Resubmissions

Who can resubmit?

You can resubmit if you have Examination of Experience attempts remaining and still meet the ICAEW Pathways eligibility criteria. A maximum of four attempts are allowed. You must also ensure your resubmission is supported by a sponsor who meets all the sponsor eligibility criteria.

When can I resubmit?

All Pathways resubmissions can be made during an open submission window. All future submission windows and result dates are available on our Dates and submission windows page.

What do I include?

Within your resubmission you must include:

• A new Examination of Experience form: which should only include answers to the questions you failed on previously.
• A signed copy of our Pathways sponsor form, issued and dated within the three months prior to the date of the relevant Pathways submission deadline
• Letters of Good Standing issued and dated within the three months prior to the date of the relevant Pathways submission deadline.
• £160 resubmission fee - payable at each additional attempt and non-refundable in all circumstances. This is a 50% reduction from the first submission.
• Please note: You will need to declare within your Pathways re-submission if you require an ICAEW Practising Certificate or the Audit Qualification (AQ) upon being successful. You will be prompted to confirm this within the pathways application process via the exams online portal when submitting your application.

How do I know which questions I need to resubmit?

Only questions you previously failed are required to be resubmitted.

You would have been sent an email confirming these results for your last submission. Please make sure you are checking your junk and spam folders for this. If you are unable to locate this information you can complete a contact form and include the following:

• Your name
• Your ICAEW record number
• The date of your last submission if known.

We can then email a copy of your previous Examination of Experience results and your examiner feedback letter.

How do I resubmit?

Using your existing ICAEW record number, you will need to submit your completed application through the online exam application system. All documents must be resubmitted at the same time.

• Resubmit online

Can I rework the existing examples for the answers I failed?

From 2025 onwards Pathways candidates will have a maximum of 5 years to complete their exam before the evidence drawn from their work experience needs refreshing.

If applicants do not complete their Pathways exam within the five-year period, they will be required to use more recent work experience in the exam, for those parts of their submission which have yet to pass. An example of how this rule will work is shown below:

Example 1 – Applicants who made their first Pathways application ON or AFTER 1 January 2021

Derek Blogg’s first Pathways’ application was made on 30 March 2021. This application must use work experience in the period 31 March 2016 to 30 March 2021 to comply with the requirement that answers must be drawn from candidates’ most recent 5 years work experience. Unfortunately Derek failed the Pathways exam on his first attempt. He has three more opportunities to complete his application.

Derek has yet to make a further attempt to pass the Pathways exam. Under the revised Pathways’ rules (which will commence in 2025), if Derek has not passed the Pathways exam by 31 March 2026, he will need to use new examples drawn from his more recent work experience. For example, if Derek made a further attempt to pass the Pathways exam on 20 July 2026, he would need to use new examples to answer those questions that he has yet to pass. In this situation he would need to use examples drawn from the period 21 July 2021 to 20 July 2026 to answer those questions that he has previously failed.

Example 2 - Applicants who made their first Pathways application BEFORE 1 January 2021

Manisha Patel’s first Pathways’ application was made on 30 March 2018. This application must use work experience in the period 31 March 2013 to 30 March 2018 to comply with the requirement that answers must be drawn from candidates’ most recent 5 years work experience. Unfortunately Manisha failed the Pathways exam on her first attempt. She has three more opportunities to complete her application.

Manisha has been very busy and has yet to make a further attempt to pass the Pathways exam. Under the revised Pathways’ rules (which will commence in 2025) Manisha will need to use new examples drawn from her more recent work experience.

However, this rule change will be introduced after Manisha first applied to join ICAEW through the Pathways route. In recognition of this, when the new rule comes into effect she will be provided with an additional year to complete her Pathways application using her original work experience. After this additional year, if she has still not completed her application she will need to use more up-to-date experience to complete those parts of her application which have still not passed the exam’s criteria. 

Therefore, if Manisha does submit a new attempt to pass the Pathways exam on 20 July 2025 she will be able to use examples drawn from the original period that she used in her first application ie, 31 March 2013 to 30 March 2018.

As is always the case, Manisha must only submit revised answers for those parts of her application that have so far not passed ie, those questions that have already passed must not be re-submitted.

What happens next?

Once the Pathways submission window has closed, your documents will be reviewed. If there are any queries you will be contacted via email, otherwise your results will be released on the Pathways results day for your session.

If you pass the Pathways Examination of Experience, you will be invited to join ICAEW membership. You will then need to pay the required ICAEW admission and membership fees before you can use the ACA designation or refer to yourself as an ICAEW Chartered Accountant.