CMA Foundation on 13 December 2026 is not four separate exams. ICMAI’s timetable puts two papers into each two-hour sitting: 100 multiple-choice questions, 200 marks, one OMR sheet, before lunch and again after it. Students who have prepared well still lose this exam on the clock and on the bubbling, not on the syllabus. Here is how to attempt it, worked out from the official timetable and the pass rule.
Quick answer
Each shift gives you 120 minutes for 100 MCQs of 2 marks each, so a little over a minute per question. There is no negative marking, so every one of the 100 bubbles must be filled before time is called. Attempt the paper in two passes: first the questions you can answer in under a minute, then the ones that need working, and in the last ten minutes mark a guess for whatever is left. To pass you need 40 marks (20 correct) in every paper and 200 marks (100 correct) across all four — so aim at 30 or more correct in each paper, not at perfection in one.
What 13 December actually looks like
ICMAI’s December 2026 Foundation timetable sets the exam on a single day, Sunday 13 December, in offline OMR mode at an examination centre. Coimbatore is one of those centres, as we explained in CMA exam centre in Coimbatore.
| Shift | Time | Papers | Questions and marks |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 10 AM – 12 noon | Paper 1 Business Laws and Business Communication; Paper 2 Financial and Cost Accounting | 50 + 50 MCQs, 200 marks |
| 2 | 2 PM – 4 PM | Paper 3 Business Mathematics and Statistics; Paper 4 Business Economics and Management | 50 + 50 MCQs, 200 marks |
Each shift pairs a reading paper with a sums paper, and you decide how the 120 minutes are split between the two. The gap between shifts is two hours for lunch and rest; nobody revises Paper 3 at 1 PM, so all four papers must be ready before the day begins.
The pass arithmetic, in correct answers
The Foundation pass rule is the same two-condition rule as the rest of CMA: 40 per cent in every paper and 50 per cent in aggregate. We set out the rule in CMA passing marks; here it is translated into questions, because that is how you will experience it in the hall.
- 40 marks in a paper is 20 correct answers out of 50.
- 200 marks across four papers is 100 correct answers out of 200.
- A student who gets 35 right in Accounting and Maths but only 15 right in Law fails — the aggregate is comfortable, but Paper 1 is below 40.
- A student who gets exactly 20 right in every paper also fails — each paper clears, but the total is 160 marks, not 200.
So the target that keeps you safe is 25 to 30 correct in every paper, which is why time has to be shared between the two papers in a shift rather than poured into the one you like. Sixty minutes each is the default; a student who is much faster at accounting can give Paper 1 seventy minutes and Paper 2 fifty, but no paper should get less than 45 minutes.
The two-pass method for 100 questions in 120 minutes
Seventy-two seconds a question is the average. A definition takes fifteen seconds; a cost sheet or a standard deviation takes four minutes. Attempting them in printed order lets the long ones eat the short ones’ time, so attempt them in two passes.
| Pass | Minutes | What you do |
|---|---|---|
| First pass | 0 – 70 | Go through all 100 questions once. Answer anything you know within a minute and bubble it immediately. Put a small mark in the question booklet next to anything that needs working or that you are unsure of, and move on. Expect 55 to 65 answered. |
| Second pass | 70 – 110 | Return to the marked questions, sums first. Work each on the rough sheet with the calculator, bubble the answer, cross the mark. Stop any single question at three minutes. |
| Last ten minutes | 110 – 120 | Fill every empty bubble. Eliminate the options you can, then choose. With no negative marking a blank is the only answer that is guaranteed to score zero. |
Bubble as you go. Students who answer in the booklet and transfer everything at the end are the ones who run out of time with twenty answers untransferred, or shift a row and put forty answers in the wrong boxes.
Paper-by-paper: where the minutes go
Paper 1, Laws and Communication. Mostly recall. Section numbers from the Contract Act, Sale of Goods Act and Negotiable Instruments Act, and communication theory, are answered fast or not at all. This is the paper to finish first in the morning shift so that Accounting gets the time it needs.
Paper 2, Financial and Cost Accounting. The sums paper of the morning. Journal entries, depreciation, cost sheet and material and labour cost questions need the rough sheet. Read the options before working: often the four answers differ only in treatment, and you can work towards the right one rather than from scratch.
Paper 3, Business Mathematics and Statistics. The paper where the clock bites hardest, because nearly every question is a calculation. Practise mean, median, mode, standard deviation, simple and compound interest, and ratio and proportion on the same basic calculator you will carry into the hall. Previous terms have allowed only a normal, non-scientific calculator; the exact rule for December 2026 will be on your admit card instructions, so read them when the admit card is released.
Paper 4, Business Economics and Management. Recall again — elasticity, market structures, national income concepts, management principles. Finish this one quickly in the afternoon shift and give the saved minutes to Statistics.
Mistakes that fail prepared students
- Leaving questions blank. With no negative marking, an unfilled bubble is a certain zero and a guess among four options is a free chance at 2 marks. Twenty blanks is forty marks given away.
- Spending the morning on Accounting alone. Thirty-eight correct in Paper 2 and sixteen in Paper 1 is a failed exam. Every paper must cross 20 correct.
- Transferring answers at the end. Bubble as you answer. A row shifted on the OMR sheet cannot be corrected once the sheet is collected.
- Never having written a timed 100-question paper. The last six weeks must include at least four full sittings of 100 MCQs in two hours, on an OMR-style sheet, at 10 AM and at 2 PM. ICMAI’s past question papers and model papers for Foundation are on the students’ section of icmai.in.
- A heavy lunch between shifts. Two hours at 2 PM after a large meal is where Statistics scores collapse. Eat light, and keep the break for rest, not revision.
What to do in the six weeks left
Our 12-week Foundation plan had the syllabus finished by the end of week 8, which is roughly now. From here the work is timed MCQ practice, in exam-length sittings, with every wrong answer checked against the ICMAI study material the same day. Keep a running count per paper of correct answers out of 50; when all four are consistently above 30, you are ready. If one paper is stuck below 20, that paper — not the strong ones — gets the extra hours in November.
At Masters Professional Academy in Peelamedu, our Foundation batch writes its last four tests exactly in this format: 100 questions, two hours, an OMR sheet, Shift 1 papers in the morning and Shift 2 papers in the afternoon, with the correct-answer count per paper returned the next day. Any Foundation student in Coimbatore, ours or not, is welcome to message us with their current mock scores and we will say plainly which paper needs the time.
Talk to us about your situation
Tell us your latest mock scores in each Foundation paper and we will tell you honestly where the next six weeks should go. Free guidance, no obligation to join.
Masters Professional Academy, Peelamedu, Coimbatore · Open 7 days, 9 AM – 7 PM
More questions answered on our CMA Questions & Answers page.