So… you booked your ACCA exam.
And now you’re thinking of changing it.
No big drama. It happens. Work pressure suddenly increased, health is not cooperating, family stuff, or maybe you just opened the syllabus again and reality hit a little hard. Been there.
But before you randomly click around on myACCA hoping there’s a magic “reschedule” button, there are a few things you really should know. Because ACCA does allow changes, but only till a point. After that point, it’s basically a dead end.
Table of Contents
First thing – what exam did you even book?
This sounds obvious, but this is where most people mess up.
ACCA exams are not all treated the same. The rescheduling rules change completely depending on the exam type.
Session exams (the regular quarterly ones)
These are the usual March, June, September, December exams.
Applied Skills, Strategic Professional, all those.
For these exams, the rule is simple but strict:
You can change or cancel your exam only up to the standard entry deadline.
That’s it. No hidden flexibility later. Once that deadline passes, the exam is locked in. You can’t move it to the next session. You can’t transfer it. You mostly can’t even cancel it.
People still try. But yeah, ACCA doesn’t budge much here.
Remote on-demand exams
Different story.
If you booked a remote on-demand exam (usually via ProctorU), then you have more flexibility.
You can reschedule the exam up to 48 hours before your exam time.
But one important thing — you don’t do this on myACCA.
You do it on ProctorU.
A lot of students get confused here and waste time looking in the wrong place.
“Reschedule” is not always one clear action
This part confuses people, so let’s keep it simple.
When students say “I want to reschedule,” they usually mean one of these:
- Change exam date or time
- Change exam centre
- Switch tax or law variant
- Switch from centre-based to remote
- Or cancel the exam completely
ACCA allows most of these changes before the standard entry deadline. And usually, there’s no extra fee for doing so.
If you cancel before the deadline, the exam fee generally comes back as credit in your ACCA account. Not cash. Just credit. You can use it later.
After the deadline though… none of this really works.
Deadlines are in UK time (yes, this causes problems)
ACCA deadlines are always shown as 23:59 UK time.
Not Indian time.
Not “end of day wherever you live” time.
So if you’re in India, that deadline is actually early morning the next day. Many students think they still have time and then suddenly the system stops allowing changes.
Honestly, don’t wait till the last day. It’s not worth the stress.
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What you can still change (if you’re on time)
If you’re still before the standard entry deadline, you can usually:
- Change your exam centre
- Change exam time or location
- Change paper variants
- Switch to remote exam (if allowed for your location)
- Cancel the exam
All of this is done through Exam Planner in myACCA.
And once you make a change, save the confirmation. Always. Don’t rely on memory.
Missed the deadline? Then this is the reality
If the standard entry deadline is gone for a session exam:
- You probably cannot change the exam date
- You cannot shift it to the next session
- You won’t get a refund or credit
At that point, your only real options are to appear for the exam or accept the loss. Harsh, but that’s how ACCA works.
A couple of extra things people don’t tell you
Remote exams aren’t available everywhere
You can’t just switch to a remote exam because you feel like it. ACCA allows remote exams only in certain locations. So always check first.
ACCA can change plans too
Rare, but possible.
ACCA does reserve the right to cancel or reschedule exams due to exceptional reasons. This is why keeping email notifications on actually matters, even though most people ignore them.
Before you make any change, just check this once
Quick mental checklist:
- Is this a session exam or on-demand exam?
- Am I still before the standard entry deadline?
- If remote → am I within 48 hours?
- Is the new exam centre actually available?
- Did I download the updated confirmation?
Five minutes of checking saves a lot of regret later.
FAQs
For session exams, usually no. Once the deadline is over, changes are generally not allowed.
Most of the time, no. ACCA allows changes without extra charges if done on time.
Not a cash refund. Usually you get exam fee credit in your ACCA account.
Indirectly, yes. You cancel before the deadline and then book the next session separately
You reschedule it directly from your ProctorU account. But don’t wait till the last moment — once you’re inside the 48-hour window, you normally can’t move it.
No. Deadlines follow UK time, which is where many students get confused.
Yes, in rare cases. It’s part of their official terms.
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