ICAI CA Foundation Exam Do's and Don'ts on Exam Day

CA exams for all the three levels are being held thrice in a year from 2025. The first phase exams are held in May and June and the second phase exams are held in September. The third phase exam is held in January. Registrations for the May-June exams is held in February-March and registrations for September exam is done in July and registration for January exam is done in October-November. Candidates can register and appear for the exam as per their preparation and articleship completion. For any phase of exam, they need to fill the form and pay exam fee through registered login ID.

CA candidates need to carry two copies of CA admit card (A4 size paper/colour printout), one photo ID (original), blue or black ballpoint pen and calculator to the examination centre. Candidates can carry Aadhaar card, PAN card, Voter ID card, passport or driving license as the mandatory document for identification. They are also required to carry passport size photos to affix on the CA admit card. Entry without these documents will not be allowed.

Digital copy of the admit card or photo ID will not be accepted as valid at the examination centres, thus candidates must take print outs of their admit card as soon as they download it.

The time duration of ICAI CA exams varies for each paper. For some papers, the duration is three hours whereas for some papers it is two hours. The time limit of CA Foundation paper 3 and 4 is two hours and for rest of the papers across levels is three hours. There is no sectional time limit in CA exams. 

Candidates need to score 40 per cent in each paper of every group/course level and 50 per cent in aggregate in all the papers of a group/course level. This minimum mark criterion is applicable to all three courses - CA Foundation, CA Intermediate and CA Final. Candidates cannot move to the next level of the Chartered Accountancy course until they clear the previous level. A very few percentage of candidates get a high score as the scores of All India toppers are usually below 75%. Candidates can take any number of attempts to clear a course level. The process includes practical training as well.

Yes, the candidates can apply for scorecard verification after the result announcement. The facility is available for all three course levels. The window for rechecking of a particular CA course opens a day after announcement of the result. Candidates can apply for scorecard verification within a month of result announcement along with a demand draft of INR 200 in favour of the Secretary, The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, payable at New Delhi. The fee is non-refundable and the result of rechecking will be final. Students can’t apply for rechecking more than once.

The time duration of CA exams varies for each paper. Some CA exam papers are of two hours duration whereas some are of three hours duration. The ICAI CA exams are conducted from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm and 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm. The exam timings of every paper will be mentioned in the date sheet and the CA admit card of each candidate. Given below is the table indicating CA Foundation, Intermediate and Final exam timings:

CA exams are held in over 150 cities across India and in 8 overseas locations – Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Doha, Dubai, Kampala, Kathmandu, Kuwait and Muscat. 

Indian cities where the CA exams are held include Port Blair, Anantapur, Eluru, Guntur, Kadapa, Kakinada, Kurnool, Nellore, Ongole, Rajamahendravaram, Srikakulam, Tirupati, Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram, Dibrugarh, Guwahati, Jorhat, Silchar and Tinsukia, Bilaspur, Durg, Raigarh, Raipur, Rajnandgaon, Chandigarh, Delhi, Mapusa, Margao, Ahmedabad, Anand, Bharuch, Bhavnagar, Bhuj, Gandhidham, Gandhinagar, Himatnagar, Jamnagar, Junagadh, Mehsana, Nadiad, Navsari, Palanpur, Porbandar, Rajkot, Surat, Surendranagar, Vadodara and Vapi, Ambala, Bahadurgarh, Bhiwani, Faridabad, Fatehabad, Gurgaon (Gurugram), Hisar, Jind, Kaithal, Karnal, Kurukshetra, Narnaul, Panipat, Rewari, Rohtak, Sirsa, Sonepat and Yamuna Nagar, Shimla, Jammu, Srinagar, Bokaro Steel City, Deoghar, Dhanbad, Hazaribagh, Jamshedpur, Ramgarh and Ranchi, Bagalkot, Belgaum, Bellary, Bengaluru, Chikkaballapur, Chitradurga, Davangere, Gadag, Hassan, Haveri, Hubli, Kalaburgi (Gulbarga), Kolar, Koppal, Mandya, Mangalore, Mysore, Raichur, Shimoga, Sirsi, Tumakuru, Udupi, Vijayapura, Adoor, Alappuzha, Ernakulam, Idukki, Kalpetta, Kannur, Kasaragod, Kollam (Quilon), Kottayam, Kozhikode, Malappuram, Palakkad, Thiruvananthapuram and Thrissur, Bhopal, Burhanpur, Chhindwara Gwalior, Indore, Jabalpur, Katni, Khandwa, Mandsaur, Neemuch, Ratlam, Rewa, Sagar, Satna and Ujjain, Ahmednagar, Akola, Amravati, Aurangabad, Badlapur, Beed, Bhiwandi, Khamgaon (Buldhana), Chandrapur, Dhule, Gondia, Ichalkaranji, Jalgaon, Jalna, Kolhapur, Latur, Mumbai, Nagpur, Nanded, Nandurbar, Nasik, Navi Mumbai, Palghar, Panvel, Parbhani, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Pune, Ratnagiri, Sangli, Satara, Sindhudurg, Solapur, Thane, Vasai, Wardha and Yavatmal, Shillong, Balangir, Berhampur (Brahmapur), Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Jharsuguda, Rayagada, Rourkela and Sambalpur, Puducherry, Amritsar, Bathinda, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Mandi Gobindgarh, Pathankot, Patiala, Sangrur, Ajmer, Alwar, Banswara, Beawar, Bharatpur, Bhilwara, Bikaner, Bundi, Chittorgarh, Churu, Jaipur, Jhunjhunu, Jodhpur, Kishangarh, Kota, Nagaur, Pali, Marwar, Rajsamand, Sikar, Sirohi, Sri Ganganagar and Udaipur, Gangtok, Chennai, Coimbatore, Cuddalore, Dharmapuri, Dindigul, Erode, Hosur, Kancheepuram, Karaikudi, Karur, Kumbakonam, Madurai, Nagapattinam, Nagercoil, Namakkal, Pudukkottai, Salem, Sivakasi, Theni, Tiruchirapalli, Tirunelveli, Tirupur, Tiruvallur, Tiruvannamalai, Tuticorin, Vellore and Villupuram, Adilabad, Hyderabad, Karimnagar, Khammam, Mahabubnagar, Nalgonda, Nizamabad and Warangal, Agartala, Agra, Aligarh, Allahabad (Prayagraj), Bareilly, Bulandshahr, Firozabad, Ghaziabad, Gorakhpur, Jhansi, Kanpur, Lucknow, Mathura, Meerut, Moradabad, Muzaffarnagar, Noida, Saharanpur and Varanasi, Dehradun, Haldwani, Haridwar and Kashipur, Asansol, Durgapur, Hooghly, Kharagpur, Kolkata, Raniganj and Siliguri.

ICAI certification for CA professionals has a lot of credibility across the world which is why many candidates living abroad pursue this course. Members of Indian communities who live abroad also pursue the CA course by ICAI. The exam is conducted in eight cities for all course levels. They are:

1.     Abu Dhabi

2.     Bahrain

3.     Thimpu

4.     Doha

5.     Dubai

6.     Kathmandu

7.     Muscat

8.     Kuwait

Candidates living in the above mentioned cities can pursue the CA course and appear for the level while exams by registering at ICAI website. The test city will be allotted to candidates as per the choice mentioned in the ICAI CA application form.