2027 Exam Timetable: UTME, NECO and WAEC Dates and Result Waits

Under the proposed 2027 exam timetable, UTME comes first in mid-March, NECO SSCE fills April and early May, and WAEC WASSCE ends on 18 June. Every O-level result is due in August, so admissions can open in September.

Budget ₦14,050 if your child sits all three: the JAMB form with the mock plus the WAEC checker, with the NECO token on top. You'll need the JAMB share by late January, not April.

Treat every date here as a proposal from the Federal Ministry of Education. JAMB, NECO and WAEC each fix their own final timetable, and those notices are what you follow.

One SS3 candidate, three exams

Plenty of SS3 students write UTME, NECO and WAEC in the same year, because two O-level sittings give them a fallback: if one paper goes badly, they can combine results from both. Your school usually collects the WAEC and NECO entry fees. So this page counts only what you pay yourself, which is the JAMB ePIN and the two result checkers.

Technical-track students and those on the Arabic and Islamic track write NABTEB and NBAIS, which both sit in June and early July. Their results are due in August too.

The 2027 exam timetable, worked out for one family

Prices and fees as at 15 October 2026. JAMB fees are the 2026 rates.

On results day, you can buy a WAEC result checker PIN on AidaPay, for your own child or a cousin who sat the same exam.

The UTME 2027 date moves to March, and so does the JAMB money

In 2026, UTME began in mid-April. Starting in mid-March pulls the exam forward by about four and a half weeks, and every deadline in front of it moves along with it.

Registration bites hardest. For the 2026 exam, ePIN sales opened in mid-January and registration closed at the end of February, which left candidates about seven weeks between the last day to register and the first paper. Keep that same gap and registration would close in late January. Use that as your own planning date. JAMB fixes the real window when it opens registration.

Save towards the 2026 fee: ₦7,200 for UTME alone. With the optional mock, ₦8,700.

If you usually sort the JAMB money after paying January school fees, both bills now land in the same month, right when everyone at home is still recovering from Christmas rice. So start now. About ₦670 a week from mid-October covers the full form with the mock by mid-January.

Counting the days from last paper to result

NECO finishes first, on 14 May, and if its results only arrive at the end of August your child waits close to four months. WAEC ends later. Its worst case is just over ten weeks. On the day each last paper ends, file the exam slip with the JAMB printout so everything sits in one envelope.

In 2026, NECO's school results came out in late September, so an August release reaches you between three and a half and nearly eight weeks sooner. WAEC already released in early August that year. For WAEC families the August target changes little, and the bigger shift is UTME moving to March.

Here's the awkward bit.

Your child gets a UTME score in March and no O-level result until August. For about five months, they can't pair that score with WAEC or NECO for the O-level upload on CAPS, JAMB's online admissions system. Use the wait well: sit down together and pick a course whose subject requirements match the papers your child is writing.

Adding up the PINs: ₦14,050 before the NECO token

UTME with the mock costs ₦8,700. Once you add the WAEC checker, the running total climbs to ₦14,050, and that's before a single naira goes on NECO. Drop the mock and it's ₦12,550.

How much is the WAEC result checker PIN?

One WASSCE/GCE checker PIN costs ₦5,350 on AidaPay, with ₦5.35 cashback. On the WAEC result portal, you type its serial number and PIN together with your child's exam number.

How much is the NECO result token?

Buy the NECO token on results.neco.gov.ng and nowhere else. Its price shows at checkout, before you pay, not on the portal's front page. Add whatever you paid to your running total.

What could still move, and what to do now

The Ministry has promised to keep working with the exam bodies so they stick to these dates. Three notices matter from here: JAMB's registration announcement, then the NECO and WAEC timetables.

Get the JAMB profile ready before then, and send the SMS once JAMB opens profile creation:

1. Check that your child's name and date of birth on their NIN record are correct, because JAMB pulls biodata from NIMC.
2. Choose a phone number that no other JAMB profile uses.
3. When profile creation opens, text NIN, a space and your child's NIN to 55019 or 66019 from that phone.
4. Save the ten-character profile code that comes back by SMS.

Start the JAMB savings this week. And keep that phone charged and close by for the registration notice.

Frequently asked questions

Published 15 October 2026. Prices and codes change - if you spot one that has moved, tell us and we will fix it.