How Many Hours a Day Should You Study for CA Inter?

How many hours to study for CA Inter depends on where you are. For a student writing both groups with every paper read once, 7 to 8 hours a day is enough in the last ten weeks. A first reading needs fewer hours a day but many more weeks. ICAI does not prescribe a number of study hours. The ranges below are my own, worked out from what six papers actually need.

Count hours per paper, not hours per day. Each paper needs roughly 150 to 200 hours in all, and the daily figure is only that total spread over the weeks you have.

TL;DR

• Both groups, last 10 weeks, syllabus read once: 7 to 8 hours a day, six days a week.
• First reading of a paper: about 4 to 5 hours a day over many months is more realistic than 10.
• During articleship, with Group II still to write: 2 to 3 hours on working days and 7 to 8 on Sundays.
• Each Inter paper needs about 150 to 200 hours from first reading to exam, by my estimate.
• January 2027: Group I on 2, 4 and 6 January, Group II on 8, 10 and 12 January.

How many hours a day do you need for CA Inter?

There is no official answer. ICAI tells you the syllabus, the exam dates and the pattern, but it never says how long to study. So treat any number you read online, including mine, as an estimate.

Here is the range I suggest to most students:

• First reading, with the exam more than six months away: 4 to 5 focused hours a day.
• Revision months, three to six months out: 6 hours a day.
• The last ten weeks, both groups: 7 to 8 hours a day. One group: 5 to 6.

I would not plan on 12 hours a day for weeks at a time. Students who try it usually stop writing practice answers by the third week and only read, because reading feels easier when you are tired.

For most students the answer is 7 to 8 hours a day in the final ten weeks for both groups, and fewer hours over a longer stretch before that.

How many hours does each paper need in total?

This is the number I would plan around. My estimate, from what a paper takes to read, revise twice and practise, is 150 to 200 hours per paper from the first reading to the exam. Practical papers such as Advanced Accounting and Cost and Management Accounting sit at the top of that range. Law and Auditing need fewer hours but more writing practice.

A worked budget for January 2027

Say you have read every paper once and still need about 80 hours a paper for two revisions and full papers. Both groups means six papers, so 480 hours. From 27 October to 1 January is 67 days. Take one day off a week and you have about 57 study days. 480 divided by 57 is 8.4 hours a day.

The same student writing one group needs 240 hours, which is a little over 4 hours a day. That is why the group decision matters more than any timetable. Our post on whether to write one group or both groups walks through that choice.

Work out the hours each paper still needs, add them up, and divide by the study days left. That figure is your daily target.

How should your hours change as the exam gets closer?

Six months or more before the exam

This is the reading stage. Four to five hours of real study on a weekday is fine, as long as each chapter ends with you solving questions by hand. Hours spent watching recorded lectures at 2x speed do not count the same as hours spent writing.

The last ten weeks

For January 2027 that is now. The hours go up to 7 or 8, and at least two of them each day should be a timed answer in exam conditions. ICAI's Board of Studies releases RTPs and runs MTPs before each attempt, and those are the right material for this stage.

The day before each paper

ICAI's January 2027 timetable gives a gap day between papers in each group. On that day, 5 to 6 hours of revision from your own notes is plenty. Sleep matters more than a seventh hour.

Hours rise as the exam comes closer, and the share of those hours spent writing rises faster.

What if you are studying during articleship?

Under the new scheme, you can start articleship after passing Group I or both groups, once you finish ICITSS. Many students therefore write Group II while working in a firm. A full articleship day leaves little room on weekdays.

A pattern that I have seen work is 2 to 3 hours on working days, early morning or late evening, and 7 to 8 hours on Sundays and holidays. Over a week that is roughly 20 to 25 hours. Three Group II papers at 150 to 200 hours each then need four to seven months, so start early and keep the weekday hours for practice questions, which fit into short sessions.

Articleship students should plan on 20 to 25 hours a week and give themselves about six months for Group II.

How do you know your hours are working?

Hours are only an input. I check three things every two weeks, and I would ask you to check them too:

• How many full papers have you written in three hours, by hand?
• What did you score on the last one, marked honestly against ICAI's suggested answer?
• Which chapters are still on your 'could not answer' list?

If you study 9 hours a day and the paper count is still zero, the hours are going into reading. Our CA Inter January 2027 study plan shows where full papers fit week by week.

Full papers written and marks on them tell you more than the hours you log.

A sample 8-hour day in the last ten weeks

• Morning, 3 hours: revise one practical paper, then solve two past questions without the solution.
• Afternoon, 3 hours: a full timed paper on one day, a theory paper's revision on the next. Keep the 2 pm to 5 pm slot, because that is when the papers run.
• Evening, 2 hours: check the day's answers and update your short notes.

If you want your timed papers checked by someone else, Gradehunt's CA Inter test series lets you write by hand and upload, and an ex-examiner returns each paper within 48 hours with step-wise marks and comments. The first paper is checked free.