Qualifications Scotland Exam Timetable 2026

Qualifications Scotland ran its first full exam diet in spring 2026 — the same National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher exams that Scottish pupils have sat for decades, now under a new name. If you've been searching for the SQA exam timetable 2026, this is the same thing.

SQA is now Qualifications Scotland — what changed?

Very little for the 2026 diet. The Scottish Government dissolved SQA following the Hayward Review findings and replaced it with two bodies:

• Qualifications Scotland — takes over SQA's existing functions: exam administration, qualification design, marking, results, appeals and certificates.
• Education Scotland (reformed) — takes over curriculum and professional learning.

For a pupil sitting exams in May 2026, the practical experience is identical to previous years. The exam papers look the same. The marking schemes are the same. The grade boundaries are set by the same process. Results land on the same day.

The 2026 exam diet

The diet covers six weeks across April and May, with the final papers on 2 June 2026. Every school and college in Scotland follows the same national schedule.

Qualifications covered:

Your personal timetable

Your school issues a personalised timetable showing your room, seat number and exact start times. You can also log in to MySQA (mySQA.org) with the credentials your school provided — this portal continues under the Qualifications Scotland umbrella and holds your full exam schedule.

Results: 4 August 2026

All National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher results release on Tuesday 4 August 2026 — the first Results Day to carry the Qualifications Scotland name. The process is identical to previous years:

1. Overnight text/email notification (evening of 3 August)
2. MySQA portal updates from early morning
3. Physical certificates by post in the weeks following

For full detail on what to do on results day — including what happens if you miss a university offer — see our SQA Results Day 2026 guide.

Appeals under Qualifications Scotland

The appeals process continues through your school. Pupils can request:

• Clerical check — checks for adding-up or transcription errors (free)
• Marking review — a second marker re-reads the paper (free)

Grades can go up, stay the same, or go down. Schools typically advise only appealing where the teacher's estimate was substantially higher than the exam grade. The appeal deadline is the first week of September 2026.

Full detail in our SQA appeals process guide.

What about MySQA branding?

The MySQA portal is being updated to reflect Qualifications Scotland branding, but this is happening incrementally. In 2026, you may still see SQA logos alongside Qualifications Scotland references — this is expected and not a sign of any error with your account or results.

The Hayward Review: why SQA was replaced

SQA wasn't replaced because of a sudden failure. It was replaced because of a sustained erosion of trust — particularly after the 2020 exam cancellation controversy, where an algorithm was used to moderate grades downward in ways that disproportionately affected pupils from deprived backgrounds. The Scottish Government commissioned Professor Louise Hayward to review the assessment system. Her 2023 report, Putting Learners at the Centre, concluded that SQA could not reform itself from within and recommended its abolition.

Two successor bodies took its place on 26 February 2026:

• Qualifications Scotland — qualification design, exam administration, certification, marking, results, appeals
• Education Scotland (reformed) — curriculum development, professional learning, school improvement

For the 2026 diet, the transition was deliberately low-profile. Qualifications Scotland's priority was to run a smooth exam season first. The longer-term changes — including how coursework and examinations might be rebalanced — are the subject of ongoing consultation and will not affect pupils sitting exams in 2026.

What Qualifications Scotland has changed (so far)

Very little that affects 2026 candidates. The exam papers are the same format, designed under the same specifications. The marking instructions are the same. Grade boundaries are set by the same process — subject-level meetings of markers and national statistical data.

The one visible change is branding: the Qualifications Scotland logo on correspondence, the watermark on certificates, and the updated MySQA portal interface. The substance — the difficulty of the papers, the grade boundaries, the assessment criteria — is unchanged.

Practical preparation: what's different about sitting exams this year

Nothing that should affect your revision strategy. A few things worth knowing:

• The exam timetable is published at mySQA.org — log in with your school-issued credentials to see your personal schedule.
• Paper copies of the timetable are issued by your school; the date is usually mid-January.
• Clash arrangements are made by the SQA — now Qualifications Scotland — process unchanged. If two subjects clash on the same day at the same time, the school contacts Qualifications Scotland on your behalf.
• Special arrangements (extra time, reader/scribe, separate room) are processed by your school's Additional Support for Learning department. If your child has a support arrangement, confirm it is in place before the diet begins — ideally by February.

For full SQA/Qualifications Scotland transition history, see our Qualifications Scotland explained guide.