CPALE 2026 Guide: Format, May & Oct Schedule, 16-Week Plan
CPALE 2026 guide — 6 subjects (FAR, AFAR, Management Services, Auditing, Tax, RFBT) over 3 days, the 75% average / 65% floor rule, the May and October 2026 sittings, real PRC pass rates, and a 16-week plan.
By Super Tutor Team
What is CPALE?
The Certified Public Accountant Licensure Exam (CPALE) is the PRC board exam for aspiring accountants, given by the Professional Regulatory Board of Accountancy. Recent sittings have had roughly 9,500–10,200 examinees each. It runs twice a year (May and October). If you've gone through accountancy school, this is the wall.
CPALE 2026 Schedule
The CPA Licensure Examination runs twice in 2026, each over three consecutive days with two subjects per day, three hours each (450 MCQs total — 70 per subject, except RFBT at 100):
- May 2026: held May 24–26, 2026. PRC released results on June 2: 3,004 of 9,745 examinees passed (30.83%).
- October 2026: October 24–26, 2026 at 18 testing centres. Filing ran July 10 – September 9, 2026 and is now closed; PRC targets releasing results on November 3, 2026.
- 2027: the first sitting is expected around May 2027, but PRC has not yet published its 2027 exam schedule.
The October 2026 PRC programme sets this day-by-day order (8:00–11:00 AM and 1:00–4:00 PM):
- Day 1: Management Services (MS) in the morning, Auditing in the afternoon
- Day 2: Taxation (TAX) in the morning, Regulatory Framework for Business Transactions (RFBT) in the afternoon
- Day 3: Financial Accounting and Reporting (FAR) in the morning, Advanced Financial Accounting and Reporting (AFAR) in the afternoon
Always confirm the exact dates and deadlines against the official PRC 2026 examination schedule (Resolution No. 2113 s. 2025) before filing.
Six Board Subjects (450 MCQs)
- Financial Accounting and Reporting (FAR) — 70 MCQs
- Advanced Financial Accounting and Reporting (AFAR) — 70 MCQs
- Management Services (MS) — 70 MCQs (renamed from "Management Advisory Services" in 2022)
- Auditing — 70 MCQs (theory and practice in one paper)
- Taxation (TAX) — 70 MCQs
- Regulatory Framework for Business Transactions (RFBT) — 100 MCQs
Under RA 9298, you pass with a 75% general average and no subject below 65%. If you fail overall but score 75% or higher in a majority of subjects, you get conditional credit for those subjects and must pass the rest within two years. A revised syllabus adopted by the Board of Accountancy (Resolution No. 20, s. 2026) only applies from 2029, so the 2026–2028 sittings keep these six subjects.
Passing Rate
PRC's national results for the last three sittings: 33.11% in May 2025 (3,156 of 9,533), 34.02% in October 2025 (3,460 of 10,171) and 30.83% in May 2026 (3,004 of 9,745). Roughly one in three examinees passes. PRC also publishes a list of top-performing schools with each results release on prc.gov.ph.
16-Week Review Plan
Months 1–2: rotate FAR, AFAR, and Management Services in 90-minute daily blocks. Months 2–3: bring in Auditing (theory and problems) and start weekly timed practice sets. Final month: drill Tax and RFBT while running full-length, three-hour timed sessions every weekend. Read every rationale. CPALE rewards applied understanding far more than memorised formulas.
Super Tutor and CPALE
A CPALE reviewer is coming soon to Super Tutor. For now, see the CPALE exam overview for the format and dates.
See Also
Sources
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