The Importance of reference books.

The Study of Chartered Accountancy Course is quite different from other professional degrees like Doctors, Layers, MBAs etc. Unlike these courses, CA course is a distant education course. ICAI prescribes the syllabus and also provides the basic study material to the students. The students suppliment it with private tuitions and reference books to cover the syllabus comprehensively.

The Study Material provided by ICAI is best in quality. The material is prepared by Board of Studies and is second to none. The material covers the entire syllabus in a comprehensive manner. Many students do believe that if a student prepares from the study material only then also he can pass the CA exams.

But it is not just about passing and today's competitive world demands more. The changes are fast and the study material gets updated a little later. In case of final students the material is provided to them before two years of their attempt. Reference books play a dual role :
1. To keep students updated and
2.To help the students understand concepts with better clarity.

The study material may not be able to cover all kinds of problems or questions. So it is always better to have a good reference book handy to fill the gap. Reference books also help understand topics from diverse perspectives. The number of problems and questions which a student can prepare from increases. Reference books ,unlike the study material, have problems which are very simple and are needed to understand basics.

The list of reference books is available at www.icai.org and are updated from time to time.

I followed the following books for my PE II examination and were really good.

#Accounts- Shukla and Grewal
#Auditing- S material
#B.Law - ND Kapoor
#Costing - MAheshwari( Compilation of Costing is a bible)
#FM - Maheshwari but TRastugi is far better
#Income Tax- VK Singhania, Girish Ahuja, Bandana Bangar. If u want to learn advance concepts gp for singhania and others may refer Ahuja
#Info tech- S Material


Apart from reference books students must also purchase compilations and sugested answers published by ICAI. These publications help students to understand the manner in which they should attempt exams. The summary of examiners comments given at the end of suggested answers are a must read. Revision Test Papers published by ICAI also help in preparation for exams.