Студентка Делийского университета заняла второе место в экзамене ICSI, превратив скуку в преимущество

Rounak Bhat | Posted August 27, 2026 06:16 PM Getting bored easily while studying may not sound like an advantage. But for Vidushi Garg, 18, an undergraduate student at School of Open Learning, Delhi University, it was a weakness that she converted into opportunity. She learnt to manage and ultimately shaped her preparation strategy to crack the Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) CS Professional examination, where she secured AIR 2 in her first attempt, scoring 415/700. Rather than forcing herself to sit through long, repetitive study sessions, Vidushi built breaks into her routine in a preparation that began in September last year. If a topic became monotonous, she would stop for 10-15 minutes, take a short walk and return to it. She also used writing practice to keep herself engaged when reading became tedious. “I get bored easily. If something feels boring, I don’t study it continuously. I take breaks in between and then come back to it,” she says. The strategy had to work alongside another defining feature of her preparation: repetition. Vidushi revised the syllabus three to four times, despite finding it difficult to repeatedly go through the same material. The result was Rank 2 in the ICSI CS Professional exam—in her first attempt. She had also cleared the Executive examination in her first attempt, scoring 406/700, securing a rank there as well. First Time’s A Charm Her previous experience with the Executive exam gave her a sense of how to approach the Professional one, although the syllabus was new. She opted for coaching, but says self-study remained central to her preparation. Vidushi also adapted her preparation for individual subjects rather than following one routine across the syllabus. “For Group I, there was a drafting component. I used to practise one draft every day, which helped me develop a natural flow in writing. For the theory subjects, I focused on learning and revising the material,” she says. Her daily schedule was built around the hours when she realized her grasping power was at its peak. “I am a morning person, so would start my studies from around 5 am till 10 am. This was my main study time, as my brain was active and fresh,” she says. That early-morning window was particularly useful for technical subjects. “For subjects such as CMAD (Compliance Management, Audit and Due Diligence), which is quite technical and exhaustive, I picked the morning time when the brain has maximum retention power,” she says. Subject-wise Approach For open-book subjects, Vidushi deliberately avoided rote learning. “For Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Open Book, I obviously did not try to memorise but spent around 30 to 45 minutes reading it every day. This helped me become familiar with the material so that, when I came across a question, I would know which chapter it belonged to and where I needed to look for the answer,” she says. “I followed the same approach for both open-book subjects in Groups-I and II,” she adds. Her approach was different for subjects she found more engaging. “Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) is an interesting subject for which one doesn’t need to rely much on the textbook. Instead, I remember watching lectures two or three times because listening to them helped me understand and retain the material better,” she says. For Group II, she focused on understanding technical concepts before attempting to memorise them. “In Group II, there are subjects such as Strategic Management and Corporate Finance (SCMF) and Corporate Restructuring, Valuation, and Insolvency (CRVI). The latter has a lot of technical content, so you need to understand the concepts properly before you can learn and retain them,” she says. Family Support Currently working as a CS Management Trainee at Indian Gas Exchange, Vidushi aims to pursue Bachelor of Legislative Law (LLB) in the future, the preparation window came with its own pressures. The need to study consistently, reduced socialising and less time with family, were among the biggest challenges. But Vidushi says her family became an important source of motivation rather than another distraction. Her father is a businessman, her mother is a teacher, and her elder sister works as a manager at an MNC in customer support. Their support allowed her to focus entirely on preparation. For Vidushi, the preparation was, therefore, less about eliminating weaknesses than finding ways to work with them—turning short attention spans into structured breaks, repetition into retention and early mornings into her most productive study window.