Introduction on How ACCA computer-based exams work

Most ACCA students can handle the syllabus. What rattles them is everything wrapped around it. Which type of exam have I actually booked? Where do I have to go? What happens if the screen freezes? Can I bring my own calculator? Why does a friend see a result in seconds while I wait six weeks?

None of that is in a textbook, and a lot of what's online is out of date. Plenty of pages still describe paper exams or home-based remote exams, which no longer reflect how most students sit ACCA in Nepal.

So here is the plain version of how ACCA computer-based exams work, written for the person who has to actually do it. You'll see what ACCA means by on-demand and session exams, what appears on the screen, what's allowed on your desk, how to book step by step, which deadlines matter right now, and what changes as the qualification is redesigned in 2027. We've kept a Nepal lens throughout, because the booking route depends on where you live.

How ACCA computer-based exams work: the 60-second version

• Every ACCA exam is taken on a computer. ACCA calls them computer-based exams, or CBEs.
• There are two flavours. On-demand exams can be taken any time of the year. Session exams run in four windows: March, June, September and December.
• Booking differs. On-demand exams are booked directly with a licensed exam centre. Session exams are booked through ACCA's online booking platform, before a deadline.
• In Nepal, both types are taken in exam centres. Remote exams have been withdrawn in countries where ACCA has centre provision.
• Results arrive at different speeds. On-demand results show on screen at the end. Session results take roughly six weeks.
• You need original, valid government photo ID. Almost everything else on your desk is restricted.

If you only remember one thing, remember this: the type of exam decides how you book, when you can sit it and when you get your result. Get that wrong and every later step goes sideways.

What a computer-based exam really is

A computer-based exam is exactly what it sounds like. You sit at a screen in a supervised exam centre, read the question on the screen and record your answer on the screen. ACCA's own wording is simple: all your exams are taken using a computer, and you may hear them called CBEs.

Two things surprise first-timers.

First, it isn't a "lighter" version of the exam. The syllabus is the same, the pass mark is the same, and ACCA says its exam questions are written and reviewed with the same rigour whether the delivery is on paper or on screen. The format changes how you record answers, not how hard you have to think.

Second, the experience is the same wherever you sit it. ACCA states that whether you take an exam at a centre or remotely, it follows the same format and uses the same exam software. The company also runs a network of exam centres in more than 100 countries, so you aren't being asked to travel abroad to sit a paper.

There's a quieter change, too, and it's psychological. On paper you can flip through the whole booklet, spot the easy questions and build a plan in thirty seconds. On screen, you mostly meet one question at a time. People also read screens differently from paper: eyes jump around instead of moving line by line. That's why the habit of reading each question twice, slowly, matters more on a CBE than it ever did on paper.

On-demand vs session exams: the distinction that decides everything

ACCA splits its CBEs into two delivery models. They look similar from the outside, but the rules around them are different enough that you should treat them as two separate products.

Why on-demand feels easier (and what it hides)

On-demand exams reward preparation, not calendar luck. If you're ready on a Tuesday in February, you don't have to wait for June. If you fail, you can resit sooner, while the material is still fresh. That flexibility is exactly why ACCA moved the first three papers this way.

But flexibility has a hidden cost: nobody sets a date for you. Without a session deadline, plenty of students simply drift. The practical fix is to choose a target date, book it, and let the booking do the pressuring for you.

A quirk worth knowing about on-demand exams: every live exam is built automatically from a question bank. Two people sitting the same paper at the same time get different versions, and if you resit the same subject days later, you'll see a different set of questions. So "I'll just memorise last time's questions" isn't a strategy. It isn't even possible.

Why session exams demand more planning

Session exams run in a fixed week, and you must book before the entry deadline. Miss it and you wait for the next session, three months away.

There's also a detail that catches people out: not every paper runs every session. ACCA's important-dates page notes that only Applied Skills and Strategic Professional exams with limited variants are offered in March and September, while all variants run in June and December (the Corporate and Business Law variants that are taken on-demand being the exception). If you're planning a particular paper, check that it's actually available in the session you want before you build your study plan around it.

Which ACCA papers are on-demand and which are session-based?

Here's the split, level by level, as ACCA currently publishes it.

If you're still getting your head around how the qualification is laid out, our breakdown of how many levels there are in ACCA puts the three levels and thirteen papers in one place.

The pattern is easy to remember. The early, objective-style papers are on-demand. The later papers, with long written answers and case-based thinking, are held in sessions. That's no accident: on-demand exams rely on automatically assembled question banks, which suits shorter, objective-test questions best.

For a paper-by-paper description of what each exam covers, the guide to ACCA subjects is the better companion.

What you'll actually see on the screen

Let's make this concrete, because most of the fear around CBEs comes from not knowing what the screen looks like.

Objective-style questions. ACCA's guidance on on-demand CBEs describes four main types:

• Multiple choice: pick one answer from a list by clicking a radio button.
• Multiple response: tick more than one option. You earn the marks only if you select all the correct options, so read the instruction about how many answers to choose.
• Multiple response matching: match items from one list to another.
• Number entry: the only type where you type your own answer rather than choosing from a list. Enter numbers without commas, use a full stop for decimals and a minus sign for negatives, like -10530.25. A comma in the wrong place can turn a right answer into a wrong one.

Longer questions. In the later session papers, you'll typically face constructed-response questions, where you write or calculate your answer in a workspace inside the exam software. The exact mix of question types and the length of each paper are set out on each paper's own page, so check the current format for the paper you're sitting rather than relying on an old blog post.

The interface itself. ACCA's guidance describes a screen where you answer one question at a time, with tools for moving between questions, a list showing which ones you haven't attempted, and a timer that tells you how much time remains. You can go back and change answers until the time runs out. Software versions get updated, so rather than memorising button positions, spend an hour on a practice environment until the layout feels boring. Boring is the goal.

If you're starting at the very beginning, our BT syllabus guide shows what the first paper expects, which helps when you're deciding how many practice questions to attempt before your first booking.

A small habit that saves marks

Treat every number-entry question as a two-step job. Calculate on your scrap paper, then re-read the question to check what it asks for (units? rounding? negative sign?) before typing. Students lose avoidable marks on formatting far more often than on understanding.

Inside the exam room: what's allowed and what isn't

This is the section most students read twice, so let's be precise. Everything below comes from ACCA's official exam guidelines, which you must follow in every respect. Always read the current version before exam day.

A few rules deserve a longer look.

ID is non-negotiable. If you can't show acceptable photo identification, you won't sit the exam. Put your ID in the same place as your admit paperwork the night before. Not "somewhere in my bag."

Calculators are a quiet trap. Your usual calculator may be fine, or it may have a graphic or word display that makes it ineligible. Check before the exam, not in the car park.

Timing rules for session exams are strict. For session centre-based exams, the supervisor won't allow you to enter the examination room after the first hour of the exam. And for all session exams, you can't end the exam early; you stay under supervision for the full scheduled time. Leave the room for any reason and an invigilator escorts you.

The centre isn't responsible for your belongings. ACCA doesn't accept responsibility for theft, loss of or damage to valuables left at the venue. Bring less. There's no dress code, but you're asked to dress in a way that won't offend other candidates.

On exam day, here's how ACCA computer-based exams work in practice: you arrive, show your ID, store your belongings, receive scrap paper if you ask, log in to a pre-assigned workstation and begin. Nothing about it is dramatic. That's exactly the point of knowing the rules in advance.

How to book an on-demand ACCA exam

On-demand exams are booked straight with a licensed centre, not through ACCA's session system. The route looks like this.

1. Make sure you're registered with ACCA and have no other fees outstanding. ACCA lets you enter for exams as long as no other fees are outstanding. If you're not yet registered, our guide to ACCA admission requirements explains who qualifies and what you'll need.
2. Find a licensed exam centre. ACCA publishes a list of on-demand exam centres. Pick one you can reach comfortably, because travel stress is a real exam cost.
3. Contact the centre to reserve your slot and pay. ACCA's own booking guidance says to contact your local licensed centre to reserve your place and make payment.
4. Ask about the centre's rules. Check what they say about rescheduling, cancellations and what time to arrive, before you hand over money.
5. Confirm your details match your ID. Your name on the booking should match your ID exactly. A mismatch is the kind of small problem that becomes a big one at the front desk.

One honest tip: slots can be limited, particularly near popular times of the year, so don't assume the date you want will still be open when you finally decide. Book earlier than feels necessary.

How to book a session exam through myACCA

Session exams run through ACCA's online booking platform, called Exam Planner, accessed from your myACCA account. Here's the sequence ACCA's own booking walkthrough follows.

1. Check the timetable and deadlines first. Confirm the exam week and make sure you can travel to the centre that week. Your entry must be in before the exam entry deadline.
2. Clear any outstanding balance. If your account has unpaid fees, the total cost of your exam will include them. If your account is on hold or suspended, you may see a message when you try to book.
3. Open "Book an exam". From your myACCA homepage, scroll to the helpful links section and select it, then choose Add an exam.
4. Choose the exam, then the centre. Pick the paper, select your centre location and confirm.
5. Accept the refund terms. You'll be asked to tick a box confirming you understand that after the standard entry deadline, exam fees aren't refundable or transferable. Read this properly. It matters.
6. Confirm availability and read the exam policies. Select the exam link, read the policies and agree.
7. Pick your date and appointment. Search for your date. If a centre shows no appointments, it will say "none available" in the appointments column, so try another centre or date.
8. Check your personal details. If your name is displayed incorrectly, contact ACCA as soon as possible, not on exam day.
9. Review, confirm and pay. Your slot isn't secure until you pay. A confirmation message appears on screen, and you'll get an email with your booking details and next steps.

Notice how many steps involve reading rather than clicking. That's deliberate. Most booking problems are policy problems in disguise: fees that can't be moved, names that don't match, centres that were full.

If you'd like to see the official version, ACCA's book an exam page has the booking tool and a short video guide to the whole process.

Deadlines, fees and cancellations: the part that costs real money

Each session has a standard deadline and a later, more expensive late deadline. ACCA strongly recommends booking in the standard period to pay the lowest exam fees, and the booking page confirms that changes and cancellations after the standard deadline aren't permitted and the fee won't be credited.

Here's the December 2026 timetable as ACCA currently lists it. All deadlines are 23:59 UK time.

Two practical notes.

The Nepal time difference matters. Deadlines are set to UK time. Nepal is 5 hours 45 minutes ahead of UK time in winter, so a 23:59 deadline on 2 November lands at roughly 5:44 a.m. in Kathmandu the next day. Treat the deadline as a day earlier than it appears, and don't leave booking to the final evening. Payment pages and bank checks are exactly where things go wrong at 11 p.m.

Cancelling is a credit, not a refund. If you cancel before the standard deadline, the fee is credited to your myACCA account for future use. If you want to change the format or version of a booked exam, you have to cancel and rebook. So a mistaken booking is fixable early and expensive late.

For on-demand exams, fees are paid to the centre, so their terms are what count. Ask first.

If you're also weighing up your overall budget, the breakdown of ACCA course fees in Nepal helps you see exam fees in context alongside tuition and registration.

Booking from Nepal: what's different

A few Nepal-specific points, based on ACCA's current exam availability table.

Both on-demand and session exams are taken in centres. ACCA lists Nepal as a location where exams are taken in centres for both types. That means no logging in from home, no webcam room checks and no remote proctor. You're travelling to a supervised exam room.

Old remote-exam advice is obsolete. From March 2026 ACCA withdrew remote session exams in countries that have exam centre provision. Remote delivery is now limited to countries where ACCA has no centre provision. If an older article, a group chat or a well-meaning senior tells you to "just do it from home", they're out of date.

Rules differ by country, and ACCA enforces them. ACCA warns that if you attempt a remote exam from a different country to the one selected when booking, your result will be nullified and no refund will be issued. Book from the country page that matches where you'll physically be.

Plan your journey like part of the exam. Kathmandu traffic and an early session start don't mix well. Do a practice trip to the centre, or at least check the route, before the week of the exam. It sounds boring. It prevents the single most avoidable panic.

Results, pass marks and what happens if it goes wrong

On-demand results appear on screen at the end of the exam and are uploaded to your account within 72 hours. That immediacy is a gift and a risk: you know straight away, so make sure you've got a plan for either outcome (celebrate or rebook).

Session results arrive about six weeks after the exam. For the December 2026 session, ACCA lists results for 18 January 2027. If you want to be told by text, you need to opt in through myACCA at least seven days before results are released, and you only need to do it once.

The pass mark is 50%. That's the same across the qualification. And it's worth saying plainly: most people don't sail through every paper first time. Failing a paper isn't a verdict on whether you can become an accountant. It's a data point about whether your preparation matched the paper.

If a result looks wrong, ACCA runs an administrative review process with its own deadline: for December 2026, requests must be submitted by 27 January 2027.

If you're wondering how much resits should worry you, the honest answer is in our piece on whether ACCA is hard: it's demanding, but the exam format is rarely the reason students fail. Preparation, time management and exam technique usually are.

Preparing for the screen, not just the syllabus

Here's the thing most revision plans miss: you can know every topic and still lose marks to the format. The skills for a CBE are slightly different from the skills for a textbook.

Practise on screen, not just on paper. Reading and answering on a monitor feels different. If all your practice is printed past papers, your first experience of the real interface will be on the day that counts. Use ACCA's practice resources and any computer-based mock exams your tuition provider offers.

Rehearse time per question. On-demand exams feel generous until you realise how many questions you have to get through. Decide a pace in advance (say, aim to move on from any question that has eaten twice its share of time), and flag it for the end.

Train your typing and number habits. For number-entry questions and constructed-response answers, accuracy matters more than speed. Practise entering numbers exactly as the software expects them.

Do one full timed mock in exam conditions. Phone off, one sitting, scrap paper only, no snacks. The point isn't the score; it's finding out what your brain does at hour two.

If you're building a study routine from scratch, our guide on how to study ACCA effectively covers planning, revision and practice in more depth.

Where FinT fits in

If you're studying in Kathmandu, your tuition provider matters here, because screen-based practice is much easier when your classes run on it. FinT Learning Hub, based in New Baneshwor, was awarded ACCA Approved Learning Partner Gold status in Blended Learning mode in April 2026, which ACCA describes as part of its quality framework for tuition providers. ACCA also makes practice tests that replicate on-demand CBEs available to Gold and Platinum learning partners, so it's fair to ask any provider you're considering exactly what CBE-style practice you'll get before enrolling.

You can read the details of how that recognition came about in FinT's own announcement of its ACCA Gold Approved Learning Partner status.

Changes coming in 2027

ACCA is redesigning the qualification, and its student pages say the first exams under the redesigned structure arrive in 2027. This affects how you plan CBEs, even though the basics above still apply.

Learning providers across the industry are working to a timeline in which June 2027 is the last sitting of the current Applied Skills and Strategic Professional exams, new Knowledge-level exams open on demand from July 2027, and the new Expertise and Strategic Professional exams begin from the September 2027 session. ACCA's own student pages also describe transition guidance and a transition tool that shows how your existing passes carry over. Treat those dates as a planning guide and confirm the exact timeline on ACCA's site.

For you, the practical question is whether to start now or wait. That's a decision worth making with the facts in front of you, and FinT's explainer on ACCA changes in 2027 walks through the reasoning. Whatever you decide, the logic of how ACCA computer-based exams work (on-demand for the early papers, sessions for the rest, centres in Nepal) is expected to stay familiar for a while yet.

Seven mistakes that cost students time and money

1. Booking the wrong type of exam. On-demand and session bookings follow different routes. Confirm which one your paper is before you start.
2. Treating the deadline as a suggestion. After the standard entry deadline, changes and cancellations aren't permitted.
3. Forgetting UK time. A 23:59 deadline arrives early in Kathmandu.
4. Name mismatch. The name on your booking must match your ID.
5. Turning up with the wrong calculator or no valid ID. Both can end your exam day before it starts.
6. Arriving late to a session exam. Entry isn't allowed after the first hour, and you can't leave early either.
7. Only practising on paper. The screen is its own skill.

Frequently asked questions

1. How do ACCA computer-based exams work?

You sit the exam at a supervised exam centre on a computer, reading and answering on screen. Exams are either on-demand (any time of year, booked with a centre) or session-based (March, June, September, December, booked through myACCA).

2. Are all ACCA exams computer-based?

Yes. ACCA states that all your exams are taken using a computer. Some are on-demand and others are taken during the four exam sessions, but the delivery is always computer-based.

3. What's the difference between on-demand and session CBEs?

On-demand exams can be taken at any time of year, are booked with a centre, and show your result immediately. Session exams run during fixed windows, are booked online by a deadline, and results take about six weeks.

4. Which ACCA exams are on-demand?

At the ACCA Qualification level, BT, MA, FA and the LW (UK and Global) exams. At Foundations level, MA1, FA1, MA2, FA2, FBT, FMA and FFA. Applied Skills papers such as TX, FR, PM, FM and AA are session exams.

5. How do I book an ACCA session exam?

Log in to myACCA, open "Book an exam", choose the exam and centre, accept the terms, pick a date and appointment, review your details and pay. You must book before the session's standard entry deadline.

6. How do I book an on-demand ACCA exam?

You contact a licensed on-demand exam centre directly to reserve your slot and pay. Check the centre's rescheduling terms first. You can find the centre list through ACCA's "About our exams" page.

7. What's the deadline for the December 2026 ACCA exams?

The standard entry deadline is 2 November 2026 and the late deadline is 9 November 2026, both at 23:59 UK time. Exams take place from 7 to 11 December 2026.

8. Can I take ACCA exams from home?

Not if you live in a country with ACCA centre provision. Remote session exams were withdrawn from March 2026 in those countries and remain only where no centre provision exists.

9. Where can I sit ACCA exams in Nepal?

At an approved exam centre. ACCA's availability table lists Nepal as a location where both on-demand and session exams are taken in centres. Use ACCA's centre list or booking tool for current options.

10. What do I need to bring on exam day?

Original, valid government photo ID is essential. You can bring a small clear bottle of water and an approved calculator. For session centre-based exams, bring your exam attendance docket.

11. Can I use any calculator in an ACCA exam?

Only a noiseless, cordless pocket calculator. It may be programmable, but it must not have a printout or graphic/word display facility in any language.

12. Do I get scrap paper?

For centre-based on-demand exams, you can have two sheets of scrap paper on request, plus a pen or pencil. You can't bring your own paper, and it's collected at the end.

13. How soon do I get ACCA CBE results?

On-demand results display immediately at the end of the exam and are uploaded to your account within 72 hours. Session results are released about six weeks after the exam.

14. What's the pass mark for ACCA exams?

The pass mark is 50%.

15. Can I cancel or change my ACCA exam booking?

For session exams, yes, before the standard entry deadline; the fee is credited to your myACCA account. After that deadline, changes and cancellations aren't permitted. On-demand rules depend on the centre's terms.

16. Are ACCA exam questions the same for everyone?

No. Live on-demand CBEs are built automatically from a question bank, so different candidates get different versions, and a resit will show different questions from your last attempt.

17. Can I practise the ACCA exam software before exam day?

Yes. ACCA provides practice resources, and Silver, Gold and Platinum learning partners can access ACCA's CBE practice platform for their students. Ask your tuition provider what screen-based practice they include.

Ready to plan your ACCA exam path?

Knowing how ACCA computer-based exams work is the first half. The second half is arriving at the exam centre with a study plan that matches the screen you'll face.

At FinT Learning Hub in New Baneshwor, Kathmandu, ACCA tuition is built around exam-focused classes and practical skills. If you're deciding where to start, explore the ACCA course at FinT to see how the programme is structured, or talk to the FinT team about your paper plan, the next session deadline and how to book your first exam with confidence.

Exam entry rules, fees, dates and delivery methods can change. Verify every detail on ACCA's official website or in your myACCA account before booking.