Qualifications Scotland Exam Timetable 2027: Confirmed Dates for Every Subject

The 2027 Qualifications Scotland exam timetable is confirmed. The diet runs from Monday 26 April 2027 to Wednesday 2 June 2027, with Thursday 3 June held as a contingency day, and results are out on Tuesday 10 August 2027. Every National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher date is below, by subject and by day — all read from the published timetable (version 02, issued after the summer consultation), not the provisional draft that went out for consultation in the spring.

In one line: six weeks, 26 April to 2 June 2027, with no exams on the bank holiday Monday 3 May or on the afternoons of Friday 7 May and Friday 14 May. Higher English is Friday 7 May; Higher Maths is Friday 14 May; results are Tuesday 10 August.

The 2027 diet at a glance

Two things changed from 2026 that are worth noticing. The diet starts four days later and finishes on almost the same date, so it is slightly more compressed. And results day moves from the first Tuesday of August to the second — anyone booking a holiday around results, or planning a Clearing week, should work from 10 August, not the 4th.

The big subjects

If your teenager sits the usual core, these are the dates to write on the fridge:

• English — Higher on the morning of Friday 7 May; National 5 on the morning of Monday 10 May; Advanced Higher that afternoon.
• Mathematics — Higher on the morning of Friday 14 May; National 5 on the morning of Monday 17 May; Advanced Higher that afternoon. Applications of Mathematics opens the whole diet on Monday 26 April.
• Sciences — Physics on Tuesday 4 May, Biology on Wednesday 12 May, Chemistry on Friday 21 May. At each, Higher and Advanced Higher sit in the morning and National 5 in the afternoon.
• Social subjects — Geography Thursday 6 May, History Wednesday 19 May, Modern Studies Wednesday 26 May; same morning/afternoon split as the sciences.
• Modern languages — German Friday 30 April, French Tuesday 18 May, Spanish Tuesday 25 May, Italian Wednesday 2 June.
• Business Management (all levels) Thursday 13 May; Computing Science (all levels) Thursday 27 May; Music Tuesday 11 May; Art and Design Monday 24 May (afternoon).

Both Higher English and Higher Maths fall on Fridays whose afternoons are exam-free — the only two such afternoons in the diet. That is deliberate: the two biggest single papers get a clear run.

Every subject, by level

Dates are for the written papers on the national timetable. Subjects with a link have their own Higher guide — what the course covers, how the paper is marked and how to revise for it. "am" is a morning session — every morning session opens at 9am — and "pm" an afternoon session, which usually starts at 1pm but not always (see below). Where a subject has two papers on the same day they are shown once. Start times for every paper are in the official timetable PDF; your school's personalised timetable will carry them too.

Not on the list? National 4 and most Skills for Work courses are internally assessed and have no written exam. Some Higher and Advanced Higher courses in this table have a single paper; others are examined entirely by portfolio, project or performance and do not appear at all.

Day by day

The whole diet in order. N5, H and AH are National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher. Papers sat through the medium of Gaelic — Matamataig, Eòlas Creideimh, Nuadh-eòlas and the Gàidhlig courses themselves — are counted separately because they carry different names and, in a few cases, different timings from the English-medium papers; the dates are the same subject-for-subject.

What the timetable does and does not fix

• The dates are national and fixed. Every school and college in Scotland follows this schedule. There are no regional variations, and an individual exam cannot be moved for one candidate.
• Times are fixed too, but do not assume them from the session. Every morning session opens at 9am. Afternoon papers mostly start at 1pm, but a good number start at 1.30pm and a few earlier or later — Advanced Higher Mathematics Paper 1 begins at 12.30pm, Higher Music Technology at 2.30pm. The PDF gives every start and finish time, and so will your school timetable; a handful of listening papers are marked "approx" because they end when the recording does.
• Your personal timetable comes from your school. The national timetable sets the date and time; your school assigns the room and seat, and tells you about any clash arrangements. Flag any two exams at the same time to the exams officer as soon as your personal timetable arrives — clashes are handled by supervised separation, not by moving the paper.
• Thursday 3 June is a contingency day. Nothing is scheduled on it. It exists so that a paper disrupted nationally — a printing error, severe weather, a security breach — can be re-sat within the diet. Do not book anything for that day until the last paper is safely behind you.
• Papers marked with an asterisk in the PDF need separate accommodation (a practical or specially equipped room). That affects where you sit, not when.

Results: Tuesday 10 August 2027

All National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher results for the 2027 diet land on Tuesday 10 August 2027 — a week later than in 2026. Candidates registered with My Qualifications Scotland get their results by text or email from the morning; certificates follow by post. Our results day guide covers the timeline, what the grades mean, and what to do next, and the appeals process guide explains the route if a grade is wrong.

Study leave and the weeks before

Study leave is a school decision, not a national one — most secondaries release S5 and S6 pupils from timetabled classes from a date in late April or early May, and some keep S4 in school between papers. Ask your school for its 2027 arrangements once the personal timetables are issued. Our 2026 timetable guide has the practical detail that does not change year to year: what to bring on the day, how exceptional circumstances work, and what happens to a paper after it is sat.

The Honest Take

For seven weeks this page said the 2027 dates were not published, because they were not, and we would rather carry no date than a provisional one. The confirmed timetable came out in August. The change from the provisional version was real — Qualifications Scotland says it received around 400 consultation responses and adjusted the schedule in reply — which is exactly why guessing from the draft would have been a mistake. Everything above is read from the published document; if it changes again, so will this page, and the date at the top of it will tell you when we last checked.

SQA is now Qualifications Scotland

SQA was formally dissolved on 26 February 2026 and Qualifications Scotland took over every function — designing qualifications, running the exam diet, publishing this timetable, marking, results and appeals. The qualifications themselves are unchanged, and "SQA exam timetable 2027" and "Qualifications Scotland exam timetable 2027" are the same document. For the fuller story, see Qualifications Scotland explained.