CA Intermediate and Final
Most of each paper here is a descriptive answer, and you write it against a scheme the institute publishes — get the scheme, and answer to it point by point. The marker pays you for a named point, not for a page that merely shows you understand the topic. A smaller objective slice inside the same paper tests the same syllabus in a different form, and a wrong pick there costs you nothing, so attempt every one of those items and spend the paper’s real weight on the descriptive share.
The split between the descriptive and objective shares is the institute’s to set and change, so confirm it in the notice. Set your target per paper, and run each group as its own season.
This exam sets its own pass rule. Each paper you sit must clear its own floor, and the group of papers you’re registered for must also clear a higher combined floor at the same sitting. Clear a paper well above its floor and it can exempt you from resitting if the group falls short.
One paper at the Final stage keeps reference material open beside you; the rest stay closed — that changes what the room allows, not what the marker pays for. The qualification runs in two stages of two groups each, over years, so run the season in parts, one group at a time, and read the notice before every attempt; the floors sit in the box below.
Open the institute’s current scheme for one paper you plan to attempt. Pick one descriptive question from a past paper and write your answer against the clock. Then check it point by point against the scheme, not against how complete your answer feels — count how many named points you actually hit.
It feels risky to guess on the objective slice — like a wrong pick should cost something, the way it does elsewhere.
That feeling is borrowed from a different exam. The objective slice pays for the right option and costs nothing for a wrong one, so a guess never costs a mark you would otherwise have kept. What it can cost is time needed for the descriptive share, where a page without the named point earns nothing. Answer every objective question, and save your careful minutes for the scheme-marked share — that is where the marks you can lose actually sit.
CA Intermediate and Final: check the current notice
As read on 14 September 2026 in the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India’s own FAQ on the New Scheme of Education and Training, at icai-call-sahayata.icai.org. The box holds the numbers; the institute changes them, the shape does not. Confirm in the current notice: how many papers make up each group at each level, and the duration allowed per paper. Also confirm how many times a year the Intermediate and Final examinations are held, and the current syllabus link, since the FAQ points to a page that itself changes.