IGCSE Exam Dates 2027: Biology and Chemistry Timetable for Cambridge and Edexcel (May/June)

Written by Hosni: more than 20 years teaching Biology and Chemistry, 16 years teaching to Cambridge and Edexcel mark schemes, and author of eight published science textbooks with more than 20,000 copies sold worldwide. Checked line by line against the Cambridge June 2027 zone 3 and zone 4 timetables (Version 1, November 2026) and the Pearson Summer 2027 final timetable.

When are the IGCSE Biology and Chemistry exams in 2027?

The 2027 IGCSE Biology and Chemistry exams run from Monday 26 April to Tuesday 15 June 2027. Cambridge opens the series with Biology theory on 26 April and closes its science papers with Chemistry multiple choice on 10 June; Edexcel runs from 11 May to 15 June.

That is the whole span, and it matters because the two boards do not overlap the way most students assume. If you sit Cambridge IGCSE, your first science paper is in the last week of April, before many schools have finished their final revision programme. If you sit Edexcel, you have two extra weeks, but your first paper carries 61.1% of the grade and lasts two hours.

The dates come from the Cambridge June 2027 zone 3 final timetable and the Pearson Edexcel International GCSE Summer 2027 final timetable. Both are marked final. Cambridge does occasionally revise a final timetable after publication, so check the version number before you print anything for the wall.

Cambridge IGCSE Biology and Chemistry exam dates, June 2027

Cambridge IGCSE Biology 0610 and Chemistry 0620 each have three papers in June 2027: theory on 26 and 27 April, practical or alternative to practical on 11 and 13 May, and multiple choice on 8 and 10 June. Zone 3 sits every paper in the afternoon; zone 4 sits the same papers on the same days in the morning.

Table 1. Cambridge IGCSE Biology 0610 and Chemistry 0620 papers, June 2027. Dates and sessions from the Cambridge zone 3 and zone 4 final timetables, Version 1, November 2026.

Two things to read off the table. First, the variant number tells you your zone: a 1 at the end (41, 61, 21) is zone 3, a 2 (42, 62, 22) is zone 4. Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain and Egypt are zone 3; the UAE and Oman are zone 4, according to Cambridge's administrative zone checker. Second, the session is fixed by zone, not by school. Every zone 3 Biology and Chemistry paper in the zone 3 timetable is PM; every one in the zone 4 timetable is AM. Your school chooses the exact start time inside that session, which is why two schools in the same city can start the same paper an hour apart.

Extended candidates take Papers 2, 4 and 6 (or 5). The Cambridge IGCSE Biology 0610 syllabus weights Paper 4 at 50% of the grade, Paper 2 at 30% and Paper 6 at 20%; the Chemistry 0620 syllabus uses the same split. So the paper that arrives first, on 26 April, is also the one worth half your grade.

To keep these dates on your wall, download the one-page Cambridge IGCSE 2027 timetable (PDF), which has a column for your school's start time and the mock calendar below.

If you want those 171 days structured for you, the IGCSE Biology live classes for June 2027 follow this exact timetable and the mock calendar set out below.

Edexcel International GCSE Biology and Chemistry dates, Summer 2027

Edexcel International GCSE Biology 4BI1 and Chemistry 4CH1 each have two papers in Summer 2027: Biology on Tuesday 11 May and Thursday 10 June, Chemistry on Tuesday 18 May and Tuesday 15 June. Paper 1 is two hours and worth 61.1% of the grade; Paper 2 is 1 hour 15 minutes and worth 38.9%.

Table 2. Pearson Edexcel International GCSE Biology 4BI1 and Chemistry 4CH1 papers, Summer 2027. Dates and sessions from the Pearson final and R-paper timetables; weightings from the Pearson specifications.

Dates and sessions are from the Pearson Summer 2027 final timetable. If your school sits the regional R papers (1BR, 2BR, 1CR, 2CR), the R-paper timetable puts them on the same days and in the same sessions, so the dates above hold either way. The weightings are from the Edexcel International GCSE Biology specification and the Chemistry specification: Paper 1 is 110 marks and tests the core content, Paper 2 is 70 marks and tests everything, including the bold statements.

Chemistry Paper 1C is the only afternoon paper in the whole set. After sitting 1B in the morning a week earlier, it is easy to assume 1C is a morning paper too. It is not.

Edexcel students can download the one-page Edexcel IGCSE 2027 timetable (PDF), with the four papers, sessions and a space for your start times.

The IGCSE Chemistry live classes prepare students for both boards, with every mock marked and feedback sent to students and parents.

What is different from 2026

The biggest change for 2027 is the order and spacing of the Cambridge theory papers. In June 2026, Chemistry theory came first, on Tuesday 28 April, with Biology two days later on Thursday 30 April. In 2027, Biology is first, on Monday 26 April, and Chemistry follows the next day.

Three other shifts show up when you put the June 2026 zone 3 timetable next to the 2027 one:

• The series starts two days earlier (26 April rather than 28 April).
• The practical papers have swapped order. In 2026 Chemistry Paper 5/6 was on 7 May and Biology on 12 May; in 2027 Biology is on 11 May and Chemistry on 13 May.
• The gap between Chemistry theory and Chemistry practical has widened from nine days to sixteen.

The multiple-choice papers barely move: Biology stays on 8 June, Chemistry goes from 9 June to 10 June.

Here is why the order matters more than it looks. The first exam is usually the first time a student experiences real exam conditions, and in the years when Chemistry came first I watched students panic and over-prepare for that one paper at the expense of everything that came after it. In 2027 that pressure lands on Biology Paper 4, and then Chemistry Paper 4 arrives the very next afternoon, with no day in between to recover or revise. The fix is not to revise harder in the last week. It is to make exam conditions feel ordinary long before 26 April, which is what the mock calendar below is for.

The gaps between papers, and what to finish in each

Cambridge students have 15 to 16 days between theory and practical, then 28 days before multiple choice; Edexcel students have 30 days (Biology) and 28 days (Chemistry) between Paper 1 and Paper 2. Each gap has one job.

• Cambridge Biology: 26 April to 11 May is 15 days; 11 May to 8 June is 28 days.
• Cambridge Chemistry: 27 April to 13 May is 16 days; 13 May to 10 June is 28 days.
• Edexcel Biology: 11 May to 10 June is 30 days.
• Edexcel Chemistry: 18 May to 15 June is 28 days.

The 15-day Cambridge gap is not enough time to learn Paper 6 from scratch. Paper 6 is 20% of the grade and tests skills, not facts: drawing a specimen with clean lines and correct proportions, tabulating results with units in the headings, choosing axes and plotting a graph that the mark scheme can credit. Those skills take weeks to become automatic. If you are reading this in November, start practising them now, one short task a week, and use the May gap only for timed practice and checking mark-scheme wording.

The 28-day gap before the multiple-choice papers is the opposite problem: too much time, and students drift. Paper 2 is 30% of the grade, 40 questions in 45 minutes, and the marks go to students who have seen every way Cambridge phrases a question. That gap is for volume, one full multiple-choice paper every two or three days, marked the same day.

For Edexcel students the 28 to 30 days between papers is where the bold-statement content gets its final pass, because Paper 2 is the only paper that tests it.

171 days to Paper 4: what to finish by January, March and April

From 6 November 2026 there are 171 days to Cambridge Biology Paper 4, 172 to Chemistry Paper 4, and 186 to Edexcel Biology Paper 1B. Here is how I split that time, with seven mocks sat under full exam conditions.

Now to December: start the practical skills. Paper 6 tests skills that take time to build: biological drawing, tabulating data and plotting graphs. Start them now, one short task a week, rather than leaving them for May.

First week of January: mock 1, half the syllabus. My January mock covers 50 to 60% of the syllabus. Sit it timed and under full exam conditions, with every detail of the real day, because the first exam is usually when students meet those conditions for the first time.

End of February: mock 2, the whole syllabus. From here every mock covers the entire syllabus. Between the January and February mocks the work is past papers. Solve every paper from the current syllabus, from 2023 onwards; if that is too many, take one variant from each exam session. The classified solved past papers for IGCSE Biology and Chemistry are arranged by topic for exactly this stage, with model answers written to the mark scheme.

March: three more mocks. I run three in March, spread across almost every week of the month, all on the whole syllabus. Time each one, and mark it against the mark scheme the same day.

April: two mocks, then stop. Two more full mocks in April, and then no mock in the last two days before 26 April. A mock sat a day or two before the real paper does not add marks; it adds fatigue and a fresh list of worries you cannot fix in time. Those final days are for sleep, the timetable on the wall, and checking the session.

This calendar is the one my June 2027 classes follow, and every mock is marked with feedback to the student and to parents. If you want to see how a session runs before committing to anything, join a free IGCSE live class and sit one with the group.

Zones, Key Times and why your start time may differ

Cambridge fixes the date and the session (AM or PM) for your zone, and your school fixes the clock time inside that session. Cambridge sets a Key Time for each session, and every candidate must either be in the exam or under supervision at that moment.

That is why your friend at another school may start Paper 4 at 1.00 pm while you start at 2.00 pm. Both are inside the PM session, and both satisfy the Key Time rule set out in the Cambridge Handbook section on Key Times and Full Centre Supervision. Your exams officer has the Key Times for your country; the timetable PDF does not print them.

Pearson works differently. The timetable gives a session, and international centres start at the published time for their region. Schools may move a start by up to 30 minutes without permission; anything larger needs Pearson's approval six weeks ahead, as explained on Pearson's international start times page.

Mixing up AM and PM is common, especially for students sitting public exams for the first time. Everything on your Cambridge timetable this year is one session, PM for zone 3 and AM for zone 4, so write that session on every date, not just the first one. For Edexcel, three of the four science papers are morning papers and Chemistry 1C is the exception. Get the statement of entry from your school, check each paper code against the tables above, and confirm the start time with the exams officer in the week before the first paper, not the night before.

When are IGCSE results 2027?

Neither board has published a results date for the June 2027 IGCSE series yet. In 2026, Cambridge released IGCSE results on 18 August and Pearson released International GCSE results to students on 20 August, and Cambridge has said its June IGCSE results dates are unchanged.

Cambridge's key dates for the June 2026 series list 18 August for IGCSE and O Level results. On 3 November 2026 Cambridge announced that June AS and A Level results will move earlier, to 28 July 2027, while stating that the results dates for June series IGCSE remain unchanged, in its announcement on earlier AS and A Level results. For Pearson, the key dates for results page currently lists the June 2026 International GCSE release (19 August to centres, 20 August to students) and will add the 2027 row when it is confirmed. Expect the third week of August for both boards, and treat any earlier date you see on a non-board site as a guess.

Results reach the school before they reach you. Pearson sends results to schools the day before students, and Cambridge releases them to schools at 06.00 GMT on results day to pass on, so in both cases your school decides how and when you see them. Ask in July, not on results morning.

Questions students ask

When is the first IGCSE exam in 2027 for Biology and Chemistry? Cambridge Biology Paper 3/4 on Monday 26 April 2027 is the first science paper, with Chemistry Paper 3/4 on Tuesday 27 April. Edexcel's first science paper is Biology Paper 1B on Tuesday 11 May 2027.

How long is each IGCSE Biology and Chemistry paper? Cambridge: theory 1 hour 15 minutes, practical 1 hour 15 minutes, alternative to practical 1 hour, multiple choice 45 minutes. Edexcel: Paper 1 is 2 hours and Paper 2 is 1 hour 15 minutes for both subjects.

Where is the IGCSE exam dates 2027 PDF? Cambridge publishes one official PDF per administrative zone on its exam timetables page, and Pearson publishes one for International GCSE plus a separate one for R papers. For Biology and Chemistry only, the two one-page printable PDFs on this page, one per board, put every paper, session and code on a single sheet.

I'm an Edexcel student, not Cambridge. Do the April dates apply to me? No. Your Biology papers are 11 May and 10 June, your Chemistry papers are 18 May and 15 June, and nothing is in April. Use the Edexcel table above and ignore the Cambridge one.

If you are not sure which class fits your board and subject, the course finder sorts it in a minute, or message me on WhatsApp at +965 5137 5709.