The CPA Exam Is Only in English: What That Costs an Arabic-Speaking Candidate, and How to Close the Gap

The question has a one sentence answer, and the two bodies that run the Exam give the same one. The AICPA's FAQ says the CPA Exam "is only offered in English." NASBA's candidate guide puts it in a box addressed to international applicants: "The Examination is only offered in English, and is the same computerized test as the one administered in the U.S."

There is no Arabic paper, no bilingual interface, no glossary tab. A dictionary sits on the prohibited items list in that same guide, next to books, notes in any written form and paper you did not receive from the test centre. The accommodations NASBA administers are requested on a form that asks which disability limits one or more of your major life activities, and language is not among the things it asks you to document.

That is the whole of the logistics. The part worth reading is what the English actually demands section by section, which single words decide the framework a question is set in, and where Arabic study material earns its place for a candidate who will sit in Riyadh, Jeddah or Khobar in English.

The answer, and where it is written

The Exam is delivered at 19 international locations, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates among them, and NASBA is explicit that nothing about the paper changes when you cross a border: "The AICPA, NASBA and Prometric provide the same services for international testing as they do for U.S.-based testing. The Exam and licensure process is the same for international candidates as it is for candidates within U.S. jurisdictions." Same blueprint, same item bank, same four hours, same English.

The Saudi comparison runs the other way: since 2025 the SOCPA Fellowship has been sat in Arabic or English, chosen at registration. No US board has an equivalent choice to offer, because the language is a property of the Exam rather than of the jurisdiction that admits you to it.

Nor is there anything at the desk to lean on. The centre provides scratch paper, pencils and a hand-held calculator, and the software provides a spreadsheet and a calculator. Papers, books and notes are not allowed in the testing room. Whatever English you bring, you bring in your head.

Accommodations cover disability, not language

Candidates ask about extra time for non-native speakers because other testing programmes grant it. The CPA Exam's route is narrower, and differently grounded. CPA Examination Services complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act and "will make reasonable accommodations for applicants with disabilities"; the modification form asks, at item 5, "What is the disability that limits one or more of your major life activities?" and requires supporting documentation on official letterhead from a licensed or certified health professional qualified to diagnose and treat that specific disability, a recommendation for the specific accommodation requested, and evidence that similar accommodations were made in earlier educational, testing or employment settings.

NASBA describes what tends to be approved: testing in a secluded environment, noise cancelling headphones, additional breaks or breaks that pause the Exam clock, and additional time, "commonly time and a quarter (25% additional time) and time and a half (50% additional time)". Requests go to your board of accountancy or to CPAES at the time of application, not to Prometric, and approved accommodations appear on the last page of the Notice to Schedule before you book anything.

Two things follow for a Gulf candidate. First, reading in a second language is not one of the bases the form asks you to document, so the honest answer to "can I get extra time for English?" is that the process is not built to answer that question, and only your board can tell you what it will and will not consider. Second, and more practically, approval is not delivery. The candidate guide warns that "you may receive limited or no accommodations if you choose to test at an international location. The testing accommodations listed on your NTS are applicable for testing in the United States and U.S. territories only." The modification form carries the same warning. A candidate approved for a secluded room or extra time should confirm with Prometric's regional accommodations contact what a Riyadh or Dubai centre can actually provide, and schedule about a month ahead.

How much English each section asks for

Reading load is not evenly spread across the six sections, and the Blueprints publish the numbers.

Section	Multiple choice questions	Task-based simulations	Score weighting
FAR (Core)	50	7	50% MCQ, 50% TBS
AUD (Core)	78	7	50% MCQ, 50% TBS
REG (Core)	72	8	50% MCQ, 50% TBS
BAR (Discipline)	50	7	50% MCQ, 50% TBS
ISC (Discipline)	82	6	60% MCQ, 40% TBS
TCP (Discipline)	68	7	50% MCQ, 50% TBS

Every section runs four hours across five testlets, two of multiple choice and three of simulations, with one standardised 15-minute break offered after the first simulation testlet that does not count against testing time. Any other break runs the clock.

The two halves of the Exam are different reading problems. A multiple choice stem is short and every word in it is usually load bearing, which is exactly the kind of English that punishes skimming. A simulation is the opposite: it hands you exhibits, a trial balance, an email chain, a lease, a draft memo, that deliberately contain more than you need, so the skill is locating the three facts that matter. Candidates who read a second language carefully and slowly are often stronger on the first and slower on the second. The per-section minute budget is worked out in CPA Exam Time Management by Section.

One detail catches people who planned to settle in. After you enter your launch code, the introductory screens run under a five minute limit, and exceeding it terminates the session, with a score of 0 and forfeited fees.

The words that switch the framework

The Blueprints tell you which words are load bearing, because the AICPA warns you about them itself. These are the ones that cost marks, and none of them is hard English.

In FAR, the default is unstated. Candidates "should assume that each question applies to a for-profit business entity reporting under U.S. GAAP unless otherwise stated in the fact pattern". Questions about not-for-profits say "not-for-profit" or "non-governmental, not-for-profit". Questions about governments carry "local government", "state", "municipality" or "city". Three reporting frameworks, selected by one adjective that a reader in a hurry treats as scene setting.

In AUD, the entity type chooses the standards. The Blueprint states that where requirements differ, the question will say "issuer" or "nonissuer", and that "auditor", "accountant" or "practitioner" signals which engagement and therefore which professional standards apply, alongside phrases such as "review engagement", "interim review" or "compilation engagement". An IFRS-trained reader who mentally converts "nonissuer" to "unlisted company" has lost the point, because the word selects a rulebook, not a size.

Same concept, different noun

The second layer is vocabulary you already own under another name, usually because Gulf practice learned its English from IFRS and from UK-trained seniors.

What the Exam says	What Gulf practice often says	Note
Stockholders' equity	Shareholders' equity	Same statement, different label.
Treasury stock	Treasury shares	The US method choice (cost or par value) has no IFRS equivalent.
Income statement	Statement of profit or loss	Watch for "comprehensive income" as a separate defined total.
Allowance for doubtful accounts	Loss allowance, ECL	Different measurement model behind similar words.
Provision	Provision	The trap. In US usage a provision is usually an expense, as in the provision for income taxes. Under IAS 37 a provision is "a liability of uncertain timing or amount".
Probable	Probable	The same word at two different thresholds in ASC 450 and IAS 37. See Contingencies: ASC 450 vs IAS 37.

The qualifier is the question

The third layer is not accounting English at all. Exam stems are built on "most likely", "least likely", "best", "primary", "first" and "except", and a reader working in a second language reads for the subject matter and lets the qualifier pass. In AUD, where several options are things an auditor might legitimately do, the qualifier is the entire question. The habit that fixes it is mechanical: find the qualifier before you read the options, and if you cannot say out loud what it is asking for, read the stem again rather than the options. More on this in the CPA AUD study guide.

Applied research is a reading task

Every section of the 2026 Blueprints carries the same line: the assessment incorporates "applied research with a focus on reviewing and using excerpts of source materials ... to complete a range of tasks including identifying issues, analyzing facts and determining appropriate responses". The sources named are the FASB Accounting Standards Codification for FAR and BAR, the Internal Revenue Code and Treasury Regulations for REG and TCP, the auditing, attestation and accounting and review services standards for AUD, and standards and frameworks for ISC.

That is drafted English, not business English. Defined terms mean something narrower than the everyday word, three conditions can stack before the verb arrives, sentences begin "except as otherwise provided in", and a cross reference can suspend the meaning of a clause until you have read a different paragraph. No summary in any language teaches you to read it, and a candidate who has only met the Codification through a paraphrase meets the real register for the first time under a clock. The text is free to read. Read some of it, in the section you are studying, before exam day. The mechanics of the task type are in CPA Task-Based Simulations.

Study in Arabic, sit in English: where to draw the line

Concepts in either language, terms in English only. Understanding why a deferred tax liability arises, or why a lessee recognises a right of use asset, loses nothing in Arabic and often lands faster. The vocabulary is different: learn the term once, in the Exam's own words, and do not build the habit of translating it back. A candidate who knows the idea as التحريف الجوهري and meets "material misstatement" on exam day is doing two jobs per question instead of one.

Read every answer explanation in English. The explanation is where the learning happens, and it is also where the examiner's phrasing lives. Reading the explanation in Arabic gives you the concept and none of the language, which is precisely the half you are short of.

Keep a glossary of pairs, not a dictionary. It should hold the Exam's own terms, issuer and nonissuer, tolerable misstatement, basis, recapture, with the Arabic beside each, and it should grow from the questions you get wrong rather than from a word list. A few hundred entries per section is realistic. Ordinary English you can look up; these you cannot, because the everyday meaning is not the technical one.

Make the last few weeks monolingual. Whatever the mix earlier, the final stretch before a sitting should be entirely in English, including the mistake log, so that nothing in your revision is in a language the test centre will not show you. That is the closest thing to a rehearsal available, and it costs nothing.

Where to practise this

Prepito’s interface is available in Arabic and English, while CPA questions and written explanations are in English. The AI tutor can respond in either language. Prepito's FAR course and AUD course cover the full blueprints with practice questions, timed simulations, full explanations and mistake review.

If you are still planning the qualification, the logistics for the region are in How to Sit for the US CPA Exam from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf, the weekly schedule that survives a Gulf working year is in Studying for the CPA While Working Full Time in the Gulf, and the whole route is set out in the CPA programme.

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Sources: AICPA CPA Exam FAQ, NASBA CPA Exam Candidate Guide, NASBA international administration of the CPA Exam, CPA Examination Services ADA modification form, NASBA on testing accommodations, AICPA CPA Exam Blueprints, IFRS Foundation, IAS 37. NASBA reissues the candidate guide several times a year and the Blueprints are revised periodically; item counts, test centre rules and the accommodations process should be confirmed in the current versions before you apply. Testing accommodations are decided by your board of accountancy or CPAES on the documentation you submit, and what a given international centre can deliver varies by location.