SPOM Guides · Study Material
SPOM Study Material: Where to Download Everything Free
Every official source is free. Study material, e-books, video lectures and physical books for the mandatory modules — none of it costs anything beyond the examination fee.
Verify current availability on the ICAI portals
The official sources
There are three official places SPOM material lives, and all of them are free.
| Source | What you get | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| BoS Knowledge Portal | Study material for every Set A, B, C and D subject | Free |
| LMS (lms.icai.org) | E-books and video lectures by subject experts | Free |
| Physical material | Printed books for Set A and Set B | Made available by ICAI |
₹500 per paper at Indian centres. The learning content, the hours themselves, the books and the lectures carry no separate charge. If someone is selling you SPOM “study material”, check first whether it is simply the free ICAI material repackaged.
Board of Studies Knowledge Portal
The study material for all Self-Paced Online Modules is uploaded on the ICAI Board of Studies Knowledge Portal. This covers every subject in every set — both mandatory modules, all ten Set C electives and all four Set D papers.
Practical notes:
- Download only the material for the modules you are actually attempting. You need one Set C paper and one Set D paper, not all fourteen.
- Check that you are downloading the edition applicable to your attempt. Content in areas such as sustainability reporting, data protection and insolvency changes frequently.
- The study material is the primary source. Question compilations and notes are supplements, not substitutes.
LMS e-books and video lectures
The Learning Management System at lms.icai.org is where you complete your prescribed learning hours, and it carries the content you need to do so.
E-books
The same study material in electronic form, accessible within the platform.
Video lectures
Lectures by subject experts in the relevant subject areas, made available to students at no cost. ICAI has released lecture series covering papers under Set C and Set D among others.
Time spent on the LMS content is recorded against your prescribed hours. Watching the lectures is therefore not additional to completing your hours — it is one of the ways of completing them. Use them rather than idling on the platform.
Remember the hours required: 40 each for Set A and Set B, 20 each for your chosen Set C and Set D papers. 120 hours in total.
Physical study material
Alongside the e-books, physical study material has been made available for Set A and Set B — the two mandatory modules with the heavier content and the expert-knowledge expectation.
Whether printed books suit you is a matter of preference. For a module you will revise from repeatedly, many students find a physical copy easier to annotate and navigate than a PDF.
Past papers and answer keys
This is where SPOM differs from the CA Final. Because tests run continuously rather than in fixed cycles, there is no published past paper series in the way there is for the Final.
What does exist:
- Answer keys have been made available on the LMS portal for the module sets.
- Illustrative and sample questions appear within the study material itself.
- Student-recalled question compilations circulate widely online, including on this site.
They are assembled from what candidates remembered after their own attempts. They are useful for gauging the style and depth of questioning, but they are incomplete, sometimes inaccurate, and they cover only what previous candidates happened to recall. Preparing solely from a compilation is the most common reason students fail these papers.
Do you need coaching?
Commercial classes exist for the SPOM modules, particularly for Set B. Whether they are worth it deserves an honest answer.
The case against:
- The official material is complete and free.
- The pass mark is 50 percent, with no negative marking.
- The marks do not count towards your CA Final aggregate. You cannot earn anything by scoring higher.
- There is no limit on attempts, so the downside of a failure is limited.
The case for, in narrow circumstances:
- Set B costing content is genuinely demanding if you found costing hard at Intermediate, and it also feeds into Integrated Business Solutions in the Final, where marks do count.
- Structured classes impose discipline that some students need to actually get through 120 hours.
Do not buy coaching for Set C or Set D. These are twenty-hour working-knowledge papers with free material and no marks at stake. For Set B, the decision is defensible if costing is a genuine weakness and you would benefit for the Final anyway — but treat it as an investment in Integrated Business Solutions rather than in the module itself.
How to use the material efficiently
Read the study material once, properly, during your learning hours
You have to spend the hours regardless. Spending them engaging with the content rather than idling means far less revision later.
Build a one-page recall sheet as you go
Sections, thresholds, timelines, formulas, framework names, numbered lists. These are what one-mark MCQs actually test. Revise from this sheet, not from the book.
Then use question compilations to test yourself
After reading, not instead of it. Their value is diagnostic — showing you what you have not retained — rather than as a syllabus.
Revise the recall sheet the day before
For a 50 percent qualifying paper, one focused pass over the numbers and lists is worth more than rereading chapters.
Frequently asked questions
Where do I download SPOM study material?
From the ICAI Board of Studies Knowledge Portal, with e-books also available on the LMS at lms.icai.org.
Is it free?
Yes. Study material, e-books and video lectures are all free. Only the ₹500 examination fee per paper is payable.
Are there video lectures?
Yes, by subject experts on the LMS. They also count towards your prescribed learning hours.
Is physical study material available?
Physical material has been made available for Set A and Set B, the two mandatory modules.
Are past papers published?
Not in the way they are for the CA Final, since tests run continuously. Answer keys have been made available on the LMS and illustrative questions appear in the study material.
Do I need to download material for all ten Set C papers?
No. Only the one paper you are attempting from Set C and the one from Set D.
Is coaching necessary?
No. The official material is sufficient for a 50 percent qualifying paper whose marks do not count towards the Final aggregate.
Availability of material, editions and lecture coverage change as ICAI updates its portals. Confirm the current position on the BoS Knowledge Portal and the LMS.
