Application and Professional Skills (APS)

APS Exam

No exemptions will be permitted and specific rules will be in operation for ACA CTA Joint Programme candidates.

Candidates will be required to demonstrate competence in each of three skills:

  1. Structure - this covers the structure of the whole answer
  2. Identification and Application
  3. Relevant Advice and Substantiated Conclusions

The pre-seen information will give background details relevant to the client in the question, but it will not guide candidates as to the actual examination question requirements. It is intended that the pre-seen information will better equip candidates to deal with the case study in the examination environment and makes the question more aligned to a client situation in which they may be involved. 

Candidates may discuss the pre-seen information with whomever they choose.


Pre-seen Information

Pre-seen information will be downloadable to all candidates prior to the exam. It will be available two weeks in advance of the examination.

Download the pre-seen information for your chosen APS question below:


Sample APS Exams

The following documents provide information regarding the marking of the APS exam and are applicable to all of the sample exams.

The Marking of the Application and Professional Skills Paper

Reports vs Letters in the APS paper

See sample exams below for each APS question. 

You can also find past APS exams here and you will see APS past exams are available from May 2019, which is when the current CTA exam structure started.

Download sample APS exams