What contributes to passing the accreditation exam?

From the Accreditation Board

If you’re working as a professional editor and pondering whether to sit the IPEd accreditation exam, you may have some questions:

• How many years of experience do I need?
• What qualifications and training might be helpful?
• Should I attend an exam preparation workshop?

We’ve analysed data collected from exam candidates as part of the registration process for the past 2 exams (2022 and 2024), and we’d like to share the results. Some of them may be surprising.

Exam pass rates

First, let’s look at the overall pass rates (Table 1).

Table 1: Exam pass rates for 2022 and 2024

Next, we’ll look at the pass rates based on years of professional editing experience, years of IPEd membership, educational qualifications and attendance at exam preparation workshops.

Years of professional editing experience

Table 2 shows the pass rates based on candidates’ years of full-time (or equivalent part-time or casual) professional editing experience at the time they registered for the exam (up to 6 months before the exam date).

Table 2: Exam pass rates based on years of professional editing experience

Note: Total number of candidates for each year does not add to total number who sat the exam (see Table 1) because 2 candidates in each cohort did not complete this optional question in the exam registration form.

In 2022, candidates with between 5 and 10 years of professional editing experience had by far the highest pass rate (91%), while in 2024, candidates with between 1 and 3 years of experience had the highest pass rate (79%). In 2024, the pass rates for candidates with 3 to 5 years of experience (63%) and 5 to 10 years of experience (64%) were close to the overall pass rate for the exam (66%; see Table 1), while in 2022, this was the case for candidates with 10+ years of experience (54% pass rate) and 1 to 3 years of experience (50% pass rate). As might be expected, no candidates with less than 1 year of professional editing experience passed the exam in either year.

Years of IPEd membership

Table 3 shows the pass rates based on candidates’ years of IPEd membership at the time they registered for the exam. Note that the 2022 exam was the first for which membership of IPEd or an approved affiliate editing organisation was compulsory.

Table 3: Exam pass rates based on years of IPEd membership

Note: Total number of candidates for each year does not add to total number who sat the exam (see Table 1) because 1 candidate in each cohort did not complete this optional question in the exam registration form.

In 2022, the highest pass rates were for candidates with 10+ years and 3 to 5 years of IPEd membership, with 75% of these 8 candidates passing the exam compared with 53% overall. In 2024, the 1 candidate with 10+ years of IPEd membership passed the exam, as did 11 of the 15 candidates (73%) with 1 to 3 years of IPEd membership. The 12 candidates who had between 3 and 10 years of IPEd membership in 2024 also performed slightly better than the overall pass rate of 66%, with 67% of these candidates passing. Notably, although the lowest pass rate in 2022 (33%) was among the 6 candidates with 5 to 10 years of IPEd membership, the lowest pass rate in 2024 (59%) was among the 29 candidates with less than 1 year of IPEd membership.

Educational qualifications and training

Table 4 shows the pass rates based on candidates’ highest educational qualification.

Table 4: Exam pass rates based on highest educational qualification

Note: Total number of candidates for each year does not add to total number who sat the exam (see Table 1) because 1 candidate in each cohort did not complete this optional question in the exam registration form.

The highest pass rates in both exams were among candidates holding either vocational or postgraduate diplomas or certificates. Of the 8 candidates across both exams whose highest qualification was a vocational diploma or certificate, 7 (88%) passed the exam, while 19 of 26 candidates (73%) across both exams whose highest qualification was a postgraduate diploma or certificate passed the exam.

Apart from the 1 candidate in 2022 whose highest qualification was secondary school who failed the exam, the lowest pass rates in both exams were among candidates whose highest qualification was a bachelor’s degree (42% passed in 2022 and 46% in 2024). Candidates with a master’s degree performed above the overall pass rate in 2022 (58% vs 53%) and slightly below it in 2024 (65% vs 66%). Candidates with doctorates performed below the overall pass rate in both years.

These figures likely reflect the nature and purpose of the exam as it aims to test editors’ practical skills, knowledge and competency.

Attendance at exam preparation workshops

The final table (Table 5) shows pass rates based on whether candidates had attended one or more exam preparation workshops. Note that the exam preparation workshops consist of a series of 3 workshops, and some candidates may not have attended all 3 workshops in the series.

Table 5: Exam pass rates based on exam preparation workshop attendance

In both years, candidates who attended 1 or more exam preparation workshops had a higher pass rate than those who did not attend any workshops.

The above analysis shows that there is no magic formula for passing the exam, but the factors more likely to help you pass include:

• having more than 1 year of equivalent full-time professional editing experience
• being a member of IPEd for at least 1 year
• having practice-based editorial training or qualifications
• attending exam preparation workshops.

The next exam is scheduled for 24 August 2026 – just over a year from now. For more information and to download sample exams, see the exam pages of the IPEd website. If you have questions and can’t find an answer on the website, please contact your branch AB delegate or the AB chair.