Examination FAQ

You must attempt the course-end examination for:

• Open enrollment courses within one year of your course registration date.
• Semester-based core courses must be written within one year of the course start date.

If you do not write the final exam within the one-year time limit, you will fail the course and be charged an attempt. You will be required to retake the course to be eligible for another examination attempt.

For core CPA preparatory courses, you might be eligible for a rewrite, if your final course grade is between 50 and 59 percent.

• If you haven’t already exercised your rewrite attempt for the course, you have the option to rewrite the exam the next semester.
• If you choose not to rewrite the exam the next time the exam is available, you must retake the entire course before re-attempting the exam.
• If you exercise your rewrite exam attempt for a core course, the rewrite exam will be worth 100% of your overall course grade. 

Please note: A rewrite exam is considered another attempt at the course. Deferrals of rewrite exam are not permitted. Exam rewrites are not offered for non-core courses.

You must attempt the exam within your one-year time limit. The rewrite exam must be taken in the next exam offering, even if it does not fall within your one-year time limit. The rewrite opportunity is no longer available if it is not taken in the next exam offering. 

If you live within 150 km of an approved examination location, you must write the final exam at the location you selected when you registered. 

If you live further than 150 km from an approved examination location, you can submit an Accommodation Request through My CPA Portal to write the exam in an alternate location. Examination dates and times are nationally determined, meaning that if you are granted approval to write at an alternate location, you are required to write the exam on the nationally-consistent date and time. There is no fee to submit an alternate location request; however, you will be responsible for finding a suitable exam supervisor (preferably a designated CPA) and including that information in the request. Exam supervisor requirements are available in the Student Guide and CPAWSB reserves the right to deny the request should we find the proposed exam supervisor unsuitable to administer the exam. It is your responsibility to ensure that the exam supervisor is available for all future CPA preparatory course exams.

If you have a disability, including learning disabilities, you can submit an Accommodation Request through the My CPA Portal. Accessibility and accommodation requests are handled through a national process and reviewed by CPA Canada’s National Accommodations Advisory Panel.

For more information and how to apply, please visit the CPA Canada website .  

If you are a qualified exam writer, you can withdraw from an exam via My CPA Portal any time until the day before the exam. Keep in mind that if you withdraw within five weeks of the exam, you will be charged an exam withdrawal fee. If you do not withdraw before the exam, it will be counted as an attempt and no refunds will be provided.

• All preparatory core course examinations must be written in Canada.
• If you are registered for a non-core preparatory course examination that takes place online, you may write it outside of Canada. 
  • Please note that your exam starts at the local time of the location you chose during registration. You are responsible for calculating the correct time difference. If you don't start the non-core exam within 15 minutes of the scheduled time, it will be voided and counted as a failed attempt.
  • Students writing outside of Canada should complete the online validation test at the location where they plan to write the exam to ensure their computer and internet meet the requirements to complete the exam successfully. Please note, that troubleshooting for technical issues on exam day may be limited if you are writing outside of Canada.

Please submit an Accommodation Request through My CPA Portal for an Alternate Exam Location. Please indicate the city and province where you wish to write the exam.  

Please be advised that the other provinces/regions may not necessarily have an approved examination centre in the city that is being requested.  

Submit the request at least six weeks before the exam to allow sufficient time to process the request. While we will try our best to accommodate requests, be advised that we may not be able to approve the request due to availability/ time constraints. 

Exam grades are usually released on a Wednesday, four weeks after the exam.

Exam re-marks are only available if you have failed an exam for a core course. The fee for the re-mark is $100+GST and only the short and long answer portions of the final exam will be reviewed. The re-mark does not provide students with further feedback on their exam. Re-mark applications are accepted through My CPA Portal  within three business days of the exam grades being released.  

For more information regarding what an exam re-mark entails, please refer to section 6.8 of the Student Guide.