05/06/2026
How I learnt accountancy and Income tax by myself — Rainy T P
A word before we begin: This series is for serious learners — students who want to truly understand a subject and build a career from it. If your exam is next week and you are looking for shortcuts, this is not for you. Come back when you are ready to learn properly.
I have been teaching accountancy for thirty years. In all that time, the most common mistake I have seen students make has nothing to do with debits or credits. It happens before they even open a book.
They buy the wrong book.
The mistake everyone makes
A student decides to study accountancy on their own. What do they do first? They search Google — "best book for accountancy" — and buy whatever has the highest rating. Or they ask their teacher, and the teacher names the book they studied from twenty years ago.
Others watch YouTube videos shared by fellow students — someone who passed the exam last year, or a classmate who "explained it well." This is perhaps the greatest mistake of all. A student who barely understands the subject cannot teach it to you. They will pass on their own confusion along with their own shortcuts.
All of these are great mistakes.
A book that suits one person's mind may be completely alien to another. Google ratings reflect popularity, not suitability for you. Your teacher's recommendation reflects their own learning style, not yours. And a video made by a student reflects only what that student managed to memorise — not what you need to understand.
What you should do instead
Go to a library. Not an online store — a real library, or a bookshop that allows you to browse. Find the section for your subject. Pick up every book on that shelf. There may be ten, there may be fifteen.
Open each one to the first chapter. Read two pages. You are not studying yet — you are only asking one question: does this author explain things simply?
Some books will feel dense and cold. Some will feel like the author is showing off how much they know. Put those aside. Keep reading until one book makes you say — quietly, almost to yourself — "oh, I see."
That is your book.
The best book for you is not the most famous book. It is the one written in a language your mind already understands.
This step is harder than it sounds
I will be honest with you. This process can take days. You may go through a dozen books before you find the right one. Students who are in a hurry skip this step — and they pay for it later when they struggle to understand what they are reading.
Do not be in a hurry. This is the most important decision in your entire self-learning journey. Get it right, and everything that follows becomes easier. Get it wrong, and no amount of hard work will fully compensate.
This works for any subject
I am writing this series about accountancy, but this first step applies to mathematics, economics, law, science — anything you want to learn from a textbook. The right book makes you feel welcome. The wrong book makes you feel stupid. You are not stupid. You just have the wrong book.
In the next part of this series, I will talk about what to do once you have found your book — and the one reading habit that separates students who truly understand from students who only memorise.
Rainy T P · Goodwill Tuition Centre for Accountancy & Income Tax Online, Thevara, Ernakulam · 30 years of teaching experience
