The ExAC in 2026: Dates, Sections, Fees and the Rules That Catch People Out

Ask five Intern Architects how the ExAC works and you will get five answers, most of them second-hand. That is a poor way to plan the most important two days of your internship.

So this guide does one thing. It sets out how the Examination for Architects in Canada runs in 2026, using the ExAC Committee's own Preparation Guide and website as the source for every date, fee and rule. Where a detail belongs to your licensing authority, we say so.

ExAC 2026 at a glance

Registration for the 2026 sitting is closed. If you are planning for a later year, expect the same rhythm: register in early summer, write in early November, and hear back in February. The ExAC is offered once a year, so a missed deadline costs twelve months.

Who can write the ExAC?

The ExAC has been adopted by every architectural licensing authority in Canada. To write it, you must meet three conditions:

1. Intern status in good standing with one of the Regulatory Organizations of Architecture in Canada. Full CACB certification is required. Provisional certification does not qualify.
2. At least 2,800 experience hours recorded in your Canadian Experience Record Book and approved by your licensing authority, or submitted for approval by the experience deadline with sign-off from both your supervising architect and your mentor.
3. A completed registration form and fee, received by your licensing authority before the registration deadline.

One detail surprises people. There are no per-category minimums for the exam. Your 2,800 hours can come from any combination of the experience categories in the Internship in Architecture Program (IAP).

What is on each of the four sections?

The official guide lists the topics for each section. This is the real split, and it is not the one most people guess.

Section 2 is the outlier. It is the only session built around two documents, and the only one where you may bring them with you. Our guide to NBC 2020 on the ExAC covers the rules for your copy.

The questions come from a published list of general and specific objectives, printed in Appendix 1 of the Preparation Guide. Those objectives follow the IAP experience categories, and the guide says they are generally selected in proportions similar to the minimum hours each category requires. The exam leans toward the work interns are expected to have done.

What kinds of questions are on the ExAC?

The guide names five question types:

• Multiple choice
• Pairing or matching of components
• Ordering of elements
• Completion of sentences, or fill in the blank
• Short answers

Multiple-choice answers go on an answer sheet that is marked by computer. Written answers go in a booklet and are marked by architects using correction grids, with each answer read by at least two markers. The exam uses metric units, though some questions give imperial figures and expect you to convert.

What do the two exam days look like?

You write four sessions of three hours each across two consecutive days. Your letter of authorization gives the exact times and the location. The exam goes ahead whatever the weather.

• Arrive 30 minutes early. Instructions start about ten minutes before each session, and nobody enters or leaves while they are read.
• Late entry closes after 30 minutes. You get no extra time if you arrive late.
• Bring two things to get in: official photo ID with a signature, and your letter of authorization.
• On your desk: HB pencils, an eraser, a small sharpener, a small ruler, a basic calculator that cannot store or send data, and water, coffee or tea in a sealable container.
• Not allowed: notes, books, dictionaries, your own scratch paper, headphones, and food unless approved through an accommodation request.

For Section 2 only, you may bring paper copies of the NBC 2020, without provincial adaptations, and the NECB 2020.

How is the ExAC marked?

Each section is reported as Pass or Fail. There is no combined grade. The passing score for each section is set after the sitting, using standard-setting methods that include the Angoff method: a panel of architects judges how a minimally competent architect would do on each question. The passing scores are not published, so there is no target percentage to aim for.

The published results are encouraging. For the 2025 sitting, the ExAC reported 977 candidates and section pass rates between 83.7% and 85.1%.

What happens if you fail a section?

This is the rule most often passed along wrong. You do not get unlimited tries at your own speed.

• You have three consecutive attempts to pass all four sections.
• Sections you pass stay passed. You rewrite only the ones you failed.
• You must rewrite failed sections at the next sitting. If you do not register the following year, it counts as a failed attempt.
• If you are registered and absent, that section is recorded as a fail.
• If sections are still outstanding after the third attempt, you start again and rewrite all four.

If something serious stops you from writing, such as illness or a death in the family, you can report exceptional circumstances in writing to your licensing authority within 30 days. Work conflicts do not count.

What does it cost, and can you cancel?

The fee is $250 per section, paid to your own licensing authority regardless of where you write. Writing all four costs $1,000. Tax is added in Quebec, British Columbia and Manitoba only.

If you cancel in writing more than 21 days before the exam, you are refunded 75% of the fee. Inside 21 days there is no refund.

Where should you start?

Start with the document the exam is written from. Download the current ExAC Preparation Guide from exac.ca and read the objectives in Appendix 1. Mark the ones you have never touched at work. That list is your study plan in rough form.

Then give it a calendar. Our 12-week ExAC study plan turns the objectives into weeks, and our guide to the ExAC reference books tells you which of the listed documents to open first.