CSEET Exam Pattern 2026: Four Papers, Four Days, 400 Marks

The Company Secretary Executive Entrance Test (CSEET) is the test that admits you to the CS Executive Programme, the first full stage of the Company Secretary course run by the Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI). From the June 2026 session it is a different exam. The old CSEET was a short, remote-proctored objective test you took at home on a computer. The new one is four papers on four separate days, written at an ICSI exam centre, with three subjective papers of 100 marks each and one OMR paper of 100 marks: 400 marks in all. This guide covers what each paper carries, how long it runs, what the syllabus asks for, and what the change means for how you prepare.

ICSI restructuring announcement (10.04.2026) and CSEET FAQ. Every paper starts at 2:30 PM with 15 minutes of reading time.

ICSI's announcement of 10 April 2026 sets out the new structure in one table, and the restructured syllabus repeats it. The first three days are subjective: you write your answers in an answer book. The fourth day is OMR based: you mark answers on a bubble sheet. Every paper is held in the afternoon, from 2:30 PM, and every paper begins with 15 minutes of question-paper reading time.

The first two sittings show how ICSI schedules the four days. The June 2026 sitting was held from 1 to 4 June 2026 (result announcement). The October 2026 sitting was not four days in a row. The time table puts a rest day after each of the first two papers:

The single biggest mistake in what students read about CSEET today is that the page describes the old test. Pages written before 2026 talk about a two-hour computer test taken from home with four objective sections. That test is gone. ICSI says the last CSEET in remote proctored mode was the January 2026 session, and the first restructured session was June 2026.

ICSI's objective for this paper is to test "essentials of English Grammar and critical aspects of Business Communication". The level is marked Basic Knowledge, as it is for every CSEET paper. The syllabus has four topics. The first is plain English: grammar, vocabulary, common errors, one-word substitution, idioms, para jumbles, sentence correction, comprehension and summarising. The second is communication as a subject: the process, networks, digital media, listening, barriers, etiquette, public relations and social media, including legal aspects such as data privacy and defamation and the use of AI and chatbots. The third is business correspondence: letters, reports, office orders, circulars, memos, email, and the notices, agenda notes and minutes that a company secretary later drafts for a living. The fourth is common business terminology.

Because the paper is now written, what you practise changes. Under the old objective format, recognising the right option was enough. In a subjective paper you have to produce the letter, the memo or the summary yourself, in correct English, in the time given. Our reading: the correspondence topic is where most marks can be banked by practice, because formats (a formal email, a notice, a memo) can be learned and rehearsed.

This paper is new to CSEET. It has eight topics, from the basic concepts and principles of accounting through the accounting process (double entry, journals, subsidiary books, cash book, ledger, trial balance and rectification of errors), the bank reconciliation statement, depreciation by the straight line and diminishing balance methods, final accounts of a sole proprietor, partnership and LLP accounts (goodwill, admission, retirement, death, dissolution), an introduction to company accounts (issue, forfeiture and re-issue of shares, redemption of preference shares and debentures), and the accounts of non-profit organisations.

For a Class 12 commerce student this is familiar ground; much of it overlaps with school accountancy (our reading). For a science or humanities student it is the paper that needs the longest runway. A written accounts paper is marked on working as well as the answer, so practise full solutions with proper formats, not just final figures.

This paper is split into two parts of 50 marks each. Part A, Economics, covers demand and supply and forms of market competition, national income accounting, the Union Budget and fiscal deficit, Indian financial markets and institutions, and the Indian economy sector by sector with the balance of payments and foreign investment. Part B, Business Environment, covers entrepreneurship, the business environment and Ease of Doing Business, key institutions (NITI Aayog, MCA, SEBI, RBI, IBBI, CCI, NCLT and NCLAT), global bodies such as the WTO, ADB, OECD and World Bank, environmental governance, AI and business, and the elements of corporate governance with case studies.

ICSI prints no separate minimum for Part A or Part B; the 40% rule applies to the paper as a whole (our reading of the pass rule, which speaks of "each paper"). Current affairs is no longer a named section as it was in the old test, but budget, institutions and global bodies reward reading the news.

The only objective paper. Part A, Business Laws (60 marks), covers an introduction to law, elements of company law, the law of contracts (including indemnity and guarantee, bailment and pledge, and agency), partnership and LLP, sale of goods, and negotiable instruments. Part B, Business Management (40 marks), covers the nature of management and management styles, the functions of management (planning, organising, staffing, directing, coordinating, reporting and budgeting), Fayol's fourteen principles and Taylor's scientific management, and management knowledge for company secretaries.

ICSI states in both the announcement and the FAQ that there is no negative marking in this paper. Our reading: leave no bubble blank. The paper runs 2 hours from 2:30 to 4:45 PM with the same 15 minutes of reading time. ICSI has not said how many questions it contains or how many marks each carries.

We found no ICSI model or sample paper for the new format, so we cannot tell you how many questions each subjective paper has or whether there is internal choice. ICSI names exam centres only as "all the major cities in India" plus Dubai and publishes no city list in the documents we read. We also found no ICSI document giving the old test's section marks, which is why the comparison table leaves them out.

ProSyllabus is an independent study site. We are not affiliated with, or endorsed by, the Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI). Every rule below is quoted or summarised from ICSI documents, and ICSI decides every individual case.