Core Revision
AKT exam dates and booking: the deadlines that catch people out
Dr Victoria HammondCo-Founder & Lead for Educational Design · 3 min read
Written August 2026
The AKT runs four times a year, but the date that actually catches people out is not the exam — it is the final booking deadline, which falls roughly eight weeks before you sit, and the separate Pearson test centre window after it.
Booking changed at the end of 2025. It now happens entirely in MyRCGP, and you no longer reserve a place in FourteenFish first.
AKT dates 2026–27
Current at the time of writing. Dates can change, so treat this as orientation and confirm on the RCGP key dates page before you rely on it.
October 2026 sitting
Booking has closed (the final booking deadline was 1 September 2026) · exam 26 October 2026 · results 25 November 2026, 17:00.
January 2027
Reasonable adjustments by 10 November 2026. Final booking deadline 1 December 2026. Pearson centre booking 7–16 December. Exam 26 January 2027. Results 24 February 2027.
April 2027
Reasonable adjustments by 9 February 2027. Final booking deadline 2 March 2027. Pearson centre booking 8–17 March. Exam 27 April 2027. Results 26 May 2027.
July 2027
Reasonable adjustments by 27 April 2027. Final booking deadline and Pearson centre booking window not yet published. Exam 6 July 2027. Results 4 August 2027.
Sitting the AKT? Try twenty questions free.
Twenty original AKT questions in the exam's 80/10/10 split: sixteen clinical, two on evidence-based practice and two on organisation and management, with the reasoning after every one and a marked report. Free, no card and the first five are open to all.
How booking actually works now
It is two separate bookings, and missing the second one is a common and avoidable mistake.
First, book and pay in MyRCGP. Sign in, go to My Exams, choose your sitting, confirm, then pay. You can book up to twelve months ahead. Nothing is secured until payment is complete.
Then, book your Pearson seat. That window usually opens around six weeks before the exam and you are emailed when it does. If you do not book a centre in time, the College books you into the nearest available one — which may not be near you at all.
The three deadlines that matter
Reasonable adjustments close first, roughly three weeks before the booking deadline. The final booking deadline is when payment must be complete. The Pearson centre window opens after that and closes before the exam. They are not the same date and they are not interchangeable.
Cancelling, transferring and adjustments
The RCGP’s pages currently give two different free-cancellation cut-offs — its applying page says up to the final booking deadline, its dates page says up to eight weeks before it — so confirm with the examinations team before relying on either. After the cut-off, the fee is not normally refundable.
Reasonable adjustments have their own earlier deadline and their own evidence requirements. They cover neurodivergence, physical disabilities including sensory impairments, pregnancy, and breastfeeding. If you think you might need one, start that process well before you think about booking — it is the deadline people most often discover too late.
If you are outside mainland UK, contact the examinations department before the booking window opens. A test centre near you is not guaranteed.
Put the reasonable adjustments deadline and the final booking deadline in your calendar the day you decide on a sitting. The exam date is the one you will remember without help; the other two are the ones that go wrong.
— Dr Victoria Hammond, Co-Founder & Lead for Educational Design
We keep a maintained version of this in our exam timetable, alongside the other exams we cover. The official source is always the RCGP key dates page, and all dates are subject to change.
