CA Foundation
CA Foundation splits into two shapes on one exam, a pair of papers each. On the first pair, you’re writing to a published scheme — the answer that scores is the one whose named points the marker can find, not the one that reads well, so mark your own practice against that scheme, point for point. The second pair is objective, under a penalty milder than usual, and the reward favours attempting more. The exact ratio is in the box. The floor catches you twice: a minimum per paper, and a minimum on the total, so one strong paper can’t carry a weak one.
Set your target paper by paper, never once for the whole exam — the cheapest marks are wherever a paper sits closest to its own floor, not wherever you like the subject. The exam comes around several times a year, so a retake is weeks away, not a year, and a missed sitting is a short rerun of the same season playbook, not a restart. Practise each paper in its own form: written answers marked to the scheme for two of them, timed option papers for the rest — skip one shape and you walk in ready for only half the exam.
Open the current CA Foundation scheme and one past paper from Paper One. Answer the four questions from it: what form, what the marker pays for, what a miss costs, how many minutes a question buys. Write one answer against the published scheme yourself, point for point. That check is what your practice should match.
The objective papers should be easier. I only have to recognise the right option.
Recognising under a penalty is still a bet, and a wrong guess costs there too — the box shows the exact ratio. Half these papers are marked to a scheme, point for named point; the rest are marked exactly like any other penalty paper. Neither pair is the easier half of this exam.
CA Foundation: check the current notice
As read on 14 September 2026, in the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India’s Board of Studies FAQs and the Examination Department’s announcement of 12 December 2025 (icai.org). ICAI changes these numbers each sitting; the shape does not. Confirm in the current notice: the exact mark value per correct answer on the objective papers; whether the passing percentages or the thrice-yearly calendar have changed for your sitting.