Technical issues hit the December ACCA exams at centres from Aberdeen to London, with sitters enduring freezing and crashing screens and invigilators struggled to get students back online. The big worry is the Monday technical gremlins have returned!
Exam halls across the UK were affected with reports of problems at Aberdeen, Chelmsford, Norwich, and several London venues.
As one AAA sitter explained: “The exam was plagued with technical issues. I had to move computer four times after it crashed. Then two hours in the whole rooms’ PCs crashed, and we sat there unable to do anything for 50 minutes before it restarted again.”
There were also issues at the London Irish Hall centre, and exams that were supposed to begin at 1,30pm didn’t get underway until 5pm.
Other centres affect were London Camden and London Strafford – “It was a total nightmare”, explained one sitter. Sitters at the London Stratford Centre were eventually sent home after the exams ‘failed to launch’.
And, the first thing some student knew about the problem was when they received an email from ACCA telling them their 1.30pm exam was rescheduled to 4.30pm. As one PQ said; “I have childcare issues and they gave me just 40 minutes to rearrange everything!”
In an official response ACCA told PQ magazine: “Unfortunately we’ve experienced technical problems at a small number of UK exam sites this week which we’ve been working urgently to resolve. We understand how frustrating this is for those impacted and we sincerely apologise. We will be getting in touch with those who’ve been affected. Exams have gone ahead in the majority of cases, although with some delays. We’re investigating the cause of the issues and will put steps in place to avoid re-occurrence in future.”
Check out how the actual exams went in the latest magazine: https://issuu.com/pqpublishing/docs/pq_magazine_january_2026
