Nineteen-year old Nandini Agrawal from Morena district emerged as the topper with 614/800 marks. Her 21-year old brother, Sachin Agrawal has achieved all India rank (AIR) 18.
The ICAI released the results for the CA final and foundation (July) 2021 today. Of the 83,606 candidates registered for Chartered Accountants final examination (new course), 19-year old Nandini Agrawal emerged as the topper with 614/800 marks. Her 21-year old brother, Sachin Agrawal has achieved all India rank (AIR) 18.
Students of the Victor Convent School in Madhya Pradesh’s Morena district, Sachin and Nandini cleared class 12 in 2017. Nandini had skipped two classes early in childhood and hence, she has been in the same class as her elder brother since class 2.
“My brother and I have been studying together since school. We also prepared for IPCC and CA final together. Our strategy has been simple — we support each other but we critique even more. When we solve a question paper, he checks my answers and I check his. There have been moments when I was losing hope but my brother’s support got me on track,” says Nandini, who is currently pursuing her articleship from PwC. She had also got an AIR 31 in the IPCC exam.
While pandemic hampered the preparations of most of the aspirants, it actually worked in the favour of this brother-sister duo. It allowed them more time to study and revise the topics.
“There were times when we fought like crazy but that only lasted for some time and we got back to normal. I would have been happy with even 70 per cent marks as I did not have high expectations but I knew that Nandini will do great. She’s brilliant and deserves all the success. In many ways, she is my mentor,” says Sachin, who is pursuing his articleship from Gurugram-based firm, One Point Advisors.
Their father, Naresh Chandra Gupta is a tax practitioner while their mother Dimple Gupta is a housewife. Nandini and Sachin both advise aspirants to follow the ICAI study material for acing the exam as “it has worked really well for them”.
Nandini feels that most often, parents do not put enough faith in a girl-child when it comes to competitive exams, which is why lesser girls opt for and clear some of the toughest exams.
“Girls often get fewer chances to prove themselves as compared to boys. If they cannot crack any competitive exam in one or two attempts, then they are asked to give it up, whereas the same does not apply to boys. I have been fortunate enough to have very supportive parents, but all parents should help their kids follow their dreams, be it a boy or a girl,” she says.
Nandini and Sachin both had opted for the CA new course because in 2018, when they were registering for IPCC, the old course was already out of the picture. So, the new course was their default choice.
“In our case, we had no option to choose from. Besides, the new course is more comprehensive as compared to the new course as it covers new accounting standards, which are realistic and in line with the current market requirements,” says Sachin.
