There is a facility for students to take our CA Proficiency 1 examinations under the "external candidate" route.  This allows students to present for all or any combination of subjects in our CAP 1 examination without having completed the relevant course programme.  The onus lies with the student to ensure that they are familiar with the course syllabus in order to make a reasonable attempt at the examination.

The criteria for sitting as an external candidate for 2025 is detailed below:

• External candidates may sit the examination in the year in which their degree or postgraduate programme concludes OR
• External candidates may sit the examination at the summer and/or autumn sessions immediately preceding entry into a training contract where the offer of a training contract and the start date of the contract is certified in writing to the Institute by the training organisation OR
• External candidates may sit the examination at the summer and/or autumn sessions immediately preceding entry into the flexible option route where this is confirmed in writing to the Institute by the candidate, having cleared eligibility to become a prospective student.

PLEASE NOTE: if you are graduating college in 2025, you are only eligible to sit CAP1 Law and Financial Accounting exam including DEBK interim assessment in the autumn exam session.

Exam enrolment for summer and autumn 2025 will be open online from 31 January 2025- 17 February 2025, additionally enrolments for autumn 2025 exams will be open again from 30 May 2025 - 16 June 2025 no late enrolments can be accepted. 
All external students must provide a certificate of eligibility upon registration. The eligibility form must be emailed to Cap1Exam@charteredaccountants.ie

CAP1 Financial Accounting Interim Assessment (DEBK) and CAP1 Law are on-demand E-assessments and will be held in the autumn sitting on 26 May 2025 until 20 June 2025 inclusive.

Please note external candidates can only sit examinations in any one year,  i.e. if they sit examinations in summer and/or autumn, they cannot sit exams the following year as an external candidate.

Upon registering as an external student you can apply online to sit the relevant exam, giving you access to sample papers and practice papers, if you are registering for CAP1 Law or Financial Accounting exam you will also receive the CAP1 Law toolkit and DEBK (Financial Accounting interim assessment) toolkit.  As you are not enrolled on a programme you will not be given access to course materials.

If you are successful in these examinations you will carry the pass to your formal registration with Chartered Accountants Ireland in the same way you would carry an exemption.   If you are unsuccessful in the examination it will not impact on the number of attempts you have at the examinations when you formally register with Chartered Accountants Ireland.  Your formal registration with Chartered Accountants Ireland cannot pre-date the date of the external examination sitting.

Please click on the "apply online" button below  to complete your external student application

To apply as an external student or to apply for exemptions requires you to login. If you don't have an account already, you can create one on the login page to proceed.