CMA Inter and Final December 2026 Exam Dates and Timetable

The ICMAI exams for CMA Intermediate and Final in the December 2026 term run from 10 to 17 December. Inter papers are in the afternoon and Final papers in the morning. If you have not filled the exam form yet, do it now: the last date without a late fee is 10 October 2026, and after that you can still apply until 17 October with a late fee of ₹500.

CMA Intermediate December 2026 time table (2:00 PM to 5:00 PM)

• 10 December: Paper 5, Business Laws and Ethics (Group I)
• 11 December: Paper 9, Operations Management and Strategic Management (Group II)
• 12 December: Paper 6, Financial Accounting (Group I)
• 13 December: Paper 10, Corporate Accounting and Auditing (Group II)
• 14 December: Paper 7, Direct and Indirect Taxation (Group I)
• 15 December: Paper 11, Financial Management and Business Data Analytics (Group II)
• 16 December: Paper 8, Cost Accounting (Group I)
• 17 December: Paper 12, Management Accounting (Group II)

CMA Final December 2026 time table (10:00 AM to 1:00 PM)

• 10 December: Paper 13, Corporate and Economic Laws (Group III)
• 11 December: Paper 17, Cost and Management Audit (Group IV)
• 12 December: Paper 14, Strategic Financial Management (Group III)
• 13 December: Paper 18, Corporate Financial Reporting (Group IV)
• 14 December: Paper 15, Direct Tax Laws and International Taxation (Group III)
• 15 December: Paper 19, Indirect Tax Laws and Practice (Group IV)
• 16 December: Paper 16, Strategic Cost Management (Group III)
• 17 December: Paper 20, elective: 20A Strategic Performance Management and Business Valuation, 20B Risk Management in Banking and Insurance, or 20C Entrepreneurship and Start-up (Group IV)

The exams are offline, at ICMAI centres. CMA Foundation is on 13 December. Always check the final schedule and your admit card on icmai.in, since ICMAI notices take priority over anything you read elsewhere.

One group or both: what the dates mean

ICMAI has placed the two groups on alternate days. If you write one group, you get a free day before every paper after the first. If you write both, you write eight papers on eight straight days with no break at all.

For students taking both groups, the order creates a few hard pairs that are worth practising in advance:

• Inter: Financial Accounting on 12 December and Corporate Accounting and Auditing on 13 December. Both are long accounting papers, and the second one also carries auditing theory.
• Inter: Cost Accounting on 16 December and Management Accounting on 17 December. The concepts overlap, which helps, but so do the formats, and students mix them up when tired.
• Final: Direct Tax Laws on 14 December and Indirect Tax Laws on 15 December. Two tax papers back to back, each with its own amendments to remember.
• Final: Strategic Financial Management on 12 December and Corporate Financial Reporting on 13 December, both heavy on computation.

The fix is simple and not much fun: write these pairs as full mocks on two consecutive days at least once before December. The first time you feel that fatigue should not be in the exam hall.

Passing rules to keep in mind

ICMAI requires at least 40% in each paper and 50% in aggregate across the papers of a group. Because the aggregate is per group, a strong paper can carry a weaker one in the same group, but it cannot help a paper in the other group. Our post on the CMA exam pattern covers the structure of each level in more detail.

A plan from now to 10 December

• October: finish pending chapters and fill the exam form. Do not leave the form to the late-fee week.
• November: write full papers in the real time slot, afternoon for Inter and morning for Final. At least two full papers per subject, with the answers checked against ICMAI's marking style.
• 1 to 9 December: revision from your own notes and checked papers. For tax papers, revise the amendments that ICMAI has said apply to the December 2026 term.

ICMAI usually declares December results in February, so plan your next step on that timeline.

Practise with checked papers

Gradehunt's CMA Inter and CMA Final test series give you ICMAI-pattern papers checked by ex-examiners within 48 hours, so you see where marks are lost while there is still time to fix it. The first paper is checked free.

For past results by level, see our post on CMA pass percentages over the last ten years.