ICSI Result: CS Executive, Professional exam answers checked badly, allege thousands

NEW DELHI: Hemant Singh, third-year student of Institute of Company Secretaries of India’s (ICSI) professional programme, appeared in the annual examination in June 2023. The results of the exam were announced in August 2023.

Unhappy with his scores, Singh obtained his answer copies through a Right To Information (RTI) application and found that he had secured less marks in several questions of different papers even when he wrote the correct answers as per ICSI guidelines. However, he cannot apply for rechecking and has to sit for examinations again in December 2023.

“I matched my answers with the ICSI suggested answers and found that I had written the correct answers but I was awarded one mark for a five-mark question and one mark for a 10-mark question in the governance paper. I failed in the governance paper and now I have to sit for module 2 containing governance and two other papers. This has delayed my dream of becoming Company Secretary (CS) and jolted my confidence,” Singh told Careers360.

ICSI provides study material for each paper, commonly referred to as “modules”. After the exam, the institute also publishes “suggested answers” on its official website, icsi.edu. Students' copies are checked on the basis of suggested answers. Students also have the facility to obtain their answer copies using RTI or by mailing ICSI with certain conditions.

Unimpressed with their scores in ICSI June 2023 examination, thousands of executive (second year) and professional students obtained their answer copies to understand what went wrong. They were shocked to find that they had been awarded zero or one mark in several five and 10-mark questions across papers even when their answers were in line with both the module and suggested answers. They also sent answer copies to their teachers to confirm their findings and now feel demoralised with the ICSI paper-checking method. They have to sit for examinations again in December

ICSI and CS course

The ICSI is the only recognised professional body in India to develop and regulate the profession of Company Secretaries (CS) in India. ICSI functions under the ministry of corporate affairs (MoCA), Government of India.

At present, there are more than 65,000 members and around 2.5 lakh students on the rolls of ICSI. The institute has its headquarters at New Delhi; four regional offices at New Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, and Mumbai; and 72 chapters across India.

In any company, a company secretary is responsible for maintaining the legal affairs, accounts, and administration in line with laws related to corporate affairs.

In India, ICSI offers Company Secretaries (CS) course covering three stages – foundation programme, executive programme and professional programme. There are four papers in the CS foundation programme, eight papers divided into two modules in CS executive programme and nine papers divided into three modules in CS professional programme.

ICSI conducts examinations offline and twice a year, in June and December, in different centers across the country. Each paper consists of 100 marks. A candidate is declared to have passed the examination, if he or she secures at one sitting a minimum of 40% marks in each paper and 50% marks in the aggregate of all subjects in a module. The examination papers are prepared and answer copies are checked by the professional members of ICSI or Institute of Cost Accountants of India, Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) for at least five years.

Also Read | ICSI to hold CS Professional exam under new syllabus in June 2024, offers option to switchover

ICSI copy checking

Students of executive and professional programmes are complaining that their hard work went into vain due to the “poor copy checking” of ICSI.

Even though ICSI provides answer copies, it has told students that the copies shall not be used for legal purposes and should not be out in public domain or shared with anyone or on social media. Students can apply for revaluation of their marks (totalling of marks) but they are not allowed to apply for rechecking.

Aman, a student of the executive programme said: “I received low marks in two out of four papers of module 1. I obtained my copies and matched my answers with suggested answers. I had written correct answers but in every question, the examiner had given me 0.5, one, or maximum two out of four or five marks. This is a very poor standard of copy checking wherein checkers are not abiding by the module and suggested answers.”

Harnetra Tiwari has been a CS student since 2017 and has dedicated her time, energy and efforts to this course only.

“I didn't even try to switch from this course. Since the last two attempts, it is clearly visible that checking patterns are not appropriate and unnecessary sledging of numbers is being done. This leads to complete waste of six months till the next attempt. I would have become CS soon if I was not awarded less marks in two papers of module 1 of a professional programme. Now, I have to sit for exams in December, the results of which will be announced in February 2024,” she said.

Prince Kumar also obtained his answer copy from ICSI and matched it with suggested answers and modules. “There were two questions in the governance paper whose answers or single line reference were not given in the module. In such situations, we write answers as per our point of view but they are not giving marks to us. How is this fair ? In the drafting paper, I have been marked 5 out of 8 in a question even when I wrote the correct answer as per the module. In several questions of other papers, I have been marked zero even when I wrote the correct answer,” he said.

The poor performance is reflected in the very low pass percentage. The pass percentage has not touched even 15% for any of the modules in either CS Professional or CS Executive.

ICSI CS Result June 2023 : Professional, Executive results

Vikas Vohra, founder of Yes Academy, a hybrid coaching institute based in Pune which caters to CS students, said he has not witnessed anything “unusual” of this level before this year’s June examination.

“In the security laws and capital markets paper of the executive programme, I found that the suggested answer of a formula-based practical question was wrong. Students who calculated the correct answer were awarded zero mark as checkers relied on the wrong answer mentioned in the suggested answer. It was a four marks question and several students failed to get the qualifying marks because of this question. You can imagine their mental state when they have to again sit for exams even when they are not at fault,” he said.

Also Read | ICSI CS December exam 2023 time table out for executive, professional programmes

Careers affected and request to ICSI

Students said that their careers have been affected after they failed in a few subjects due to few marks.

“My family members think I did not study properly and am at fault for failing in exams. I can not explain the marking criteria of ICSI because of which I failed in two subjects like others,” said Shiv Tiwari, a student of a professional programme.

Students have requested ICSI for “reasonable” checking of answer copies and for a rechecking facility. Several students have also emailed ICSI chairman CS Manish Gupta, also head of the examination committee of the institute.

Vohra, who has been teaching CS students for the last 13 years, said that the difficulty-level of questions has been high for the past two-three years and the checking method is making things worse.

“Compared to previous attempts, checking at this time is relatively tough. However, you cannot blame ICSI completely. I have seen answer copies of several students. Due to tough checking and poor marking and wrong answers in some questions, every CS student is feeling that they wrote well in the exam but the institute has failed them. However, this is not the case in every case. Students have to work harder and enhance their level rather than blaming the institute for everything,” he said.

Requesting ICSI for fair checking, Vohra said: “The syllabus is so huge and you cannot expect word by word answers from students. Rather than checking memory skills, students should be awarded on the basis of their interpretation of the law. Institute teachers should solve the questions and that should be the benchmark of checking papers. All the papers in which checkers did incorrect marking should be rechecked and students should be given fair marks.”

Careers360 sent a mail to ICSI chairman CS Manish Gupta seeking his response on students' allegations, but till the time of publication, he had not responded. This copy will be updated if and when he does.

Students’ names have been changed on request.