If English is not your first language you can request an additional 30 minutes, taking the sitting from 1 hour 45 minutes to 2 hours 15. The request goes through your training provider before the course starts, and CQI decides it. Ask your provider to confirm in writing that it has been submitted, and check the duration before the day.

What is the extra time concession in the CQI IRCA ISO 27001 exam?

CQI and IRCA’s reasonable adjustment policy provides that a learner taking the examination in English, where English is not their first language, can request an additional 30 minutes. The same 30 minutes is available where a learner has a learning disability.

One caveat worth knowing: the PR373 course specification, published a month before the current exam framework, describes the assessment as a two-hour examination. The framework is the later document and gives 1 hour 45 minutes. Check the duration shown on your own exam confirmation before the day. The duration that governs your sitting is the one shown against your examination on the portal, so that is the figure to check.

This comes from CQI and IRCA’s reasonable adjustment policy, issued to learners with the examination policies before the course.

Who qualifies for extra time in the CQI IRCA ISO 27001 exam?

The ground is simple: you are taking the examination in English, and English is not your first language. No language certificate or threshold is specified, and the process reflects that — it is a notification rather than an evidenced application.

Two things to be clear about. It is not a concession for finding the subject difficult: the ground is language. And an adjustment is assessed rather than granted on request — CQI will not approve one that would involve unreasonable cost or timeframes, affect the security or integrity of the examination, or give an unfair advantage.

How to ask for extra time in the CQI IRCA ISO 27001 exam, and when

The route for this adjustment is lighter than for the others, and the difference is worth knowing.

For extra time on language grounds, your training provider notifies CQI with your registration details. There is no separate form and no supporting evidence.

For a learning disability, or any other adjustment, the provider completes a reasonable adjustments request form and supporting evidence may be required. That takes longer to assemble, so start earlier.

Either way, raise it before the course starts — the published route. CQI processes requests within two UK working days, and once approved the extra time shows on the learner home page of your examination portal.

Then check it is there. When you log into the examination portal days in advance to confirm your credentials, look at the duration shown against your examination. That is the moment to catch a request that did not land — not the moment you start.

How the extra time request is made, and who decides

It is a request, and CQI decides it. The request goes through your training provider before the course rather than on the day, and CQI confirms to the provider whether it has been approved. A sitting is only longer if CQI approves it.

Two things to check, because the decision is CQI’s and not your provider’s. Ask how the request is made, and ask for written confirmation that it has been. And whoever you are with, confirm the duration shown on the portal before the day.

One thing the request does not cost you. Having had a reasonable adjustment bars a later special consideration claim for the same circumstances only. An unrelated event on the day of the sitting is a separate matter.

Where to spend the extra half hour in the ISO 27001 Lead Auditor exam

More time helps only if it goes where the marks are.

That allocation is published in the examination framework, which CQI and IRCA issue with the examination policies before the course rather than on a website. It adds to the base 1 hour 45, and it is the clearest statement anywhere of where the paper expects your time to go: 56 of the 80 marks and 75 of the 105 minutes sit in the last two domains.

Domains 4 and 5 are built on scenarios that have to be read before they can be answered. The extra 30 minutes is worth most there. Spending it at the front leaves you where you would have been.

With 40 questions in 2 hours 15 the average is a little over three minutes an item — an average, not a target. A two-mark Domain 1 item does not deserve the same time as a three-mark Domain 5 scenario.

One thing the extra time does not change: you cannot return to an answered question. A longer sitting gives no second pass, so the minutes are for deciding well the first time.

Two questions the policy does not answer

What counts as a first language. No threshold, certificate or definition is given, so a candidate raised in one language and educated in another has nothing published to measure themselves against. Since the route is a notification rather than an evidenced application, raise it with your provider and let it be notified.

What happens if you ask late. The published route is before the course starts, and nothing states what becomes of a later request. It is not described as a bar, so ask the moment you realise.

Frequently asked questions about extra time in the CQI IRCA ISO 27001 exam

Where to go next: more ISO 27001 Lead Auditor exam preparation

Appeals, special consideration and reasonable adjustments sets out the other adjustments, and the two routes that apply after a sitting rather than before one. How long results take covers what happens once you have sat.

3FOLD TRAINING is a CQI and IRCA Approved Training Partner, ATP number 6039853. Its ISO 27001 Lead Auditor training course is the CQI and IRCA Certified ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Lead Auditor (Information Security Management Systems) Training Course. The course identification number is 2889. Both the partner approval and the course certification are on 3FOLD TRAINING’s Approved Training Partner record, and any provider’s certified courses can be looked up in CQI and IRCA’s own directory of certified courses and approved training partners. The course page carries the schedule and what the course includes. If you would rather ask a person first, use the course enquiry form.