevant topics only. However, in Final Draft, they have removed the entire subject and introduced concept of ‘Elective Paper’. This is an absolutely welcome move. The choices in elective paper are nice. In future we may have more elective papers being introduced as per need. Now ISCA is covered in Advanced ICITSS course where ISCA would be an Online / OMR exam with multiple choice questions. ISCA wasn’t entirely relevant, hence they move the important topics to IT subject in Intermediate and some parts to the ICITSS course where I believe it won’t be too difficult. Now we will have Chartered Accountants with one specialization area. This is the future we were talking about. Hatsoff to ICAI, people in committee who stood for this suggestion.Direct Taxes is now more Comprehensive - Good moveThere is now a separate section for International Taxation which is actually very important. The 70 marks syllabus for Direct Taxes is same as before, however, I expect now questions would be more advanced and related to Assessment procedures as the Basic part has been covered in Intermediate level. Direct Taxes subject will require more practical knowledge, case laws would become important. Simple calculation questions won’t be asked.GST is the New Subject - Not ICAI, it’s Ex-FM Jaitley’s good move!The credit for this subject cannot be given to ICAI. It truly belongs to Arun Jaitley’s thoughtfulness and approach. GST is going to be effective soon and the new syllabus will include GST. There is nothing to worry about, as one GST law for 70 marks means many simple questions will also be asked. I am pretty sure, the first few attempts will see, many simple papers. Subject will be easier to pass & score than the other subjects especially because the syllabus isn’t vast and nor difficult. The Law is new and therefore, there aren’t as many complications as in case of Excise. Further, very few case laws would be applicable for first few years, almost negligible.OTHER CHANGESISCA exists, but in a different manner - Good moveThere has been a lot of confusion over ISCA subject, but the above picture will guide you. ISCA is not a theoretical subject anymore, nor it is part of CA Final. It is now a part of AICITSS course as a MCQ pattern paper. This exam will be similar to the old ITT exams, however, with a significant change in the syllabus.You can switch to New Course at any time - As expectedAs mentioned in above FAQ 41, you are allowed to switch over to new course at any point of time if you wish to. Probably the option would exist in the Examination Form that you fill up.Pass any Group of Articleship - A move for benefit of students.You can pass any Group of Intermediate, complete ICITSS training and start Articleship i.e. even after passing Group II, you can start Articleship.Combining IT Training & GMCS - Good move.ITT, Orientation & GMCS have been combined to form ICITSS and Advanced ICITSS. The first one has to be done prior to Articleship, while the other one in last two years of articleship.Final exam 2.5 years rule retained same as before - Good decisionIn Draft rules, it was mentioned, final exams can be given only after completing entire 3 years training. However, ICAI has after re-thinking, restored the rule to same as before i.e. after 2.5 years you can give your final exams.Alert! Irrespective of your Registration, ITT/Orientation/GMCS will be under New ICITSS course only - owing to administrative reasonsEven if you are registered under old course and you have not completed your GMCS or Orientation & ITT course by 30th June, you will be required to pursue ICITSS course instead of existing courses.Conclusion: Almost all remarks are appreciative. See why I am happy. There is change and the change is good. This is something that everyone will accept. The only problem here is, we are human beings. We have a lot of expectations. Our expectations have no boundaries and therefore, the more we think, the more we will be discontent. I feel happy that atleast some appropriate changes have been done. There can be so many more changes that we could imagine, but the Expert committee does consist of Experts who would have considered everything. No point in pondering over what could have been done or what should have been done, since at the end of the day …Friends who feel there could have been more changes or better changes - Yes, maybe you are right. However, let’s first appreciate the changes that have come after waiting for a decade and stay happy with what’s happening, instead of bothering over something that is not happening or not going to happen atleast in next few years.Edit 1 : The answer has been updated to reflect changes between draft curriculum & final curriculum. Feel free to ask queries about New curriculum in comments. If queries are personal, visit my profile for contact details.Related queries[1] In the CA final paper 6, which subject will have better career options?[2] What is the most significant change in new curriculum of the CA course?[3] Who will be most adversely affected by the new curriculum of CA course?Footnotes[1] http://resource.cdn.icai.org/45557bos35643.pdf[2] http://resource.cdn.icai.org/45099bos35101cpc.pdf[3] http://resource.cdn.icai.org/45100bos35101ipc.rar

I'm one of the MA students at IITGn and here are my two cents on the course:First, it is a significant development that a technical institute has gone the lengths to introduce a Humanities and Social Science course like MA Society and Culture. Although this is not the first postgraduate Arts program to be offered in an IIT (IIT Guwahati has an MA in Development Studies and IIT Madras has a five-year integrated MA), the interdisciplinary nature of the course is its uniqueness. In the first year of the course, we take courses that touch upon subjects like History, Sociology, Media and Communication, Political Science, Anthropology, Literature. A student can be exposed to more areas of study like Philosophy, Psychology, Neuroscience, Music, Entrepreneurship etc. depending on the electives s/he chooses. The more ambitious student can also take up courses in basic sciences or engineering disciplines, as long as there is an interest or a curiosity that can be sustained.Second, since this program is a blend of different disciplines, there is ample scope for a student to follow subject(s) of his/her choice towards specialisation in a chosen area. Students have to research and submit a dissertation in the II Year and they are free to choose from any of the disciplines that they are interested in. There is a lot of freedom in that sense.One thing I'd like to mention is that, since there is no in-depth study of any one subject in this program unlike conventional Masters, the responsibility lies on the students themselves to explore more of a subject if it fascinates them. The course is very Theory intensive and rigorous with continuous assessment and evaluation in the form of assignments, response papers and essays. Classroom sessions are discussion-based as much as they are lecture-oriented. There is a continuous attempt at facilitating critical thinking among the students by enabling new perspectives and encouraging cross-questioning. We have a good faculty profile from various backgrounds that brings in a lot to the table. Guest lectures by visiting faculty and field experts are events that add to the dynamism of the HSS environment at IIT Gandhinagar.A little more needs to be done in terms of refining the course structure for a new course like this. However, with Arts education gaining a more respectable position in Indian academia, there are good prospects ahead for the MASC program.Edit: Graduated in 2016!The program has evolved in its structure now. Students take common courses in the first year of study. In the second year, students have an option to choose from three academic tracks based on their inclination and research focus - 1) History and Politics track 2) Literature track 3) Public Policy and Human Development trackThe idea is to orient students in their chosen area in a rigorous manner to prepare for research in the form of a comprehensive Masters-level thesis that might serve as a springboard for further research at the Doctoral level or in a professional sphere.

Not for a second. It can be the greatest job in the world, and for me with the exception of a couple of years it was (I’m now retired). There are several advantages. The most important for me was that I had a lot of control over my time. To be sure there are classes to be taught, meetings to attend and a few other obligations. But I’ve always pretty much been able to schedule my classes when i wanted and to teach what i wanted. To be sure there have been times when the needs of my department meant I had to teach a course I would rather not have taught and at a time I didn’t like, but mostly I (and my colleagues) worked things out so that everyone pretty much got what they wanted. I’ve always been in departments where everyone cooperated and went out of their way to help one another out, especially the more junior faculty. I realize that isn’t universal, but I’ve taught at 8 or so universities ranging from elite to decidedly third tier state universities, and they’ve all been fine in that regard.I’ve also had the freedom to teach what i wanted, and over the years I probably taught 30 or more different classes. There are certain basic introductory and service courses that have to be covered, and I’ve done my share of those. But I’ve also been able to develop new courses, ranging all over the place in terms of areas. I’m naturally curious, and so when I wanted to learn a new body of material I often taught a course in the area. I might say that it’s an incredible amount of work to teach a new course. I used to say that for a lecture course each new lecture is about like writing a term paper — reading, organizing, slimming, preparing handouts and visuals, etc. But it’s also fun if sometimes anxiety provoking when you’re only one lecture ahead of the students, and hoping you don’t get sick.Because my time tended to be flexible, I also have been able to do some consulting — mostly boring but well paid — various kinds of volunteer work, even local politics.Second, and relatedly I’ve had time to do the research and writing that I wanted to do. I loved teaching (mostly — there have been a few dud classes) but I have an intellectual life that goes beyond what happens in the classroom. I took my teaching very seriously and worked hard and I think constructively at it, but I did make sure that my teaching obligations left me free for research. That might mean scheduling all my classes on two days (typically Tuesday and Thursday). At state universities where teaching 3 courses each semester (or maybe 3 and 2 the other), meant that teaching days were busy and tiring, but then I had 3 days free for some teaching (maybe office hours or committee meetings), but mostly for thinking, planning research, meeting graduate students (a form of teaching after all) and writing. Usually I worked at home 1 or 2 of those days — fewer distractions. So all this required some attention to scheduling, but it gave me the time I needed to do what i also love —research and writing.Third, I’ve never really had a boss in the traditional sense, no one to watch over me, focus on my screwups (of which there have been more than a few), making me do stupid stuff to please the boss’s ego. To be sure department chairs and deans assign office and research space (or a committee does), make sure that someone teaches the necessary courses, etc. But it’s done in a spirit of cooperation. Normally in my experience the chair asks for desired teaching schedules and folks just work out among themselves who teaches what when. I have also been a chair and a dean, and I tread very softly on the command pedal. Usually a request does the job: “We really need someone to teach X next term. Would you be willing to do that?” Sometimes I might add an incentive: reassignment from a course the professor didn’t really love teaching, assignment of really good teaching assistant, something more extraneous like a piece of research equipment or an extra bonus in the person’s copying line. etc. It all works out.Most of the people I know have or have had really bad bosses from time to time. I never did and tried very hard not to be one. In my world a request goes a lot father than a command.Fourth, I was always around bright and interesting people. Students can be needy and irresponsible, but they also are often interesting and curious. Students at elite colleges are more obviously interesting, but even at state universities I’ve always found plenty whom I enjoyed getting to know. Over the years I won some teaching awards and generally loved challenging growing minds (and changing the minds of older students), but sometimes, especially in large lecture classes there’s not a lot of overt appreciation. Often you find out when students think “you need a brain transplant” as one student said on a course evaluation, but the accolades are a bit more pastel Or in a few cases in my experience lacking), Not every class was a great experience for me and presumably not for the students. But on the whole it’s just fun to be around college students for all their immaturity and cell phones that go off in class.Colleagues usually have interesting things to say about their own research and ideas, but mostly professors, in my experience, just talk about ideas — politics, economics, science, and do so in ways that are comprehensible to someone like me who was reasonably sophisticated but not particularly knowledgeable. Over the years I learned a tremendous amount just by listening to colleagues. On several occasions I and other have organized faculty seminars on a particular topic, often bringing together people from vastly different departments, Sure we also talked about sports, boring academic politics, movies and all that kind of stuff but sometimes you can learn a lot just by hearing someone talk about their favorite topics. You wouldn’t know it from the length of some of my replies, but I am often a good listener, and I enjoy hearing people, even pompous people, talk about stuff they care about.Are there downsides? Of course. The pay is typically not great and especially in my early teaching days with a young family and a stay-at-home wife money was very tight. Toward the end of my career I taught at a research university and made a decent salary but probably a third of what I could have made in the business world (yeah, with all those constraints on my time and bad bosses). Travel to conferences was sometimes partially reimbursed by a department or research grant but often essentially eliminated the family vacation budget. Books, heavy duty computers, usually were a personal expense, and as I now struggle to find a home for several thousand books I’ll no longer read, I remind myself that books not only cost money but take up a lot of space. But I suppose the biggest cost is time. Getting a permanent teaching position (“Getting tenure”) takes time, energy and luck. During the first 6 or 8 years of my career I suppose I never worked less than 80–90 hours a week. However, young lawyers and business people trying to “make partner” also work long hours, as do doctors and other other professionals. I mostly loved what I was doing, but it’s still hard work and it still takes away from family time. Practically, that meant that after whatever I had done during the day and dinner (with a stiff drink), I was at my desk at home from 7 or a little later after the children were ready for bed until midnight or 1 and usually a big part of each weekend day. As I have said, I mostly loved what I was doing (unless it was grading papers or exams), but I also didn’t spend as much time with my children as I should have. They’ve turned out super fine and I don’t think they missed my presence as much as I missed theirs. In my defense, I was working at home and was never one of those “do not disturb” kinds of dads, and I certainly made time for the recitals (ouch) and other significant events.I had a great academic career, with some anxieties over various job possibilities and the like. I’ve been very lucky, but today things are more difficult and I probably would not have fared nearly as well. And I’m well aware that some departments and universities are basically dysfunctional and there are a lot which do not provide the kinds of rewarding experiences I have had. Academics can be cruel and competitive; department members can harbor grudges and act on them. But I think that most people have reasonably good experiences in the academy.