This article is written by Ruchi Jain, a student of MATS Law School, Raipur.

Introduction

This article will enumerate the major challenges that are faced by a law student in preparing for the CS Executive level, according to the personal experience of the author. Well, to speak the truth, the major challenge I am facing is time management. Being a fourth-year student of law, I have to give more time to my semester subjects as all the subjects are now a bit technical. On top of that, preparing for the CS Executive level is not an easy task, even though 5 out of 7 subjects of Executive level are law subjects.

With the help of this article, the author will enumerate the challenges faced by the law student in preparing for the CS Executive level and will provide some possible solutions.

Challenges faced by law student while preparing for CS executive examination

CS executive is the intermediate level of the Company Secretaries course. The students after passing the CS Foundation exam can register for this level. The exams for the CS Executive level are held in the month of June and December. The students have to register 9 months prior to the examination. The most interesting thing about CS Examination is that a student can also complete his/her graduation and post-graduation with this course, except if you are a student of Delhi University (as they don’t allow students to do CA/CS while pursuing a course in their University). The CS Executive level is divided into two modules, first module consists of the subjects of Company law, economic and commercial law, labour laws, and cost and management accounting. Whereas the second module consists of subjects of company accounts, securities law, and taxation law.

Most of the subjects are of law. So one must think that it is very good opportunity for a law student to enrol into this programme. But to speak of truth, it is not so easy. The major challenge faced by a law student while preparing for a CS Executive level is time management. Being a law student, I hardly get time for my own. And on top of that preparation for the CS Executive examination gets really tough.

Another challenge that a law student face is to study all the law subjects in CS Executive programme along with the law subjects in his/her college. So this gets really complex. Another challenge is that the law students who do not have commerce background may face difficulty in studying the accountancy, auditing and management subjects.

Another challenge is that the law school examinations are also held in the month of June and December, so it will be difficult for a law student to manage these hurdles. The pattern of the examination paper of the CS Executive is both objective as well as subjective. Two subjects of Module I are objective and remaining two subjective. Similarly, one subject of Module II is objective and the remaining two are subjective. The objective papers are cost and management accounting, labour laws, and tax law. All these subjects are bit technical and to solve questions based on these subjects, you need to study in depth and you need to have practical knowledge as well. So this is also a challenge the students face while preparing.

Suggestions/Conclusions

Well wherever there is a problem there is a solution. There are some shortcuts the law students can apply while preparing for CS Executive level. First of all, one only needs 40 marks out of 100 in each subject to pass the examination. To make it simpler, the Institute of Company Secretaries of India has divided the subjects of CS Executive into 2 parts. 70marks questions come from one part and remaining 30marks question from second part. So all you need to do is study the second part at first thoroughly and have a read of first part, this will help you secure a minimum of 40% marks in the examination.

There is also one more provision provided by the Institute of Company Secretaries of India that, if a student has passed in 3 subjects out of four in Module I and if he has secured 60% from these 3subjects, then he need to give examination for the one subject only.

It is best to apply for the Company Secretaries foundation Course in the second year of your law school and after clearing it register for CS Executive Course in your third year, so that you can sit for CS Executive Examination in the first half of your fourth year. Till your third year, you will get the basic idea of all the subjects relating to law in the CS Executive syllabus. This will make things easier to clear the CS Executive examination in your first attempt.