CMA Inter Corporate Accounting and Auditing Paper 10 Guide

How to prepare Corporate Accounting and Auditing

1. Start with share capital: issue, forfeiture, re-issue, rights, bonus, sweat equity, ESOP and buy-back. Write every journal entry by hand until you can do it without notes. Then do redemption of preference shares and debentures, and underwriting.
2. Learn the Schedule III format of the Balance Sheet and the Statement of Profit and Loss. Practise classifying items under the right heads and sub-heads, current versus non-current, and preparing the notes.
3. Master the Cash Flow Statement. Practise the indirect method in full, with working notes for operating, investing and financing activities, and check that closing cash agrees with the Balance Sheet.
4. Study banking, electricity and insurance company accounts as format-driven topics. Memorise the prescribed statements and the common adjustments, and practise one full question on each.
5. Cover the Conceptual Framework and each Ind AS (1, 2, 10, 19, 33, 37) one at a time. For each, note the core recognition and measurement rule, the disclosure points, and one worked example. Practise Ind AS 2 inventories, Ind AS 33 EPS and Ind AS 37 provisions with numbers, since they suit calculation questions.
6. Move to auditing. For each chapter, make a one-page summary: definition, objectives, key steps, and the relevant Companies Act provision or Standard on Auditing, only where you are sure of it. Give extra time to audit evidence, risk and internal control, sampling, statutory audit, the audit report and CARO, and internal financial control reporting.
7. Cover cost audit, secretarial audit, NFRA, technology in audit and the audit of different types of undertakings as shorter theory chapters. Prepare crisp answers of five to eight points that you can write in about ten minutes.
8. In the last phase, solve full three-hour papers under exam conditions. Keep a mistake log, revisit weak chapters, and take MCQ sets chapter by chapter so you can handle questions from the whole syllabus.

Time management in the exam

• →Spend about 30 to 35 minutes on Section A. Each MCQ is worth 2 marks, so do not spend more than two minutes on any one. Mark doubtful ones and return, and attempt every question since there is no negative marking.
• →Read all seven descriptive questions first and pick the five you can score best in. Mix numericals and theory if you can, so you are not stuck in only one style.
• →Give each 14-mark question about 25 to 28 minutes. Keep a few minutes at the end for checking.
• →Start numericals with the format and working notes, then fill in figures. If a figure is stuck, make a reasonable assumption, state it, and continue so you collect step marks.
• →Write theory answers as numbered points with a one-line heading each. Stop when you have covered the points the marks justify rather than filling pages.
• →Write the question numbers correctly and answer all parts of a question together. Use the last minutes to check totals, signs and that each Balance Sheet or cash flow ties.