CS Executive Test Series and Mentorship

Gradehunt's CS Executive test series is built for students writing the ICSI examinations in December 2026, scheduled for 21–28 December as per ICSI's time table, and for those planning ahead to June 2027. You write papers under real exam conditions, and every answer sheet comes back with a detailed evaluation by an expert Chartered Accountant, a stepwise breakdown of where marks were earned or lost, and a separate score for presentation. The aim is simple: you find out how a CS Executive examiner would actually mark your paper, while there is still time to change how you write.

What the CS Executive test series includes

Each test you write is checked by an evaluator with seven or more years of experience, and returned in under 48 hours. Along with the marked sheet you get:

• Comments on each part of every question, not just a total at the end.
• A separate presentation score. In our evaluators' experience, presentation is worth 10–12 marks in a paper — headings, numbering, section references, working notes and neat formats.
• A suggested answer with a stepwise marking scheme, so you can see exactly which step carried which mark.
• Your All India rank for that test, which tells you where you stand against everyone else who wrote it.
• The topper's answer sheet for that paper, shared with every student who wrote it.
• Doubt solving on any evaluated test, answered within 24 hours.
• Subject-wise notes and MCQs to revise from between tests.

Together these tell you two different things. The marked sheet tells you what you did wrong on that paper. The rank and the topper's sheet tell you whether the way you write is competitive at all — a student scoring 55 who reads a 78 sheet for the same paper usually finds the gap is in structure and provision references, not in knowledge.

The series sits inside the wider CS test series programme, so Executive and Professional students follow the same evaluation standard.

The papers we cover (Syllabus 2022)

CS Executive under Syllabus 2022 has seven papers across two groups, and six of them are law papers. That volume is the real difficulty of this level: the concepts are not unusually hard, but there is a great deal of ground to hold in your head at once.

Group 1

• Jurisprudence, Interpretation and General Laws
• Company Law and Practice
• Setting Up of Business, Industrial and Labour Laws
• Corporate Accounting and Financial Management

Group 2

• Capital Market and Securities Laws
• Economic, Commercial and Intellectual Property Laws
• Tax Laws and Practice

Tests are available paper by paper, so you can take the full group or only the papers you are weakest in.

Handling the volume of law papers

Law papers are lost on recall and presentation far more often than on understanding. Reading a chapter twice feels productive; writing it out under a clock is what shows whether you can actually retrieve the section number, the time limit and the exception in the order the examiner wants them.

Our chapter-wise papers are designed for exactly that. You write a chapter while it is fresh, get it back marked, and see whether you quoted the provision or only described it. Across the six law papers that habit compounds. Students who only write two full mocks a fortnight before the exam usually discover the same recall problem in all six subjects at once, with no time left to fix it.

Corporate Accounting and Financial Management

The one numerical paper in Group 1 needs a different kind of practice. Marks here are stepwise: a wrong final figure with correct workings still scores, and a correct figure with no workings often does not. Our suggested answers carry the full stepwise scheme, so you can see where partial marks sat in a consolidation, a cash flow statement or a capital budgeting sum.

Two things separate a 45 from a 65 in this paper. The first is speed under a three-hour clock, which only comes from writing full-length papers, not from reading solved examples. The second is format: working notes labelled and cross-referenced, balance sheet headings in the prescribed order, and assumptions stated. That is what the separate presentation score is there to measure.

If you are writing CS Executive alongside CA, the CA Inter test series runs on the same evaluation model and the same stepwise marking, which keeps your accounting practice consistent across both courses.

Passing marks, aggregate and exemptions

You need 40% in each paper and 50% in aggregate across the group, in one sitting. If you fail the group but score 60% or more in a paper, you get an exemption in that paper, provided you appeared in all the papers of the group and scored at least 25% in each of the others.

This changes how you should plan your tests. Chasing 40s in every paper leaves you short of the 50% aggregate, because a run of 42s does not add up. It is usually more realistic to identify two papers you can push to 60 and above — often Company Law and Practice, and one law paper you genuinely enjoy — and use your test scores to confirm you are actually near that line. Our All India rank and the topper's sheet make that judgement easier, because you can see what a 60-plus answer looks like rather than guessing.

For the full rules, including how the 25% condition works, read our guide to CS Executive passing marks.

Which format to choose

Availability varies by subject and attempt, so check which batches are open on this page.

• One Chapter One Test — a chapter-wise paper for each chapter of the subject. Best if you are studying a paper for the first time and want feedback as you go.
• Detailed Test Series — about five chapter-wise tests plus two full syllabus tests per subject. The most complete option, and the usual choice for a first attempt at a group.
• 2 Full Syllabus Test Series — two full-length mocks per subject. Suits students who have already finished the syllabus and want exam-day rehearsal.
• Unscheduled Test Series — every paper released at once, written at your own pace. Suits working students and repeat attempts where a fixed schedule does not fit.
• Mentorship Program and chapter-wise combos — the same papers, plus a personalised schedule and one-to-one guidance.

If you are sitting CMA Inter in December 2026 as well — those papers run from 10 to 17 December, just before the CS dates — the unscheduled format is usually the practical choice here too; the CMA Inter test series can then be paced around your CS dates rather than against them.

A study plan for December 2026

The December 2026 papers run from 21 to 28 December, from 2:00 pm to 5:15 pm, including 15 minutes of reading time. Amendments up to 31 May apply to the December session, so study from material updated to that cut-off and ignore later changes.

From late September, that gives you about thirteen weeks.

• Weeks 1–7 (late September to mid November): first pass through the group, writing a chapter-wise test as you finish each chapter. Two papers a week is a workable pace. Act on the comments on each sheet before you write the next one.
• Weeks 8–11 (mid November to mid December): revision, with one full syllabus test per subject. Write these between 2:00 and 5:15 pm so your concentration peaks at the right hour, and practise using the 15 minutes of reading time to pick your order of attempt.
• Weeks 12–13 (mid to late December): second full mock per paper, then only revision of your own marked sheets, section lists and formats. Do not start new chapters here.

Between exam days in the 21–28 December window, revise from your marked papers rather than from fresh notes. Your own errors, already identified, are the fastest thing to fix.

How mentorship works

The mentorship programme gives you one-to-one interaction with an expert Chartered Accountant through your attempt. Your mentor builds a schedule around your start date, your working hours and the group you are taking, then reviews your test performance with you and adjusts the plan when a paper is not moving. The papers are the same as any other series; what changes is that someone is reading your results with you and deciding what to do next.

Students often use mentorship for Corporate Accounting and Financial Management specifically, where a small change in presentation or order of workings can move a score several marks.

How to enrol

Pick the group or the individual papers you want, choose a format that matches how much time you have left, and register on the course page. You get your schedule and your first paper straight away, and you write it, upload the answer sheet and have it back with a detailed evaluation and an All India rank in under 48 hours.

If you are already through Executive or planning ahead, the CS Professional test series covers the Syllabus 2022 Professional papers, including the open-book electives, on the same model.