ICSI CS Professional 2022 Topper Interview: Chiraag Agarwal, AIR 1 Says “Manage Time Properly, Focusing on Presentation”

ICSI CS Professional 2022 Topper Chiraag Agarwal, All India Rank 1 shares his preparation and exam day strategy with Shiksha. Know the total score, important skills, and best books from the CS topper.  Read this exclusive interview to know more about the ICSI CS Professional Exam topper- Chiraag Agarwal.

ICSI CS Professional 2022 Topper Interview: Chiraag Agarwal, All India Rank 1, was born and brought up in Kolkata. Chiraag Agarwal is cpursuing his graduation in B.Com LLB from Xavier Law School. Chiraag has always been among the top rankers in all three levels of the CS Course. In CS Foundation 2020 exam he bagged AIR 3 followed by AIR 1 in CS Executive 2022 exam. In his exclusive interview with Shiksha, ICSI CS Professional 2022 topper Chiraag shares the three key skills that lead him to success while preparing for the CS course. He firmly believes that time management and presentation skills can help one climb the ladder of success. Read this complete interview to know important preparation tips, exam day strategy and best books to prepare for the ICS CS exam.

Also Read:

ICSI CS 2022 Toppers

Shiksha: Congratulations on scoring AIR 1 in the CS Professional Examination! How are you feeling?

Chiraag: I am incredibly happy that I was able to secure my target of AIR 1 because I had made a commitment to myself that I will secure AIR 1 and being able to fulfill the commitment made to oneself gives you a great feeling which is unmatchable with anything.

Shiksha: Please tell something about yourself.

Chiraag: I was born and brought up in Kolkata and have been good in my studies from Day 1, all thanks to the efforts which my mother had put in. I always believe in conceptual learning rather than rote learning and I believe that it helps you to remember the thing for a greater period of time and makes learning fun. I also prefer in having fun alongside if you know you won’t be able to study effectively on that day and would then put some extra effort on the next day so as to maintain balance.

Shiksha: What is your educational background?

Chiraag: I did my schooling at Delhi Public School, Ruby Park, Kolkata till Class XII. After completing my 2, I joined Xavier Law School, St. Xavier’s University, Kolkata for BCom LLB (Hons.), a five-year integrated course. Along with joining of University, I joined the Company Secretaryship course.

Shiksha: How many attempts you gave for the CS examination? What was your score in CS Professional exam?

Chiraag: I cleared all the levels of CS Exams in the very first attempt and the scores were as follows:

Name	Passing Year	Marks	Rank
Level 1- CS Foundation	2020	356/400	AIR 3
Level 2- CS Executive	2021	Module 1 – 290/400	AIR 1
		Module 2 – 322/400
Level 3- CS Professional	2022	Module 1 – 181/300	AIR 1
		Module 2 – 211/300
		Module 3 – 199/300

Shiksha: When did you qualify the CS executive and CSEET/Foundation exam? How was your result?

Chiraag: The answer is given above.

Shiksha: Which module of CS Professional exam did you find most challenging while preparing?

Chiraag: Module 1 was the most challenging one because of the following:

• GRMCE is purely a theoretical subject and consists more of learning things that I personally don’t like, so completing that was a real challenge.
• Tax is a very wide subject and hence the entire revision a day before was not at all possible and also it needed a lot of practice. However, I personally like tax so didn’t find it that difficult.
• Drafting was a practical subject that always helps to boost marks.

Also Read:

ICSI CS Exam Pattern

Shiksha: What was the difficulty level of CS professional exam?

Chiraag: The exams were quite different from other previous examinations as the paper consisted more of practical approach-based questions. I personally liked the papers, whether being able to attempt or not is secondary, because seeing some good questions makes you feel good and also you feel happy that the standards of questions are increasing which is very important for any professional. In real life we must approach all problems practically instead of just theoretically.

Shiksha: What was your preparation strategy for CS Professional examination? Please elaborate.

Chiraag: The strategy followed by me were as follows:

• First and the most important thing was to always have faith on yourself and that you can do it, whatever it takes.
• I prepared by making weekly targets and managing my college classes, holidays and events in such a way that the weekly targets are achieved, whether or not the daily targets were achieved.
• I focused on presentation in the answer scripts by:
  • Starting a new answer from new page
  • Drawing line after each answer and also cutting out the blank spaces left
  • Underlining important words
  • Writing in pointers and also keeping the points at short as possible
• It is must to refer all the past year questions and also do writing practice.

Shiksha: Please share your subject-wise strategy.

Chiraag: I didn’t follow any subject wise strategy but adapted a common strategy of conceptual learning and referring to the past year questions. However, practical subjects required more practice so did practice in that, and rest was manageable through understanding the concepts and reading it atleast twice.

Shiksha: Which are the best books for CS Professional exam preparation?

Chiraag: The one and the only best book for preparation is the Institute Mat because it is very comprehensive and covers each and every point beautifully. The materials are designed in such a way that it can be kept for life-long.

Shiksha: According to you, what is the importance of CS mock test/sample papers?

Chiraag: The past year questions of CS exams are very important because it gives the students an idea of the types of questions which comes in the exams and also helps to be mentally prepared for the same. Further it may so happen that a question gets repeated by some change in wordings, so that acts as a brownie point for students who referred the questions.

Shiksha: Did the pandemic affect your preparation? If yes, how did you manage stress?

Chiraag: The pandemic in fact helped me give enough time to prepare as the college classes were being held in the online mode which helped me save travel time. So, in fact that acted as a relief to me. When things got back to normal that created a problem for me in the beginning as it was getting difficult to manage things in the start.

Shiksha: What was your exam-taking strategy?

Chiraag: The best strategy is to manage time properly, focusing on presentation and instead of doing only hard work adding some smart work by writing to the point and ensuring that my point is communicated to the checker without compromising on the quality of answers,

Shiksha: Would you like to recommend some specific focus areas and important tips for future CS aspirants?

Chiraag: I would recommend each and every student to always cover each and every aspect of the syllabus and not to leave any portion of the topic, and one must read the institute mat atleast once. Ensuring that you have enough conceptual clarity would give your confidence a great boost and act as a relief at the time of exams.

Shiksha: At last, which are the important skills that one must have while pursuing CS course?

Chiraag: The following skills would surely be helpful to one:

• Presentation skills
• Time management skills
• Communication skills by being able to communicate your point easily.

Read More:

ICSI CS Syllabus

ICSI CS Important Dates