Question

ACCA student update

From 8.15am to 11.15am there was an outage on the myACCA platform. We investigated the issue as a matter of urgency with our IT suppliers.

About 200 students were impacted by this outage. We were able to send them a SMS with a workaround link that was available from 10.15 for them to try to access the portal to launch their exam. We understand this worked for the majority.

If a student has been unable to sit their exam today, then we are contacting them about their options.

Again, we apologise profusely for the inconvenience caused today.

Answer 1

Hi I was impacted and have sent an email through to ACCA as I experienced multiple issues during my exam and lost about 25 mins into my exam. Screen was freezing and couldn’t even contact evigilator and I was told not to call ACCA till after my exam. I was in such a state that I could not complete as I knew I would not have enough time to ccmplete. I did not receive a SMS and ACCA have not contacted me yet is this because I told evigilator revoke my exam

Comments

Sorry to hear that your exam was impacted by the outage. ACCA will contact all students who were affected and will advise on their options.

Our teams are busier than usual so there may be a slight delay in their response, but rest assured you will contacted.  

Again, we apologise for the inconvenience caused today.

---

I attended SBR exam and finished it. İt was submitted but now I got an email 2 days later that due to a technical issue my exam was terminated. How can such thing happen if ACca is a credible instiution. It is a total mess. I don't want a pay back of my money. I want my exam or my 3 months to prepare for my exam

---

As an ACCA candidate,I booked SBR exam dated on 10th of December, 2020 at 11:00.

Before the exam day, I ran all the launch tests and passed to take an exam with my personal computer. On the exam day, I became ready at 10:35 logging in myaccaglobal and VUE platform. It took 15 minutes by support staff to recognise my ID and other processes such as exam environment checks. After that phase, support team or VUE staff made me wait more than 20 minutes in the platform without any response in chat box from around 10:55. Then one of your staffs appeared in the chat box to direct me verify my ID and then to release the exam. Again, this processes took so much time which made me take my exam with a delay. Then, staff could not succeed to deliver my exam and asked me for to reboot my PC. Despite my repeated questions to verify his/her recommendation, he/she made me shut down my PC. After logging out, I could not reconnect to platforms to take exam. The website did not allow me to sign in assuming the exam is expired. This happened because staff made me wait without any reponse until the exam time and made me run processes taking so much time which is later than 11:30. And finally, I was asked for rebooting my PC by staff. Due to my delayed processes, the accaglobal portal and VUE platform did not allow me to log in the system. Then, I called representatives in Turkey, to tell the story and ask for help. He said he would contact with other team members. At 12:51, I am called by a staff from VUE from Boston,USA about the exam situation. She told me she was preparing technical reports and would be in contact with somebody to let me take the exam. Then representatives in Turkey, called me to tell about the situation and it does not look that my exam will be realised today and might be booked in March. Lastly, at 14:27 he called me back to tell that my exam might be realised in March.

Since there is a problem occurred by support staff which is making me wait for a long while and then making me disconnect to the platform, my exam was cancelled. I also believe that I took the right actions calling representatives. I don’t consider this situation as a technical problem. There should be a road map in those kind of failures. Remote exam is relatively a new syatem. So, there should be plan B,C,D to cover exam takers’s failures. But, this road maps should not be directing students to take exam in next term. I have been studying for this exam for a long while, my exam was cancelled because of amateur staff’s very unprofessional actions. I also don’t have any guarantee to encounter with a similar situation in March period.

The organisation is one of the oldest accountancy bodies in the world, however it does not act in the favor of their ACCA candidates. Crediting money back is not a solution. Candidates spend so much time and effort to take an exam. The only thing they do is booking an exam for the next term. It is a big disappointment for me. I don’t want to study 3 months more, I would like to have my exam in December. But, the representatives in Turkey only offer for paying exam fee back. Also, they don't come with a solution, they don't even care about my situation as they say I am the only student suffering this technical outage. But this is not a technical issue,it is the support staff's insufficient direction. And if you don't have enough support for exam day, you should compensate the loss of students.

---

Hi all, sorry to hear about these technical issues. We appreciate that this will be disappointing experience.

If you were unable to sit an exam, please visit the Contact Us page and complete the guidance to withdraw and the fees will be applied to your myACCA account. A guidance video is available to help guide you through these steps.

An exam cancellation confirmation email will be sent, at which point you can re-book your exam for March 2021 via your MyACCA account.

ACCA strives to provide an excellent level of service to its customers and in this instance we have clearly failed to achieve this. We apologise for this inconvenience.

Answer 2

I had a similar experience where the exam was interrupted because of some technical glitches. One of the invigilator first contacted me via the chat feature and later called to me to resolve the issue. All this time the timer kept moving resulting in me loosing 25ish minutes. And I could not answer all the requirements, leaving 20 marks unattended.