How to Clear CS Executive in the First Attempt: A Practical Plan

To clear CS Executive in the first attempt, you need at least 40 marks in each paper and 50% in aggregate in each group, across seven papers that ICSI holds from 21 to 28 December 2026. From 24 October that leaves 58 days. The plan below spends them on one revision, two timed full papers per subject and a second revision in exam order.

A first-attempt pass comes down to two things you control: no paper under 40, and law answers that reach a conclusion.

TL;DR

• Pass rule: 40 in every paper, plus 200 out of 400 in Group 1 and 150 out of 300 in Group 2.
• Exams: 21 to 28 December 2026, 2:00 pm to 5:15 pm, no paper on 25 December.
• Tax Laws and Practice for December 2026 follows the Finance Act, 2025 (AY 2026-27). The Income-tax Act, 2025 does not apply to this session.
• Weeks 1 to 3: first revision. Weeks 4 to 6: timed full papers. Weeks 7 and 8: second revision.

What do you need to pass CS Executive in one attempt?

Every Executive paper carries 100 marks. You pass a group with at least 40 in each paper and 50% of the group total: 200 out of 400 in Group 1, 150 out of 300 in Group 2.

Take a Group 1 student with 70, 66, 62 and 38. The total is 236 and the group still fails, because one paper sits at 38. So my plan gives every paper the same number of timed papers. Our post on CS Executive passing marks works through more cases.

No paper under 40 and a group total of 50% or more. The weakest paper decides the result.

Which papers are in each group under Syllabus 2022?

• Group 1: Paper 1 Jurisprudence, Interpretation and General Laws; Paper 2 Company Law and Practice; Paper 3 Setting Up of Business, Industrial and Labour Laws; Paper 4 Corporate Accounting and Financial Management.
• Group 2: Paper 5 Capital Market and Securities Laws; Paper 6 Economic, Commercial and Intellectual Property Laws; Paper 7 Tax Laws and Practice.

The papers run one a day from 21 December, except 25 December. Tax Laws is on 27 December and Corporate Accounting and Financial Management on 28 December. Careers360's report of the ICSI schedule has the dates, and our CS Executive December 2026 timetable shows the gaps.

Which tax law applies to Tax Laws and Practice in December 2026?

ICSI's notice on the applicable Finance Act says the December 2026 paper follows the Finance Act, 2025, for assessment year 2026-27 (previous year 2025-26), with rules, notifications and circulars issued up to 31 May 2026. It also says the Income-tax Act, 2025 does not apply to this session, so keep to the 1961 Act's sections.

Check the paper layout before you practise

Open the latest ICSI question paper for each subject, printed with its guideline answers. Note the number of questions, the internal choices and the marks split, and set your mocks the same way.

Four papers in Group 1, three in Group 2, and the Finance Act, 2025 for Tax this session.

How should you plan the eight weeks to 21 December?

Start with the hours. From 24 October to 20 December is 58 days, or about 50 study days with one day off a week. At 7 hours a day that is 350 hours: 50 a paper for both groups, over 110 a paper for Group 2 alone.

Fifty hours will revise a paper you have read once. It will not cover a first reading, so if two papers in a group are still unread, write one group in December.

Weeks 1 to 3: 24 October to 13 November

1. Revise each paper fully: about two and a half study days a paper for both groups, five or six for one group.
2. Write two past questions by hand after each chapter, and list the chapters where you could not answer.

Weeks 4 to 6: 14 November to 4 December

1. Write two full papers per subject, 14 for both groups, in the 2:00 pm slot with a 3-hour timer.
2. Mark each one the next day against its answer key and rewrite the two weakest answers.
3. If you write both groups, sit Tax Laws and Corporate Accounting and Financial Management on consecutive days once, as in December.

Weeks 7 and 8: 5 to 20 December

1. Revise again in the order of your exam dates. Start with the chapters on your list.
2. Stop new questions three days before your first paper and read only your notes.

Revise by 13 November, test until 4 December, then revise again in exam order.

Which study material should you use?

Use ICSI's study material as the base. ICSI's notice for December 2026 says Papers 1 to 6 are updated to 30 November 2025 and Paper 7 to 31 May 2025. The Tax paper counts changes up to 31 May 2026, so add the notifications and circulars from that last year to your Paper 7 notes.

ICSI also publishes guideline answers for past sessions. Read them for structure: how long an answer runs for its marks, and how the conclusion is worded. Our post on ICSI guideline answers explains how to use them.

ICSI's material covers the syllabus, and its guideline answers show the format.

How do you write a law answer that scores?

Five of the seven papers are law papers. In the copies I check, the weak answer explains the whole section and never says what happens to the person in the question. Use this order.

1. State the provision in one or two lines, with the section number.
2. Apply it to the facts in the question with the numbers given.
3. End with a one-line conclusion that answers what was asked.

A worked example from Company Law

Say a private company has 198 members and wants to allot shares to five new investors, none of them employees. Can it?

• Provision: section 2(68) of the Companies Act, 2013 limits a private company to 200 members, not counting employee members (present, or former ones who joined while employed).
• Facts: 198 plus 5 gives 203 members, and none of the five is an employee.
• Conclusion: the company cannot allot to all five while it stays private. It can admit two, or convert into a public company first.

Cite a section number only when you are sure of it, and describe the provision in words when you are not. In the two numerical papers, number every working note, because marks go to steps.

Provision, facts, conclusion: every law answer should end by answering the question asked.

Why write full papers under the clock?

Three hours for 100 marks is 1.8 minutes a mark, so a 5-mark question gets about 9 minutes. You only learn whether you keep that pace in the third hour by writing full papers. Chapter tests do not show it.

If you want those 14 papers checked, Gradehunt's CS Executive test series has you write by hand and upload, and an ex-examiner returns each paper within 48 hours with step-wise marks and remarks. Gradehunt has checked more than 6,000 answer sheets, and your first paper is checked free.