CS Professional Test Series and Mentorship

Gradehunt's CS Professional test series prepares you for the ICSI examinations in December 2026, held from 21 to 28 December as per ICSI's time table, and for the June 2027 attempt after it. It covers the Syllabus 2022 papers in both groups, including the electives, which ICSI's December 2026 time table lists as open-book papers. Every answer sheet is marked by an expert Chartered Accountant with a stepwise breakdown, written comments on each part of every question, and a separate score for presentation.

At Professional level the examiner is no longer testing whether you know the provision. They are testing whether you can apply it, argue it and present it the way a company secretary would. That is a writing skill, and it only improves when someone reads what you wrote and tells you where it fell short.

The papers we cover (Syllabus 2022)

Group 1

• ESG – Principles and Practice
• Drafting, Pleadings and Appearances
• Compliance Management, Audit and Due Diligence
• One elective

Group 2

• Strategic Management and Corporate Finance
• Corporate Restructuring, Valuation and Insolvency
• One elective

You can take a full group or only the papers you want practice in. Check this page for the papers currently covered, including whether your elective is among them.

The jump from Executive is mostly one of style. Executive rewards accurate recall of a large body of law; Professional rewards judgement — reading a situation, picking the right provision, and saying what should be done. If you are still clearing the earlier level, the CS Executive test series is built around that recall work, and this series picks up where it ends.

Practising the open-book electives

ICSI's December 2026 time table shows both electives as open-book papers. Students consistently underestimate them, because "open book" sounds like a paper you cannot fail. In practice the open-book papers are where candidates run out of time, because searching costs minutes and the questions are written so that a copied extract earns very little.

There is a technique to these papers, and it has to be practised before exam day, not discovered on it.

• Build your material first, then practise with it. Use the same book, bare act and index in every mock that you intend to carry into the hall. Practising with one set of material and then carrying another wastes the familiarity you have built.
• Index by question type, not by chapter. Tab the pages you will realistically need — thresholds, timelines, prescribed forms, penalty provisions, definitions — and label the tabs with what they answer, not with a chapter number.
• Give yourself a lookup budget. Decide in advance how long you will allow yourself to search for anything: two minutes is a reasonable ceiling. If you have not found it, write the answer from memory and move on. Our full-length mocks are the place to find out whether you can hold to that.
• Answer the question, do not transcribe the book. Open-book questions are usually applied: a fact pattern, a decision to take, a consequence to explain. Cite the provision briefly, then spend your words on the application and the conclusion.
• Write at least two elective mocks under a real clock. Most of the damage in these papers is timing, and timing is only visible in a full three-hour paper.

Our evaluators mark elective papers on the same standard as the rest: what you cited, how you applied it, and whether the answer was readable.

Writing drafting-style answers

Drafting, Pleadings and Appearances is the paper where presentation carries the most weight, and the same discipline helps in Compliance Management, Audit and Due Diligence and in Corporate Restructuring, Valuation and Insolvency.

A draft is marked on its structure. A notice needs its heading, date, place, recipients, the business, explanatory statement and signature block. A board resolution needs its recital, the operative clause and the authorisation. A reply to a show cause notice needs the reference, the facts, the legal position and the prayer. Examiners can see at a glance whether those elements are present; a fluent paragraph that skips the authorisation clause still loses the mark.

This is why every paper you write with us gets a separate presentation score in addition to the content marks. In our evaluators' experience presentation is worth 10–12 marks per paper — headings, numbering, clause structure, correct formats and legible working. On a drafting paper it is the easiest thing to see.

The suggested answers we send with each marked sheet carry a stepwise marking scheme, so you can compare your draft clause by clause against a full-credit version. It also helps to read past ICSI answers alongside your own; our guide to the ICSI suggested answers explains where to find them and how to use them without simply memorising.

How evaluation works

Every answer sheet is checked by an evaluator with seven or more years of experience and returned in under 48 hours. You receive written comments on each part of every question rather than a bare total, a suggested answer with stepwise marking, a separate presentation score, and your All India rank for that test. The top scorer's answer sheet for that paper is shared with everyone who wrote it, which at Professional level is the most useful single document you will read — it shows you what an examiner rewarded on the exact question you just attempted.

If something in the evaluation is not clear, you can raise a doubt on any evaluated test and get an answer within 24 hours. Subject-wise notes and MCQs are included for revision between tests.

CS Professional test series formats: which to choose

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 default choice if you are taking a full group for the first time.
• One Chapter One Test — one chapter-wise paper per chapter, useful while you are still working through a subject.
• 2 Full Syllabus Test Series — two full-length mocks per subject. The right option for the electives in particular, where timing is the main risk.
• Unscheduled Test Series — all papers released together, written at your own pace. This suits Professional students most, because many are in training and cannot hold a fixed weekly schedule.
• Mentorship Program and combos — the same papers with a personalised schedule and one-to-one guidance.

If you are also enrolled in the CA Final test series this year, the unscheduled format is usually the sensible pairing, because it lets you fit CS papers around the heavier CA schedule instead of running two fixed timetables at once.

A study plan for December 2026

Papers run from 21 to 28 December 2026, 2:00 pm to 5:15 pm, including 15 minutes of reading time. Amendments up to 31 May apply to the December session, so work from material updated to that cut-off.

From late September that leaves roughly thirteen weeks. If you are also preparing with the CMA Final test series for December 2026, note that those papers run from 10 to 17 December, immediately before the CS window, so your CS mocks need to be finished by the first week of December rather than the third.

• Weeks 1–7: complete the core papers of your group, writing a chapter-wise test after each chapter. Start the elective in parallel and begin tabbing your open-book material now rather than in December.
• Weeks 8–11: revision plus one full syllabus mock per paper, including both electives. Write them in the 2:00–5:15 pm slot. On the drafting paper, practise the full format every time, even in a rough attempt.
• Weeks 12–13: a second mock per paper, then revise only from your own marked sheets, your drafting formats and your elective index. Do not reorganise your open-book material in the last week.

Between the exam dates in the 21–28 December window, reread your marked scripts. At Professional level the recurring comment is almost always the same across papers — unsupported conclusions, missing structure, or answers that never state a position — and fixing it once helps in every paper left.

How mentorship works

Mentorship gives you one-to-one interaction with an expert Chartered Accountant through your attempt. Your mentor sets a schedule around your training hours, chooses which papers to attack first, and reviews each evaluated test with you. For Professional students the most common intervention is on the electives: deciding how much of the syllabus to genuinely learn versus what to leave to the book, and setting a realistic lookup budget.

How to enrol

Choose your group or individual papers, pick a format that matches the time you have before December, and register on the CS test series page. Your schedule and first paper are available immediately. Write it under exam conditions, upload the sheet, and you will have it back with a detailed evaluation, a presentation score, a stepwise suggested answer and an All India rank within 48 hours.