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Online exam rules
You must comply with the rules set out on this page, when sitting online ADIT exams.
Any violation of the rules will be reported to the ADIT Examination Committee, which may at its absolute discretion disqualify any candidate.
By choosing to sit online ADIT exams you agree to act with integrity, receive no external assistance and sit your exams in a room alone.
- You are not permitted to have any other exam candidate, or any other individual, to type, contribute towards or complete answers on your behalf, or impersonate you. The only exception to this rule is if you have been permitted use of a scribe, by the CIOT, due to a disability or medical need.
- The CIOT reserves the right to take photos at intervals during your exam, and your webcam must be switched for the full duration of your exam. Your face must be visible on your webcam throughout your exam, with the exception of bathroom breaks if required. You must sit alone throughout your exam. You should not use a mobile phone, headphones, or any other device which could be used to communicate with other candidates.
- The answers you submit must be your own work, and not the work of any other exam candidate or any other individual, either via collusion, impersonation or plagiarism.
- Taking photographs or screenshots, and retaining copies of your exam answers, is strictly prohibited. You cannot share your answers with other exam candidates or other individuals, or retain your answers for personal use, either during or after the exam.
- You are not permitted to copy, photograph or retain copies of the exam questions. You are strictly prohibited from distributing unauthorised copies of the exam questions.
- You must not behave in a manner that will distract any other candidates sitting the exam, before or during the exam. This includes sending messages, and any other form of communication or interaction which disrupts other candidates’ exams.
- The exams are closed-book, meaning you may only use the permitted books during the exam. You may not refer to any books, study manuals, pre-prepared notes (including annotation of the permitted books), online resources, or other unspecified materials. Any other materials mentioned in the ADIT syllabus (such as those listed under ‘Additional Reading’, ‘Essential Reading’, ‘Periodicals’, etc.), are for assistance in your studies, and are not permitted in the exam unless they are specifically listed as such.
- You are not permitted to use any chatbot or AI tool (such as ChatGPT, Google Bard or LLaMA) to generate answers, or for any other purpose, during your exam.
- Software will be used on all answers to investigate whether you have committed collusion or plagiarism, used AI tools, or engaged in any other form of misconduct in the exams.
- You may use a pocket calculator during the exam. Programmable calculators are permitted, except those with a graphical display.
- It is your responsibility to be ready and start the exam on time. You will have a 15 minute window to open your question paper in the Exam4 software and start your exam. If you start later than this window without good reason, you may be disqualified.
- Each ADIT exam lasts for 3 hours and 15 minutes, beginning when you open your question paper in Exam4. You must not exceed your permitted exam time. If you do exceed your permitted time, you will be contacted and reported to the ADIT Examination Committee and you may face disqualification.
- You will be responsible for keeping time during the exam, and for finishing your exam within the permitted time. You may use a clock, watch or stopwatch for this purpose, including one with an alarm; however, smartwatches are not permitted.
- There is no separate reading time, so you can start typing your answers as soon as the exam begins. However, we recommend that you set aside some time to thoroughly read each question and plan each of your answers.
- You may use a pen and sheets of plain, blank paper to plan your answers and make notes during the exam. However, pre-prepared notes are not permitted.
- If you experience an emergency which causes disruption either immediately before or during your exam, you must email details of the disruption to the Education Team as soon as possible. This can include situations such as you, or a family member, suddenly becoming unwell, or any technical or IT issues that affect your ability to sit the exam.
- Should you encounter any IT issues either before or during your exam, please contact the Education Team as soon as possible. You will need to include a photo showing the issue on your screen, and including your candidate photocard ID in the corner of the photo.
- You will not be awarded extra time should you choose to take breaks during your exam. This includes bathroom breaks.
- You may be required to supply more information to the CIOT, if you are suspected of misconduct. Failure to provide such information may result in disqualification.
Violation of exam rules
Software is used to investigate incidents of misconduct, and our Examiners are extremely vigilant in spotting instances when a candidate has copied other people's work or tried to pass it off as their own. We will treat suspected misconduct reported by our examining teams, or any other individual, extremely seriously.
If you are judged to have engaged in any form of misconduct during your exam, you may face:
- Disqualification from all the exams you sat;
- Suspension or termination of your ADIT student registration; and
- Disqualification from sitting future ADIT or other CIOT exams.
All cases of suspected misconduct are investigated and carefully considered by the ADIT Examination Committee, and if you are suspected of having committed misconduct you will be given the opportunity to provide an explanation before any judgment is made.
If you are judged by the ADIT Examination Committee to have committed misconduct, you will have the option to appeal to the CIOT, submitting any further information as to why you believe you did not commit misconduct. A £50 appeal fee applies, refundable if the appeal is successful.
If you have been judged to have committed any form of misconduct in a previous exam and are found to have engaged in misconduct for a second time, your ADIT student registration will be terminated and you will be unable to sit future ADIT or other CIOT exams.
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Additional information
What time should I start my exam?
All December 2024 ADIT exams are scheduled to start at the following times, in the locations listed below. Each exam lasts for 3 hours and 15 minutes, beginning when you open your question paper in the Exam4 software.
It is your responsibility to be ready to start your exam on time. You will have a 15-minute window to complete your pre-exam setup, capture your exam ID, open your question paper and start your exam.
Once you have opened your question paper, you will have 3 hours and 15 minutes to complete your exam. For example, if you are sitting your exam in Nigeria and you open the question paper to start your exam 5 minutes after your scheduled start time (at 10.05 WAT), you can finish your exam 5 minutes after your scheduled finish time (at 13.20 WAT).
If you exceed the permitted 3 hours and 15 minutes, you may be disqualified.
| City | Time zone | Local start time (15-minute window opens) |
| Vancouver | UTC -8.00hr | 06.00 (PST) |
| Dallas | UTC -6.00hr | 08.00 (CST) |
| New York City | Toronto | UTC -5.00hr | 09.00 (EST) |
| Hamilton | Santo Domingo | UTC -4.00hr | 10.00 (AST) |
| Santiago | Sao Paulo | Stanley | UTC -3.00hr | 11.00 (CLST/BRT/FKST) |
| Accra | Dublin | London | St. Helier | UTC | 10.00 (GMT) |
| Abuja | Amsterdam | Barcelona | Basel | Belgrade | Bratislava | Brussels | Budapest | Frankfurt | Gibraltar | Lagos | Luxembourg | Madrid | Milan | München | Naples | Paris | Prague | Valletta | Vienna | Warsaw | Yaounde | UTC +1.00hr | 11.00 (WAT/CET) |
| Athens | Blantyre | Bucharest | Cairo | Cape Town | Gaborone | Harare | Johannesburg | Kigali | Kyiv | Lusaka | Nicosia | Riga | Sofia | Tel Aviv | Vilnius | UTC +2.00hr | 12.00 (EET/CAT/SAST/IDT) |
| Amman | Dar es Salaam | Doha | Jeddah | Kampala | Kuwait City | Manama | Nairobi | Riyadh | UTC +3.00hr | 13.00 (EEST/EAT/AST) |
| Baku | Beau Bassin-Rose Hill | Dubai | Muscat | Tbilisi | Yerevan | UTC +4.00hr | 14.00 (AZT/MUT/GST/GET/AMT) |
| Islamabad | Karachi | UTC +5.00hr | 15.00 (PKT) |
| Bangalore | Chennai | Delhi | Kolkata | Mumbai | UTC +5.30hr | 15.30 (IST) |
| Almaty | Astana | UTC +6.00hr | 16.00 (ALMT) |
| Bangkok | Hanoi | Jakarta | UTC +7.00hr | 13.00 (ICT/WIB) |
| Hong Kong | Kuala Lumpur | Manila | Singapore | Ulaanbaatar | UTC +8.00hr | 14.00 (HKT/MYT/PHST/SGT/ULAT) |
| Tokyo | UTC +9.00hr | 15.00 (JST) |
| Brisbane | UTC +10.00hr | 16.00 (AEST) |
| Melbourne | UTC +11.00hr | 17.00 (AEDT) |
Your candidate information email will contain your scheduled exam location and start time. If you are unable to sit your exam in your scheduled location, please email us as soon as possible.
What is misconduct?
We define misconduct as any attempt to violate the exam rules, or any behaviour that is intended to gain an unfair advantage in your exam. We take the issue of misconduct extremely seriously as it has the potential to adversely affect the integrity and fairness of the exams and the qualification.
Misconduct may include:
- Plagiarism
- Collusion
- Impersonation
- Using chatbots and other AI tools
- Exceeding the permitted exam time
- Any other violation of the exam rules
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is a form of misconduct in which a candidate attempts to copy, or pass off as one’s own work or opinion, the work or opinion of another author or any other external source. In an ADIT exam context, this can include using content from a text that is not listed as a permitted book (since the candidate is passing off such content as their own work).
Collusion
Collusion is a form of misconduct in which a candidate communicates, or attempts to communicate, with other candidates sitting the exam or any other individual in order to collaborate, discuss the exam questions or gain any other advantage during the exam.
Impersonation
Impersonation is a form of misconduct in which an individual who is not the registered candidate sits an exam, or any portion of an exam, on the candidate’s behalf. You will be required to confirm your identity as part of the exam sitting process.
Using chatbots and other AI tools
This is a form of misconduct in which a candidate uses an AI tool as an exam aid, for example to generate answers to exam questions.
The use of chatbots and AI tools including, but not limited to, ChatGPT, Google Bard and LLaMA, to generate answers or for any other purpose during ADIT exams is strictly prohibited. The CIOT uses the latest AI detection software to identify any instances of this form of misconduct in ADIT exams.
Exceeding the permitted exam time
All ADIT exams have a fixed length of 3 hours and 15 minutes, commencing when you open the question paper.
The only exceptions are if a candidate has sought and been granted additional time due to specific personal circumstances (such as a medical circumstance necessitating additional exam time) or if a candidate's exam has been interrupted by technical issues such as a forced reboot). In either of these situations, the candidate must notify the CIOT as soon as possible. The candidate may, with authorisation from the CIOT, be permitted additional compensatory time to complete the exam.
Candidates who exceed the exam time without such authorisation will be deemed to have committed misconduct.
What are closed-book exams?
We operate a closed-book policy for all ADIT exams, meaning that only the permitted books are allowed during the exam.
ADIT exams have always been delivered as closed-book because candidates come from a wide range of backgrounds, attend different tuition courses and have access to different materials. Our closed-book exam policy remains unchanged to ensure candidates have equal access to resources during the exam.
How do I reference sources in my exam answers?
When sitting the exam, you may mention or cite relevant case law or other reliable sources in support of the points you are making in your answers – indeed, this may even be expected, depending on the nature of the question! However, you should always attribute the content which you cite to its source rather than trying to pass it off as your own opinion or work.
You will not be expected to provide detailed citations – just the general name of the author, legal case or piece of legislation you are referring to. For example:
- “As Rohatgi points out, exit taxes may result in double taxation if the new and former residence states differ in their valuation of the asset…”
- “In the Apple case, Ireland was initially found to have granted illegal state aid…”
- “As the OECD’s BEPS Final Report makes clear, the digital economy is increasingly indistinguishable from the economy itself and therefore cannot be taxed separately.”
You should be aware that memorising extracts from published books, articles or briefings, and reproducing these in the exam without citation, is highly likely to be identified by plagiarism detection software.
Examiners expect you to be familiar with the syllabus and to be able to apply your knowledge. Marks are only awarded for relevant evaluation or analysis of question material in your own words. Although you may reproduce text from the permitted books, this will not in itself attract marks – you will also need to explain the significance of such text in the context of the exam question.
What should I do if there is a problem with my exam?
To provide the fairest standard of service for all exam candidates, we will not be operating a phone line for the duration of the exams. You must email us with any exam day query you may have. Exam queries will be prioritised to ensure the quickest possible response time.
Please provide a detailed account of any issues affecting your exam, to help us provide the most effective response. You will also need to include a photo showing the issue on your screen, and including your candidate photocard ID in the corner of the photo.
If your exam is interrupted due to a computer crash, freeze, shutdown or restart, you will need to follow these steps:
- Email us immediately, confirming the reason your exam was interrupted, stating the exact time at which the interruption occurred, and including a photo showing both the issue on your screen and your candidate photocard ID.
- Resume your exam by following our Exam4 computer crash protocol.
- Notify us via email of the time at which you have resumed your exam - you may then reclaim the lost time, with authorisation from the CIOT.