Scottish exam timetable 2024: When will you sit your exams?

Find the date and time for every National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher exam this year using our searchable table.

By Calum Petrie

January 9 2024, 6:00 am

Find the date and time for every National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher exam using our searchable table. Image: Shutterstock

The 2024 exam season has unofficially started, with students across the north and north-east sitting prelims throughout January.

But when do the ‘real exams’ take place?

This year’s exam timetable runs from Monday, April 22 to Wednesday, May 29. Results day is Tuesday, August 6.

Use our searchable table to find out the date and time for every National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher exam.

Searchable Scottish exam timetable 2024

Normality returning after years of exam disruption…

Pupils are still adapting to the return of traditional exams after years of Covid chaos.

Teacher assessments were used in 2020 and 2021, with in-person exams returning in 2022.

The SQA (Scottish Qualifications Authority) confirmed that the 2022 exams were graded ‘generously’ after the disruption of Covid.

But 2023 saw something of a return to normality, with pupils performing admirably despite having lessons disrupted by recurring industrial action and storms.

…but clock is ticking for Scottish exam timetable as we know it

Rows of school desks in examination hall. — Normality might have returned after years of disruption, but school exams could be in for a radical overhaul. Image: Shutterstock

School exams as we know them could be in line for a radical rehaul.

The Scottish Government announced in 2021 that, as part of wider education reform, the SQA is to be scrapped and replaced by a new qualifications body in 2025.

The new organisation will take on the design and delivery of all qualifications, as well as the SQA’s accreditation and regulation functions.

Then-education secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville commissioned the Independent Review of Qualifications and Assessment (IRQA) in October 2021 to look at how well the current system is working.

Out with National 5, in with Scottish Diploma of Achievement (SDA)

The blueprint, produced by Professor Louise Hayward of the University of Glasgow and now under consideration by the Scottish Government, recommends that 15 and 16-year-olds be graded on coursework as well as other areas including volunteering as part of a Scottish Diploma of Achievement (SDA).

S5 and S6 students would still sit their Highers under the changes. But National 4 and 5 tests would be scrapped.