CMA Final Test Series for Dec 2026 & June 2027

CMA Final Test Series for Dec 2026 & June 2027

Gradehunt's CMA Final test series is for students writing the December 2026 attempt, scheduled by ICMAI for 10–17 December 2026, with June 2027 next. It follows the ICMAI Syllabus 2022 and covers Group 3 and Group 4; check this page for the papers and formats currently open, including your elective. Each paper you write is evaluated in detail by a Chartered Accountant, and comes back with stepwise marks, comments, a separate presentation score, an All India rank and a model answer.

What changes at CMA Final

At CMA Inter, most marks come from doing a known thing correctly: a cost sheet, a computation, a standard format. At Final, a good number of marks come from reading a situation and deciding what applies to it. A Strategic Cost Management question gives you a business with a problem and asks what a cost accountant should do about it. A Corporate and Economic Laws question gives you a set of facts and asks whether the company has complied. Corporate Financial Reporting gives you a transaction and asks how it should be recognised and measured.

That shift breaks the preparation habits that worked at Inter. Students who revise Final the way they revised Inter — reading, re-reading, working a few sums — arrive at the exam able to recall the standard but unable to apply it to a paragraph of facts under time pressure. The only fix is to write scenario questions, get them marked by someone who knows what a good answer looks like, and do it often enough that the structure becomes automatic.

Papers covered under ICMAI Syllabus 2022

Group 3

• Paper 13: Corporate and Economic Laws
• Paper 14: Strategic Financial Management
• Paper 15: Direct Tax Laws and International Taxation
• Paper 16: Strategic Cost Management

Group 4

• Paper 17: Cost and Management Audit
• Paper 18: Corporate Financial Reporting
• Paper 19: Indirect Tax Laws and Practice
• Paper 20: Elective — one of Paper 20A Strategic Performance Management and Business Valuation, Paper 20B Risk Management in Banking and Insurance, or Paper 20C Entrepreneurship and Startup

Under Syllabus 2022, ICMAI requires students to select one of the three elective papers at the time of enrolment for the Final Course. Check your own enrolment record if you are not certain which one you are registered for, because you cannot practise for the wrong elective and switch in December.

Writing a case-study answer that scores

A scenario question is not answered by writing everything you know about the topic. Across Papers 13 to 19, the answers that score follow roughly the same shape:

• State the position. One or two lines saying what the law, standard or principle requires. Quote the section, standard or rule number where you are sure of it.
• Apply it to the facts given. Refer to the actual figures, dates and parties in the question. This is where most of the marks sit, and it is the part students skip.
• Give the conclusion. Say plainly whether the company complied, what the treatment is, or what the cost accountant should recommend.
• Show the working separately. Where there are numbers, keep the computation in its own labelled block with working notes, rather than buried in the narrative.

Stepwise marking makes this visible. When your evaluated sheet shows full marks for stating the provision and nothing for application, you can see the specific habit costing you marks — and it is usually the same habit across every paper.

Strategic Cost Management (Paper 16) and Strategic Financial Management (Paper 14) reward this structure most, because both mix a numerical core with a judgement the examiner wants stated. Cost and Management Audit (Paper 17) and Corporate Financial Reporting (Paper 18) reward format discipline: an audit answer laid out under headings, a reporting answer that separates recognition, measurement and disclosure. Direct Tax Laws and International Taxation (Paper 15) and Indirect Tax Laws and Practice (Paper 19) reward precision — the right section, the right rate, the right line of the computation — so confirm the amendments and assessment year applicable to the December 2026 attempt before you rely on any figure from older material.

If you are still working through the earlier level, the same evaluation is available on the CMA Inter test series.

Preparing for the elective

The elective is the paper students most often leave to the end, and it is also the one where a test series makes the clearest difference, because good practice material for it is harder to find.

Whichever of the three you chose, treat it as a full paper from the start of your plan and not as a bonus subject in the last fortnight. Strategic Performance Management and Business Valuation is calculation-heavy and needs the same written practice as any other numerical paper. Risk Management in Banking and Insurance rewards precise terminology and structured answers. Entrepreneurship and Startup rewards concrete, specific answers over general ones; vague business commentary scores poorly. In every case, write at least one full-length elective paper before the exam. Reading the material and assuming it will come together on the day is the single most common way students lose an otherwise safe Group 4.

Writing speed, and how to build it

Final papers are long. The usual failure is not that a student does not know the last question — it is that they never reach it, because they spent too long on the first two answers. Speed at this level is not about writing faster; it is about deciding faster and writing less.

Full-length tests are how you build that. Write each mock in one sitting at the real time of day the paper is scheduled. Before you start, allot minutes to marks and write the plan at the top of your sheet. When a question overruns its time, leave space and move on. After the paper, look at where the time actually went — most students find two or three answers that took nearly double what they were worth.

The other half of speed is knowing when to stop. Final answers should be complete, not long. An evaluator's comments will tell you where you wrote three paragraphs for a four-mark question, and the presentation score — worth around 10–12 marks a paper in our evaluators' experience — will tell you whether the pages you produced under time pressure are actually readable.

CMA Final test series formats: which to choose

All formats carry the same evaluation. The difference is how many papers you write and how they are scheduled. Availability varies by subject and attempt, so check which batches are open on this page.

• Detailed Test Series — about five chapter-wise tests plus two full syllabus tests per subject. The most complete option, and the right choice if you are planning for June 2027 or started early.
• 2 Full Syllabus Test Series — two full-length mocks per subject. The most common choice at Final level, where stamina and speed matter more than topic-wise testing.
• Unscheduled Test Series — all papers released together, written at your own pace. Suited to students balancing practical training or a job.
• Mentorship Program and mentorship combos — the same papers, with a personalised schedule and one-to-one guidance added.

How evaluation works

Answer sheets are checked by Chartered Accountants with seven or more years of experience. Marking is stepwise, so credit is given for method and not only for the final figure, and each part of every question gets its own written comment. You also receive a suggested answer with its own stepwise marking scheme, which shows you how the marks were meant to be distributed across the answer you just wrote.

Presentation is scored separately from content. Each test gives you an All India rank, and the top scorer's answer sheet is shared with everyone who wrote that paper — at Final level this is often the fastest way to see what a well-structured case-study answer looks like. Evaluation is returned in under 48 hours, and any doubt you raise on an evaluated test is answered within 24 hours.

A timeline for December 2026

The exams run 10–17 December 2026, which leaves about eleven weeks from the end of September. Confirm your own paper-wise dates against ICMAI's notification and admit card.

• Late September to mid-October: close the remaining portion in your weaker group and begin chapter-wise tests subject by subject. Start the elective now, not later.
• Mid-October to early November: first full-length paper in your two heaviest subjects, timed, in one sitting. Use the evaluation to fix structure before you scale up.
• November: full syllabus tests across the group or groups you are attempting, spaced so you have time to act on each evaluation.
• Early December: revision only — sections, standards, formats and working notes — plus a run through past ICMAI papers using the CMA question papers and suggested answers guide, which covers Foundation, Inter and Final.

How mentorship works

Mentorship is one-to-one interaction with an experienced Chartered Accountant across your preparation. At Final level this usually matters most for two decisions: how to split your time between two groups, and how to handle a paper you have already attempted and not cleared. The mentor sets a schedule around your real availability, reviews your evaluated sheets with you, and tells you which mistakes are conceptual and which are simply a writing habit. The papers are unchanged; the schedule and the accountability are what mentorship adds.

How to enrol

Choose your group and format on the CMA test series page, select your elective, and enrol. Write each paper timed and in one sitting, upload it, and your evaluated sheet returns within 48 hours with stepwise marks, comments, a presentation score, your rank and the topper's sheet.

Students preparing for both qualifications can run the same method through the CA Final test series.