For some personal reasons, you may need to withdraw from the CFA exam you’ll face. You surely can withdraw from the exam before the exam date. Withdrawing from the CFA exam means you cannot take the exam and you will have to register again to take the next CFA exam.
If you really want to withdraw from the CFA exam without any excuses, you surely can do it. However, if this is your first time to withdraw from the CFA exam, you may not know yet how to withdraw from the CFA exam. No worries! You can find the guide to withdraw from the CFA exam through our post below. Here you go!
Withdrawing from the CFA Exam, Here’s How!
You can withdraw from the CFA exam via the CFA Institute website. Make sure to do the following steps to withdraw from the CFA exam! Here’s how!
- First, you need to log into the CFA Institute account with your credential.
- Once you are logged in, you need to click on the CFA program tile.
- Then, you need to choose the ‘Withdraw from Exam’ option you can find from the ‘Manage Your Exam’ section.
- You have to choose ‘Withdraw from Exam’ once checking the ‘Confirm’ box.
- Now, you could re-register for a future CFA exam you’ve withdrawn from your current exam.
Keep in mind, you will not receive a refund if you cancel the exam by yourself, unless CFA Institute specifies otherwise. However, your problem appears to be unusual. Of course, you shouldn’t receive a Prometric error message when withdrawing from the exam on the CFA Institute website.
When Can You Withdraw from the CFA exam?
Of course, you can withdraw from the CFA exam five days before the exam date. That’s where it ends, since you are not required to take the exam. CFA Institute revealed that withdrawal is not yet a self-service option, but CFA candidates can do it by contacting their contact center.
In fact, many candidates misinterpreted what withdrawal means and of course many of them accidentally cancelled their registration, so they stopped the self-service functionality.
At CFA Institute, withdrawals can be handled in two ways.
- You will gain a full CFA cancellation refund and exam fees if you cancel the CFA exam within the first three days of registration.
- You will forfeit your fees if you withdraw after that. However, you will have to re-register as soon as your withdrawal is processed. Of course, you’re required to pay the fees once more.
Need to know, if you do not withdraw by the deadline and you don’t take the CFA exam, you cannot register for the following sitting until CFA Institute announces all of the current exam’s results. Certainly, you need to follow the correct procedures to secure a place at the following session if you should cancel.
Can You Postpone Your CFA Exam?
Yes, of course! You can really postpone your CFA exam if there are certain reasons that allow you to postpone your CFA exam. If CFA Institute does not announce a postponement for all candidates, it really shows that only certain situations will allow them to reschedule. Well, it is referred to as a deferral, and deferrals will be given in a case-by-case situation.
If you have to postpone your CFA exam, you should inform the CFA Institute by email. You can also use the CFA Institute’s self-assessment tool to check if you must request a defer CFA exam.
Afterwards, CFA Institute will determine if you can postpone the CFA exam to the following sitting once reviewing your case. You should know that your enrolment and registration status are deferred until the following sitting if your case meets the criteria. However, you may forfeit any fees you’ve paid.
Well, the reason behind the policy is that the number of paid registration determines the number of testing centers, computers, furniture and other equipment to reserve in the testing centers. Furthermore, paid registration will also influence the level of assistance required. According to the CFA Institute, a deferral will also leave an empty space which cannot be filled.
Last but not least, if you’re not eligible to postpone the CFA exam and cannot take the exam on the scheduled date, you will have the option of withdrawing from the CFA exam.
How to Defer the CFA Exam?
If you defer your CFA exam, it means that you want to postpone taking the exam to a later date. The deferral policy of CFA Institute contains some factors which go into determining whether you can postpone your CFA exam date.
If you want to submit a deferral request, you may need to log into your CFA Institute account and then use the CFA Institute Deferral Form to submit your documents. If your deferral request is accepted under the CFA Institute’s deferral policy, you can register for any available exam window within 12 months of your request being approved at no additional cost.
Need to know, a CFA deferral request may take up to 6 weeks to process. If you would like to check on the progress of your request, you can go to your CFA Institute account and check the status of your request.
Here are some qualifications of CFA Institute deferral policy:
- You have a documented positive Covid-19 test within 14 days of your scheduled exam date.
- You shouldn’t take the CFA exam if you’ve been exposed to someone who has been diagnosed with Covid-19 within 14 days of your scheduled exam date.
- You’re unable to travel to your exam appointment owing to an employer, university pandemic-related travel restriction in your area within 14 days of your scheduled exam date.
- Since you enrolled for your current exam, you or a member of your family has been diagnosed with a life-threatening disease.
- A member of your family has just died.
- You’ve been ordered to participate in a mandatory military deployment during the testing period.
- You are expecting a baby.
- Your exam has been delayed by Prometric and you’ve been unable to get a new suitable appointment date after contacting Prometric.
- A natural disaster occurred and has struck your area, preventing you from taking your CFA exam.
