2026 Cambridge IGCSE Exam Calendar & Revision Planner

For the October/November 2026 series in Singapore (Zone 5), written papers run from Monday 28 September to Thursday 12 November 2026. The earliest written papers on 28 September are Islamiyat (0493/12), Environmental Management (0680/12) and First Language Spanish (0502/13). Speaking and practical windows opened earlier, from mid-September. Results are released on 14 January 2027. Most Singapore international schools instead sit the May/June series, which runs from roughly late April to mid-June.

Duration depends on the paper, not the subject: from 45 minutes for a multiple-choice component to 2 hours 30 minutes for Drama (0411/13). Reading time is already included in the figure shown; no extra time is added unless a candidate has an approved access arrangement.

Economics Paper 2 (0455/23, Structured Questions) is on Tuesday 20 October 2026 in the morning session, lasting 2 hours 15 minutes. Paper 1 (0455/13, Multiple Choice) is on Wednesday 4 November 2026 in the evening session, an unusually long gap this series, which changes how you should schedule revision.

Additional Mathematics (0606) Paper 1 (0606/13) is on Wednesday 30 September 2026 in the morning, and Paper 2 (0606/23) on Tuesday 6 October 2026 in the morning, each 2 hours, in Zone 5.

The Biology practical paper (0610/53) is on Tuesday 13 October 2026 in the morning session, 1 hour 15 minutes. Candidates entered for the Alternative to Practical (0610/63) sit it the same morning, one hour. Both fall before the Biology theory papers on 16 October.

Many IGCSE subjects are tiered. Core papers cover grades C to G; Extended papers cover grades A* to E and include harder material. They have different component codes sat in the same session, for example Mathematics Paper 1 Core is 0580/12 while Paper 2 Extended is 0580/22, both in the afternoon of 8 October 2026. You sit one tier per subject, decided with your teacher based on target grade.

In Zone 5, the final papers are the Chemistry multiple-choice components (0620/13 Core and 0620/23 Extended) on Thursday 12 November 2026 in the morning session.

Not in the November 2026 series. Deepavali falls on Sunday 8 November 2026, so Monday 9 November is a Singapore public holiday, and the Cambridge Zone 5 final timetable has no IGCSE papers that day (only one AS Level and one A Level paper). For June 2027, Hari Raya Haji (Monday 17 May) and Vesak Day (Thursday 20 May) fall inside the usual late April to mid-June exam window; KS Academia Prep will check them against Cambridge's final June 2027 timetable once it is published. Source: Cambridge Final Exam Timetable, November 2026, Zone 5 · Ministry of Manpower public holidays

Cambridge has not yet published the final June 2027 Zone 5 timetable. Cambridge publishes final June timetables in October of the previous year, so it is due in October 2026. Based on the series pattern, expect written papers from late April to mid-June 2027; June 2026 results were released on 18 August 2026. The May/June view in the planner above uses the actual June 2026 Zone 5 dates as a labelled reference pattern; exact 2027 dates will shift by a few days and this page will be updated the moment Cambridge releases them.

A clash is two papers timetabled for the same session on the same day. Cambridge allows a candidate entered for two papers in the same session to sit them one after the other, with a fully supervised break between them, under its Key Time and Full Centre Supervision rules. Otherwise every exam must be taken on the day shown in the final timetable; where that is not possible, your exams officer applies to Cambridge for a timetable deviation, after entries are submitted and the timetable clash report arrives. It is never arranged informally between student and teacher. Source: Cambridge Final Exam Timetable, November 2026, Zone 5 · Cambridge Handbook 2026, section 5.1

Access arrangements, such as extra time, a reader, a scribe, a prompter or modified papers, let candidates with a demonstrated need show what they know without changing the standard assessed. They must be approved in advance through your centre, with supporting evidence, and some require Cambridge approval by a set deadline. For the October/November 2026 series, British Council Singapore's deadlines were 1 July 2026 for modified papers and 21 July 2026 for access arrangements (10 September 2026 for June 2026 retake entries). Arrange these early with your exams officer; they cannot be added at the last minute. Source: Cambridge access arrangements · British Council Singapore

If illness, injury or a serious personal circumstance affects your performance or stops you attending, your centre can apply to Cambridge for special consideration. This must be supported by evidence (for example a medical certificate) and submitted by your exams officer within Cambridge's deadline after the affected paper. Special consideration can result in a small mark adjustment where a candidate was present but disadvantaged; it cannot manufacture a grade where too little assessment was completed. Tell your exams officer immediately; do not wait. Source: Cambridge special consideration

Bring only what is permitted: your statement of entry, allowed pens and pencils, a see-through pencil case, a translation dictionary only if your syllabus permits, and an approved calculator for papers where calculators are allowed. Mobile phones, smart watches and any web-enabled or communication device are prohibited in the exam room; having one on you, even switched off, is malpractice. Arrive early, follow the invigilator's instructions, and do not communicate with other candidates. Your centre issues the exact rules under Cambridge's regulations. Source: Cambridge Handbook (Exams Officer guide)

If a grade looks wrong, your centre can request an Enquiry About Results (EAR), a clerical re-check or a full review of marking, within Cambridge's deadline after results are released. A review can move a grade up, down or leave it unchanged, so it is a considered decision made with your centre, not an automatic appeal. Enquiries are submitted by the exams officer, not by candidates directly; there is a fee, often refunded if a grade changes. Priority services exist where a university place depends on the outcome. Source: Cambridge Enquiries About Results

June 2026 IGCSE results are released on 18 August 2026 at 06:00 UK time. October/November 2026 IGCSE results are released on 14 January 2027 at 06:00 UK time (14:00 in Singapore), according to the Cambridge Help Centre. Results are published online at myresults.cie.org.uk using centre-issued logins; they reach your school or exam centre first, then you.

Yes. Cambridge allows unlimited resits of individual subjects with no restrictions. Each series gives its own result, and universities and schools decide which result they accept, so check their policy before you enter. The next opportunity is simply the following June or November series. Targeted, mark-scheme-focused preparation before a resit makes the biggest difference.

Register through British Council Singapore via its school-exams service, not directly with Cambridge. IGCSE is the standard route for Singapore homeschoolers, partly because science subjects offer an Alternative to Practical paper that removes the laboratory requirement. Register in the normal stage to avoid late fees; for November 2026 it closed on 8 August 2026. Source: British Council Singapore school exams

From cambridgeinternational.org under Exam Timetables: choose the Zone 5 PDF for your series (October/November 2026 or June 2027 once published). Your centre can also export a personalised .csv of only the papers you are entered for from Cambridge International Direct. This page summarises and organises that official Zone 5 data, and offers its own CSV and JSON downloads below. Source: Cambridge exam timetables

Cambridge divides the world into administrative zones so exam sessions are staggered across time zones and papers cannot be shared ahead. Singapore uses the Zone 5 timetable (British Council Singapore enters private candidates on it), and a date from another zone's timetable can be wrong for Singapore.

Cambridge splits the world into six administrative zones (plus a separate UK timetable) so exams are staggered across time zones for security; each zone has its own timetable, though the syllabus content and standard are identical. Singapore uses Zone 5. For other countries, use Cambridge's official zone lookup rather than a general list. Your exam centre ultimately determines your zone, so confirm it with your school's exams officer, or, for private candidates, the British Council, and use Cambridge's official zone lookup before choosing a timetable. Source: Cambridge exam administration · British Council Singapore

Cambridge's confirmed Key Times for Singapore are 09:00 for the morning session, 13:00 for the afternoon session and 17:00 for the evening session (Singapore time). A Key Time isn't the exam's start time itself; it's the point at which every candidate must be in the exam or under Full Centre Supervision, so exam security stays synchronised across centres. A centre can legally start a paper before or after its Key Time, provided supervision brackets it correctly, so many schools schedule their actual start at or near the Key Time as the simplest arrangement, but this isn't guaranteed. Your school's own timetable is the final authority on your exact start time. Source: Cambridge Key Times lookup, checked 26 July 2026

Because Key Times are tied to your centre's location, not to a particular exam series, so Cambridge maintains them centrally instead of printing them into each zone timetable. The Zone 5 PDF says so directly on page 1, pointing readers to the Key Times page on its website rather than embedding a table. That applies to every zone timetable in every series, so checking a May/June PDF, or last year's October/November one, will give you exactly the same pointer rather than a time. There are two reliable ways to get your figure: use Cambridge's Key Times lookup tool and select your country, or ask your school's exams officer, who works from the centre's Key Times to build the actual exam-day schedule. For Singapore the confirmed figures are 09:00, 13:00 and 17:00 - but remember these are supervision checkpoints, not guaranteed start times. Source: Cambridge Key Times · Cambridge Final Exam Timetable November 2026, Zone 5, p.1

Study Supervision isn't an extra lesson; it's structured, supervised time where the work between lessons actually gets done. Most tuition only reaches students for the two to three hours they're in class each week; what happens in the other 160-plus hours is usually left to chance. Students attend on fixed days each week, with frequency increasing as exams approach, in a dedicated classroom supervised by a Teaching Assistant, with regular one-to-one check-ins throughout. Phones are kept at the administration desk for the full session, and parents can contact the centre directly for anything urgent. Homework is marked against an answer key from the subject tutor; for subjects where answers vary in quality, Economics essays and case studies, for example, marking is done personally by the tutor. Mr Jason Low, KS Academia Prep's Head of Economics, is known among students for marking exam scripts late into the night to return detailed, personal feedback.

It's academic planning, not tuition. It addresses decisions that carry two years of consequences but are often made on hearsay: which subjects to take, HL versus SL, and how each choice maps to university requirements in Singapore, the UK, the US and beyond. A consultation works through a student's strengths, workload capacity and target pathway to arrive at a subject combination they can sustain for the full Diploma.

Yes. Families search for this kind of structured, accountable support under many different terms: academic coaching, supervised study, a structured study programme, homework support or a homework club, guided self-study, a student accountability programme. Whatever the label, the core is the same: fixed, supervised sessions where a Teaching Assistant makes sure assigned work is actually completed and properly marked, not just attempted.