Often cited as one of the harder professional qualifications in finance, ACCA’s actual difficulty is more specific than a single reputation. Pass rates range from around 89% down to 38%, and the qualification’s hardest stage carries formal degree-equivalence recognition most students never hear about.
Quick summary of ACCA pass rates:
Over the last 12 months, ACCA pass rates ranged from 89% at Applied Knowledge level down to 38% for the toughest Strategic Professional options.Business and Technology (BT) is consistently the easiest paper, Advanced Audit and Assurance (AAA) consistently the hardest.
Unlike some other qualifications, ACCA doesn’t publish first-attempt versus resit data.
The most objective answer to “how hard is ACCA” comes from its formal degree-equivalence recognition: Strategic Professional carries Master’s-degree-level credit rating under Scotland’s SCQF and the European EQF, with England’s own RQF adopting the same Master’s-level rating from September 2027.
What are the ACCA pass rates over the last 12 months?
These figures are ACCA’s own official results, taken directly from ACCA’s press releases for each session.
| Paper | June 2025 | Sept 2025 | Dec 2025 | March 2026 | June 2026 | Pass rate level |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Applied Knowledge | ||||||
| BT (Business and Technology) | 88% | – | 87% | – | 89% | 🟢 |
| FA (Financial Accounting) | 68% | – | 68% | – | 71% | 🟢 |
| MA (Management Accounting) | 64% | – | 64% | – | 65% | 🟢 |
| Applied Skills | ||||||
| LW (Corporate and Business Law) | 81% | – | 82% | – | 82% | 🟢 |
| TX (Taxation) | 54% | 55% | 55% | 53% | 55% | 🟡 |
| FR (Financial Reporting) | 50% | 48% | 51% | 50% | 52% | 🟡 |
| FM (Financial Management) | 48% | 46% | 48% | 50% | 48% | 🟡 |
| AA (Audit and Assurance) | 44% | 46% | 46% | 43% | 47% | 🔴 |
| PM (Performance Management) | 43% | 43% | 40% | 45% | 41% | 🔴 |
| Strategic Professional, Essentials | ||||||
| SBL (Strategic Business Leader) | 51% | 51% | 50% | 52% | 51% | 🟡 |
| SBR (Strategic Business Reporting) | 49% | 48% | 48% | 50% | 47% | 🟡 |
| Strategic Professional, Options | ||||||
| ATX (Advanced Taxation) | 49% | 53% | 50% | 50% | 47% | 🟡 |
| AFM (Advanced Financial Management) | 46% | 44% | 45% | 44% | 47% | 🔴 |
| APM (Advanced Performance Management) | 40% | 40% | 41% | 40% | 42% | 🔴 |
| AAA (Advanced Audit and Assurance) | 40% | 40% | 38% | 42% | 39% | 🔴 |
Source: ACCA, June 2025 through June 2026 sittings. Applied Knowledge and LW are on-demand exams reported only at June and December sittings, hence the gaps at March and September.
June 2025 and June 2026 give a genuine year-over-year comparison on the same papers: BT rose from 88% to 89%, FA from 68% to 71%, while PM fell from 43% to 41% and AAA held roughly flat at 40% to 39%.
ACCA moves to an 11-paper structure from September 2027, so pass rates for papers being merged or restructured will not have a direct historical comparison once the change takes effect.
Which ACCA papers have the lowest pass rates?
Advanced Audit and Assurance (AAA) has the lowest pass rate of any paper in the qualification, sitting at 38-40% across the last 12 months.
Performance Management (PM) and Advanced Performance Management (APM) aren’t far behind, both hovering in the low-to-mid 40s.
All three share something in common. They’re heavily judgment-based papers rather than calculation-based ones.
Why do some ACCA papers have much lower pass rates than others?
Comparing all 5 sessions directly shows a consistent pattern.
Papers that lean on written professional judgment (AAA, APM, PM) sit 7 to 10 percentage points below numbers-heavy papers at a similar level (AFM, ATX, FM), and this gap holds across every session we have, not just one.
The likely reason is feedback quality while studying. When you practise a numerical question, like an NPV calculation or a variance analysis, you know immediately whether your answer is right or wrong.
When you write an answer to an AAA or APM scenario, it’s much harder to self-assess whether you’ve actually addressed what the examiner wanted, or just written plausible-sounding content around the topic. That makes it easier to walk into these exams with blind spots you didn’t know you had.
Does ACCA publish first-attempt versus resit pass rates?
No. Unlike other qualifications like CFA and CFP, ACCA doesn’t publish a breakdown of first-time sitters versus resit candidates, so there’s no official way to know how much of a given pass rate reflects people sitting a paper for the second or third time.
ACCA confirms there’s “no restriction to the number of exams you may attempt,” so resits themselves are unlimited, though you have seven years to pass all Strategic Professional exams, after which any papers passed more than seven years ago need to be retaken.
Is a low ACCA pass rate the same as a harder exam?
Not exactly, and this distinction matters. ACCA’s pass mark is a fixed 50% on every paper, every session, it never scales or moves based on how a cohort performs. So a pass rate of 40% doesn’t mean the bar was raised, it means 6 in 10 candidates in that sitting didn’t reach the same 50% threshold everyone always faces.
A low pass rate is a genuine signal about how demanding a paper is and how prepared that particular cohort was, not evidence of a moving target. That’s useful context when you’re choosing your own exam order, papers with consistently lower pass rates deserve proportionally more study time, not less confidence going in.
How hard is ACCA?
Pass rates tell you how many people pass a paper, but not how the qualification itself is officially rated. ACCA’s own recognition with degree-equivalence frameworks gives a more objective answer, and it goes well beyond a single benchmark.
The ACCA Qualification is broadly equivalent to UK university degree standard when you complete the Applied Knowledge and Applied Skills exams. When you complete the Strategic Professional exams, it is equivalent to a UK university Master’s degree.
ACCAglobal.com
This is backed by formal credit ratings across several frameworks:
| Framework | Applied Knowledge | Applied Skills | Strategic Professional |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF), regulated by SQA Accreditation | – | SCQF 10, Bachelor’s (honours) | SCQF 11, Master’s degree |
| European Qualifications Framework (EQF) / ECTS credits | 45.5 ECTS | 121 ECTS | 90 ECTS, EQF Level 7, Master’s degree |
| England’s Regulated Qualifications Framework (RQF), from September 2027 | RQF 4, under the redesigned “Knowledge level” | RQF 6, Bachelor’s degree, under the redesigned “Expertise level” | RQF 7, Master’s degree |
Today, England and Northern Ireland’s RQF only formally covers ACCA’s Foundation-level qualifications, not the main Qualification’s upper levels. That changes with the September 2027 redesign, when ACCA moves to explicit RQF Level 6 and Level 7 benchmarking for England specifically.
In the meantime, the Master’s-degree claim for Strategic Professional is backed by Scotland’s SCQF, the European EQF/ECTS system, and ACCA’s own general statement, just not yet a standing RQF rating in England.
ACCA also has direct degree partnerships that reinforce this: Oxford Brookes University awards a BSc (Hons) in Applied Accounting to students who complete Applied Knowledge, Applied Skills, and a Research and Analysis Project, and a newer University of London pathway offers a BSc or MSc in Professional Accountancy alongside the ACCA Qualification itself.
All of this lines up with the pass rate data. Strategic Business Leader, Strategic Business Reporting, and all four Strategic Professional options, the papers carrying Master’s-level recognition, are exactly the ones sitting in the 38-51% pass rate range, the lowest in the qualification.
How does ACCA’s pass rate compare to other qualifications?
Direct comparisons are tricky since exam structures differ so much, but a rough sense check:
- ICAEW’s ACA Professional Level papers typically see 35-50% failure rates, in the same range as ACCA’s Strategic Professional stage,
- while ACA’s Advanced Level (its final stage) sees similar attrition among candidates who’ve already passed 12 exams and gained years of experience.
If you’re weighing ACCA against a specific alternative, our ACCA vs CIMA, ACCA vs ACA, and AAT vs ACCA guides go into more depth beyond just pass rates.
For a sense of how ACCA compares to other 300Hours-covered qualifications, see CFA pass rates, FRM pass rates, CPA pass rates, CAIA pass rates, and CFP pass rates.
A structural change is coming. From September 2027, ACCA moves from 13 papers to an 11-paper structure. Historical pass rates for papers being merged or restructured won’t map cleanly onto the new format.
FAQs
It varies significantly by paper. Over the last 12 months, results ranged from 89% for Business and Technology down to 38% for Advanced Audit and Assurance, ACCA’s official pass rates by paper, not a single overall percentage.
Advanced Audit and Assurance (AAA) consistently has the lowest pass rate of any ACCA paper, at 38-40% over the last 12 months, followed closely by Performance Management (PM) and Advanced Performance Management (APM).
Business and Technology (BT) consistently has the highest pass rate, at 87-89% over the last year, followed by Corporate and Business Law (LW) at 81-82%.
Officially, yes, in Scotland. The Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework, regulated by SQA Accreditation, formally ranks ACCA’s Strategic Professional level at Master’s degree standard and Applied Skills at Bachelor’s (honours) degree standard.
No. Unlike some other professional qualifications, ACCA doesn’t break down pass rates by first-time sitters versus resit candidates. There’s no limit on the number of attempts at any individual paper, though Strategic Professional exams must all be completed within seven years, or earlier passes in that stage expire and need retaking.
No. The pass mark is fixed at 50% for every paper, every session, and never adjusts based on how a cohort performs. A low pass rate means fewer candidates reached that same threshold, not that the bar moved.
They’re not uniformly low, they range from 89% down to 38% depending on the paper. The lowest rates cluster in papers requiring written professional judgment (AAA, PM, APM) rather than calculation, where it’s harder to self-assess answer quality while studying.
The fixed 50% pass mark never scales to a cohort’s performance, so a low rate reflects paper difficulty and preparation, not an artificially raised bar.
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- ACCA Hub: Everything You Need to Know
- ACCA Requirements: Entry Routes and What You Need to Qualify
- ACCA Exemptions: Which Papers Can You Skip?
- ACCA Career Paths: Roles, Progression and How to Switch
- CFA Pass Rates 2026: Latest Data & Historical Trends
- ACCA vs CIMA: Which Is Best For Your Accounting Career?