Shadab Hussain, son of a tailor, tops CA exam in first attempt

The ICAI today announced CA Foundation, Final and CPT 2018 results on the official website of the institute. Shadab Hussain of Kota Rajasthan has emerged as the topper of the CA (old syllabus) final exam. Hussain has scored 597 out of 800 with a 74.63 per cent marks.

“I studied day-and-night to earn a job so that my parents do not have to bother about their old age. I thought of Chartered Accountancy (CA) to be a niche profession where one can learn throughout their life. After due consideration and research, I set my mind to become a CA,” Hussain told indianexpress.com.

Hussain’s father is a tailor and studied till class 10 and his mother is a school drop-out. He is the only brother of four sisters. The Kota boy likes to play badminton and cricket in his free time and found audit to be the easiest of all the seven subjects in the CA final exam.

When asked about the amount of time he devoted in studies, Hussain said, he devoted 14-13 hours each day to self-study and was expecting to be among the top scorers. “This is the biggest achievement in my family. I was expecting a good rank since I had also topped the Integrated Professional Competence Course (IPCC) exam,” he said to indianexpress.com .

Keeping one’s mind calm during higher studies and analysing what one has studied is the key to crack the CA exam, according to Hussain. “I used to take a break of 30-40 minutes after three hours of study. I also made sure to walk two-three kilometres every day. It de-stressed me,” he said. “As the exams approached, I reduced the hours devoted to study in order to keep my mind alert,” he added.

“I read the paper and find out three-four questions which can help me attain 40 marks and tried solving them in an hour. Thus, I spent the rest two hours scoring more marks and helped me increase my total score, it gave me an edge over others,” Hussain said while talking about his exam strategy.

Suggesting his peers, Hussain said, “I advise everyone to have at least half-an-hour of me-time. During this, one can think about the day spent in retrospect. It would also help one manage time better during the day and gives the sense of pride and at the same time act as a quick revision.”