The Clean Slate Approach to Studying
How I switched to being a smart worker, from a hard worker
Welcome to episode 2 of ‘Random Ramblings’, where I talk about a random happening in my life, which I hope will be motivating for you.
Do you feel helpless when you can’t complete all the questions you intended in a chapter because the allotted time ran out? And now it is time for a new chapter or subject, but you feel you’re not doing it justice.
To be honest, I’ve been there, we’ll all been there.
Sharing an incident from my CA study archives
In one of my CA final attempts, I decided to start with ‘Financial Instruments’, an ominous chapter for me, due to the sheer volume of concepts involved and the number of questions waiting to be solved. It was an important chapter in Financial Reporting, one that carried significant marks in the exam. So I resolved to solve each and every question in the question bank and not leave a single concept untouched. This is an excellent resolution, but not when you’re in a time crunch.
The main mistake I made was not specifying in advance how much time I would devote to this chapter. I kept it open-ended, mostly because I was not sure how much time to allot. I ended up spending 15 days on the chapter. And that was actually my budgeted time for the entire subject. Mind you, it’s not as if every single minute was spent studying.
I procrastinated a lot. I also stressed and guilt-tripped myself about the other chapters I was ignoring and the large pile of backlog on my head. Needless to say, I fell behind in my revision schedule; I had to borrow more time from other subjects, which I simply could not afford. And my entire attempt went for a toss.
This incident (or disaster, you could call it) taught me many things. First, the importance of detailed daily planning. Second, it taught me what to do in such cases, where you don’t want to close the chapter without finishing it, but you have no choice. Third, something I like to call ‘Clean Slate Approach’.
The solution I found while studying
There is a tendency among us to be stuck where we are until we achieve 100% completion. But progress over perfection is what matters here. In the 3-5 months of studying on your own before the exam, you need to keep moving on, along with your planned schedule, until you’ve reached a decent footing in all the chapters and all subjects. Because of the heavy quantity of portions we have to cover for CA final, I reset my goals. Whatever my daily study target was, my aim was to finish at least 70-75% of it.
There were questions that I left, of course. And with a heavy heart, I learned to move on quickly to the next without looking back. Without carrying that past baggage. And that was what I referred to as the ‘Clean Slate Approach’. You cannot carry yesterday’s portions forward, expecting to finish today’s portions and yesterday’s backlog. Leave the unfinished portion or unsolved question as is.
In such cases, of course we will feel terrible. What if what you are skipping now comes for the exam? This was something I struggled with a lot. So here’s the solution I came up with.
How to tackle backlogs
If you feel like what you’re leaving behind is too important to let go, mark it with stickers, flags, or a red pen. And then make sure you do it first in the next revision. Always listen to your gut instinct. If you instinctively feel like this is a portion or a question that could come in the exam, then by all means, do it. But, if you’ve run out of time, you must defer it until the next revision. That’s one of the reasons why it is important to keep three revisions while studying for each subject before the exam.
Following your set schedule diligently will help you more than you know. Even if you feel you are extremely slow at finishing portions, force yourself to sit through them. Continuous practice will help you gain speed and traction, at least by your next revision. If you need help in planning your schedule, or getting detailed study guidance, or you just want someone to talk to, you can book a 1 on 1 session with me here. You got this!
You can watch one of my CA study vlogs, for that extra pinch of motivation on YouTube 🙂
Until my next rambling session!
~ Praarthana (●’◡’●)
P.S. You can read the previous Random Ramblings episode here.