Girl from Bengaluru secures 10th rank in Chartered Accountants exam

BENGALURU: Starting her day at 6.15 in the morning and juggling between work and classes wasn't easy. But it is this dedication and rigour that helped Mahithi Bharathesh, 23, notch the 10th all-India rank in the recent Chartered Accountants examination. Scoring 536 out of 800 (67%), Mahithi, an alumna of Christ University, was one among the few who manage to crack the exam every year. The highest percentage scored this time was 74.88%.
“Passing this exam in itself is a big deal.When I learnt about my percentage, I could barely believe my ears. Less than 11% of students make it through the exam. My years of hard work has finally paid off,“ said Mahithi. The result for the exams conducted by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) was announced on January 17. Over 1 lakh candidates took the test, of which 11.57% passed.
Mahithi who studied B.Com at Christ University, was particularly interested in the Company Secretary (CS) course. During the course, she realized she loved accounting. In fact, Mahithi wrote the Common Proficiency Test (CPT) as part of her CA exam 2 years ago, and scored 148 out of 200.
“Before joining the university , I was interested in CS because it went into the details of a company's legal aspects. I have also completed 2 levels of it. But after joining Christ, I real ized it was accounting that I found more interesting. Although I was already in the CS programme, I decided to pursue CA after graduating from college,“ she added. Mahithi now plans to write the CS exam in June.
For the last 2 years, Mahithi's days have been packed -Attending classes from 6am to 9am and then heading to her workplace to fulfil the requirement of the mandatory three-year ar ticleship at a private CA firm. There Mahithi would work till 6pm and get back to her coaching class, which would then continue till 9pm.
`Credit goes to my college'
The sprightly woman says she owes a lot of her success to her college which gave her many opportunities. “Christ is one of the few institutions which weaves in CA and CS courses into the curriculum itself. This allowed me to be a part of extra-curricular activities, industrial visits and enjoy normal college life.“
Professor Biju Toms, associate professor for professional studies, Christ University told TOI: “At our university we have discipline-specific electives, apart from the regular choice-based credit courses. The former enables students to pursue courses like CA or CS, while also doing the regular BCom, BBA. They can also engage in extracurricular activities.“
“This way, students also get a better idea of the overall course, enabling better employability and opening up prospects for admissions to Ivy League institutions,“ he added.
`I WANT TO GET BACK TO DANCING'
Mahithi, whose mother is a recruitment consultant, ` and father a sales l manager, aims to be a management consultant and adviser. “But most of all, I'd really want to get back to dancing, something that took a back seat during the years I was preparing for the CA exam,“ f she said.