If for any reason, you decide not to take your examination, you are entitled to a full refund. To help you do this quickly and easily, we will not be applying our usual refund policy.
To request a full refund, please complete an exam refund form and send it to memberservices@actuaries.org.uk by 17.00 UK time on 31 March (1 week before the start of the exam session).
Your refund will be credited to your original payment method. We may be managing a high volume of refund requests so please bear with us as we work through these. We aim to send refunds by 31 May at the latest.
We will email you to confirm your exam centre location in early March.
If for any reason, you decide not to take your examination, you are entitled to a full refund.
To request a full refund, please complete an exam refund form and send it to memberservices@actuaries.org.uk by 17.00 UK time on 31 March (1 week before the start of the exam session).
Your refund will be credited to your original payment method. We may be managing a high volume of refund requests so please bear with us as we work through these. We aim to send refunds by 31 May at the latest.
Booking your exam will allow us to understand the demand and location of exam sitters, which will enable us to focus on arranging exam centres in the highest-demand areas.
Once we have successfully secured exam centre locations, we will aim to contact you on or before Friday 7 March to confirm your exam centre.
If for any reason, you decide not to take your examination, you are entitled to a full refund.
To request a full refund, please complete an exam refund form and send it to memberservices@actuaries.org.uk by 17.00 UK time on 31 March (1 week before the start of the exam session).
Your refund will be credited to your original payment method. We may be managing a high volume of refund requests so please bear with us as we work through these. We aim to send refunds by 31 May at the latest.
We will be using your preferred contact address saved in your ‘my account’ area to select the nearest available exam centre for you.
Please log in and update your preferred contact address before 17:00 UK time on Tuesday 25 February if you think this may not be up to date.
Unfortunately, we are unable to offer a choice of venue, but we will match your allocated exam centre as closely as possible to your preferred contact address.
We have done all we can to keep travel to a minimum for candidates, but inevitably some candidates may face longer travel times.
Once you have been assigned an exam centre, we will contact you with your exam centre location and details on how the exams will work in your exam centre.
The address details for your exam centre will be published on the IFoA website and linked to in the email confirming your allocated exam centre.
We are sorry but we are unable to offer a choice of venue. However, we will match candidates as closely as possible to their preferred contact address.
While we have tried to keep travel time to allocated exam centres a minimum, we understand that this may not be convenient for some candidates.
If for any reason, you decide not to take your examination, you are entitled to a full refund.
To request a full refund, please complete an exam refund form and send it to memberservices@actuaries.org.uk by 17.00 UK time on 31 March (1 week before the start of the exam session).
Your refund will be credited to your original payment method. We may be managing a high volume of refund requests, so please bear with us as we work through these. We aim to send refunds by 31 May at the latest.
We are sorry, but we are only able to offer remote invigilation to a very limited number of candidates.
These are:
We will contact these candidates individually with further details shortly.
Once you have been assigned an exam centre, we will contact you with your exam centre location and details on how the exams will work in your exam centre.
We are aware that many candidates will not have taken IFoA examinations in-person previously.
We will be holding webinars in March to provide more detailed information and for candidates to ask questions about the in-person examination process.
All equipment you need to sit your exam will be provided at the exam centre.
You will have access to a pdf version of the Formulae and Tables book on the laptop in the exam centre. However, you may also bring in your own copy of the Formulae and Tables book to use during the exam.
All exams will be taken on one single screen. We are working with exam centres to provide a monitor that will be connected to a laptop.
You can access the online exam system using the browser on your exam centre laptop.
You will need to download the exam paper to your machine for reference during the exam.
For those who have previously sat IFoA exams, the online exam system you will be using, will be the same one used in previous exam sessions.
All exam centres will have invigilators in the room who will be monitoring all activity to ensure the integrity of our exams is maintained.
If you require access arrangements and you are provided with an exam location, this means that the exam centre will be able to accommodate those arrangements.
While we are working as quickly as we can to confirm all access arrangements with candidates and exams centres, there is a chance we may identify that an exam centre cannot support your access arrangements after you are allocated an exam centre location. If this happens, we will contact you as soon as we can, to make alternative arrangements where possible.
If we are unable to support your agreed access arrangements, we will contact you separately to try and make alternative arrangements where possible.
If for any reason, you decide not to take your examination, you are entitled to a full refund.
To request a full refund, please complete an exam refund form and send it to memberservices@actuaries.org.uk by 17.00 UK time on 31 March (1 week before the start of the exam session).
Your refund will be credited to your original payment method. We may be managing a high volume of refund requests so please bear with us as we work through these. We aim to send refunds by 31 May at the latest.
Yes.
The only exception is the Communications Practice (CP3), where exam candidates are permitted to bring the advanced material into the exam room, along with any notes they have made in relation to the advanced material.
No. A laptop will be provided for you to complete your exam.
Handwriting will only be allowed where a candidate has a pre-agreed access arrangement, permitting handwriting exam answers.
Yes. The exam centre will provide paper and a pencil or pen for you to use during the exam.
Yes. You will be allowed bathroom breaks during the exam. These breaks will be for you to visit the bathroom only.
You will need to access the exam system on the laptop and upload your submission.
For those who have previously sat exams, you will be familiar with the online exam system as this will not be changing.
You are permitted to bring in:
You will have access to a PDF version of the book on the laptop in the room. You may also bring in your own copy of the Formulae and Tables book to use during the exam.
However, please note you are not permitted to bring in any other exam materials, including your own study notes.
The only exception is the CP3 advanced materials, which are provided 3 days in advance of the exam.
If you feel your exam efforts have been impacted by something out of your control, we encourage you to apply for mitigating circumstances.
Visit our website for more information on our mitigating circumstances policy.
Unfortunately, we are unable to print and dispatch exam papers to all exam centres given the limited time before the exam session.
We are currently exploring other options with exam centres and will update you shortly.
Yes, questions may be worded differently or contain different information to reflect a closed book or closed web environment.
Examiners want well prepared candidates to be able to respond on the topic that is being assessed in the question, so will provide enough information to make this possible.
IFoA exams are designed to assess whether you have the required knowledge and skills in that subject, set out in our syllabi.
We have taken steps to ensure candidates are able to demonstrate their competence without access to core reading, study notes or other resources.
Each exam paper has been attempted under closed book exam conditions by a test candidate, with a focus on reporting any difficulty with completing the paper in a closed book environment. Test candidates have recently qualified and have experience in both the subject matter and exam technique.
Test candidate feedback from completing the paper in closed book exam conditions has been shared with IFoA Examiners and modifications to final papers made where appropriate.
Past papers delivered between 2020 and 2024 under open-book rules are still valuable study resources, as they more closely reflect the current syllabus objectives. Attempting these papers under closed book conditions can be a useful revision exercise.
While past papers delivered before 2020 were sat under closed-book conditions, they may no longer align completely with the current syllabus. Therefore, we recommend candidates review the syllabus before using pre-2020 papers as a revision resource.
Please note that while these papers were also delivered in exam centres, answers were handwritten.
Therefore, past papers from April 2020 will include modifications to account for answers being typed.
As our focus is to provide exam papers for the April 2025 session, we have not had the capacity to draft specimen papers. As previously stated, the exam questions are written in a way that provides all of the necessary information
The 2020-2024 papers delivered under open-book rules are still a valuable study resource as they more closely reflect the current syllabus objectives.
You can find all past papers and examiners reports on our website.
It is our understanding that ActEd has no plans to change its published materials.
However, ActEd (BPP) is a third party tuition provider and we highly recommend that you reach out to ActEd directly for guidance.
The CB exams will remain in their current format for 2025.
We will update you on the introduction of OBAs as we make progress with procuring a new exam platform.
We have already run a series of webinars focusing on sitting a closed book exam and exam techniques required to support this. If you would like to watch the webinar recording, you can find it on our Virtual Learning Environment.
We will be running a series of webinars during March which will focus on the experience of sitting in an exam venue and what you can expect.
We will contact you by email once we have confirmed dates and times for webinars.
Yes.
Pre-exam materials will be released for CS1B, CS2B and CP3 only.
CS1B and CS2B materials will be provided two weeks before the exam.
CP3 materials will be provided 3 days before the exam.
We are aware of a number of social media posts claiming to have leaked exam papers or sharing supposedly leaked internal emails. These matters have been thoroughly investigated and there is no evidence of a leak, and the emails have been proved to be fakes. Unfortunately, we believe there are likely to be further attempts to unsettle candidates.
We are committed to communicating updates about the April exam session as quickly and accurately as possible. The most up-to-date information available will be sent via official IFoA channels or can be found on our website.