GCSE and A Level Exam Dates 2027: When Each Big Paper Falls, and What Happens If You're Ill on the Day

If you're in England or Wales, summer 2027 GCSEs and A levels start on Monday 10 May. GCSEs finish on Friday 18 June, and most A level students sit their last paper by then too. Keep Wednesday 23 June free as the spare day, and mark results: Thursday 12 August for A levels, Thursday 19 August for GCSEs. Northern Ireland's CCEA GCSEs start earlier, on Tuesday 4 May, and Scotland's exams run from 26 April to 2 June, with results on 10 August.

We'll take the season in one table first, then the subjects most students sit, then the other nations. After that comes the part most timetables skip: what to do if something goes wrong on the day.

On this page

1. The 2027 exam season at a glance
2. GCSE dates for the subjects nearly everyone sits
3. A level dates for the most popular subjects
4. Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland work to their own calendars
5. If you're ill, miss a paper or two exams clash
6. The deadlines that come before the first paper
7. Questions families ask about the 2027 exams

The 2027 exam season at a glance

England and Wales share one summer window. Their exam boards (AQA, Pearson Edexcel, OCR, and WJEC with its Eduqas brand) agree it through the Joint Council for Qualifications, known as JCQ. Northern Ireland and Scotland each run their own.

Students in Northern Ireland entered with AQA, Pearson Edexcel or OCR for a subject sit that subject on the England and Wales dates.

None of these dates covers the autumn. A GCSE English or maths resit sat this November has a short timetable of its own, and we've set out the November resit mornings in a separate guide.

Keep Wednesday 23 June free

Everywhere except Scotland, the boards hold Wednesday 23 June 2027 back, morning and afternoon, as a contingency day. That's the official name for a spare day, kept in case a paper has to move. OCR's timetable tells schools to remind students that they "must remain available until Wednesday 23 June 2027".

It isn't a resit day.

The boards say it exists for "national or significant local disruption", meaning something that knocks out a day of exams for many schools at once. JCQ adds that a rescheduled paper could affect more than one date, right up to the 23rd, so everyone stays available whenever their own last paper falls.

Now the rule most families don't know. JCQ's instructions stop a school varying the timetable for a holiday, a wedding, a field trip or any other personal arrangement. A paper missed for one of those earns no special consideration, the allowance boards make for illness and other bad luck. The boards won't move maths for a wedding, however lovely the venue.

Before you book the summer holiday: The boards tell schools to keep students available until Wednesday 23 June 2027, the spare day held back in case a paper has to move. JCQ won't move a paper for a holiday or a wedding, and a paper missed for one gets no special consideration. In Scotland the spare day is Thursday 3 June. For family travel, we'd book from Thursday 24 June.

Start times, and the week with no papers

In England and Wales, morning papers start at 9am and afternoon papers at 1.30pm. Schools may start up to 30 minutes either side without asking the board, so a morning paper can begin anywhere between 8.30 and 9.30. CCEA's morning papers in Northern Ireland start at 9.15am.

Then comes a gap. In England and Wales no GCSE or A level papers are timetabled from Monday 31 May, the spring bank holiday, to Friday 4 June, on any of AQA, Pearson Edexcel, OCR or WJEC/Eduqas. CCEA is the exception and sits papers that week. For everyone else it's the natural revision block before the second half of the season. English language, maths and all three sciences still have a paper to come after it.

GCSE dates for the subjects nearly everyone sits

These eight are the big ones. English, maths and combined science are by far the largest GCSE entries in England: Ofqual's provisional figures for 2026 put combined science at about 950,000 entries, maths at about 877,000 and English language at about 844,000. English literature, history and geography come next.

From the final AQA, Pearson Edexcel and OCR timetables. Eduqas English and maths fall on the same mornings, and Eduqas maths has two papers rather than three. AQA's Combined Science: Synergy and OCR's Twenty First Century course use a different pattern of science days.

Tier doesn't change the day. Foundation and Higher papers sit in the same session.

Why your exam board doesn't change these dates

AQA's timetable notes give the reason in a line: GCSE exams are timetabled "in common exam slots agreed by all exam boards under the Joint Council for Qualifications". So a maths paper falls on the same morning whether the school uses AQA, Pearson Edexcel or OCR. You don't need to know the board to know the day.

A few exceptions are worth knowing. OCR's first maths paper, on 14 May, is a calculator paper, where AQA's and Edexcel's is non-calculator, and the order flips on 27 May. Eduqas maths has two papers, not three. AQA's Combined Science: Synergy and OCR's Twenty First Century combined course each have four papers where the other combined science courses have six, so they follow a different pattern of science days.

The shared pattern reaches well beyond these eight. AQA and Pearson Edexcel also sit business, PE, design and technology, drama, music, psychology, statistics and citizenship on identical days and sessions.

Languages are where the boards part company. AQA sits Spanish listening and reading together on the morning of Wednesday 9 June, and writing on the afternoon of Wednesday 16 June. Pearson Edexcel spreads the same three papers over 9, 16 and 17 June.

So for anything outside the eight, the board's own timetable is the place to check. Open the live file each time, because boards do reissue them.

• AQA's GCSE timetable for May/June 2027 and its AS and A level timetable
• Pearson Edexcel's final GCSE and GCE timetables for summer 2027
• OCR's final June 2027 timetables for GCSE and for AS and A level
• WJEC and Eduqas final timetables for summer 2027, GCSE and AS/A level
• CCEA's final GCSE and GCE timetables for summer 2027
• Qualifications Scotland's exam timetable 2027

Use the gaps between papers

The gaps are uneven, and they're worth knowing now. English literature's two papers are a week apart. Biology's are a month apart. Maths has thirteen days between its first and second papers, and eighteen between its second and third.

A gap after a first paper is the chance to regroup before the second. The 2027 literature papers are a week apart, so there's less room for that, and both need to be ready by 12 May.

A revision plan works back from the first paper.

If maths is the worry, start with how many marks a grade 4 takes, which shows how far a grade sits from the line. Then decide whether the final stretch needs a maths tutor near you.

A level dates for the most popular subjects

A levels use the same common slots, so these dates hold across AQA, Pearson Edexcel and OCR. The eleven subjects here are the largest A level entries in England in Ofqual's 2026 figures, with maths alone at about 110,000. We've left out art and design, which would otherwise make the list. On AQA's timetable it's a portfolio and a 15-hour supervised assignment, with no written paper.

From the final AQA, Pearson Edexcel and OCR timetables, in the order of Ofqual's 2026 entry figures for England. Papers are listed by date, so a board's own numbering can differ: OCR's first-numbered history unit, for one, is the 26 May paper.

A level results reach students on Thursday 12 August. If offers are already on your mind, here's what A level grades are worth in UCAS points.

Why AQA, OCR and Pearson A level maths stays in the afternoon

On AQA, OCR and Pearson, all three A level maths papers are in the afternoon, on Wednesdays 26 May, 9 June and 16 June. JCQ's instructions add a rule that matters if one of those maths papers clashes with another subject. The school can't move it to the morning. It "must always be sat in the published afternoon session", so it's the other paper that moves.

That's worth knowing before anyone panics about a clash on the personal timetable. The maths stays put.

Who's still sitting papers after 18 June

For most A level students the last paper is on or before Friday 18 June. AQA's final June 2027 exam is that day, and so is OCR's.

Pearson Edexcel runs two subjects on. Further Maths Paper 4 and Religious Studies Paper 4 are both on the afternoon of Monday 21 June, and its Advanced Extension Award in maths follows on the afternoon of Tuesday 22 June. That award is a separate qualification, not part of the A level, which is why JCQ lists 22 June as the final exam date and why you'll sometimes see it called the last A level exam.

Whatever the last paper, everyone still keeps 23 June free.

Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland work to their own calendars

Wales shares England's dates but not its qualifications. Northern Ireland shares the spare day and the results days, but not the start or the finish. Scotland runs a separate system altogether.

Wales: the first summer of the new GCSEs

The first new GCSEs made for Wales are awarded in 2027, Qualifications Wales says, to the students who began them in September 2025. English Language and Literature replaces the separate English GCSEs, and Mathematics and Numeracy, a double award, replaces the two old maths GCSEs.

WJEC's 2027 timetable shows the changeover. The old English Literature GCSE isn't in it at all. The old English Language papers and both old maths GCSEs, Mathematics and the separate numeracy one, appear only with "RESIT ONLY" beside them.

The new units sit in the same common slots as England's papers: Unit 1 of English Language and Literature on the morning of Wednesday 12 May, and Unit 1 of Mathematics and Numeracy on the morning of Friday 14 May.

The new GCSEs are built from units, and that's where a Welsh family needs to take care. A second wave of subjects, first taught from September 2026, includes history and the new science GCSEs, and some of their units are on the 2027 timetable for Year 10. New and old sit side by side, so check your child's paper codes against WJEC's timetable. The existing biology, chemistry and physics GCSEs stay available alongside the new science awards.

If your child is in that first cohort and you'd like subject help, we list teachers and tutors across Wales by city.

Northern Ireland: CCEA's GCSEs start earlier and run later

CCEA's first GCSE papers are on Tuesday 4 May. English Language Unit 1 follows on the morning of Thursday 6 May, four days before England's first paper. The last is Physics Unit 3 on Monday 21 June, and morning papers start at 9.15am throughout.

CCEA's A levels open earlier still, with science practical exams from Friday 30 April, and finish on Friday 18 June. Results days match England and Wales, 12 August for A level and 19 August for GCSE, and the spare day is 23 June too.

CCEA also publishes November and March timetables for some GCSE units, so ask the school whether any units were sat early. A student entered with AQA, Pearson Edexcel or OCR for a subject follows that board's dates for it. With papers starting earlier, help needs booking earlier too, and we list tutors in Northern Ireland by city.

Scotland: a different system and an earlier summer

Scotland doesn't sit GCSEs or A levels. Its exams are National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher, run by Qualifications Scotland, which you may still know as the SQA. They start on Monday 26 April 2027.

Higher English is on the morning of Friday 7 May and Higher maths on Friday 14 May. National 5 English is on Monday 10 May and National 5 maths on Monday 17 May. The last papers are on Wednesday 2 June, and Thursday 3 June is the spare day.

Results arrive on Tuesday 10 August. If you've seen an earlier date predicted elsewhere, go with this one. For help before a season that starts in April, we list tutors across Scotland by city.

If you're ill, miss a paper or two exams clash

It's 7am on the day of maths Paper 2, and your child has just been sick. Nothing in the next hour involves the exam board. The school's exams office decides whether there's a case and sends the request, and the board then makes any adjustment. Neither you nor your child applies directly. JCQ calls this special consideration, and for the summer series schools must send their requests by 30 June 2027.

What happens next depends on which kind of bad day it is.

Ill on the morning of an exam

JCQ is blunt that the boards "cannot give advice as to whether a candidate is fit to take an examination". The school follows its own procedure, so the first call is to the school.

If your child sits the paper while ill, the school can apply for special consideration afterwards. The board can then add marks, up to a ceiling of 5% of that paper's raw marks, depending on how serious the problem was and how close it came to the exam. Don't count on the ceiling. JCQ's scale keeps 5% for the gravest cases, such as a recent death in the immediate family, and puts ordinary illness on the day at 2%.

If they can get through the door, we'd say sitting the paper is usually the better route, because a missed paper is harder to recover than a disrupted one. Tell the exams officer the same day, even if your child feels fine by lunchtime.

Running late is the same 7am phone call. A student who arrives after the start may be let in, at the school's discretion, and still gets the full time. For papers lasting at least an hour, JCQ counts arrival more than an hour after the published start as very late. That's after 10am for standard mornings, 10.15am for CCEA mornings, or 2.30pm for afternoons. A shorter paper uses its published finish instead. The school reports a very late arrival, and the board may reject the script. Ring the school before you're late, not after.

When a paper is missed altogether

A grade can still be awarded after an absence the school accepts, but there's a floor. JCQ's current guide requires one whole component worth at least 15% on AQA, OCR, Pearson and WJEC courses. Unitised A levels also need a completed A2 unit. The student must have covered the whole course. CCEA's detailed 25% rules cover series only up to June 2026, so confirm summer 2027 with the school.

Unitised courses, which are examined in separate units along the way, have a catch. A unit missed before the final exam series isn't made up by the board, and the student resits it at the next opportunity.

The evidence is lighter than most families expect. Where the school already knew the student was unwell, JCQ says a statement from the school can support the application, and "There is no need for formal medical evidence." In JCQ's own worked example, a mother rings the school on the morning of a geography paper about a stomach upset. With no doctor's note to offer, she fills in the relevant part of JCQ's Form 14, and the school backs the application.

What never counts: holidays, weddings, misreading the timetable, or turning up at the wrong time or place.

Two exams in the same session

Clashes are the school's job to solve, and JCQ's instructions set out how. Add any approved extra time and supervised rest breaks to the papers' total. If that total is three hours or less, the school decides the order. It can give a supervised break of up to 20 minutes between them, in exam conditions, so there's no revising.

If that total is more than three hours, the school can move one paper to the other session that day. The student stays under supervision in between, without a phone.

Only one case reaches the next day. Three or more papers in one day can qualify for overnight supervision. Approved extra time and supervised rest breaks count towards the total, which must exceed five and a half hours at GCSE or six hours at A level. The school can then allow an afternoon paper the following morning. A parent can do the supervising. A paper never moves to an earlier day.

The clash check belongs on the day the personal timetable arrives.

The deadlines that come before the first paper

Look up GCSE exam dates 2027 and the list starts in May. The dates families miss come earlier.

Entries close on 21 February 2027, and late entry fees apply after that. The school must process access arrangements, such as extra time, a reader or a scribe, by 21 March 2027. JCQ is explicit that a school missing that deadline isn't grounds for special consideration, so if an assessment is still in progress, raise it before Christmas.

Private candidates have further to go. That means anyone entering outside a school, home-educated students and adults resitting included. AQA's timetable notes say a private candidate has to find an approved school or college that will take responsibility for the whole entry, including supervising and marking any coursework. Start looking well before February.

Then build your own list this autumn, and check it against the school's personal timetable when it arrives, because mistakes happen on both sides.

The school's version is the final word on where and when your child sits.

Build your own exam list this autumn

1. Every subject that ends in an exam, leaving out lessons that don't, such as core PE. Start from the options form or the latest school report.
2. The exam board for each subject, which can differ from one subject to the next. Past papers and revision guides have to match it.
3. The specification code, such as 8300 for AQA GCSE maths, so you read the right rows. Each board prints it beside every paper.
4. The tier for maths, sciences and languages, Foundation or Higher. It doesn't change the day, but it does change the paper.
5. The date and session of every paper, from the board's final timetable. Add the start time your school actually uses.
6. The spare day and results day, marked in the family calendar before anyone books a trip. For most of the UK that's 23 June, then 12 or 19 August.

Questions families ask about the 2027 exams

When do GCSEs start and finish in 2027?

In England and Wales, GCSEs run from Monday 10 May to Friday 18 June 2027, with Wednesday 23 June kept free as the spare day. CCEA GCSEs in Northern Ireland run from Tuesday 4 May to Monday 21 June. The first big paper most students sit is biology or combined science on Tuesday 11 May, and the last is physics on Friday 18 June.

When do A levels finish in 2027?

For most students, by Friday 18 June, the date of AQA's and OCR's last papers. Pearson Edexcel's Further Maths Paper 4 and Religious Studies Paper 4 are on the afternoon of Monday 21 June, and its separate maths Advanced Extension Award is on Tuesday 22 June. Everyone keeps Wednesday 23 June free, whatever their last paper.

What time do GCSE exams start?

Morning papers start at 9am and afternoon papers at 1.30pm in England and Wales. Schools can start up to 30 minutes either side, so a morning paper begins between 8.30 and 9.30, and it's worth asking yours which it uses. CCEA morning papers in Northern Ireland start at 9.15am. Scottish morning papers start at 9am.

What is the exam contingency day?

It's a day the boards hold back in case national or significant local disruption forces a paper to move. In 2027 that's Wednesday 23 June, morning and afternoon, for England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and Thursday 3 June in Scotland. Students must stay available until then. A holiday won't move a paper.

What happens if you miss a GCSE exam because you're ill?

The school can apply for special consideration on your behalf. Under JCQ's current guide, AQA, OCR, Pearson and WJEC can still award a grade, but they require one whole component worth at least 15%. Ask the school to confirm CCEA's summer 2027 threshold. Call the school that morning. A paper missed with no accepted reason, a holiday included, simply counts as missed.

What happens if two exams clash?

The school sorts it out. Total the papers, approved extra time and supervised rest breaks. Up to three hours, they're sat back to back, with a short supervised break. Any longer, and the school can move one paper to the other session that day. For AQA, OCR and Pearson, A level maths stays in the afternoon. Check the personal timetable for clashes the day it arrives.

Are GCSE exam dates the same for every exam board?

For the big subjects, yes. The boards timetable in common slots, so maths, English and the sciences fall on the same day and session on AQA, Pearson Edexcel and OCR, and Eduqas English and maths match them. Many smaller subjects share days too. Languages don't: Pearson spreads Spanish over three dates where AQA uses two. And OCR's first maths paper is a calculator paper.

When is results day in 2027?

Thursday 12 August for A levels and Thursday 19 August for GCSEs, in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. AQA and WJEC release results to students from 8am. Scotland's results arrive on Tuesday 10 August.