FAQs

Paying annual dues maintains your student status with CPA ASB, which means you can register in CPA preparatory courses and are registered with a provincial CPA body to access the CPA member benefits.

To transfer your registration to another region, please send your request to lmurphy@cpaatlantic.ca.

If you have registered for the wrong course in the self-serve registration portal, you can submit your request to registrations@cpaatlantic.ca to have your registration changed.

The fee paid with course registration covers one course registration and one exam registration. Exam withdrawal/deferral and rewrite fees (if applicable) are separate and can be found on the website here (fees and schedules)

If you are taking a CPA preparatory course, you will have access to the course materials in D2L for 12 months from the course start date. At the end of the 12 months, the course will be “retired”, and you will no longer have access.

Please note if you choose to defer or withdraw from the course and take it in a later semester, you will be withdrawn from the current course immediately.

Please submit your request to programs@cpaatlantic.ca. If you withdraw before the course start date with the course fees submitted, you are entitled to a course fee refund, less a 10% administrative fee. If course fees are not submitted, you owe 10% of the course fee as an administrative fee. If you withdraw after the course start date, there will be no refund of the course fee.

The evaluation of non-core courses is based 100 percent on the final exam. Students must achieve 50 percent on their final exam to pass the course. If a student’s grade is under 50 percent, they are required to retake the full course and pay for the full course fee again.

To be eligible to write the course exam, you must achieve a minimum grade of 75% on course activities. The grade is calculated on a combination of reasonable attempt and performance on activities.

Once you are eligible to proceed to the final exam, the exam grade is weighted 100 percent towards the course grade (and the other activities completed in the course do not count towards the course grade).  Students must achieve 60% on their final exam to pass the course.

You are required to complete all the assignments within six weeks and meet the minimum threshold of 75% even if you pick a later exam date. If you do not achieve 75%, you will not be eligible to write the course exam. You will be charged with a failed course attempt and be withdrawn from the course. You will be required to register for the course and pay the applicable fees again.

You can view your accumulated overall exam eligibility grade in Brightspace (D2L) at any time. To view your grade, go to your course page in Brightspace (D2L) and click on Grades – at the very bottom you will see the ‘overall course grade’.  Please note your overall score listed on the Wiley Learning Platform does not represent your overall exam eligibility grade.

You can find sample exams under the exam preparation tab in Brightspace (D2L).

No, you can pick and register for your exam date during the course registration process through the self-serve portal on the CPA ASB website.

Eligible students have the opportunity to write the course exam only and receive an exemption from the course portion of the CPA preparatory core courses. For more information on who is eligible for challenge exams, refer to the CPA Canada Harmonized Education Policy or visit the CPA Canada website CRC: Resources for CPA preparatory courses (cpacanada.ca) Please review your initial eligibility assessment results to see if you are eligible to attempt a challenge exam. It should be noted that CPA preparatory course materials are not available to students who choose to challenge an exam.

Once you meet the exam eligibility requirement, you can defer your exam up to the day before the examination without academic penalty provided the next available examination you register for is within the time limit maximum or one year of the course start date. However, exams should be deferred only for exceptional circumstances such as illness or emergencies.  Please refer to the fees and schedules on our school’s website for the exam deferral fee charge. All exam deferral/withdrawal requests should be sent to programs@cpaatlantic.ca.

For core CPA preparatory courses, you might be eligible for a rewrite if this is your first attempt at the course and your final course grade is between 50 and 59 percent. Note: exam rewrites are not offered for non-core courses.

Yes, you must write the final exam at the location that CPA ASB assigns you to. You can select your preferred exam location when you registered, but all locations, dates, and times are subject to change at the discretion of CPA ASB.

If you have a disability, including learning disabilities, you can submit an accommodation request to cpaaccommodations@cpaatlantic.ca. Accessibility and accommodation requests are handled through a national process and reviewed by CPA Canada’s National Accommodations Advisory Panel. For more information, please visit CPA Canada’s website. The deadline for applying with supporting documents is 10 weeks prior to the examination for which the applicant is seeking accommodations.

Please submit your out-of-region exam accommodation request to exams@cpaatlantic.ca at least six weeks before the exam to allow sufficient time to process the request. Please indicate the city and province where you wish to write the exam.

Please be advised that the other provinces/regions may not necessarily have an approved examination center in the city that is being requested. While we will try our best to accommodate requests, be advised that we may not be able to approve the request due to availability/ time constraints. Other provinces/regions can refuse the request due to space limitations.

Exam schedule/logistics will be emailed approximately two weeks before the exam date. Please add exams@cpaatlantic.ca to the safe list in your email to ensure that program updates do not end up in your junk folder.

Please refer to CPA Exam Regulations for allowable and prohibited items.

You can find your final exam grade in Brightspace (D2L) under the Grade section. Exam grades are usually released on the third Monday following the scheduled exam date.  You can also visit the course calendar on the CPA ASB website for the release date.

Exam appeals are only available if you have failed an exam for a core course. The fee for the appeal is $105+HST. CPA Canada will only review “constructed response questions” for potential marking issues. Detailed feedback is not provided, and marked exams are not returned to students. The appeal requests should be sent to programs@cpaatlantic.ca.

The appeal result will not be released until payment is received. If an appeal comes back successfully, the appeal fee will be refunded to you or held on account to use towards your next registration.

Students can take the course through a recognized university and transfer the credit to CPA ASB upon successful completion.

No. Your reviewer will review your responses against the rubrics and questions that are in the experience report.

If you created your experience report prior to April 1, 2021, the competencies and rubrics will not change in that experience report.  You do not need to submit them by April 1, 2021; however, please ensure you complete that experience report by your Next Experience Report Date and then create a new experience report so that you can begin working with the updated competencies/rubrics.

You will be able to address the older questions on that experience report; however, you should complete that experience report and set it to verified status by your Next Experience Report Date, and create a new experience report after that so that you can begin addressing the updated competencies.

At completion, the CPA Reviewer reserves the right to review all Experience Reports, including Reviewed Experience Reports in order to reassess the recognized proficiency levels from the perspective of a Completion Review. As a result, a previously awarded Level 2 may need some updating.  In this case, you are asked to update your response in the most recent experience report (which will likely be to the newer questions).

No.  If you have addressed the competency to a Level 2 standard in a previously reported experience report, you will not need to answer the new questions after April 1, 2021.  As mentioned previously, the reviewer will review your experience holistically at completion.  As a result, a previously awarded Level 2 may need some updating. In this case, you are asked to update your response in the most recent experience report (which will likely be to the newer questions).

The old questions and your answers will still be visible in your old report. Your new report will contain the new questions, but the substance of the questions is similar. Continue to develop your proficiency and answer the new question in the new report to a Level 2.

Yes, you will receive a full refund less a 10% administrative fee.

While course fees are non-refundable, you can choose to defer your course to a future semester. Deferral fees are 25% of the original course fee.

Note that student dues are non-refundable.

No. The exam deferral fee is an administrative fee for processing the change in your exam date. Once your request has been processed, the fee is payable and non-refundable.

Yes, you are eligible for a refund of your CPA preparatory course exam. Please refer to our Fees and Schedules.

No. Student dues are matched to specific costs incurred to deliver the CPA preparatory course to a given student (for example, your annual licence for a particular programmatic component). Similarly, upon joining CPA PEP new, similar program costs are borne to support each candidate.

CPA Atlantic School will review the basis of that credit and, if you are entitled to a refund, it will be issued to you.

Your registration must be submitted through the CPA Atlantic School “Self-Serve Registration Portal” and full payment (or proof that payment is forthcoming) must be received by the school by the registration deadline to avoid the late registration fee for CPA PEP modules and the CFE. Proof of payment can be sent by you or your employer to finance@cpaatlantic.ca.

For more information on late registration fees, click here.

Yes, once the withdrawal is complete, a full refund of the module fee will be issued.

Note that you also have the option to keep the payment on account and apply it to your next CPA PEP module.

The school will need review the CPA PEP refund policy as presented in your particular student contract (i.e. your cohort) to determine if you are eligible for a partial refund of your course fee. Please contact finance@cpaatlantic.ca if this applies to you.

Note that you also have the option to defer your module to a future semester.

This is dependent on your specific student contract (i.e. that of your particular cohort). As a registered private career college with the provincial department of education, CPA Atlantic School must adhere to specific refund policies set out by the government of Nova Scotia’s Private Career Colleges division

Please see the student contract you signed prior to beginning Core 1 for specific information. Our staff can assist and determine if you are eligible for a partial refund of your course fee. Please contact finance@cpaatlantic.ca if this applies to you.

Please note you also have the option to defer your module to a future semester.

Our staff will review the CPA PEP refund policy as presented in your student contract to determine if you would be eligible for a partial refund of your module fee. Please contact finance@cpaatlantic.ca if this applies to you.

Note also that you also have the option to defer your module to a future semester.

Our staff will review the CPA PEP refund policy as presented in your student contract to determine if you would be eligible for a partial refund of your module fee. Please contact finance@cpaatlantic.ca if this applies to you.

Note that per the CPA Harmonized Education Policies, after the fourth Friday of a module has passed, the CPA profession considers this an attempt and a failing grade is assigned.

No. The exam deferral fee is an administrative fee for processing the change in your exam date. Once your request has been processed, the fee is payable and non-refundable.

Yes, you are eligible for a refund of your CPA PEP course exam. Please refer to our Fees and Schedules.

You are required to pay annual candidate dues until you are accepted to CPA membership. A partial refund of your candidate dues will be issued to you by CPA Atlantic School once you are approved for membership by your CPA member body.

Once the CPA provincial body notifies CPA Atlantic School that you have been accepted into membership, the partial refund of your PEP candidate dues will be issued.

The school can review the CPA PEP refund policy as presented in your student contract to determine if you would be eligible for a refund of your credit. Please contact finance@cpaatlantic.ca if this applies to you.