ACCA Pass Rates
ACCA publishes pass rates for every paper after every sitting. The table below comes directly from ACCA's own published statistics rather than a third-party estimate. The exact figures turn up repeated inconsistently all over the place online, so we've linked our source at the bottom of this page.
- The pass mark is 50% on every ACCA paper and it never moves. The pass rate is the percentage of candidates who hit it in a given sitting.
- BT, MA, FA and LW pass rates are reported only for the June and December sittings
- PM, TX, FR, AA and FM are reported every sitting: March, June, September and December
- A low pass rate is a signal about the paper's demands, not a moved goalpost
Most recent full sitting: June 2026
119,662 students entered the June 2026 sitting and 136,544 exams were completed, with a further 39,072 taken through ACCA's on-demand route. 4,690 students finished their final exam and moved to affiliate status.
What is the pass mark for ACCA exams?
The pass mark is 50% on every ACCA exam. That applies at every level: the on-demand Applied Knowledge exams (BT, MA and FA), Corporate and Business Law, the Applied Skills exams sat at the four sittings, and the Strategic Professional exams. You need half of the available marks on the paper you sit, and the mark does not change from one sitting to the next (ACCA exams FAQs).
The pass mark and the pass rate are different things. The pass mark is the score you need. The pass rate is the share of candidates who reached it at a sitting, which is what the tables on this page show. A low pass rate means fewer people reached 50%, not that the target moved. CIMA works differently: its Objective Tests use a scaled score, with 100 out of 150 needed to pass (see CIMA pass rates).
How that compares to recent sittings
September 2026 (session-based papers only, since BT, MA, FA and LW are not reported at this sitting): TX 54%, FR 49%, FM 47%, AA 45%, PM 42%. See ACCA September 2026 pass rates for what changed.
March 2026 (session-based papers only, since BT, MA, FA and LW are not reported at this sitting): PM 45%, TX 53%, FR 50%, AA 43%, FM 50%.
December 2025 (the previous full sitting): BT 87%, FA 68%, MA 64%, LW 82%, TX 55%, FR 51%, FM 48%, AA 46%, PM 40%.
Two things stand out across the four sittings. PM or AA has had the lowest Applied Skills pass rate at every one of them: PM in September 2026, June 2026 and December 2025, AA in March 2026. And the movements between sittings are modest: TX and FM moved by one or two points each time, FR by up to three, PM and AA by up to five.
What the numbers actually mean
Applied Knowledge really is more accessible
BT, MA and FA sit well above the Applied Skills papers, and have done consistently for years. That isn't a soft standard. These papers test whether you understand the fundamentals, not how well you apply them under exam pressure. A weak Applied Knowledge result is usually worth investigating before moving on, since gaps here tend to resurface at Applied Skills.
PM and AA are the hardest Applied Skills papers, and have been for years
Looking back through ACCA's own historical table, PM has rarely cleared 45% in any sitting since 2019, and AA has sat in a similar band. That isn't a one-off dip. It's a structural pattern, tied to how much these two papers demand in scenario interpretation and professional judgement rather than straightforward calculation or recall.
TX and LW are comparatively kind, but not soft
TX has held in the low-to-mid 50s for several years, and LW sits consistently in the 80s. Both are more approachable than PM or AA, though TX still demands real technical accuracy given how numerically precise its questions are.
A single sitting's number isn't destiny
Pass rates move a few points between sittings depending on cohort strength and question mix. A 40% sitting doesn't mean the exam suddenly got harder, and a 50% sitting the following session doesn't mean it got easier. Prepare to the paper's demands, not to whichever number happened to be published last.
Common questions
Which ACCA exam has the lowest pass rate?
At September 2026, PM had the lowest Applied Skills pass rate, at 42%, with AA next at 45%. At Strategic Professional, Advanced Performance Management (APM) was lowest, at 41%. Of the nine papers in the June 2026 table, PM was also lowest, at 41%. Low pass rates are a reason to prepare thoroughly, not a reason to avoid a paper: PM practice questions and AA practice questions are free here.
Which ACCA exams have the highest pass rates?
The Applied Knowledge exams and LW. At June 2026, BT passed 89%, LW 82%, FA 71% and MA 65%. These are the first exams most students sit, and they test the fundamentals that the Applied Skills papers build on, so a strong pass here pays off later. See what order to sit ACCA exams in.
Is the ACCA pass mark the same for every paper?
Yes. It is 50% for every ACCA exam, at every level and every sitting. What differs between papers is the pass rate, which depends on how demanding the paper is and on who sits it.
Are ACCA pass rates higher than CIMA’s?
They cannot be compared like for like. ACCA publishes figures by paper after each sitting (for BT, MA, FA and LW, twice a year), with a fixed 50% pass mark. CIMA publishes a figure for each Objective Test over a period, with a scaled pass mark of 100 out of 150. The papers also cover different ground at different levels. Compare the two on CIMA pass rates and in our ACCA vs CIMA guide.
What were the September 2026 pass rates?
TX 54%, FR 49%, FM 47%, AA 45% and PM 42%, from ACCA’s September 2026 results announcement. September is a session-paper sitting, so BT, MA, FA and LW are not reported. See September 2026 pass rates for the comparison with June and with September 2025. December 2026 results are released on 18 January 2027.
The best way to close the gap between a tough pass rate and your own result is targeted practice. Every ACCA paper on GoQualified has 150 free questions with full worked explanations, including PM and AA. Free, no login.
September 2026 figures are from ACCA's results announcement (results released 19 October 2026). June 2026 figures are taken directly from ACCA's own results announcement (accaglobal.com news, published 13 July 2026); earlier sittings from ACCA's official pass-rate page. All figures checked against ACCA's pages on 21 October 2026. Worth knowing if you compare elsewhere: several third-party sites published June 2026 figures that do not match ACCA's own table, including one quoting PM at 39% when ACCA states 41%. ACCA publishes updated figures after every sitting, so always confirm the current numbers at accaglobal.com before relying on them. GoQualified is not affiliated with ACCA.