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Chartered accountancy aspirant Chennai boy James John Britto gets 1st rank in CA Exam

Britto, 23, blitzed the competition with 74.38% (595/800) in the extremely difficult examinations. Nagula Mohan Kumar from Tirupati was second with 71.50% (572/800) and Avinash Sancheti from Kolkata came third with 70.75% (566/800).

The final exams contain two groups and a person becomes a chartered accountant if he or she clears both the groups. ICAI holds the exams twice a year.

The overall pass percentage of students who appeared in both groups in the final exams is 5.75% — which is par for the course year-on-year because the tests are notoriously tough. A total of 12.61% of the candidates passed among students who appeared for the first group and even fewer (11.99%) passed the second group.

ICAI on Sunday also declared the results of the Common Proficiency Test (CPT entrance exam). Of the 99,077 students who appeared for the CPT across the country, 34,129 (34.45%) cleared it and are eligible to write the intermediate exams.

Students and experts, like last year and years before that, complained that ICAI evaluation was too strict, resulting in the low pass percentage.

"The pass percentage should have been higher than it is," senior chartered accountant and costing instructor R Sivakumar said. "Among the 5.75% who passed, many would have benefitted from moderation [a revaluation process that allows a few more students make the grade]. The actual figure was probably less than 4%."

Students have complained about flunking in aggregate or in a subject by 1 or 2 marks. Even during the exams last May, many students said they either scraped through the finals by a whisker or failed due to falling just short of the aggregate.

"To get pass marks in a subject, a student has to score a minimum of 40% but in the group, the student needs a 50% aggregate," Sivakumar said.

The pass percentage this time is lower than for last May's exams, when 8% of those who appeared for the CA final examinations passed.

"In my costing paper, I answered a question for eight marks with a table and the final figure tallied with the suggested answer," a CA aspirant said. "But the evaluator gave me no marks for the answer."

He said the costing paper brought down his overall marks and cost him the chance to become a chartered accountant.

Experts say the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India employs evaluators of poor quality. The Southern India Regional Council (SIRC) of the institute has acknowledged the problem and issued a warning against appointing unqualified examiners. A petition filed by a student in this regard is pending in the Madras high court.

The institute denied any anomaly in the evaluation process.

"There are several checks and balances before the results are declared," the institute said in a mail to TOI. "It may be the perception of a particular examinee that he deserves more marks and has been unfairly or improperly failed by the Institute. 

This is devoid of truth. Exam results of any candidate are a reflection of his performance and the institute can in no way be faulted for failing a candidate whose performance has not been up to the mark."