Guide to Applied Skills past exams

Past exams are made available so that you can view and become familiar with the styles of question that you may face in your exam.  We do not publish Corporate and Business Law (LW) past exams.

Important note: You should use the past exam questions and solutions published here with caution when preparing for exams. The materials on this page appear as they did when the exams were set and have not have been updated to reflect any changes in legislation or standards, or any changes to the syllabus or to the exam structure and question types.

For this reason, you should always use past exams in combination with specimen exams. Specimen exams are republished if the exam format changes, so they will always illustrate the most up to date format of the exams.

A full exam is published after any change to exam format. As a new exam format was introduced in September 2016 with the introduction of CBEs, the CBE and paper exams were published in full for that session. The December 2016 CBE was also published in full to provide additional question practice in the new exam functionality. For the March/June 2019 sample, the exam also includes a selection of OT case questions. This is a one-off inclusion, which will allow visibility of what can be expected in the objective test case section of the exam.

How to get the best from past exams

The best time to use past exams is after you have studied the full syllabus and are ready for some revision question practice. 

Past exams are an important part of your revision strategy, but the specimen exam is also a key resource. It provides you with a clear picture of how the exams will be assessed and how the exam is structured - as well as the likely style and range of questions that you could see in the real exam.

You should also use past exams in combination with Examining Team guidance, including Examiners' Reports and Guidance Articles. 

You can also obtain updated versions of the questions and solutions, adapted to reflect the new exam structure, by purchasing a revision question and answer bank from ACCA's Approved Content Providers.

When are past exams published? 

A combined sample of constructed response questions will be published twice a year. Note that objective test questions are not published.

March and June exam sessions

Past exams are published in July

September and December exam sessions

Past exams are published in January