Letter Of Review Self-Study Report: Fill & Download for Free

CA final. Check.Age: 24. Check. (Breaking news: one year doesn't matter. Some things suck at all ages)Unemployed. Check.Depressed.Nope.(How can you not? Before your lungs suck out all the air and your face melt out of exasperation, keep calm, the answer has just begun.)Regretful. Check.Aware. Oh yeah completely. 100% Check.I guess I am a living testimonial of 101 ways to screw your life after enrolling yourself to a prestigious course like Chartered Accountancy.I took my CA final first attempt in May 2017. Since then, my mind became numb and willpower dead.I failed.I skipped the next attempt as my senses were chained in the shambles of failure.And, then the usual series of attempts began.With every attempt, the will to study or to do anything worthwhile rusted like the corroding bars of a window.Hopelessness became my true companion. Self Pity, my ultimate harbour.I was burdened with self-doubt, guilt, fear, anxiety, stress and low self-esteem.When your mind wanders in places where you never wish to go, time grips from your hands like sand. You are functioning but only in your head. You are alive yet numb. You are feeling everything and nothing. You want to move ahead, you are trailing back. You are stuck in the vicious cycle of motion and action where motion keeps draining your energy, pushing action far from your sight. You want to grab it all but your fingers are senseless to experience anything essential.You are down, distressed, gloomy, shattered. You see yourself in the wrong place every day. Days are tasks, nights prison.This is how I felt during my long journey of 3 failed attempts: LOST and out of place.I was clinically depressed.I recovered with lessons.I know I am not in a right position but I do know how and why I am here.I am not depressed anymore but regrets do scrape my sanity from time to time. I am learning to rest them in peace.Failures suck. But, the teachings are phenomenal. It brings you closer to yourself and feeds you with truths which taste bitter and sweet in the long run.I am completely responsible for my current situation and the reasons are enumerated below. The reasons also include some of the dreadful mistakes committed by many CA aspirants.Lack of Consistency: Remember in school, we were given daily assignments called homework to test our learning and retention, well that just gets completely wiped out when you step out into the real world. With daily classes and gruelling articleship schedule, squeezing time for self-study becomes a herculean task for many. This is where the seeds of losing your shit begin to bloom. You can’t store the vast syllabus over a period of 4 months. Working days get fixed in audits and tax filing and weekends are dedicated to chilling. In no time, you become completely distant from your syllabus which haunts you during exams.Error: I became negligent. I was unable to strike a balance between office hours and self-study. Studying in gaps and half cooked concepts made the preparation even more cumbersome.Moral: CA Final is a mammoth which needs to be chewed into pieces daily. Timely revision and weekly review keep you on toes. Missing this will cost you in the end. No matter how hard it seems, churning out time for self-study is must Disciplined action will make your journey easy in the long rung. With consistent efforts, you gain momentum to deal with complex concepts. It improves your retention and boosts your confidence for the D day. Time value of efforts is a real thing. Don’t ignore this.Comparison: This is the monster which slaughters your rationality into pieces. In the times of Facebook and Instagram, flushing your self-esteem into the gutter comes naturally to us. You log into your social media account, you see happy faces, you scroll further, and bam your mediocrity tends you buckle with every upcoming post. Your failures become to compound in your brain making you into a shit pot. I know it sucks to sit with the pile of books and seeing the world basking in its glory. The feeling of being trapped is heart-wrenching. But, you can always change the approach. Comparing yourself with your engineering/MBA friends is utter stupidity. CA is altogether a different space. Engineering and MBA’s have a rigorous entry system (IIT/CAT) with a systematic college approach. We don’t have this, so stop comparing.As far as comparison comes with fellow CA peers is concerned, it’s genuine and natural to an extent. Every student has a different way of understanding. Some are more disciplined than others while some are bestowed with sharp grasping skills. In no way, you can fully scale yourself with respect to another. You can observe others and learn from them, but you can’t walk their path. So, it’s better to stick to your route and keep moving forward.Error: I failed to understand that all are walking their own paths in the journey of life. My obstacles are different from others and aping them won’t heal my misery. It took me a while to get this fixed in my head. I compared, I sulked.Moral: Don’t waste your time in comparing your first chapter to someone’s last. Nobody is projecting themselves as a whole. Everyone is presenting their customized versions on the internet. A constructive comparison is acceptable when you are actually getting inspired to change your life for the better. But, if your heart is too fragile to see someone winning, it will get cracked with jealousy and insecurity. Focus on your shit. Move.Blaming: When all doors seem to shut on your face, and your questions seem to dissolve into the abyss of nothingness, you tend to amplify your validation through blaming and cribbing. ICAI becomes the cruel ruler of your fate.The marking system of the Institute is certainly flawed, and the training methods completely outdated. But, you can’t do anything about this, or maybe you can by clearing the exam and becoming a member of the same.I know multiple attempts take a toll on one’s willpower and you are lost in confusion as to what to do next? In this scenario, it’s organic to crib and blame the system, but a self-reflection is a must.Did you complete the whole syllabus?Were you consistent with your revisions?Did you adopt the same methodology and expect different results?Did you take the effort to enrol yourself in classes to brush up your concepts which got rusted with time?Did you solve mocks to test your writing speed?After, every failed attempt, it’s important to ask yourself these questions for proper self-analysis. It’s important to be true to yourself especially when your future is at cost.Error: I never involved myself in the blame game. I was always aware of my shortcomings. I was too self-critical which lead to a lot of overthinking. Avoid this. Forgive yourself.Moral: Complaining and cribbing make you sore. First of all, nobody is listening. Secondly, you are practically in the same space with your stupid justifications. The major issue with complaining unproductively is that it makes you feel good. It becomes so easy for your brain to grasp, you start doing it without even consciously registering their behaviour. Be mindful of what you pour. Try to look for solutions to eliminate negativity. Be grateful. Use your resources. Avoid the banter. At. All. Cost.Motivation: You are preparing for one of the toughest exams and you need to be equipped with the best strategies to pump up your scores. This is the basic mindset with which most students approach CA finals.The problem with this thought process is you don’t need perfect ingredients to cook a well-defined path, you just need a strong purpose to bear the heat.CA is a marathon and it’s okay to get tired in the long run. Your ‘Why’ helps you here.Reading a lot of Ranker’s stories is not a solution. It’s an illusion. It keeps you hanging in the same pit. Everyone’s situations are different.Some claim to reach there with a power packed 16 hours six-month rule, some with a dedicated 3-hour 2-year rule. Some abandoned social media, some recharged themselves with their online presence. Some followed a strict timetable, some focused on their daily targets.The more you wander, the more lost you feel.Error: Initially, I too overwhelmed myself with a lot of ‘how to’s’ in search of one magic pill that will make my problems easy, but I eventually realized that it’s just another excuse of not doing enough.Moral: Either you are internally motivated or you are not. Period. You don’t need anything extra to transform you. You have enough. You are okay. If you really want to get through it, you will walk with the lessons from your failures. You are your best critic. You know yourself more than anyone else. Stop fooling yourself by dwindling around the stories of inspiration. Personal growth and accountability are enough to set fire under your ass.Luck: This is the major black spot of CA final exams. You may have burned yourself with umpteen revision sessions, you may have devoured every inch of practice manuals, you may have bled your algorithms on the whites of mocks, still, the four-letter PASS ignored you like a twig in a haystack.It sucks. It sucks big time when you are not aware of whether you will ever reach your destination. After sometimes, it becomes difficult to drive.Though you can’t control the tricks of fate, you can always decide to change your course. At times, quitting becomes important. There is no shame in it.If going through the cycles of May and November has made you sullen as a person and you are not able to find any other way to pass, giving yourself a break is always a good option.Error: I won’t say that I have been unfortunate in my exam results as I believe that I am completely responsible for my doom.I didn't study enough. I failed. Life hasn’t been unfair to me. I have been unfair to my time and abilities. Thus, I deserve to be where I am now.Moral: Since the beginning, you are aware of the uncertainty and arduousness of the exam, so you need to be mentally prepared of all sorts of possibilities that ICAI may throw on your face. You need to have a clear idea about the number of attempts you can easily sustain. There should be a strict timeline or else your time will wind away.In the face of constant failures, you need to remind yourself that becoming CA was your sole decision and you need to accept it in all its forms. There is no escape from it. It will keep you at ease.If you have given multiple attempts with the right kind of preparation, then there’s no point of being distressed. Crying over things which are completely uncontrollable is futile. Life goes on. You should too.It’s natural to feel like shit with a FAIL report after every 6 months. Cry. Mourn. Howl like a maniac. Don’t get stuck there. Because nobody cares.Attaching an exam with your self-esteem is a recipe of disaster. It keeps you hooked at one place. You will feel helpless after some time even though you are not. This is where depression seeps in and robs all your vigour to embrace change.Change your path. Learn. Update your skills. Adjust yourself with new trends. Ask. Fail. Fall. Get up. Move on. There’s no other option.In the end, you should be proud of your learnings, patience, efforts and maturity to accept life the way it is.It’s tough. But, it’s worth it.I hope this helps.Take Care..:)

Before I answer the question, Top 40? Seriously? On an average it costs, $90 for university application and $50 for sending your GRE, TOEFL scores to the university. So for 40 universities it would be around $5600 equivalent to 3.75 lakh rupees. Unless you are ultra rich, consider the advice of selecting 10-15 universities, which are a match to your interests and academic profile.Tip for university selection:While selecting universities, you would like to look at the profile of Professors, especially if you are seeking a PhD degree. For Master applicants, check out the academic program, courses offered and specializations offered at the college. (E.g: Civil engineering has lots of sub-divisions like Water Resources, Transportation, Structure etc. but not all these specializations are available at the universities.) So make sure you choose the university wisely.Now getting back to the question. You want to apply for Spring 2017. The deadline for Spring semester is mostly around first week of October. So you have around 6 months left for your preparations. Although it's already late, but we can always do some crisis management. Lets divide the process into 3 stages:GRE + TOEFLSOP+LORApplicationFirst Stage (GRE+TOEFL):Let's consider, you are not so good in English, so the preparation would take around 3 months at least. So you can take GRE and TOEFL in the first week of July. Since, most of the Fall 2017 applicants would be planning to take GRE and TOEFL around the same period, you should consider doing the booking well in advance. First step to preparation would be to understand the test pattern. You can do that by looking at mock test papers online at official GRE/TOEFL website. Now GRE is an aptitude test and has often been confused as a test for English. If GRE is the test for English, then why take TOEFL? GRE evaluates the candidates verbal and quantitative aptitude by testing his/her understanding about usage of suitable words at appropriate positions, ability to correctly understand scientific writings, critically analysis skills and quantitative skills (mathematical problem solving). Most challenging part of the two is verbal aptitude, which requires good knowledge of vocabulary and its usage. Quantitative is rather easy and scoring. Many Quorites have already written an answer about GRE preparation. I found this one to be really helpful, Shruti Rijhwani's answer to How should I plan my preparation for GRE?Moving to TOEFL, it has four sections - Reading, Listening, Speaking and Writing. Of these, Speaking is considered the most challenging. Now, since you are considering applying to some top universities, you TOEFL score needs to be higher than their requirements. Most universities post the minimum TOEFL score requirement on their application website. It can range anywhere between 81-110 marks. And Speaking section carries special weight as most universities have separate cutoff for the same. It is generally in the range of 20-26, with 26 being considered as the magic number, as it is the upper limit to TOEFL cutoff. NOTEFULL is a very good web resource for TOEFL preparation. You should not miss out the official TOEFL practice test which can be downloaded from the official website (http://www.ets.org/toefl). Once you give GRE, you will find TOEFL to be relatively very easy. I myself did not use much resources apart from the above mentioned ones. However you can again find some good answers by fellow Quorans. What is the best study material for TOEFL?Second Stage (SOP+LOR)At this stage you are in the month of July, which gives you just enough time for preparing the documents for your application. SOP or the statement of purpose is a very important document in your application. It should reflect your motivation behind your application and how you plan to pursue the course. What admission committees are really looking for is a research statement. What admission committees want is a statement about what research you have done, what research you hope to do, and why you like research.Here’s a template if you need one:i. First paragraph – Describe the general areas of research that interest you and why. (This is helpful for a committee to determine which professors should read your application.)ii. Second paragraph, Third, and Fourth paragraphs – Describe some research projects that you worked on. What was the problem you were trying to solve? Why was it important? What approaches did you try? What did you learn? It’s fine to say that you were unable to fully solve your problem.iii. Fifth paragraph – Describe why you feel you need a Ph.D./MS. Look back to section 2 and explain what in there appealed to you.iv. Sixth paragraph – Describe why you want to come to the university. Whom might you like to work with? What papers have you looked at from the university that you enjoyed reading? Why is this university the right place for you?It’s important to realize that the research statement is not a commitment to do research in that area. A third of all applicants end up working in an area different from that which they described on their research statement.Generally 3 letter of recommendations are required for each application. So I would suggest you to ask your professors for recommendation well in advance (over a month) of the deadline, so that they have ample time for writing it. The letters are generally to be submitted online on the university portal by the professor. Generally most of the professors ask for a template, so its a good idea to prepare one. Ideally you would like to make all your letters of recommendation count. Consider the following two letters:i. Letter 1: “I highly recommend student X for your graduate program. Student X received an A+ in my undergraduate algorithms class. He was ranked Number 2 out of 100 students. He got the highest score on the final. He worked very hard all semester, never missed a class,and was always able to answer the questions that I asked in class. This conscientious attitude makes him an excellent candidate for any graduate program. ”ii. Letter 2: “I highly recommend student Y for your graduate program. Student Y received a B in my undergraduate algorithms class. He was ranked Number 29 out of 100 students. Halfway through the semester we started working on network flows. Student Y seemed extremely excited by this topic. He disappeared for 4 weeks and even missed an exam. However when he came back, he showed me some work he had been doing on a new network flow algorithm for high-degree graphs. He had done some simulations and had some proofs. I’ve been working with student Y for the past couple months since then and he is full of ideas for new algorithms. I think student Y’s initiative makes him an excellent candidate for any graduate program.”Which letter do you think is stronger? It turns out that Letter 2 is very strong. Letter 1 actually counts as 0 and are marked as D.W.I.C.. This stands for“Did Well In Class” which counts for 0, since the reviewers already know from the student’s transcript that (s)he did well in class. By contrast, student Y’s letter gives us a lot of information. It explains that the reason student Y didn’t do better in class was that he was busy doing research. It also tells that student Y started doing research on his own initiative, and that he is quite good at doing research. The professor was impressed enough with student Y’s ideas that he took him on as a student researcher despite student Y not having high grades.You want your letters to all be of type 2 (this doesn’t mean that you should skip class!). Remember that letters of type 1 will not count. You want words like self-motivated, strong research potential , own initiative, independent, and driven to appear in your letters. These are the words that we circle when reading recommendation letters. You therefore want to ask letters from people who have seen you do research. These may be professors or employers.It makes a difference whom you ask for a letter. A letter counts a lot more if the admissions committee knows the recommender. As a general rule of thumb, letters from professors count the most. Next highest are letters from research scientists. After that come letters from lecturers, systems scientists, employers, or postdocs.Third Stage (Applications)Considering that it would take you over a month to prepare your SOP and LOR, you are into mid August. All the universities would be open to Spring applications by this stage. Now considering that you have made choice of universities, you will need to make a separate online account for each university application. An application is generally 10-14 pages long and requires time for filling. You can fill out the university application in multiple stages. After you make your account, you will need to look for missing documents. Many universities require supplementary documents in addition to your SOP, LOR, Resume etc. These can be diversity essays, handwriting sample, video resume etc. Check for these. Also check if you need to send your official transcript to the university at this stage. If yes make sure you send it at least 15 days prior to application deadline. Also, LOR request to professors (in the form of email) is generally sent from within the application. This complete process would take you about 1 month and you will have your application completed just in time. Hope this answer helps you.All the best for your application process.

I used to always wonder why Modern Indian History is filled with Gandhi, Gandhi, and Gandhi. Well I mean I love Him and have immense respect for him but does he not take a major chunk of the credit for Indian Freedom?However, after self-studying the facts and reading and cross-checking documents and info, at last, I came to the conclusion that Mr. Gandhi wasn’t the only Man who brought India freedom as portrayed in History books.I genuinely think he is Overrated.I am not undermining his contribution but when you hear the news that even Ghana (a nation in African Continent), where as we all know how Gandhi fought against racial discrimination or Apartheid, has itself removed his statue from their own University Campus terming Gandhi as “Racist”, surely makes you ponder over your History knowledge.I think maybe there are two reasons why Gandhiji is more popular in India than other Freedom Fighters. Firstly, a BS Congress propaganda(no doubt) and secondly, to project the International community and maintain India’s image as a Peace-Loving and Non-Violent Nation which it has been since the reign of ancient Ashoka The Great to modern M.K.Gandhi - both of them following Non-Violence.I was reading an interview from a book whose title I am not able to recall right now, It was a conversation between the Ex-British PM Clement Attlee from the Labour Party (yes the dude who signed the papers for Indian Independence) and Mr. PB Chakraborthy, the then Governor of Bengal.In 1956, Clement Attlee had come to India and stayed in Kolkata as a guest of the then governor. PB Chakraborthy was at that time the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court and was also serving as the acting Governor of West Bengal. He wrote a letter to the publisher of RC Majumdar's book, A History of Bengal.In this letter, the Chief Justice wrote(and I quote), "When I was the acting Governor, Lord Attlee, who had given us independence by withdrawing British rule from India, spent two days in the Governor's palace at Calcutta during his tour of India. At that time I had a prolonged discussion with him regarding the real factors that had led the British to quit India."Mr. Chakraborthy adds, "My direct question to Attlee was that since Gandhi's Quit India movement had tapered off quite some time ago and in 1947 no such new compelling situation had arisen that would necessitate a hasty British departure, why did they have to leave?" (In fact, even Dr. B.R Ambedkar was astonished how India was suddenly given freedom by the Britain- the dates of which were preponed from 1948 to 1947).Justice Chakraborty further says, “In his reply, Attlee cited several reasons, the principal among them being the erosion of loyalty to the British Crown among the Indian army and Navy personnel as a result of the military activities of Netaji,"That's not all. Mr. Chakraborthy adds, "Towards the end of our discussion I asked Attlee what was the extent of Gandhi's influence upon the British decision to quit India. Hearing this question, Attlee's lips became twisted in a sarcastic smile as he slowly chewed out the word, mi-ni-m-al ! "This startling conversation was first published by the ‘Institute of Historical Review’ by author Ranjan Borra in 1982, in his piece on Subhas Chandra Bose- ‘The Indian National Army and the war of India's liberation’.British Military intelligence reports in 1946 indicated that the Indian soldiers were fuming over the INA trials and hence Britain came to the conclusion that Indians could not be relied upon to obey their British officers (Naval Mutiny was just one example; many might not know but there was a mutiny by the Royal Indian Air Force at Karachi in 1946). They feared the movement started by INA, although extinguished, could potentially ignite more anger within the Indian Soldiers. There were only 40,000 British troops in India at the time. Most were eager to go home and in no mood to fight the 2.5 million battle-hardened Indian soldiers who were being demobilized. The Britishers who already got their treasury Chest empty due to WWII had no other option or strong will of defending yet another battle/war/revolution. The easiest option they had was - granting Independence asap and maintain cordial relations with the post-Independent India.This frustration of the Brits can be corroborated by C.R. Attlee's crisp and clear instructions to Lord Mountbatten : "Keep India united if you can. If not, save something from the wreck. In any case, get Britain out".But let me make this clear once again, The idea behind mentioning this fact is not to in any way undermine the significant contribution of Mahatma Gandhi or Pandit Nehru in India’s freedom but to spark a debate about the real significance of the role played by Netaji's Indian National Army. School textbooks are dominated by the role played by the non-violent movement while the role of the INA is dismissed in a few cursory paragraphs.In this age of Information boom, do these guys really think they could outsmart the Indian Public by hiding facts? I bet if Gandhi fought the General Elections today, he wouldn’t have won it by a huge Margin.The Ashokan Emblem with the motto “Satyameva Jayate”(Truth alone Triumphs) was adopted for a reason. No matter how well you hide the facts, Truth will always find its way.India will see the day when all her Freedom Fighters will get their due share of respect and honor which maybe till now is reserved only for a few but not for long.Sources - Statue of 'racist' Gandhi removed from Ghana university campusNetaji, not Gandhiji drove British away. Ambedkar would have agreedThe British PM Who Oversaw India's IndependenceAn Upvote will encourage me to write more. Edit - Thank You for the 147 upvotes. Means a Lot. :)Peace