Knowing your exam dates turns revision from a vague worry into a plan with a deadline. Here are the shared dates for the summer 2027 GCSE exams, and how to find the dates of your own papers.
The key dates for summer 2027
These dates come from the Joint Council for Qualifications, which sets the dates shared by the exam boards:
- Monday 10 May 2027: the first exams on the common timetable.
- Friday 18 June 2027: the last GCSE exam on the common timetable.
- Wednesday 23 June 2027: contingency day, kept free in case exams have to be moved because of national or serious local disruption.
- Thursday 19 August 2027: GCSE results day.
A level exams run a few days later and have their own results day, so if you have an older brother or sister, their dates will be different.
Finding the date of each paper
The shared dates tell you when the exam season starts and ends. The date of each individual paper depends on your subject, your exam board and sometimes your tier, so two students in different schools can sit the same subject on different days.
- Your exam board's timetable lists every paper with its date and whether it is a morning or afternoon session.
- Your school's personal timetable lists only the papers you are entered for. This is the one to trust, because it matches your actual entries.
Students in Wales sitting WJEC GCSEs, and students in Northern Ireland sitting CCEA GCSEs, should check their board's own timetable and key dates, as some of their arrangements differ.
Planning revision around the dates
Once you have your personal timetable, work backwards:
- Count the weeks from now to your first paper, and split them between subjects according to how many papers each has and how confident you feel.
- Put your earliest papers first in the final few weeks, because the timetable decides the order your revision has to follow.
- Look for gaps between papers. A few days between two exams is time for a final check on the second subject, not a break from revision altogether.
- Keep the contingency day free until the exams are over.
For a week-by-week plan, see GCSE revision timetable. The subjects on DoRevision's revision pages are organised by exam board and specification, so you can match your revision to the papers on your timetable.
Where DoRevision fits
DoRevision modules test you on one topic at a time and check each answer as you go, which helps when you are working through the topics for your earliest papers. For example, Surd Survival covers surds in Maths, The Energy Factory covers photosynthesis and respiration in Biology, and Quotation Bank Builder helps you learn quotations for English Literature. If your exams are only days away, last minute GCSE revision sets out how to use the time you have left.