New Year Resolution 2017

Happy New Year Everyone!! By way of nature, we have passed one year. Another came to us with new hope and expectations. New year brings us new promises and new opportunities. With the beginning of  new year, Its time for making our resolutions. Each year I make few resolution and aim to execute those resolutions. For 2017 I’ve made several wishes/ resolutions.

1. Continue career development.
2. Complete all degree requirment of ICMAB and ICAEW.
3. Re-develop the reading habit. Complete reading all the books bought in 2016. Read at least 20 books in 2017.
4. Make some investment and make additional source of earnings.
5. Travel at least 3 districts and 3 countries.
6. Learn driving.
7. Do something big!
8. Decrease body weight to 70 kg.
9. Maintain relationships with friends, family members, relatives, colleagues and other nearest and dearest one while increasing professional and personal network.
10. Try to be a practicing Muslim and Read the Holy Quran at least.

Similar to the previous year, theme of this year resolution is career progression, building network and remaining healthy.

So have your made your new year resolution? what’s your new year resolution? share with me in the comment section below.

Living in reality & Going beyond expectation

In our childhood we have learned the proverb that ‘Time and Tide wait for none’. This had been part of our study text in order to teach us that time is limited and immeasurably valuable. From this childhood education, I’ve learned that time is short and time management is very much important. Until now, I have not been realized how important time management is. I had busy schedule before but not to the extent I had been till yesterday. I was so much stressed and I had slept less that 5 hour per day. Several times I’ve wished that there were 48 hours in a day instead of 24 hours.

Since yesterday I had been busy with my MBA semester finals, projects and hand written assignments. I had to do all these after my office hours. It was so tiring. The whole semester was like this. Although Friday is my weekly holiday but I had MBA classes on Fridays. That means I practically didn’t have weekend for the semester which is equal to almost 4 months. In this semester I had two teachers who loves taking extra long classes and makeup classes without missing a single class. Sometimes it was so boring and tiring that I felt dizzy and sleepy in the class. I already developed habit of sleeping in the bus but in this semester I have developed the ability to sleep in anywhere. I have slept several time in rickshaw. I think you might get the idea how tiresome this semester was. But gladly the tiring semester have come to the end. My semester final exam are now over.

I am hoping to attend the upcoming August 2015 exam of ICMAB. From April 2015, I was planning to take full preparation for my ‘Advanced Financial Accounting – I (AFA-I)‘ course at ICMAB. However, I couldn’t.  I was busy with my Advanced Stage exam conducted by ICAB. Later I got busy with MBA exams, projects, presentations and term papers. I couldn’t’ manage time to take preparation for ICMAB exams. This is when I realized that time management are very much necessary. I have tried my level best to manage proper time for each and every necessary activities which left me tired and stressed.

However, sun shines after the rain. While I was passing my toughest time during the year, I received a good news. Last week ICAB have published its May-June 2015 exam result. The result showed me that I have passed the CA advanced stage. Advanced Stage is the final level of CA exams. There are four subjects of this exams. Passing the advance stage means qualifying as a Chartered Accountants and becoming eligible for the membership of The Institution of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh (ICAB). As I have passed the advanced stage, now I have become a Chartered Accountant and eligible to be a member of ICAB.

This was my first attempt in advanced stage exams. I didn’t really expect to pass all four subjects in on attempt.  I required two attempts for both the Knowledge level and the Application level. So I was sure that I will take at least two attempts to pass the advanced stage. Moreover, I knew that passing the final level is very hard and there are many brilliant students who are struggling to pass this level. Compared to them I’m nothing and my exams were not that good to pass all four. So when the result came out, I was shocked and surprised. At first I thought there might be en error or I have seen wrong. But later I was made sure that I have really passed the CA final stage. It was way beyond my expectations and seemed like a dream.

When I started CA, my aim was to pass at least two level of ICAB exams and appear at least once for the final level of exam before I complete my CA articleship (CACC). Alhamdulillah I was able to achieve this target. When I achieved this target, I felt aimless and felt there is nothing left to do. I was getting demotivated. So I had set a new aim to pass the CA advanced stage at the first attempt. I also had the target to pass without paying any annual fee which was applicable for CA students who have completed their articleship. With the blessings of Allah, the most merciful and gracious, I have achieved that target .

Moments after passing CA seemed different than ever. I was unsure with my result while others were congratulating me. I was not sure what to say or how to act. But I was appropriated by my family, relatives, friends, colleagues, partners and senior partners of the A. Qasem & Co. After passing my CA exams, I have been promoted to Manager of Audit & Assurance service from the position of Assistant Manager. I have also been  assigned with a new room at A. Qasem & Co. I’ve received many advises from my senior colleagues. This sort of experiences are new to me. I’m really enjoying these experiences. However, there is nothing that can change who I am. I will remain the same old me.

Life is weird!

Life is weird! You don’t know what fate have for you. One moment you are all set and ready to go and next moment you are totally unprepared. On day you are controlling your life and next day life is controlling you. You make plan for your life and life has another plan for you. Life happens everyday. What I am saying is life is total uncertain and full of unexpected elements. This is what the beauty or the horror of the life. What life decided you, you should follow it unless you can create your own path.

You might wonder why I am being philosophical. The reasons behind these are the turn of events happened, happening and going to happen in my life. If you read my earlier blog post, you will see that I attended a app developing training at Microsoft Bangladesh. I planned to continue to develop my app making skill and participate in their app building tournament. However, that remains a plan and never tried for.

You may know that I am a training chartered accountant undergoing my training at a prominent Chartered Accountant firm named A. Qasem & Co which have became a member firm of Ernst & Young, one of the big four firm in the world, in January 2015. My training period will end at June 2015. I was planning to get a job after the training period. But I didn’t start searching for job because my CA exam result was pending. I was thinking of applying for jobs right after the result. When result was published, I found out that I have passed the 2nd out of 3 level of CA under ICAB. That means I have passed total of 14 subjects out of 18 subjects. Which means I am 4 subject away to achieve my first professional degree and become a chartered accountant. So I decided not to look for jobs but to concentrate on my study till the training period ends. By that time I will attend the CA final level exam.

Right after passing the CA Application level, I got admitted for the final level which in known as Advanced Stage. My classes begun on the 01 March and continuing everyday. It became a problem for me as it was overlapping with my MBA class schedule. Now I am trying to balance both sides and making a clear way out of the situation. In my current situation, I have to attend classes 7 days a week which will be 26 hours in a week. This making my life bitter day by day. I don’t have time to rest enough or to plan and self-study. However, it will end soon and I hope to finish my study and take adequate preparation before the exam. When I started my CA articleship, my target was to pass at least 2 level and appear one exam of final level before I finish my articleship. I have achieved my target and now made a new target to achieve. Now I want to complete the final level in one sitting. I know it will be hard but I will do it, In Sha Allah.

On the other note, my CMA result was published few days ago. It showed me that I have completed my level-1 exam and fit for admission in the level-3. I was 1 subject away from completing level 1. It took me 8 attempts to pass that subject. I wasn’t sure that I will pass the subject in this attempt. But life loves to make surprise. I passed and moved to the 3rd level. Right now I am 1 subject away from completing my level-2. I am hoping to finish it by April and start the 4th and the final level in this year.

In the vary beginning of this post, I wrote that life is full of unexpected events. You see, I was so tensed with result and getting a decent job with decent salary. Just with the result, life created a new turn of event and made me decide to study more. I was confused and it have shown me a way out. I was enjoying the life and now it have put me under pressure. I don’t mind the pressure as long as it helps me to achieve my goal.

Reason I can’t pass

I am a student of Institute of Cost & Management Accountants (ICMAB) since 2012. I have appeared in the each and every exams since then. Till now I have complete total of 1000 out of 2100 points. But I can’t pass the very first course. I have I already had 6 attempts but expected outcome never came. Right now I am preparing for upcoming exam. I have solved all past exams. Then I discovered 2 reasons why I can’t pass this subject.
First reason is very simple. My preparation for exams were not that much special. Second reason is the Institute itself. In almost every question set there is some mistakes. There are lots of students who also don’t pass the exam for the same reason.
When there is a mistake in the question paper, students thinks that they made mistakes and reviews the math. It takes time to re-do the math. At some point students give up and move to the next questions. Then when correction is announced, students have to go back to previous maths and do the same once again. It is a wastage of very limited time. Most of the students can’t answer the minimum pass number for the reason. Once again institute don’t consider mistake in the question paper while marking the answer scripts. Also I am sure announcement of correction is not always available. In my 6 attempts, I had only once announcement of correction however there were mistake in 3/4 times.
Institute should be more careful about the quality of their questions so that students don’t have to waste time in the exam.

Revived

Finally I am getting little bit of relaxed time. I finished my Application level exam two weeks earlier. In my previous post I have mentioned that life was becoming hard after passing Knowledge level exam of CA. I had to get admitted for application level coaching class. After result I had only 2.5 months to prepare for next level exam. I thought of appearing 5 out of 7 subjects. But later changed my thought and decided to attend all 7 subjects. Then it got way harder. I had to read all those big books first to last page. Again it not about just reading but I had to put the contents into my head. I had to manage time for class, office and reading. I was getting stressed. But I continued to study.

When exam schedule was announced, I panicked. But skipped few classes in the coaching classes for library work. I collected few notes but I hardly got time to study them. But finished reading all the books just before the exam date. Before the exam, I analyzed my preparation and found that it was not adequate. So become shocked and thought of skipping couple of exams.  Then my father suggested not to skip the exams. I studied hard during the exam and pre-exam week and appeared in all exams. Alhamdulillah all exams went well except for financial accounting. My performance was better than my preparation. And now hoping to pass few subjects.

After May-June exam of ICAB, I am relaxed. I have nothing important to do. Although I had to join in the firm again. I have already seen few movies and finished watching few TV series. Now I feel free and revived. But not for long, as now I will have to start preparing for next exam at ICMAB. God help me…..