Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SHP)

Mangaluru, Jan 23: The result of the final level of the CA exam held in November 2019, by The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) was recently released. Mangalurean Sana Hamza has achieved a major feat by becoming the second Muslim girl from the coast of Karnataka to ace the exam.

Daijiworld got a chance to have an exclusive interview with Sana, where she reveals her strategy on cracking the competitive exam.

Sana hopes her message to all the CA aspirants will be motivating and her journey inspiring for anyone aspiring to take up CA as their profession.

Q: Congratulations, how does it feel to achieve this glory?

A: Thank you. It was relieving to know that I do not have to go through the same pile of books again. I feel extremely happy to know that I cracked this exam and that I made my parents proud.

Q: Would you like to share something about your roots, family background?

A: I am a resident of Jeppu in Mangaluru. I have been here for a long time now. However, my father T.I Hamza is originally from Coorg. My grandfather J Puttabba is a reputed lawyer in the city. My father is a Chartered Accountant by profession and my mother Reshma Hamza is a homemaker.

Q: Did you have any unique strategy to crack the challenging exam?

A: I always believed in self-study and made a conscious decision to not waste my time attending CA coaching classes. This decision worked great for me. I just concentrated on completing the portion and studied only from the institute material instead of referring to different authors.

Q: Were you stressed before the months leading up to the exam? If yes, how did you handle it?

A: CA exams do stress you out but if you have a fixed schedule and you stick to it, the days leading up to the exam are not that daunting. I made sure that I get out of the house once a week for at least an hour or two and spend time in activities not related to studying. It helps you to stay calm and acts as a major stress buster.

Q: Did you face any hurdles in your journey? How old were you when you took the exam?

A: I started studying for CA while I was pursuing my second-year B.Com. I cleared my IPCC exam by the end of my B.Com course. Soon after, I moved to Bengaluru for articleship, where I was fortunate to get selected as senior at the prestigious Grant Thornton, one of the largest fully integrated Assurance, Tax and Advisory firms in the country.

Q: Would you like to share something on your articleship? How important it is for the CA students and how it helped you?

A: I think practice makes everyone perfect and that is why doing articleship in a reputed firm was quite important for me. The big firms help in acquiring the essential skills that are necessary for the job.

Q: Would you like to talk about the electives you choose?

A: I chose risk management as my subject of preference. In my opinion, my preferred elective proved to be easier than the other subjects.

Q: Did you prepare hand-written notes?

A: Going through the ICAI books twice is sufficient to crack the subject of your choice. On the other hand, while studying, I did make notes because once you start doing articleship, you tend to lose the art of writing. To avoid any hiccups during the main exam and to increase my writing speed, I would hand-write my notes.

Q: One myth you would like to clear about the CA course?

A: It is a hard course but not an impossible one. You can schedule, strategize your study hours to make sure you have enough time to meet your friends, go out, have fun, live your life while still study and ace the challenging exam.

Q: That is impressive. So what are your plans for the future?

A: As of now, I will be continuing at Grant Thornton. In the future, I want to go out of India, try to get global exposure, expand my horizon.

Q: Do you wish to continue in the field of finance or are you keen on venturing into other fields?

A: I like the field of finance, more specifically auditing. I plan on becoming an expert in that.

Q: A final message you would like to give the CA community?

A: I think the only thing we need to know is that there is no substitute for hard work.

Q: Great! Once again, I would like to congratulate you on behalf of Daijiworld and share my best wishes for your future.

A: Thank you.