✅ Official results: released June 2, 2026
Certified Public Accountants: 3,004 out of 9,745 passed the May 2026 CPALE (30.83% passing rate). Results of 8 examinees were withheld pending final determination of their liabilities.
The May 2026 CPA board exam results are out. PRC confirmed 3,004 out of 9,745 passed, a 30.83% passing rate across 16 testing centers nationwide. Results of 8 examinees were withheld pending final determination of their liabilities. For all PRC board exam results this year, visit our PRC board exam results page.
Whether you just passed and need your next steps, are working through conditional status, or want to understand what a CPA license actually opens for you, the full picture is below.
Latest results: May 2026 CPALE
The PRC Board of Accountancy released the May 2026 CPA board exam results on June 2, 2026, seven working days after the final exam on May 26. The Board of Accountancy is headed by Hon. Noe G. Quiñanola as Chairman and Hon. Samuel B. Padilla as Vice Chairman. Members are Hon. Gloria T. Baysa, Hon. Thelma S. Ciudadano, and Hon. Gervacio I. Piator. Hon. Maria Teresita Z. Dimaculangan is listed as inhibited.
| Detail | May 2026 |
|---|---|
| Exam dates | May 24, 25, 26, 2026 |
| Result release | June 2, 2026 |
| Total examinees | 9,745 |
| Total passers | 3,004 (30.83%) |
| Results withheld | 8 examinees |
| Testing centers | NCR, Baguio, Butuan, Cagayan de Oro, Cebu, Davao, Iloilo, Koronadal, Legazpi, Lucena, Pagadian, Pampanga, Rosales, Tacloban, Tuguegarao, Zamboanga |
| Online registration starts | July 9, 2026 (via prc.gov.ph) |
| Governing law | Republic Act No. 9298 (Philippine Accountancy Act of 2004) |
PRC releases results in two waves. Wave 1 is the static PDF list on prc.gov.ph showing all passers, the top 10 topnotchers, and school performance data. Wave 2 is the LERIS database update at online.prc.gov.ph, where individual subject grades appear. The LERIS update typically follows three to seven days after the initial PDF release.
What six subjects does the CPALE cover?
The CPALE spans three days and tests six subjects entirely through multiple-choice questions. However, one detail trips up almost every first-time taker: RFBT has 100 items, but it carries the same 16.67% weight as every other subject. The item count does not affect the weight. All six subjects are equal.
| Subject | Weight | Items | Coverage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Financial Accounting and Reporting (FAR) | 16.67% | 70 | PFRS/PAS framework, financial statements, asset and liability recognition |
| Advanced Financial Accounting and Reporting (AFAR) | 16.67% | 70 | Business combinations, consolidated statements, partnerships, government accounting |
| Management Advisory Services (MAS) | 16.67% | 70 | Cost accounting, capital budgeting, quantitative methods, financial management |
| Auditing | 16.67% | 70 | Audit theory, risk assessment, Philippine Standards on Auditing (PSA) |
| Taxation | 16.67% | 70 | Income tax (TRAIN and CREATE laws), VAT, percentage taxes, estate and donor’s taxes |
| Regulatory Framework for Business Transactions (RFBT) | 16.67% | 100 | Civil Code obligations and contracts, Revised Corporation Code, data privacy law |
MAS and Auditing open on Day 1. Then Day 2 moves to Taxation and RFBT. Day 3 closes with FAR and AFAR, the two most computation-heavy subjects, arriving precisely when your brain has the least left to give. Most review centers under-prepare examinees for that third-day fatigue.
How does the BOA calculate your CPA board exam score?
To earn the CPA title, you must hit two conditions at the same time: a General Weighted Average (GWA) of at least 75%, and no single subject below 65%. Clearing one condition does not cancel out failing the other. Here is what that looks like across three realistic exam scenarios.
Case 1: The balanced pass
| Subject | Grade | Weight | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| FAR | 78% | 16.67% | Safe |
| AFAR | 75% | 16.67% | Safe |
| MAS | 82% | 16.67% | Safe |
| Auditing | 76% | 16.67% | Safe |
| Taxation | 79% | 16.67% | Safe |
| RFBT | 72% | 16.67% | Safe (above 65%) |
| Final GWA | 77.00% | PASS |
RFBT came in at only 72%, well below 75%. However, it cleared the 65% floor, and the stronger scores in other subjects pushed the GWA to 77%.
Case 2: Consistent but short
| Subject | Grade | Weight | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| FAR | 74% | 16.67% | Safe |
| AFAR | 72% | 16.67% | Safe |
| MAS | 73% | 16.67% | Safe |
| Auditing | 74% | 16.67% | Safe |
| Taxation | 71% | 16.67% | Safe |
| RFBT | 74% | 16.67% | Safe |
| Final GWA | 73.00% | FAIL |
No subject looks alarming, and the 65% floor was never at risk. However, because none of the six subjects broke 75%, the average could not reach the required threshold. This is the most common way examinees fail the CPALE.
Case 3: The 65% floor knockout
| Subject | Grade | Weight | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| FAR | 88% | 16.67% | Safe |
| AFAR | 86% | 16.67% | Safe |
| MAS | 90% | 16.67% | Safe |
| Auditing | 85% | 16.67% | Safe |
| Taxation | 82% | 16.67% | Safe |
| RFBT | 63% | 16.67% | FATAL (below 65%) |
| Final GWA | 82.33% | CONDITIONAL |
An 82.33% GWA would comfortably pass almost any other Philippine board exam. However, the 63% in RFBT triggers the 65% floor rule and removes this examinee from the passers list. Because they scored 75% or higher in five of the six subjects, they qualify for conditional status under RA 9298. They skip the full retake. They get a two-year window to sit for RFBT alone and earn the CPA title if they clear it.
May vs October: does the batch affect your chances?
There is a persistent rumor in accounting student circles that one batch is “easier” than the other. However, the data does not support it. The Board of Accountancy maintains a strict Table of Specifications for both cycles. When the passing rate shifts, it reflects who is sitting in the room, not a change in exam difficulty.
| Exam cycle | Total examinees | Passers | Passing rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| May 2026 | 9,745 | 3,004 | 30.83% |
| October 2025 | 10,171 | 3,460 | 34.02% |
| May 2025 | 9,533 | 3,156 | 33.11% |
| December 2024 | 10,136 | 3,058 | 30.17% |
| May 2024 | 10,421 | 3,155 | 30.28% |
Specifically, October draws more first-time takers with fresh academic foundations. May has a higher concentration of conditioned examinees, determined repeaters, and candidates who skipped the previous cycle to extend their review. Because of this, May passing rates are more variable. The focused examinees pull the average up, while underprepared retakers bring it down.
Stop timing your exam based on which batch is rumored to be easier. The right time to sit for the CPALE is the moment you can consistently score above 70% in your review center’s pre-board exams, regardless of the month.
Next CPALE exam schedule
Meanwhile, PRC administers the CPALE twice a year, typically in May and October, sometimes adding a December cycle. The October 2026 batch is the next scheduled examination. PRC typically opens applications two to three months before the exam date. Check prc.gov.ph for the official announcement once it is published.
| Event | Estimated timeline |
|---|---|
| Application period | July to August 2026 (approximate) |
| Exam dates | October 2026 (exact dates TBA by PRC) |
| Result release | Typically 7 to 10 working days after the final exam day |
| Application requirements | Valid NSO/PSA birth certificate, transcript of records, NBI clearance, 2×2 photos, application form |
So if you are planning to apply for October 2026, start preparing your documents early. Transcript requests from universities can take two to four weeks, and NBI clearance appointments book up fast in July and August.
How to check your CPA board exam result
The PDF lists are linked at the top of this page. If you still need to check your individual subject grades on LERIS, wait for the database to update fully before logging in. It usually lags three to five days behind the PDF release.
Step-by-step: the fastest method
- Download the PDF from the links above. Save it to your device immediately. The official passers list, top 10 placers, and performance of schools are available via the links at the top of this page.
- Search your surname offline. Open the PDF in any viewer. Press Ctrl+F on Windows or Command+F on Mac. Type your surname. The search runs on your device so server traffic does not affect it.
- Wait 3 to 5 days before checking individual grades. Once you confirm your name is on the list, wait for the LERIS database to update at online.prc.gov.ph before checking subject ratings.
On result day, several Facebook groups publish old lists or fabricated files to farm traffic. If a source is not on a .gov.ph domain or a verified site like WisePH, ignore it entirely.
Four things review centers don’t teach you about the CPALE
Review centers are good at training you to be a fast, accurate calculator. However, they often build blind spots that hurt examinees on exam day and disconnect them from what the market actually needs. As a business owner who hires and works with CPAs regularly, here is what I see them get wrong.
Memorizing formulas instead of the business logic
Review centers teach you to plug numbers into MAS and Taxation formulas to hit the right multiple-choice answer quickly. However, the BOA regularly twists scenarios so the shortcut fails. In the real world, formulas don’t solve problems. Understanding why a business would choose one capital budgeting method over another does. If you understand the business logic, you can derive the formula under exam pressure even when the problem is reworded.
Treating the six subjects as separate silos
Most examinees study FAR on Mondays, Taxation on Tuesdays, and RFBT on Wednesdays as if they are unrelated disciplines. The modern CPALE is heavily integrated. An Auditing problem will secretly test your FAR knowledge. A Taxation scenario will hinge on a legal detail from RFBT. A single business decision, say purchasing new equipment, triggers implications across FAR (asset recognition), Taxation (depreciation shields), and RFBT (loan covenants). Examinees who practice cross-subject integration during review survive the comprehensive questions that pure silo-studiers miss.
Skipping “smaller” tax scenarios
Review modules focus heavily on corporate audits and complex business combinations. Examinees skim individual taxation, mixed-income earner rules, and simplified tax regimes because they seem too basic. However, the BOA specifically targets these overlooked areas with tricky questions. As someone running a digital business, I can tell you the most immediate demand from SMEs and online sellers is not Big 4 auditing. It is BIR compliance. The examinees who master these “basic” scenarios often find them on the exam precisely because the competition ignores them.
Practicing only on clean, perfect data sets
Review center handouts always provide tidy problems: balanced ledgers, aligned dates, and one clear missing variable. In the actual CPALE, particularly in Auditing, the BOA gives you dirty data: extra irrelevant figures, missing dates, and contradictory statements. Examinees used to perfect handouts often freeze and try every number given, even irrelevant ones. The real skill is filtering noise and making a decisive judgment with incomplete data.
If you passed: what to do in the first 90 days
Passing the CPALE is not the finish line. What you do in the next three months sets the pace for everything after.
Register online at PRC
For May 2026 passers, online registration for your Professional Identification Card (ID) and Certificate of Registration opens July 9, 2026 at prc.gov.ph. For future batches, check prc.gov.ph for the current cycle’s registration window. Bring a screenshot of the system-generated Registration Form and a valid government-issued ID. You must personally appear and sign in the Roster of Registered Professionals.
Join PICPA
PICPA (Philippine Institute of Certified Public Accountants) is the professional organization PRC recognizes for CPAs under RA 9298. It has regional chapters across the country. Membership gets you into CPD-accredited seminars, the PICPA job board, and the kind of practitioner network that matters when you eventually want referrals for private practice. Check picpa.com.ph for your nearest chapter and the membership fee, which varies by region.
Start tracking CPD units now
PRC requires 120 CPD units every three years for license renewal. Most new CPAs know this and still ignore it until Year 3, then scramble to fill the gap before the deadline. Tracking from Day 1 costs almost nothing extra. PICPA-accredited seminars, in-house company training, and online courses all count. Keep every certificate, the provider’s accreditation number, and the date. You will thank yourself at renewal time.
If you failed: outright failure vs conditional status
Seven out of ten people sitting the CPALE don’t pass. The national rate has hovered between 30% and 34% for the past two years. However, the path back depends entirely on how you failed, and the two scenarios are handled very differently.
Outright failure: the rebuild strategy
Outright failure means your GWA fell below 75% and you did not score 75% or higher in at least four subjects. Before diving back into the same review materials, audit your PRC subject ratings. Did one computation-heavy subject like FAR or AFAR drag your entire average down, or was it a board-wide foundation issue? Therefore, your next review plan must be built around that diagnosis, not around studying harder with the same notes.
If this was your second consecutive complete failure, PRC rules require you to complete a 24-unit CPA Refresher Course from a CHED-accredited school with a 70% average before you can reapply. It sounds like a punishment, but in practice it forces a structured reset that many people need anyway. Switching review centers is also worth considering. Different instructors explain complex frameworks like business combinations and deferred taxes in completely different ways, and a fresh approach often breaks a plateau that extra hours of the same material cannot.
Persistence matters more than most people admit. Our piece on the teacher who tried 17 times and what his story really means puts the comeback mindset in a different perspective worth reading if you are feeling the weight of a failed attempt.
Conditional status: the mistakes that waste the lifeline
Conditional status means you scored 75% or higher in at least four of the six subjects but fell below 65% in one or two. You have a two-year window to retake only the failed subject. However, conditional examinees regularly sabotage this lifeline in three ways.
First, they misread the math. Many think they only need 65% on the removal exam to pass. In reality, your new removal score replaces the old failing grade. As a result, the recalculated GWA across all six subjects must still reach exactly 75.00%. If your passed subjects averaged barely 75%, you still need a significantly higher removal score. Only then will the final GWA cross the 75.00% line.
Second, they wait too long. The optimal time to sit for the removal exam is the immediate next cycle, roughly five to six months later. Taking a full year off causes severe knowledge decay and wastes the buffer. If you fail the removal exam immediately, you still have remaining time within the two-year window. Miss the deadline entirely and you forfeit all passed subjects, reverting to a complete retaker.
Third, they underestimate the workload. Studying for one subject feels like a part-time task compared to the full six-subject review. However, the CPALE is just as rigorous the second time. Fifteen to twenty hours of focused study per week is still the minimum to guarantee a pass. Also, run timed mock exams using the strict 1.5-minute-per-question pace throughout your review.
What career paths open after you pass?
Under RA 9298, a CPA license transforms you from a graduate into a licensed professional. I have a high school classmate who passed the CPALE a few years ago. Like most fresh passers, he went straight to a Big 4 firm. The starting pay was modest and the hours were brutal. However, two years later he moved to an offshore firm handling US taxation from home and now earns a six-figure monthly salary with his weekends completely free. The license got him in the door. Everything after that he built himself.
The four career tracks and starting salaries
| Career path | Typical entry salary | Work-life balance | Long-term value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Big 4 Public Audit (SGV, Isla Lipana, R.G. Manabat, Navarro Amper) | P20,000 to P25,000/month | Poor during busy season | High (best exit opportunities after 2 years) |
| Government (BIR, COA, BSP) | P27,000+/month (SG 11) | Excellent | Steady (high job security and benefits) |
| Private Corporate (SM, San Miguel, P&G, Nestle) | P30,000 to P45,000/month | Good | Moderate (stable but specialized) |
| Offshore / BPO (US, AU, UK accounting) | P40,000 to P60,000+/month | Excellent (usually WFH) | High (fastest route to dollar-earning income) |
Your first job after the CPALE is not your last. Most people build two years of audit experience, then move. Many land offshore. Others settle into government and never leave, because the benefits and stability are genuinely hard to beat. The license is what keeps all four doors open in the first place.
Beyond the CPA license: upgrade paths that multiply your value
A fresh CPA license proves you know the rules. It does not grant the legal authority to sign audit reports independently, and it does not automatically command a consulting rate. The accountants I see actually earning well are the ones who treated passing the board exam as a starting point, not a finish line.
BOA accreditation: sign audit reports legally
Just as a licensed Mechanical Engineer needs the PME designation to sign and seal blueprints, a CPA needs BOA accreditation in public practice to legally sign an independent audit report. Without it, a CPA in private practice cannot issue the audited financial statements required by the SEC and banks. With it, you can establish your own auditing firm and charge premium fees. The requirement is three years of meaningful auditing experience plus the required Continuing Professional Development (CPD) units.
BIR Tax Agent accreditation
As a business owner managing digital assets and websites, this is the credential I personally look for when hiring an accountant. A standard CPA cannot officially represent a corporate client during a BIR tax audit. In contrast, a BIR-accredited Tax Agent can, and that signing authority opens a lucrative consulting practice handling BIR compliance for SMEs and e-commerce operators on a retainer basis.
Global certifications: CMA, CISA, and CFA
My high school classmate who went offshore took the CISA route after his Big 4 stint. Consequently, he now audits IT systems and cybersecurity frameworks for offshore banks, earning double his old salary while working from home. Global certifications give Philippine CPAs access to markets and roles that a local license alone cannot reach.
| Certification | Best for | Financial upside |
|---|---|---|
| CMA (Certified Management Accountant) | Corporate ladder climbers, future CFOs | High (prerequisite for many VP Finance roles) |
| CISA (Certified Information Systems Auditor) | Tech-savvy CPAs, IT auditors | Very high (fastest-growing niche in fintech and BPO) |
| CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) | Investment banking, portfolio management | Highest (but most difficult to obtain) |
The CPA-Lawyer combination
In the Philippine corporate ecosystem, this is the power combination that commands the highest fees. A CPA who passes the Bar Exam can draft complex corporate contracts and engineer the tax implications of those same contracts simultaneously. CPA-Lawyers dominate estate planning, tax litigation, and corporate law. The earning potential has no real ceiling, though it takes four to five more years of law school to get there.
The CPA title opens doors, but the specific door you walk through depends on what you stack on top of it. For more PRC board exam results and professional guides, visit our PRC board exam results page.
CPALE results archive by batch
| Batch | Total examinees | Passers | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| May 2026 | 9,745 | 3,004 | 30.83% |
| October 2025 | 10,171 | 3,460 | 34.02% |
| May 2025 | 9,533 | 3,156 | 33.11% |
| December 2024 | 10,136 | 3,058 | 30.17% |
| May 2024 | 10,421 | 3,155 | 30.28% |
PDF downloads by batch
May 2026
October 2025
May 2025
December 2024
May 2024
Frequently asked questions
When were the May 2026 CPA board exam results released?
The PRC released the May 2026 CPA board exam results on June 2, 2026, seven working days after the final exam on May 26. In total, 3,004 out of 9,745 passed, a 30.83% passing rate.
What is the passing score for the CPALE?
You need a General Weighted Average (GWA) of at least 75%, with no single subject below 65%. Both rules apply at the same time. A high GWA does not cancel out a subject below the 65% floor.
What is conditional status in the CPALE?
Conditional status applies when you score 75% or higher in at least four of the six subjects but fall below 65% in one or two. Under RA 9298, you get a two-year window to retake only the failed subject or subjects. Your recalculated GWA must still reach exactly 75.00% to earn the CPA title.
How many subjects does the CPALE have and are they equally weighted?
The CPALE has six subjects: FAR, AFAR, MAS, Auditing, Taxation, and RFBT. All six carry equal weight at 16.67% each. RFBT has 100 items versus 70 for the others, but the item count does not affect the weight in the GWA calculation.
How do I check my CPA board exam result?
The official PDFs are linked at the top of this page: the full official result, the complete passers list, the top 10 highest placers, and the performance of schools. Download the list and press Ctrl+F on Windows or Command+F on Mac to search your surname offline. For individual subject grades, log in to online.prc.gov.ph. The LERIS database typically updates three to five days after the PDF release.
What to do next
Your next step depends on where you landed. Passers should register at prc.gov.ph during the online registration window (July 9, 2026 for May 2026 passers), join PICPA, and start tracking CPD units. For conditional examinees, sit for the removal exam at the next cycle; do not wait. If you failed outright, download your LERIS rating slip, audit your subject grades, and rebuild from the specific weakness that pulled you down. For more PRC board exam results and professional guides, visit our PRC board exam results page.
