Every December and every June, we get the same phone call at Masters Professional Academy. A worried parent, usually in the second week of October. “My son registered in July. Why is the institute saying he has not applied for the exam?”
It is one of the most expensive misunderstandings in the CMA course — and it costs a student six full months. If you or your child registered for the December 2026 term, please read this today.
Quick answer
ICMAI asks you to fill two different forms. The first is course registration — it makes you a student of the Institute. The second is the examination application form — it books your seat in a particular exam. Registering for the course does not enter you for the exam. If you registered for the December 2026 term before the 4 August cut-off, you must still submit the examination form separately, in the October window, or you will not sit the December exam.
The two steps ICMAI asks for
| Course registration | Examination application form | |
|---|---|---|
| What it does | Enrols you as a student of ICMAI for that level | Books your seat in one specific exam term |
| How often | Once per level (Foundation, Intermediate, Final) | Every single term you want to appear |
| December 2026 deadline | Closed — was extended to 4 August 2026 | October 2026 window — confirm the exact date on icmai.in |
| Fee | One-time, per level | Per exam, per group |
| If you miss it | You wait for the next term to register | You are registered but cannot sit the exam — you wait six months |
Step 1: Course registration
This is the one everyone remembers, because it is the big one. You submit your documents, pay the registration fee, and ICMAI issues your registration number. That number stays with you for the validity period of that level.
As per the current ICMAI fee schedule, registration is approximately Rs.6,000 for Foundation, Rs.23,100 for Intermediate and Rs.25,000 for Final. Please confirm the exact figure on icmai.in before you pay — ICMAI revises fees and instalment options from time to time, and we do not want you budgeting from a number on a blog.
For the December 2026 term, the registration cut-off was originally 31 July 2026 and ICMAI extended it to 4 August 2026. That window has closed. If you did not register by then, your first available term is June 2027.
Step 2: The examination application form
This is the step students miss. Roughly two months before the exam, ICMAI opens a separate window on the student portal where you declare which term you are appearing for, which group or groups, and which exam centre you want. You pay a separate examination fee at this stage.
Based on the pattern in recent terms, the Intermediate and Final exam form has closed around mid-October and the Foundation form a few days later, with a late fee of roughly Rs.500 for submissions after the normal date. Treat these as indicative. The only date that matters is the one in the official ICMAI notification for the December 2026 term — check the student portal and confirm it yourself.
Your admit card is generated from this form. No exam form, no admit card, no exam hall.
Why so many students miss it
In our experience at Masters Professional Academy, it comes down to four things.
- The word “registration” does all the damage. In school and college, you register once and you are automatically entered for the exam. CMA does not work that way, and nobody tells you.
- The gap is long. You register in July and the exam form opens in October. By then the student has settled into studying and stopped checking the portal.
- Parents assume it is handled. The fee was paid, the receipt came, the coaching started. It looks finished.
- The notification is easy to miss. ICMAI publishes it on the website and by email. If the email went to an address the student rarely opens, it is gone.
What to do this week
- Log in to the ICMAI student portal now. Not the coaching centre portal — the ICMAI one. Confirm the registration is showing as active and note the registration number.
- Find the December 2026 examination notification on icmai.in and write the exam form dates on a calendar where the whole family can see them.
- Check the email address and mobile number on the ICMAI record. If it is an old college email, change it now. Every future notification goes there.
- Decide the group now, not in October. One group or both? For Intermediate, this decision changes the entire study plan, and deciding it late is how students end up half-prepared in two groups instead of solid in one.
- Set a reminder for the first week of October. That is when you fill the form. Do not wait for the last date — the portal gets heavily loaded and payment failures are common.
For parents: the three things worth checking yourself
You do not need to understand the syllabus to protect your child from losing six months. Check these three things and you have covered the main risk.
- Ask to see the exam form payment receipt in October — not the registration receipt from July. They are different documents with different amounts.
- Ask to see the admit card roughly two weeks before the exam. If there is no admit card, something went wrong at the form stage and there is still a little time to fix it.
- Confirm the exam centre. Students in Coimbatore sometimes select a centre in another city by mistake and discover it a week before the exam.
What happens if the exam form is missed
Being honest with you: there is usually no rescue. Once the window closes, including the late-fee window, the term is gone. The registration stays valid, so no money is lost on that side, but the student waits for the next term.
The real cost is not the fee. It is a student who prepared for four months, peaked at the right time, and then had to hold that preparation for another six. We have seen it happen and it is demoralising in a way that is hard to recover from. That is precisely why we are writing about it in August instead of October.
Related questions students ask us
Do I have to fill the exam form again if I failed last term?
Yes. The examination form is per term, every term, without exception. A student reappearing for one group fills it exactly like a first-timer.
Can I change my exam centre after submitting the form?
ICMAI sometimes allows a correction window shortly after the form closes, but do not count on it. Choose the centre carefully the first time.
If I registered in August, can I appear in December 2026?
Only if your registration was completed within the extended cut-off of 4 August 2026. Registrations completed after that date are eligible from the June 2027 term onward.
Should I apply for one group or both in Intermediate?
It depends on how much study time you realistically have between now and December, and whether you are also managing college or a job. A working professional starting in September is usually better served by one group done properly. A full-time student who began in July can often manage both. This is worth a ten-minute conversation rather than a guess.
Does the coaching institute fill the exam form for me?
No institute can submit it on your behalf — it is filed from the student’s own ICMAI login. What a good institute does is remind you, sit with you while you fill it, and check it before you pay. We do that for our students at Coimbatore, and we will happily walk a non-student through it too.
Not sure whether your form is submitted?
Both portals are linked on our CMA links page: the ICMAI admission portal for registration, the examicmai.in form for the exam application, plus the admit card and results pages.
Call or WhatsApp us at Masters Professional Academy, Coimbatore and tell us your level and term. We will tell you exactly what to check on the ICMAI portal and what the current deadline is. There is no charge and no obligation to join us — we would simply rather you sat the exam.
Masters Professional Academy is a CMA-only coaching institute in Coimbatore, and Tamil Nadu’s first All India Rank 1 in CMA Foundation came from our classroom. Everything here refers to the Indian CMA course conducted by ICMAI.
More questions answered: CMA Course Q&A for students and parents · Masters Professional Academy home page
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