The official exam timetable is published by Cambridge, and your exam centre confirms which papers you sit and where. Your school calendar and your teacher’s lesson slots are different things, and mixing them up leads to badly timed revision.
We are a tuition team, not an exam centre. We cannot issue or confirm exam dates, and we do not state any here. This page shows how to tell the three schedules apart and how to plan with them.
What are the three schedules?
| Schedule | Who sets it | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Official exam timetable | Cambridge | The slot each paper is scheduled for in a series |
| Your confirmed papers and venue | Your exam centre | When and where you sit your own papers |
| School calendar | Your school | Terms, holidays, internal tests and mock exams |
| Teacher’s lesson schedule | You and your teacher | When you study together |
The first two decide your exam. The last two decide how you prepare.
Who is responsible for what?
- Cambridge publishes the official timetable for each series.
- Your exam centre confirms your own papers, times and venue, and tells you about clashes and exam-day rules.
- Your school sets term dates, holidays and internal assessments, which may not match the exam series.
- You and your teacher agree lesson times after the trial, directly between you.
How do you use them together?
- Start with the official timetable. Find it on the Cambridge website for the series you are entered for, and locate your subject codes.
- Check it against your centre’s confirmation. The centre’s version is the one that applies to you. If the two differ, ask the centre to explain.
- Mark the exam slots first on your own calendar or in the realistic revision planner.
- Add school dates next: holidays, mocks and internal tests.
- Add lesson times last, so that teaching supports your papers, and not the other way round.
The planner reports overload instead of scheduling hours that do not exist. It does not know your school’s calendar or a teacher’s availability, so you enter the real constraints yourself.
A short worked example
A student has three revision days before his first paper, according to his plan. A friend said the paper is on a Monday. The student opens the official timetable, finds his subject code, and then reads his centre’s confirmation.
Both documents agree on the slot. His school calendar, however, shows a mock exam in the same week. He notes it as a school date and not an exam date, then builds a plan: paper slots first, mock second, lesson times third.
If the two documents had disagreed, he would have asked his centre before changing anything.
What goes wrong most often?
Treating a mock as the real exam. A mock week is a school decision. It is useful practice, but it carries no official weight for Cambridge.
Planning from last year’s timetable. Timetables are published per series, so always open the one for your series.
Assuming a holiday is free. School holidays do not change exam slots, so plan around the exam, not the break.
Asking the wrong party. Timetable questions go to your exam centre, and lesson questions go to your teacher.
What should you do if something looks wrong?
Contact your exam centre and ask it to check your papers against the official timetable. Keep their reply in writing. See checking local deadlines and sessions and checking your statement of entry for related steps.
How does tuition fit in?
Once you have your confirmed slots, a teacher can help you decide what to revise first, and how to spread practice over the weeks you have. Lesson times are agreed between you and the teacher after the trial. See tuition and examination registration for who does what, and how our service works for the path from enquiry to trial.