The time table
The G.C.E. Ordinary Level examination is administered by the Department of Examinations, and the official time table is published on its own site, doenets.lk. At the time of writing the 2026 table has not been released. When it is, this page is updated with the dates rather than replaced, so a link you save today keeps working.
2026 සාමාන්ය පෙළ විභාග කාලසටහන තවම නිකුත් වී නොමැත. එය නිකුත් වූ වහාම මෙම පිටුව යාවත්කාලීන කරනු ලැබේ.
Two things worth knowing while you wait: the exam has fallen in the December window in recent years, and the admission card reaches you through your school, not by post to your house. If you have moved school, that is the one thing to sort out early.
You do not need the table to start
Whatever the exact dates turn out to be, the number of weekends between now and the paper is roughly fixed, and the plan below does not change if the date moves by a week.
Weeks 1 to 4: one past paper a week, untimed
Take one Paper I from the oldest end of the pile and work through it with no clock. The point is not the score. It is the list of questions you could not do, which is the only honest map of what you still need. Write that list somewhere you will look again.
වේලාව ගැන කරදර නොවී, පැරණි ප්රශ්න පත්රයක් සම්පූර්ණයෙන් කරන්න. නොහැකි වූ ප්රශ්න ලැයිස්තුවක් ලියා ගන්න. එයයි ඔබේ පුනරීක්ෂණ සැලැස්ම.
Weeks 5 to 8: the list, not the syllabus
Work the list. For each topic on it, do that topic's questions from several different years rather than re-reading the notes. Across 13 sittings the same ideas come back in different clothes, and recognising the idea under new wording is the actual skill Paper I tests.
Weeks 9 to 11: full papers, on the clock
Forty questions, one hour, no phone. Then mark it, and add anything new to the list. Two timed papers a week is plenty; three is how people burn out in November.
The last two weeks: only what you got wrong
No new topics. Re-do the questions you missed, and stop. If a topic is still not there by the second week of December, it is not going to be, and the marks are cheaper elsewhere.
Why MCQs first
Paper I is 40 marks that behave predictably: the questions are short, the marking is binary, and the 511 questions we have curated from 13 papers are enough to meet the same ideas several times over. Paper II rewards writing practice, which needs a teacher; Paper I rewards volume, which does not. Start where you can move alone.
A real one, to see what that looks like
කොපුල් සෛල ආලෝක අණ්වීක්ෂය යටතේ නිරීක්ෂණය කළ විට දැකිය හැකි ඉන්ද්රියිකාවක් වන්නේ
- Aගොල්ගි සංකීර්ණය ය.
- Bමයිටොකොන්ඩ්රියම ය.
- Cන්යෂ්ටිය ය.
- Dරයිබොසෝම ය.