If you're entering for the exams, you will now be typing your answers. To plan for success, you should familiarise yourself with the method before your exam day. Find out more below.
How it works
Sitting online exams, you’ll use a purpose-built exam application, Exam4, on your laptop or desktop computer. You can sit the exam at a location of your choice, such as your home or office.
Please note that the exams will be:
- Open book (meaning candidates are able to access legislation, their tuition manuals, HMRC manuals, or any other material as they wish to);
- Uninvigilated; and
- 3 hours and 30 minutes in length, which is consistent with the exam time that was granted for the November 2020 exams.
To enable you to sit exams in a flexible location, we will publish new regulations on this page for the forthcoming May 2021 session shortly. When available, you will need to familiarise yourself with the new regulations and equip yourself with the information you need for your exams.
Exam4
The exams will again take place using the Exam4 software and some new features have been added for 2021. Full details of the changes, including guidance videos, will be available in due course, but the most significant change is to the way computational questions can be answered using Exam4.
Candidates will now be able to insert rulers so that they can create a visual guide to help them outline their answers. Please see an example here, which shows how a best practise answer from the November 2020 Paper 1 could be presented. This is a simple feature to use that will be fully explained in the guidance videos.
To give you an idea of how the same answer could be presented slightly differently by using one less column, please see a second example here.
About the Exam4 app
The Exam4 app is used by a number of leading universities and institutions across Europe and North America. Used by thousands of students since we introduced it for the ADIT qualification in 2014, it has a proven track record for reliability and student satisfaction: ADIT and ACA CTA Joint Programme students who have used it say their experience has been very positive.
Exam4 functionality will be updated after its use in the November 2020 exams to make setting out calculations quicker.
Compatible with most IT setups
You can use Exam4 on a wide range of laptop and desktop computers; you don't need the latest technology. You only need to be connected to the internet when you launch the exam and when you submit your answers at the end, so a stable internet connection isn't essential.
What are the advantages of typing compared to handwritten?
- Flexibility during the exam
Do you remember a time when you finished an answer in an exam, only to think of a crucial point minutes later? With cut, copy and paste functions built into Exam4, you can edit your answers at any time during your exam – without having to cross things out.
- More comfortable
Does your writing hand ache after a long exam? Or does it just feel weird to write anything by hand when you spend so many hours typing on a computer each day? By typing your answers using your own computer at home or in your office, you can complete your ATT exams in a more familiar, comfortable way.
- Your answers will be easier to read
With an online exam, you will type your answers using a standardised, easily readable font. That means you won’t have to worry about losing marks because an examiner is unable to read your writing. Let your tax knowledge do the talking instead.
How can I familiarise myself with Exam4?
The following guidance will be available in due course to support you during the online exams:
- Candidate checklist
- Downloading and running Exam4
- How to use Exam4
- Exam day guide
- Troubleshooting
The best way to familiarise yourself with Exam4 is to download and practice using it as early as possible, on the device you plan to use in your exam.
If you’re planning to sit the ATT exams online this forthcoming session, you will be able to download Exam4 using the ATT download portal approximately one month before the exam.
You are strongly encouraged to download, install and try out Exam4 before your exam day to ensure you are familiar with the app ahead of your exams.
Existing Passes
The ATT Examination Steering Group met shortly before the end of 2020 and considered measurers to assist students in the continuing pandemic. Under the circumstances it was agreed that it would be appropriate to grant one further extension (being another six months) to the life of all ATT exam passes, including Computer Based Examinations (CBE) passes.
This has been added automatically to all current student records and will be reflected on your Exam Dashboard. Please note that this will be the final extension to the validity of passes and that from the November 2021 exams normal rules and deadlines will return, as we hope of course that the pandemic will be under control by then.
Exam Dates
The exam dates can be found here.
All exams are GMT and are 3 hours and 30 minutes.