Campus Talk: Aspirants miffed over missing chance to appear for November CA Final attempt, say registration window should be extended

Although the change in the window for registration was uploaded by the ICAI on its official website, an aspirant from Delhi, Muskan Goel, said, “The ICAI should have created more awareness about the changes that reduced the number of days for registration for the CA final exam as students are busy with the articleship.”

Confusion over SPOM

Additionally, students also blame confusion over the Self-Paced Online Modules (SPOM) which were introduced in May this year. Two out of the total eight papers of the CA final examination are now covered under this module. Candidates have to take mandatory 40-hour online classes for the two papers under the SPOM and have to clear the papers through offline exams before the CA final examination.

Many students were waiting to clear the SPOM and did not register for the CA final exam. But a new notification was issued by the ICAI, on August 22, declaring that candidates have until October to complete the SPOM for the November 2024 attempt of the CA final exam. One of the candidates, Rashi Rajput from Bhopal, said, “Many of us rushed to register but there were technical glitches and only one day left.”

Aakash Vedak, a student activist and a lawyer based out of Mumbai, said, “The ICAI should take a liberal view and open a window at least for two to three days as this is affecting the careers of thousands of students all over India. Students prepare for many years for competitive exams like CA. A longer wait will affect their studies and future career planning.”

He also said that students are also approaching the ICAI, urging them to open the registration window.

ICAI response

But the ICAI is firm on its decision. In a written response, the ICAI states that the changes were informed well in advance through its official website and sufficient timeline was given to the candidates. It added that more than 99,200 candidates have applied for the November 2024 CA final exam.

Responding to reasons behind the changes in the registration window, it said, “In order to align with the best global practices and to allow students more opportunities to sit in the exam ICAI decided this year that Intermediate & Foundation course examinations will be held thrice a year.”

As a result, the registration window was brought down to 16 days for CA Intermediate and Foundation exams. While CA Final exam continues to follow the biannual format, “to keep parity, the same (registration) timeline was extended to CA Final November 2024 Exams”, said the response.