The criteria for admitting a student in a Chartered Accountant (CA) course are…
2024
The criteria for admitting a student in a Chartered Accountant (CA) course are given below. The student must:
Have passed 12th standard in the commerce field with 60% marks
Have cleared CPT or CA Foundation with 65% marks
Have graduated / post-graduated in the commerce field and have obtained a minimum of 55% marks
Pay Rs 30,000 as admission fee
Have scored 70% marks in the entrance test
Satisfies all the above conditions except (1), but has successfully scored 60% in graduation/post-graduation
Satisfies all the above conditions except (4), but can pay Rs 20,000 at the time of admission, and can be provisionally admitted
Below are some cases. The decisions for all the cases are to be taken on the basis of the above standards:
Anushka was 18 years old when she applied for the CA course. She scored 90% marks in her higher secondary examination in the commerce field. She successfully cleared her CA Foundation exam by scoring 341 marks out of 400. She graduated from Ahmedabad's top university and obtained 72% marks. Should she be admitted to the Chartered Accountant course?
- A.
She should be admitted
- B.
She should not be admitted
- C.
She should be admitted provisionally
- D.
Data insufficient
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: D
Concept: In a Selection Decision Table (course-of-action / eligibility) puzzle, a case can be labelled admitted, rejected, or provisionally admitted only when every criterion relevant to that label is either confirmed true or confirmed false by the given facts. If even one criterion -- or the exception that would waive it -- is never addressed in the passage, the case must be classified as data insufficient; an unstated fact can never be assumed to be met or to have failed.
Applying this to Anushka's case:
Criterion 1 (12th standard, commerce, 60%): Anushka scored 90% in her higher secondary exam in the commerce field, so this criterion is satisfied.
Criterion 2 (CPT/CA Foundation, 65%): 341 out of 400 works out to about 85.25%, so this criterion is satisfied.
Criterion 3 (graduation/post-graduation in commerce, minimum 55%): she graduated and scored 72%, clearing the marks threshold -- though the passage does not explicitly restate that her degree was in the commerce field. Even treating this criterion as satisfied, criteria 4 and 5 below remain the clearer, unambiguous gaps.
Criterion 4 (Rs 30,000 admission fee): the passage never states whether Anushka paid this fee, so this criterion cannot be confirmed either way.
Criterion 5 (70% in the entrance test): the passage never mentions her entrance-test score, so this criterion also cannot be confirmed.
Exception (6): this only waives criterion 1, which Anushka already meets on her own merit, so it has no bearing here.
Exception (7): this applies only to a candidate who satisfies every other condition (including the 70% entrance-test score in criterion 5) and is confirmed able to pay Rs 20,000 in place of the full fee. Since criterion 5 is itself unconfirmed here, this exception cannot be invoked regardless of the fee question.
Cross-check: because criteria 4 and 5 are never addressed, and the passage gives no basis to invoke either exception, the case cannot be resolved to admitted, not admitted, or provisionally admitted purely from the given facts. The only verdict consistent with what is (and is not) stated is that the data is insufficient.
Why the other verdicts don't follow from the facts:
She should be admitted -- this would require assuming, without evidence, that her degree was in the commerce field, that she paid the fee, and that she cleared the entrance-test cutoff.
She should not be admitted -- this would require assuming, without evidence, that her degree was not in the commerce field, that she failed to pay the fee, or that she missed the entrance-test cutoff.
She should be admitted provisionally -- this exception needs every other condition (including the entrance-test score) confirmed satisfied, plus a confirmed ability to pay Rs 20,000 instead of the full fee -- none of which the passage states.