Studying Commerce for Class 12

Studying Commerce for Class 12:

Commerce Students face a very different and typical type of challenge – they have to get their calculations right, deal with vast syllabi and study business-related terms and jargon. The students need to study systematically and constantly throughout the year to ace the boards. Here are some tips for the core subjects of Commerce. To achieve decent score in boards a student needs to follow the following tips while studying commerce for class 12:

Accountancy

Attempt questions on company accounts, cash flow statements and partnership first. These carry 60% weightage in the paper. One should also go through all illustrations for ratio analysis. Besides the NCERT, one must also practice CBSE sample papers and Previous Year Papers. Apart from this a secondary or reference book is a must since there are limited questions in the NCERT Book. One can choose from Double Entry Book Keeping by CS Grewal or Accountancy for Class 12 by DK Goel. Remember, accountancy is major part of studying commerce for class 12, and hence it is important to be thorough with it.

Apart from these tips here are some other techniques:

One should always remember features, merits and demerits of various theory topics. This is the key to achieve full marks in theory questions. These not only need to be memorized but also be practiced by writing.
There are lot formulas which are applied in accountancy. Students should NOT just remember those formulas and should understand how that formula is derived and what case or motive it is made for.
Making a formula cheat sheet for every chapter is a good hack to see these again and again and memorize them by heart.
Never forget to do all calculation steadily and with proper alertness and calm.
Make comprehensive working notes wherever required. These also carry marks and students should make them easy to understand and neat.
Make correct formats for Balance Sheet, Ledger accounts and Journals. Never forget to write narrations along with. If you have practiced drawing formats this can save your precious time during the exam.
Apart from School and Tuitions, self-study is a must. Try to make your own notes for later revision.
These topics appear in the Board exam every year and students should definitely study these:

Issue of shares, its forfeiture and re-issue
From past adjustment of partnership — its accounting treatment
Cash flow statement

Business Studies

Remember, business studies is very scoring. The only thing you have to do is stress on presentation. Business Studies can be cracked by just a bit of focus and presence of mind. Remember all headings as they are from NCERT. Even if you forget any in the paper, try to write a similar point or heading which is relevant to the question asked. There are various questions starting with words like ‘enumerate’ or ‘list’. In such questions only points need to be given. Also, the explanation of points in various questions need not exceed five to six lines. This is simply because the questions should not be written on and on as this can have an opposite effect on the examiner and may have you lose marks just for exceeding word limit. In addition to this there are also questions like ‘do you agree with the statement …………..’ In such questions although you should include points from the text book but do not forget to your own view point or opinion. Such questions have almost 50% weightage to student’s own opinion and understanding of concepts. Certain other tips to handle Business Studies while studying commerce for class 12 are as follows:

Study as per the syllabus prescribed by the CBSE from NCERT Books. Treat NCERT Books as Bible and do not forget to have them read and understood in depth.
Students should also look up to other reference books for basic explanations and type of questions asked. Few popular book are – Business Studies by Poonam Gandhi, Subhash Dey, R. K . Singla, R. K. Mahajan, C B Gupta, G. S. Alag
Definitions are to be understood properly along with the meaning. One needs to understand the logic and reasoning behind the concept. To get high marks one should memorize the definitions after understanding them so that it isn’t a problem in the examination
There are certain numerical questions on Capital Structure. This should not be mugged up rather it should be understood that how they are derived.
Do not forget to practice by writing and solving some questions
Start making smart notes. These can be made by Cornell Method or even Charting method. These notes should have all important points instead of copying full paragraphs and explanations from textbooks
Also try to make notes as far as possible in your own language.
Many students keep B.St for end. However this is a very wrong approach and will land you only in state of panic and anxiety. Study well in advance and do have sufficient time for revision
As there may be multiple points to remember it is wise to think of some mnemonics / acronyms
Solving past year and sample papers is also an essential for this exam. This helps you in time management and also in understanding the type of questions asked.
The important chapters include formal and informal organisation, delegation and decentralisation, financial management, and marketing management etc.

Economics

Stick to the syllabus provided by CBSE. Start studying from day 1 as the syllabus of economics is very vast and requires sufficient amount of time. This is a section that promises to take up a lot of your time while studying commerce for class 12. Brush up your analytical and logical reasoning skills. Understand the reasons for the relationship between variables – such as total product and marginal product, total fixed cost and average fixed cost etc. Be neat in presentation of your answer. Highlight/underline the salient points. Apart from NCERT one can use books given by renowned authors like Sandeep Garg, CB Sachdeva, TR Jain and VK Ohri, etc. Other important tips are given below to perform to your optimum while studying commerce for class 12 are:

Make a flow chart of every chapter. Prepare effective notes of terms, definitions and important points chapter wise.
Practise drawing neatly-labelled diagrams. Unlabelled diagrams do not convey any meaning and can have you lose some very precious marks.
There are a lot of questions asking to differentiate between concepts or terms. Such answers should be down in tabular form and the basis for difference must be shown clearly and neatly
Students should practice drawing graphs and diagrams. The curves and figures should be drawn with precision
Tables are also very important as they show calculations and also application of various formulas
Lot of questions are asked in the exam from chapters like elasticity of demand and supply, Revenues and Costs, National income etc. Practicing is required to crack these.
Self-made chapter wise notes are essential. Jazz up your notes by adding colour to your notes and underline and highlight important points using different colour pens
Practicing past year papers and CBSE Sample papers also proves to be an essential part of preparation. This helps time management and also allows you to learn and understand the pattern of questions asked.
Sufficient time before exam must be allotted to revision of all concepts and theories

Board exams make an important facet of your academic life. Hence, it is imperative that you put in all you can while studying commerce for class 12!

All the best!