GCSE Exam Dates: Timetable, Start Date and Results Day

GCSE exams start in the first half of May and finish in the second half of June, sat during the summer term of Year 11 to a timetable that JCQ and the exam boards agree between them for every series. The exact dates move a little each year and are listed in the key facts table at the top of this page; the months, the order of events and the Thursday results days follow the same pattern every year. A-level exams finish a few days after the last GCSE paper, so both year groups are sitting exams for most of the same stretch of the summer term.

GCSE results day is a Thursday in the second half of August, one week after A-level results day, which is also a Thursday. Between the last paper and results day sits a contingency day in the second half of June, which every candidate keeps free in case an exam has to be moved.

Who sets GCSE exam dates?

GCSE exam dates in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are set jointly by the five awarding bodies that make up the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ). JCQ publishes the key dates common to all of them for each exam series, including the entry deadline, the first and last exam on the common timetable, the contingency day and the date results are released; each awarding body then publishes its own subject-by-subject timetable showing when a child's particular papers fall. CCEA in Northern Ireland and WJEC's Wales-only specifications publish separate key dates for their own qualifications.

The five JCQ awarding bodies that set GCSEs are:

• AQA
• Cambridge OCR
• CCEA
• Pearson (Edexcel)
• WJEC (Eduqas)

How to read your child's exam timetable

A board's published timetable lists every entered subject by its component code, together with a date, a session marked morning or afternoon, and a starting time of 9am or 1.30pm. Reading it means matching each component code to the subject and paper a child is actually sitting, since a single GCSE can include two or three separately coded components spread across different days. Because the boards share common exam slots, AQA, Pearson Edexcel and OCR timetable their three GCSE Mathematics papers, each 1 hour 30 minutes, on the same three mornings, and English Language Paper 1 and Paper 2 for all three boards fall on the same two mornings. Foundation and Higher tier papers are sat in the same session.

The generic timetable an awarding body publishes online lists every subject and tier it offers, well beyond the handful a particular child is sitting. For a child's actual personal timetable, listing only their own subjects, components, dates and times, a parent needs to ask the school's exams office.

What happens before the written exams?

Some parts of a GCSE are completed before the written papers begin, outside the May and June exam windows. AQA's submission deadline for English Language Spoken Language and its other non-exam assessment components falls shortly before the written exams start. Speaking tests in language subjects have their own submission deadline in May, separate from the written listening, reading and writing papers sat later in the series.

What is the GCSE contingency day?

The contingency day is a reserve date that JCQ sets after the last exam on the common timetable, kept in hand in case national or significant local disruption forces an exam to be rescheduled. It is not an extra exam that most candidates will sit; it only comes into play if an awarding body needs to move a paper that could not go ahead as planned. Because of this, every candidate must remain available right up to the contingency day itself, even once their last scheduled paper is finished, in case their subject is one that needs rearranging.

When are candidates entered for GCSEs?

Schools and colleges enter their own candidates for GCSEs directly with the awarding bodies; parents cannot enter a child individually. JCQ's deadline for summer series entries falls in February, several months before the first exam, so subject and tier choices are settled well before the exam period begins.

When is GCSE results day?

The date for the coming series is in the key facts table, and it is always a Thursday in the second half of August. Schools and colleges receive the results the day before, under a restricted release to centres only, and each school sets its own arrangements for how students collect them.

When are GCSE resits?

GCSE English Language and GCSE Mathematics can be resat in a November series, and every other subject in a later summer series; WJEC also offers some of its Wales-only subjects in November. The exams fall in the first half of November, with an entry deadline in early October, and results are released to candidates in January.

How to plan revision around the exam timetable

Subjects such as maths, the sciences and English have several papers each, so their papers are spread across the whole series, often several weeks apart, and revision has to run in parallel because several subjects are examined at once. The late-May half-term week falls in the middle of the series and has no exams scheduled in it, which makes it a natural point to consolidate subjects already sat and prepare for those still to come.

A practical approach is to revise in the order papers actually fall, checking the timetable for the earliest exam and working backwards from its date so the calendar sets the order. For a subject with multiple papers, revisiting the first paper's content before the second and third are sat helps, since several weeks can pass between them.

Related guides

• What to do on GCSE results day
• GCSE grades 1 to 9 explained
• GCSE grade boundaries explained
• GCSE revision guide
• GCSEs for home-educated children
• GCSE tutoring

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