Exam entry terms and conditions

By entering for the examination(s) you are agreeing to be bound by the examination regulations and these terms and conditions. The exam regulations are available in our Exam regulations section and in the post-registration information issued to you when you joined ACCA. They are also reproduced on your Examination Attendance Docket. You should familiarise yourself with the regulations prior to the examination session.

An email acknowledgement will be sent to you on successful completion of your exam entry. Please read this carefully and ensure that the details represent the entry that you wish to make for this session.

Examination compensation policy

If an examination attempt is suspended, cancelled or otherwise nullified by the examining board (at any stage, whether before or after the examination sitting itself) ACCA will waive the fee (or part thereof) for the next attempt at the exam(s) unless such suspension, cancellation or otherwise is caused by an epidemic, pandemic or any other event against which ACCA is unable to obtain insurance on reasonable commercial terms.

Due to the nature and complexity of operating professional examinations, ACCA reserves the right not to reschedule any examination or offer any compensation other than as specified above.

Exam centres

The address of the venue you have been allocated to will be shown on your Examination Attendance Docket, which will be available in the month prior to the examination session.

Where entries exceed the capacity at any particular centre it may occasionally be necessary for ACCA to either a) transfer candidates to another centre or b) offer a remotely invigilated exam alternative. In such instances ACCA reserve the right to invoke either option, which will involve for option a) transferring candidates to the nearest alternative centre or for option b) providing the student the opportunity to enter a remotely invigilated exam.

Confirmation of the physical centre or remote exam allocated to you will be shown on your Examination Attendance Docket.

If you have selected a Special Centre from the list (please see Exam Centre List) you will be required to pay any invigilation and centre costs involved. Such fees are normally paid direct to the examination supervisor in advance of the examination date. These fees are payable in addition to the examination fees payable to ACCA. You remain liable for these costs if you subsequently absent yourself from an exam.

Payment, cancellation and refunds

By ordering an ACCA exam, you are confirming your agreement to be bound by these Terms and Conditions.

Exam moderation

ACCA shall moderate and finalise exam results to ensure they are valid and reliable. ACCA may use data forensics, plagiarism software and statistical evidence to identify irregular conduct and/or anomalous testing results in connection with your examination. If irregular conduct and/or anomalous results are identified ACCA reserves the right to:

  • nullify your exam result, and/or
  • not refund your exam fee, and/or
  • withhold your examination results, and/or
  • suspend your ability to sit further ACCA examinations, and/or
  • take any other appropriate action to protect the integrity of ACCA exams.

1 Payment terms

1.1 Payments for any exam entry must be received in full for the whole price of the exam(s) that you wish to sit before your order is accepted by ACCA.

1.2  The price payable is as set out on our Website at the time of paying for the exam, as the same may be amended from time to time.

1.3  If your employer/tuition provider or any third party acting on your behalf, books, registers or pays for an exam through their ACCA Exchange account please be aware that you are ultimately responsible for the payment of the entry or registration fee, irrespective of any agreement that you may have made directly with them.

2 Confirmation of your exam entry

Once we receive your payment we will confirm our acceptance of your exam entry by sending an email to the email address registered on your account.

If you have not received this email please ensure the following before contacting us:

  • You have allowed a few hours to pass, particularly around the standard entry deadline.
  • You have checked your spam and/or junk folders.

In the event it is still not received, please recheck the exam planner to check for your entry and use our Contact Us page by selecting the following form options:

  1. "I am a student"
  2. "Exam entry-centre" or "Exam entry-remote" (depending on your exam)
  3. Confirm you have completed and/or understood any instructions given on the page by selecting 'YES'
  4. A chat function should then display for you to contact us.

3 Your right to cancel

3.1  Subject to clause 3.2, you may cancel your order at any time before the standard exam entry closing date for each examination session. You will receive a full refund by using the ACCA self-serving online tools of your MyACCA account. Details of the exam entry closing dates are published annually and can be found in our important dates section.

3.2  Without affecting your rights under clause 4, after the standard exam entry closing date for each examination session, you must use our contact page where you can use our webchat option if you wish to cancel an exam entry, as you will not be able to process your cancellation using the ACCA self-serving online tools of your MyACCA account. You will be entitled to cancel the exam entry and receive a full refund only if a period of fourteen (14) calendar days ("Cancellation Period") has not lapsed from the date of payment for your exam entry. This means that you will only receive a full refund within the Cancellation Period, which is calculated from the first day after the date of your payment to ACCA for the exam entry.

3.3  Any refunds under clause 3.1 will be made using the same method of payment as you used to pay for the order and will be paid within fourteen (14) calendar days ("Refund Period”) of you informing ACCA of the cancellation. Any refunds under clause 3.2 will be made by applying a credit to your myACCA account and will be paid within fourteen (14) calendar days ("Refund Period”) of you informing ACCA of the cancellation.

3.4 If you cannot sit an exam that you have booked to sit, you will not be eligible for a refund. This will not affect the marks of other exams you may have entered to sit in the current session or in future sessions. You can sit the exam you missed at the next available examination session.

It is not possible for you to cancel an exam entry after the standard entry closing date.

We do, however, understand that occasionally difficult circumstances arise after the standard entry closing deadline, such as critical illness or bereavement, which prevent a student from attending an exam. In such cases, they can apply with documentary evidence after the exam date for their fee to be credited to be used in next available examination session.

Cancellations will only be considered for critical illness or bereavement and must be supported by documentary evidence. Minor illnesses requiring GP, doctor or medical treatment or workload issues, for example, will not be considered.

Our approach aims to support our students by allowing us to plan for exam sittings but supporting those with the most difficult circumstances. Exams are non-refundable nor transferable after the standard entry deadline. If you are requesting for any reason, we will not approve or accept your request unless through critical illness, locally imposed restrictions, or bereavement.

If you still wish to request a cancellation, please have the appropriate documents available for submission to support your request:

  • Bereavement of immediate family only, with a copy of the death certificate, officially stamped and where required translated to English and stamped by official translator.
  • Critical illness of yourself or immediate family with documentation to support, stamped and signed by your local hospital only and where required translated to English, stamped by official translator.
  • Locally imposed restrictions when accompanied by official documentation which will be checked against your local or national government website.

Documents should be signed by the relevant personnel, stamped and on official headed paper, translated to English by official translator where applicable.

Your exam should be attended where possible and if your performance is impacted you could submit mitigating circumstances. If you are unable to attend, and we reject your cancellation request, we will not refund your fees.

If you do contact us and we do not approve your cancellation request, our decision will not change and is final.

The quickest and easiest way to request a cancellation is the 'Exam cancellation' option on our contact form, where you can use our webchat function.

The deadline for exam cancellation requests is provided by session in our important dates section. Please note if you have already contacted us about an exam cancellation then you don't need to contact us to check the status of your request.

If you are granted a cancellation, you should not attend the examination under any circumstances; in the event that you do so, you will be liable to pay additional fees.

If you have requested a centre-based exam cancellation in any of the last 4 session, you will not be eligible for another.

If you have requested or cancelled a remote-based exam in any of the last 4 session, you will not be granted another.

Exam entry fees after the standard entry deadline date are non-refundable and non-transferable.

3.5  In the event that you wish to cancel any exam entry, in accordance with clause 3.1 or 3.2, consideration must be given to the ACCA examination progression rules, details of which can be accessed in our exam progression rules section.

If the cancellation of an exam entry contravenes the progression rules, your entire exam entry that is applicable to the rules will be subject to cancellation and a full refund provided within the Refund Period stipulated in clause 3.3.

3.6  If ACCA cancels the exam, our liability shall be limited to a full refund of any exam you have paid for only. We will not refund any travel or accommodation costs associated with the cancellation of an examination.

3.7  ACCA reserves the right to cancel or reschedule exams without prior notice and to amend or alter published exams, fees and exam venues.

3.8  In the event that you cancel any exam entry which is not in compliance with the cancellation policies herein, ACCA is entitled to take any and all actions, including but not limited to reinstatement of your examinations, not refunding the examination fees and (if refunded) re-charging the examination fees to your MyACCA account. By agreeing with the Exam Entry Terms and Conditions, you have expressly acknowledged and confirmed that you agree that ACCA can take such actions.

4 Changes to these terms

ACCA may amend these exam entry terms and conditions if we have a valid reason. Examples include exam security, legal or regulatory reasons. We will contact you to let you know if we intend to do this by giving you 14 days’ notice. If you object to the change, you may cancel your exam booking and request a full refund or credit to your MyACCA account, provided you give no less than seven days’ notice prior to your scheduled exam day to the ACCA Connect team. You can contact Connect by using our contact form.