Failed IFRS exam twice — what finally worked for me on third attempt — Forums

Samantha C.OP

May 27, 2026

I'm not going to sugarcoat it: I failed the IFRS certification exam twice before I finally passed last month, and both times I thought I'd studied enough. First attempt I scored a 61 when I needed a 70. Second time, 68. I was ready to give up entirely.

What changed on my third attempt was actually using an IFRS practice test consistently rather than just reading the standards over and over. I was re-reading IFRS 9 and IFRS 15 like they were novels, but I wasn't actually testing myself under timed conditions. Once I started doing 40-question timed sets daily for the last three weeks, my weak spots became obvious fast — consolidation under IFRS 10 and fair value measurement were killing me.

Has anyone else found that passive reading just doesn't cut it for this exam? I spent probably 180 hours total across all three attempts. Would love to hear what your IFRS study guide approach looked like, especially for the financial instruments sections.

Brian Y.

May 28, 2026

Congrats on passing! IFRS 10 consolidation tripped me up too. One thing that clicked for me: draw the ownership structure diagrams by hand before answering any consolidation question. Sounds old school but it forced me to actually see the control relationships instead of just reading numbers into a formula.

Samantha C.

May 28, 2026

This resonates so much. I passed on my second try and the turning point was similar — I stopped treating the standards as reading material and started using them as reference during practice questions. My IFRS exam tips would be: drill IFRS 16 leases hard, it shows up more than you'd expect, and don't skip the disclosure requirements. People always skip disclosures. I gave myself a strict 10-week plan, about 2 hours a night, and tracked which topic areas I was consistently missing.

James R.

May 28, 2026

Interesting that you mention IFRS 15 — that's where I'm struggling right now and I'm sitting for the exam in six weeks. The five-step revenue recognition model makes sense conceptually but I keep getting the variable consideration questions wrong. Did you find a particular IFRS study guide that explained it well, or was it more just repetition through practice questions? I've gone through two different textbooks and they both feel like they're just restating the standard.

Failed IFRS exam twice — what finally worked for me on third attempt

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