ACCA Pass Rates Over Time: Every Exam Since September 2018
We took ACCA's own pass-rate archive for all 31 sittings since September 2018 and looked at each exam. TX is the steadiest. APM and AAA are still the lowest. Five exams, led by ATX, have stepped up and stayed up.
ACCA pass rates move less than most students think. Across the 31 exam sittings since September 2018, when Strategic Business Leader (SBL) and Strategic Business Reporting (SBR) were first sat, Taxation (TX) has had the highest (or joint-highest) pass rate of the 11 session-based exams in every one of the last 12 sittings, and Advanced Performance Management (APM) or Advanced Audit and Assurance (AAA) has had the lowest (or joint-lowest) in every one. What has changed is the top of the qualification: five exams now pass at a clearly higher level than they did in 2018–2022, and the gap between Applied Skills and Strategic Professional has roughly halved. We built this from ACCA's own pass-rate archive, checked it against ACCA's results announcements, and kept the dataset so we can update it after each sitting.
Key takeaways
- Taxation (TX) has had the highest or joint-highest pass rate of the 11 session-based ACCA exams in each of the last 12 sittings, ranging only from 53% to 55%.
- Five exams have stepped up and stayed up since 2023–24: ATX (now 47–53%), AFM, TX, AAA and APM. No session exam shows a clear sustained fall.
- APM and AAA are still the lowest pass rates, but they've been 37–42% since 2024, up from 30–36% in 2018–2023.
- The gap between the Applied Skills and Strategic Professional averages has shrunk from about 5 points (2018–21) to under 3 points over the last 12 sittings.
- Pass rates barely differ by sitting month, so pick your exam dates around your workload. Leave room in your plan for a resit.
Headline findings
- Five exams have moved up and stayed up. Advanced Taxation (ATX) passed at 30–45% from September 2018 to June 2023 and at 47–53% in every sitting since. Advanced Financial Management (AFM), TX, AAA and APM show the same kind of step up, at different times (table below). No session exam shows a clear sustained fall.
- TX is the steadiest exam. Over the last 12 sittings (September 2023 to June 2026) it ranged from 53% to 55%. AFM and SBL each moved within a 3-point band.
- APM and AAA are still the lowest, but less so. Both sat at 30–36% from 2018 until 2023–24. Since then they've been 37–42%.
- The Strategic Professional gap has narrowed. Averaged across exams, Applied Skills ran about 5 points ahead of Strategic Professional in September 2018 to June 2021 (44.6% vs 39.5%). Over the last 12 sittings the gap is under 3 points (47.9% vs 45.2%).
- The sitting month doesn't seem to matter. Since March 2021, each exam's average pass rate in March, June, September and December sits within 3 points of its other months.
| Exam | June 2026 | Last 12 sittings: low | Median | High | Since Sep 2018: low | High |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PM – Performance Management | 41% | 40% | 42% | 45% | 35% | 45% |
| TX – Taxation | 55% | 53% | 54% | 55% | 46% | 56% |
| FR – Financial Reporting | 52% | 47% | 50% | 52% | 44% | 52% |
| AA – Audit and Assurance | 47% | 41% | 44% | 47% | 36% | 47% |
| FM – Financial Management | 48% | 46% | 48% | 52% | 43% | 53% |
| SBL – Strategic Business Leader | 51% | 50% | 51.5% | 53% | 45% | 53% |
| SBR – Strategic Business Reporting | 47% | 47% | 49.5% | 52% | 44% | 52% |
| AFM – Advanced Financial Management | 47% | 44% | 45% | 47% | 33% | 47% |
| APM – Advanced Performance Management | 42% | 33% | 39% | 42% | 30% | 42% |
| ATX – Advanced Taxation | 47% | 47% | 49% | 53% | 30% | 53% |
| AAA – Advanced Audit and Assurance | 39% | 34% | 38.5% | 42% | 30% | 42% |
"Last 12 sittings" means September 2023 to June 2026. The on-demand exams (BT, MA, FA and LW) are in a separate section below because ACCA reports them differently.
Method
This study uses one dataset: every figure in the two ACCA Qualification tables on ACCA's page Applied knowledge and applied skills exam pass rates, which we downloaded on 13 October 2026. The first table covers the Applied Knowledge and Applied Skills exams and the second covers Strategic Professional. Both ran from December 2007 to June 2026, the latest sitting with published results when we downloaded them.
What we counted. We turned each table cell into one row of our dataset: sitting, exam, pass rate, and the full table row as ACCA shows it, so anyone can match a figure back to the page. That gave 829 rows. ACCA's headings use today's exam codes, but rows before September 2018 hold results for the older papers that came before the current structure. The Strategic Professional table has no SBL or SBR figures before September 2018. So our analysis uses September 2018 to June 2026 (31 sittings), and the dataset keeps the older rows, flagged as predecessor papers.
How we checked it. We compared the archive against ACCA's results announcements for September 2025, December 2025, March 2026 and June 2026. Every figure matched. We couldn't check older sittings this way: the announcement pages we found for September 2023 to December 2024 now return "page not found", and we couldn't find pages for March or June 2025. For those sittings, the archive table is the only ACCA source we could get.
How we analysed it. A short script works out each exam's low, median and high, and how much it moves between sittings. It also tests for a lasting change in two ways, both decided before we looked at the results:
- Compare an exam's first 12 sittings since September 2018 with its last 12. Call it a sustained change only if the medians differ by 5 points or more and the two ranges don't overlap at all.
- Find the point after which every sitting is above (or below) everything that exam scored earlier in the period. Report it only if that's held for at least 8 sittings, which is two years of exams.
Group averages (Applied Skills, Strategic Professional) are simple averages of the exams' pass rates. ACCA doesn't publish how many students sat each exam, so we can't weight them by entries.
Limits.
- A pass rate is the share of candidates who passed at that sitting. It says nothing about any one student's chances, and it doesn't explain why a rate moved. The mix of students sitting an exam can change, as can the exam and the tuition. We describe changes and don't explain them.
- ACCA has no June 2020 row. Its archive goes from March 2020 to September 2020.
- Some older rows are marked with an asterisk, which ACCA explains as "Results achieved by students for paper-based and computer-based examinations". In our window that covers the Applied Skills exams up to December 2019 and the Strategic Professional exams in March and September 2020. Later figures aren't marked, so they may not be measured on exactly the same basis.
- The archive gives whole percentages, so a 1-point change can be rounding.
- ACCA published its September 2026 results on 19 October 2026, after our download, so they aren't in the tables in this post. The last section below says how they compare.
The last 12 sittings, exam by exam
This is the full grid for September 2023 to June 2026. "n/r" means ACCA doesn't report a figure for that exam at that sitting.
| Exam | Sep 23 | Dec 23 | Mar 24 | Jun 24 | Sep 24 | Dec 24 | Mar 25 | Jun 25 | Sep 25 | Dec 25 | Mar 26 | Jun 26 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BT | n/r | 85 | n/r | 89 | n/r | 87 | n/r | 88 | n/r | 87 | n/r | 89 |
| MA | n/r | 68 | n/r | 68 | n/r | 67 | n/r | 64 | n/r | 64 | n/r | 65 |
| FA | n/r | 69 | n/r | 68 | n/r | 69 | n/r | 68 | n/r | 68 | n/r | 71 |
| LW | n/r | 78 | n/r | 79 | n/r | 81 | n/r | 81 | n/r | 82 | n/r | 82 |
| PM | 40 | 42 | 45 | 42 | 42 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 43 | 40 | 45 | 41 |
| TX | 54 | 54 | 53 | 55 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 54 | 55 | 55 | 53 | 55 |
| FR | 47 | 48 | 52 | 51 | 50 | 50 | 49 | 50 | 48 | 51 | 50 | 52 |
| AA | 42 | 41 | 44 | 44 | 47 | 44 | 47 | 44 | 46 | 46 | 43 | 47 |
| FM | 49 | 48 | 48 | 48 | 52 | 51 | 50 | 48 | 46 | 48 | 50 | 48 |
| SBL | 50 | 52 | 52 | 52 | 53 | 51 | 53 | 51 | 51 | 50 | 52 | 51 |
| SBR | 50 | 50 | 49 | 49 | 52 | 51 | 50 | 49 | 48 | 48 | 50 | 47 |
| AFM | 45 | 45 | 46 | 46 | 44 | 45 | 45 | 46 | 44 | 45 | 44 | 47 |
| APM | 34 | 34 | 33 | 37 | 39 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 40 | 41 | 40 | 42 |
| ATX | 48 | 49 | 49 | 47 | 49 | 47 | 52 | 49 | 53 | 50 | 50 | 47 |
| AAA | 34 | 34 | 38 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 39 | 40 | 40 | 38 | 42 | 39 |
All figures are pass rates in %.
Which exams have changed, and which haven't
Five of the 11 session-based exams passed our test for a lasting change. All five moved up:
| Exam | Earlier range | From | Range since then | Sittings since |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ATX | 30–45% (Sep 2018 to Jun 2023) | Sep 2023 | 47–53% | 12 |
| AFM | 33–43% (Sep 2018 to Dec 2022) | Mar 2023 | 44–47% | 14 |
| TX | 46–52% (Sep 2018 to Dec 2022) | Mar 2023 | 53–56% | 14 |
| AAA | 30–36% (Sep 2018 to Dec 2023) | Mar 2024 | 37–42% | 10 |
| APM | 30–36% (Sep 2018 to Mar 2024) | Jun 2024 | 37–42% | 9 |
ATX and AFM also pass the stricter first test: their last 12 sittings don't overlap with their first 12 at all. ATX's 53% in September 2025 is the highest figure in the ATX column of ACCA's archive, which goes back to December 2007 (earlier rows are for the older advanced tax paper). AAA and APM changed more recently, so their run is shorter. AAA has had ten sittings, and APM nine, above anything it scored from 2018 to early 2024. That's clear, but it's still recent.
TX's step is the smallest of the five, about 4 points, but it's consistent. TX hasn't dropped below 53% since March 2023.
The other six session exams (PM, FR, AA, FM, SBL and SBR) have drifted a little but haven't made a clean break. Audit and Assurance (AA) comes closest. Its median went from 38.5% in its first 12 sittings to 44% in its last 12, but the ranges overlap: it scored 43% as far back as March 2021 and again in March 2026.
Which exams vary most between sittings
Over the last 12 sittings, the session exams fall into three groups:
- Steady: TX (range 2 points), AFM and SBL (3 points each). If you're sitting one of these, recent sittings are a fair guide to the next one.
- Jumpy from one sitting to the next: AA and ATX moved by an average of 2.3 points between consecutive sittings, and PM by 2.1. ATX went from 47% to 52% between December 2024 and March 2025. PM went from 40% to 45% between December 2025 and March 2026, then back to 41% in June.
- Wide range, but mainly because they've risen: APM (33–42%) and AAA (34–42%) have the widest ranges. Most of that is the step up described above, not random swings.
Taking the full period since September 2018, ATX has moved the most (30% to 53%), followed by AFM (33% to 47%). SBR, FR and SBL have been the most stable, each staying within an 8-point range.
Applied Skills vs Strategic Professional
Below is the simple average of the five session-based Applied Skills exams (PM, TX, FR, AA, FM) and the six Strategic Professional exams, averaged across each calendar year's sittings.
| Year | Sittings | Applied Skills average | Strategic Professional average | Gap (points) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Sep, Dec | 44.9% | 38.3% | 6.6 |
| 2019 | Mar, Jun, Sep, Dec | 44.2% | 38.9% | 5.3 |
| 2020 | Mar, Sep, Dec | 43.9% | 40.3% | 3.6 |
| 2021 | Mar, Jun, Sep, Dec | 45.9% | 40.3% | 5.6 |
| 2022 | Mar, Jun, Sep, Dec | 47.1% | 41.0% | 6.1 |
| 2023 | Mar, Jun, Sep, Dec | 47.5% | 43.5% | 4.0 |
| 2024 | Mar, Jun, Sep, Dec | 48.3% | 45.0% | 3.3 |
| 2025 | Mar, Jun, Sep, Dec | 48.0% | 45.9% | 2.1 |
| 2026 (to June) | Mar, Jun | 48.4% | 45.9% | 2.5 |
Read this as a chart: both columns rise, but Strategic Professional rises faster. Its average climbed by about 7.6 points from 2018 to 2026 against about 3.5 for Applied Skills, so the gap shrank from 6.6 points to 2.5. Within Strategic Professional, the two Essentials exams (SBL and SBR) have stayed between 44% and 53%. Most of the rise came from the four Options. These are unweighted averages, so an exam with few candidates counts the same as one with many.
On-demand exams: BT, MA, FA and LW
Business and Technology (BT), Management Accounting (MA), Financial Accounting (FA) and Corporate and Business Law (LW) are sat on demand rather than in the four exam weeks. ACCA's archive shows "N/A" for these exams in every March and September row. Figures appear only in the June and December rows (plus September 2020, the only September row that has them). ACCA's announcements say their tables "include those delivered via ACCA’s on-demand offering for Foundation Diplomas, Applied Knowledge and Law exams". These accounted for a further 39,072 exams in the June 2026 announcement. ACCA doesn't say which dates each June or December figure covers, so we've treated them as twice-yearly figures and kept them out of the session comparisons.
Since September 2018 there are 16 reported figures for each exam:
| Exam | Latest (Jun 2026) | Low | Median | High |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BT – Business and Technology | 89% | 79% | 85% | 89% |
| LW – Corporate and Business Law | 82% | 78% | 82% | 88% |
| FA – Financial Accounting | 71% | 68% | 71% | 77% |
| MA – Management Accounting | 65% | 61% | 65% | 72% |
None of the four passed our test for a lasting change. FA and LW were a few points higher in 2020–21 than they've been since, but their ranges overlap.
What this means for planning your exams
These are planning points, not predictions. A cohort pass rate can't tell you whether you'll pass.
- Plan for a resit. No session exam has passed more than 55% of candidates in the last 12 sittings, and 8 of the 11 have a median below 50%. When you map out your exams, leave room for one to need a second attempt. Sittings come round every three months (March, June, September, December).
- Don't pick your sitting month for the pass rate. Each exam's pass rate is about the same whichever month you sit it. Choose the month that fits your work calendar, such as avoiding busy season or year-end.
- Choose your Options for your career, not the pass rate. APM and AAA have been the lowest pass rates for years, and ATX and AFM have risen. But the pass rate reflects who sits each exam as much as how hard it is, and your two Options will be on your CV for good. An audit trainee sitting AAA or a tax trainee sitting ATX is doing the expected thing. If you're unsure which qualification route fits your career at all, our ACCA vs CIMA vs ACA comparison covers that first.
- Use recent sittings, not old forum posts. Advice that "ATX is brutal" or "AAA has a 30% pass rate" comes from 2018–2022 figures. Recent sittings are higher. Look at the last two years when you set your expectations.
- The on-demand exams pass far more often. BT and LW have passed at least 78% of candidates in every reported period since 2018. A failed Applied Knowledge exam is less common, and because it's on demand, it costs you less time.
- Put your passes on your CV in a form you can check. List the exams you've passed and when, and say which you're sitting next. Employers hiring trainees read this as evidence, the same as any other line. Our finance CV achievements guide shows how to write lines like that without overstating them.
How we'll keep this up to date
The tables cover every sitting up to June 2026. We'll re-download ACCA's archive page and re-run the analysis with the September and December 2026 sittings once the December results are out. ACCA's September 2026 results came out on 19 October 2026. In that sitting TX was again the highest of the 11 session exams, at 54%, and APM the lowest, at 41%, so the headline pattern held. ATX's 53% matched its highest figure in the archive. Results for the December 2026 sitting are due on 18 January 2027. If ACCA corrects a past figure or changes how it reports the on-demand exams, we'll say so here. How we write our finance career notes explains how we source and correct posts like this one.
Frequently asked questions
Which ACCA exam has the lowest pass rate?
In the 12 sittings from September 2023 to June 2026, Advanced Performance Management (APM) or Advanced Audit and Assurance (AAA) had the lowest (or joint-lowest) pass rate every time. In June 2026, AAA was lowest at 39% and APM was 42%.
Have ACCA pass rates gone up?
For some exams, yes. ATX, AFM, TX, AAA and APM have all passed at a higher level in every sitting since 2023 or 2024 than at any point from September 2018 to that change. The other session exams have moved by a few points without a clear break.
Is it easier to pass ACCA exams in a particular month?
Not on ACCA's figures. Since March 2021, each exam's average pass rate in March, June, September and December has been within 3 points of its other months.
Why are there no March or September pass rates for BT, MA, FA and LW?
These exams are sat on demand. ACCA's archive shows N/A for them in March and September and reports a figure in the June and December rows, which also include on-demand results. ACCA doesn't say which dates each figure covers.
Have the September 2026 ACCA pass rates been published?
Yes. ACCA published them on 19 October 2026. TX was the highest of the 11 session exams at 54% and APM the lowest at 41%. They aren't yet included in the tables in this post.