ICAI released the September 2026 admit cards on 14 August. Intermediate starts on 1 September and Foundation on 2 September — which leaves under a fortnight to download the hall ticket, verify every field on it, and turn revision into exam-style practice.
Admit cards are downloaded, not posted. ICAI issues them through the e-Services portal at eservices.icai.org using your SSP credentials — nothing arrives in the mail, and there is no separate circular on icai.org announcing it.
| Item | CA Foundation | CA Intermediate |
|---|---|---|
| Admit card released | 14 August 2026 | 14 August 2026 |
| Exam window | 2 – 9 September 2026 | 1 – 12 September 2026 |
| Papers | 4 papers, single set | 6 papers, Group I + Group II |
| Where to download | eservices.icai.org (SSP login) | eservices.icai.org (SSP login) |
CA Final students are on a different clock — the Final November 2026 papers run in November, and ICAI's Mock Test Paper series for Final starts on 9 September.
Four papers across eight days, with a rest day between each. The one thing worth internalising now: Papers 3 and 4 are two-hour MCQ papers, not three-hour ones, so the pacing you practise for them has to be different.
| Date | Paper | Format & duration |
|---|---|---|
| 2 September | Paper 1 — Accounting | Fully descriptive, 3 hours |
| 5 September | Paper 2 — Business Laws | Fully descriptive, 3 hours |
| 7 September | Paper 3 — Quantitative Aptitude | Fully MCQ, 2 hours, 0.25 negative marking |
| 9 September | Paper 4 — Business Economics | Fully MCQ, 2 hours, 0.25 negative marking |
Paper-by-paper detail: Accounting, Business Laws, Quantitative Aptitude, Business Economics.
Group I runs 1–6 September, Group II 8–12 September. Every one of the six papers carries 70 marks of descriptive questions and 30 marks of case-study MCQs, with no negative marking on the objective portion.
| Date | Group | Paper |
|---|---|---|
| 1 September | Group I | Paper 1 — Advanced Accounting |
| 3 September | Group I | Paper 2 — Corporate and Other Laws |
| 6 September | Group I | Paper 3 — Taxation |
| 8 September | Group II | Paper 4 — Cost and Management Accounting |
| 10 September | Group II | Paper 5 — Auditing and Ethics |
| 12 September | Group II | Paper 6 — Financial Management & Strategic Management |
Level overview: CA Intermediate guide. On the 70:30 split, see which CA papers are MCQ and which are descriptive.
If something is wrong, do not correct it by hand. Contact ICAI's Examination Department through the contact details published on icai.org and follow what the Institute tells you to do. Raising it the week before is a different experience from raising it at the gate on the morning of Paper 1.
Most students download the admit card and stop there. ICAI's "Examinations – September & November 2026" page carries several other documents for this exact session that are worth ten minutes of your time:
Separately, and on a longer horizon: ICAI has extended the deadline for its public consultation on the whole CA Scheme of Education and Training to 31 August 2026. That does not affect the September papers, but if you have a view on syllabus, articleship or exam pattern, the window is open until the end of the month.
The admit card landing is a useful psychological marker: it is the point at which learning new material stops paying and execution starts. With this little time left, new chapters cost more than they return, while the marks you are currently losing to presentation, sequencing and time are all still recoverable.
For Intermediate, the highest-yield use of the remaining days is full-length, timed papers followed by honest analysis — not of whether you knew the answer, but of whether the marks would have been awarded for what you actually wrote. ICAI's marking scheme gives credit for correct workings and method even when the final figure is wrong, and that credit is only earned if the working is visible on the page.
For Foundation, split the practice by format. Papers 1 and 2 reward the same step-by-step written discipline as Intermediate. Papers 3 and 4 are two-hour MCQ papers with 0.25 negative marking, where elimination technique and a hard rule about when to skip matter more than recall — and where the only way to find your real pace is to sit a full set against the clock.
Whatever you do, do it against the clock. The gap between "I know this" and "I can write this, correctly, in the time available" is where most of the marks in this exam go missing.
Exam-session documents, paper structure and the list of published guidance notes are taken from ICAI's own "Examinations – September & November 2026" page and its announcements listing on icai.org, checked on 21 August 2026. The 14 August admit card release and the paper-wise September dates are as reported consistently by Free Press Journal, CAclubindia and CAExams — ICAI issues admit cards through the e-Services portal rather than as a circular on icai.org, so eservices.icai.org and the card itself are the authority on your own centre, group and timings. CA Grader is not affiliated with ICAI; verify dates, timings and centre against your admit card and icai.org before relying on any of this for exam-day decisions, since ICAI can and does revise these by circular.
Real ICAI MCQs with instant scoring, or write a full descriptive answer and get ICAI step-marked AI feedback.