Edexcel IAL January 2027 Exam Timetable: Biology and Chemistry Unit Dates

TL;DR: The Edexcel IAL January 2027 series runs from Friday 8 January to Monday 25 January 2027, and every Biology and Chemistry paper is finished by Friday 22 January. All twelve science units are available — WBI11 to WBI16 and WCH11 to WCH16 — including the Unit 3 and Unit 6 practical-skills papers that students often assume are summer-only. If you sit both sciences, four days carry two papers: 12, 14, 18 and 22 January, each with Biology in the morning and Chemistry in the afternoon. Chemistry candidates face the tightest squeeze of all, with Unit 2 falling the day after Unit 1.

On this page

• When the January 2027 series starts and finishes
• Biology and Chemistry unit dates in full
• Every science unit is available this January
• The four double-exam days
• Why Chemistry Unit 1 and Unit 2 need a different plan
• What to revise for the Unit 3 and Unit 6 practicals
• What time a "morning" exam starts in the Gulf
• Building your revision plan around these dates
• When results are released
• Frequently asked questions

When do the Edexcel IAL January 2027 exams start and finish?

The January 2027 series runs from Friday 8 January to Monday 25 January 2027. If you sit only Biology and Chemistry, your last paper is Friday 22 January, so your personal exam window is shorter than the published series.

Biology opens the whole series. WBI11 sits in the afternoon of Friday 8 January, on the very first day. Chemistry starts on the Monday that follows, with WCH11 in the morning of 11 January.

That opening matters more than it looks. A Biology candidate has a paper before the first weekend of term; a Chemistry candidate does not. If your school reopens in early January after a winter break, one of those two groups has a working weekend and one has a genuine last chance to revise. This is drawn from Pearson's final January 2027 IAL examination timetable, which is published as final rather than provisional — the dates below are not going to shift.

What are the Biology and Chemistry unit dates for January 2027?

Here is every Edexcel IAL Biology and Chemistry unit in the January 2027 series, with its date, session and duration. Screenshot it, print it, or copy it straight into your planner.

Date	Unit code	Unit	Session	Duration
Friday 8 January	WBI11	Biology Unit 1: Molecules, Diet, Transport and Health	Afternoon	1h 30m
Monday 11 January	WCH11	Chemistry Unit 1: Structure, Bonding and Introduction to Organic Chemistry	Morning	1h 30m
Tuesday 12 January	WBI12	Biology Unit 2: Cells, Development, Biodiversity and Conservation	Morning	1h 30m
Tuesday 12 January	WCH12	Chemistry Unit 2: Energetics, Group Chemistry, Halogenoalkanes and Alcohol	Afternoon	1h 30m
Thursday 14 January	WBI13	Biology Unit 3: Practical Skills in Biology I	Morning	1h 20m
Thursday 14 January	WCH13	Chemistry Unit 3: Practical Skills in Chemistry I	Afternoon	1h 20m
Monday 18 January	WBI14	Biology Unit 4: Energy, Environment, Microbiology and Immunity	Morning	1h 45m
Monday 18 January	WCH14	Chemistry Unit 4: Rates, Equilibria and Further Organic Chemistry	Afternoon	1h 45m
Wednesday 20 January	WBI15	Biology Unit 5: Respiration, Internal Environment, Coordination and Gene Technology	Morning	1h 45m
Thursday 21 January	WCH15	Chemistry Unit 5: Transition Metals and Organic Nitrogen Chemistry	Morning	1h 45m
Friday 22 January	WBI16	Biology Unit 6: Practical Skills in Biology II	Morning	1h 20m
Friday 22 January	WCH16	Chemistry Unit 6: Practical Skills in Chemistry II	Afternoon	1h 20m

Two details in that table catch students out every year. The practical-skills papers are the shortest at 1 hour 20 minutes, which leaves no room for a slow start. And the A2 theory papers at Unit 4 and Unit 5 run to 1 hour 45 minutes, fifteen minutes longer than the AS theory papers — a difference that changes how you pace the extended-answer questions.

Every Biology and Chemistry unit is available this January

All six Biology units and all six Chemistry units appear in the January 2027 series, including both practical-skills papers. There is no unit you have to wait until June to sit.

This surprises people, and for a reasonable reason. Pearson's own general guidance for international qualifications notes that the October and January series do not cover every subject and every unit, with the full range examined only in May/June. Students hear that once and file the practical papers under "summer only" — then discover in December that WBI13 and WCH16 were available all along.

For January 2027 and for these two subjects, the full range is there. Check the specific series timetable rather than relying on the general rule, and check it on Pearson's exam timetables page rather than on a revision site.

This is the strongest argument for using the January session at all. Take one or two units in January — a practical paper, or a theory unit you are already comfortable with — and you walk into June carrying less. The June timetable is where science candidates get crushed by volume, and every unit you bank in January is one you are not revising alongside eight others in May.

Which days are double-exam days if you take both Biology and Chemistry?

Four days carry two science papers: Tuesday 12, Thursday 14, Monday 18 and Friday 22 January. On each of those days Biology sits in the morning and Chemistry in the afternoon.

That pairing is consistent, which is helpful — you always know which subject comes first. It also means the four hardest days of your series are predictable, so you can plan for them now rather than improvising on the morning.

Two of those four days are the ones to watch. Thursday 14 January puts both Unit 3 practical papers in a single day, and Friday 22 January puts both Unit 6 practical papers in a single day. Two 80-minute practical-skills papers, one morning and one afternoon, with everything they demand in terms of precision and data handling.

How to use the gap between the two sessions

The break between a morning paper and an afternoon paper is not revision time. Treat it as recovery time.

The time between the two sessions on the same day should be used only to unwind and relax. There is no harm in taking a coffee between the two sessions. Do not replay the morning paper in your head — that is the single most common way students damage the afternoon one. Stay focused, and start the afternoon exam fully prepared mentally rather than mentally exhausted.

A short stretching routine in that gap helps more than most students expect. Sitting still for ninety minutes under pressure leaves you stiff and shallow-breathing; five minutes of movement resets both.

Why do Chemistry Unit 1 and Unit 2 need a different revision plan?

Chemistry Unit 2 falls the day after Chemistry Unit 1 — WCH11 on Monday morning 11 January, WCH12 on Tuesday afternoon 12 January. Biology gives you four days between Unit 1 and Unit 2, from Friday 8 January to Tuesday 12 January.

Read those two sentences again if you sit AS Chemistry, because they carry a scheduling consequence that no amount of hard work in January can undo. You cannot revise Unit 2 after sitting Unit 1. There is a single evening between them, and that evening belongs to sleep and a light review, not to learning Group 2 trends from scratch.

So the sequencing has to change. Unit 2 needs to be exam-ready before 11 January, not after it. In practice that means finishing your Unit 2 preparation in December and using early January for maintenance on both units in parallel, rather than the natural instinct of working through Unit 1 first and then turning to Unit 2.

Biology candidates have the opposite luxury. A weekend and two weekdays sit between WBI11 and WBI12, which is enough for a genuine final pass over Unit 2 content. If you sit both subjects, this asymmetry is the thing to build your December around — and it is why a structured AS Chemistry course that finishes content early is worth more in January than in June.

Chemistry has a second back-to-back pair at A2 as well: WCH15 on Thursday 21 January is followed by WCH16 on Friday 22 January. Biology has no back-to-back pairs anywhere in the series. Chemistry has two.

What should I revise for the Unit 3 and Unit 6 practical papers?

If you are sitting Unit 3 or Unit 6, revise the practicals from the earlier units — not just the theory that sits alongside them. The practical-skills papers test the experiments you should have carried out, and they reach backwards across the whole course.

For Unit 3(WBI13 or WCH13), work through the practicals from Unit 1 and Unit 2. Those are the experiments the paper draws on, and the questions assume you have handled the apparatus, seen the results and understood where the errors come from.

For Unit 6(WBI16 or WCH16), the scope is far wider. Revise every single core practical, starting from Unit 1 all the way through to Unit 5. This is the paper that catches students who prepared only the A2 content, because a Unit 6 question can sit on an AS experiment without warning.

Alongside that, solve every past paper from 2019 onwards. The 2019 papers are the point where the current specification settles into its recognisable style, and working forward from there gives you the pattern of how practical questions are asked in the paper rather than how they are described in a textbook. Our classified IAL Biology and Chemistry notes and eBooks group those questions by skill so you can see the repetition for yourself.

What time does a "morning" exam start in the Gulf?

Pearson publishes each paper as morning or afternoon rather than as a clock time, and your centre sets the local start. Centres may move a published start time by up to 30 minutes either way without asking Pearson for permission.

Anything beyond that half-hour needs a formal request, submitted at least six weeks before the exam date, as set out in Pearson's guidance on international exam start times. Centres in Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the UAE all run their own local schedules built on top of the same morning and afternoon slots.

The practical advice is simple. Get your exact start times from your exams officer, in writing, and get them for every paper rather than assuming that "morning" means the same clock time in January as it did in June. Timetable pages that quote a fixed local start time for your country are working from an old document — the current rule is that your centre decides within the permitted window.

This matters most on the four double-exam days. If your centre shifts the morning session 30 minutes later and the afternoon session 30 minutes earlier, your recovery gap shrinks by an hour, and the coffee-and-stretching plan above needs rethinking.

How should I build a revision plan around this timetable?

Work backwards from your first paper rather than forwards from today. Your first date, not the series start date, is what sets your deadline.

If you sit AS Biology only, your window is 8 to 14 January and your first paper is on day one of the series. December is the whole of your preparation. Unit 1 has to peak on 8 January, Unit 2 has a four-day tail after it, and Unit 3 sits on 14 January with the practicals from Units 1 and 2 behind it.

If you sit AS Chemistry only, you get one extra weekend at the front, then everything compresses. Units 1 and 2 land on consecutive days, and Unit 3 follows on 14 January. Both theory units must be finished before 11 January.

If you sit A2 Biology, the spacing is generous: 18, 20 and 22 January, with two clear days between each paper. That is enough to do targeted work between exams, and it makes A2 Biology one of the more manageable January entries. An A2 Biology course that runs through to the end of December leaves you those gaps for past papers rather than content.

If you sit both sciences, plan the four double days first and everything else afterwards. Block 12, 14, 18 and 22 January as full exam days with no evening work, and place your heaviest revision on 13, 19 and 21 January instead.

If you are choosing what to enter, enter something. One or two units in January is the single most effective way to reduce the overload of the June timetable, and the units you bank now are units you never have to revise in May. Students who spread their entries across January and June consistently arrive at the summer series calmer than those who leave everything to one sitting — and a well-paced AS Biology course is built around exactly that kind of split.

When are the January 2027 IAL results released?

Pearson publishes results dates for each series through its key dates system rather than on the timetable document itself. The January 2027 timetable points centres to the key dates section of the Information Manual for both results dates and any pre-released materials.

To find your date, use Pearson's key dates finder and filter by International Advanced Level, or ask your exams officer, who has the same dates through Edexcel Online. Results for a January series typically arrive in the following weeks rather than months, but the confirmed date is the one that matters when you are planning a resit entry or a university deadline.

If you are weighing up a resit after January results, or you are unsure which units to enter in the first place, message us on WhatsApp at +965 5137 5709 or email admin@chem-bio.info and we will talk it through with your actual unit breakdown in front of us.

Frequently asked questions

Can I sit the Biology and Chemistry practical papers in January 2027? Yes. WBI13, WBI16, WCH13 and WCH16 all appear in the January 2027 series, on 14 and 22 January. Both practical-skills papers are 1 hour 20 minutes.

What happens if I have two exams on the same day? Edexcel schedules them in separate sessions, morning and afternoon, so they do not overlap. Candidates entered for both sessions on the same day should allow a reasonable break between them, and your centre will confirm the local timings.

Are A2 units available in the January series? Yes. WBI14, WBI15, WBI16, WCH14, WCH15 and WCH16 all run between 18 and 22 January 2027. A2 Biology candidates get two clear days between each of their three papers.

Should I take units in January or wait for June? Taking one or two units in January reduces the number of papers you carry into the June series, which is where science candidates are most often overloaded. Choose units you are already close to ready on rather than the ones you find hardest.