The 2026 O/L Sinhala paper is on Wednesday, 9 December 2026. Here is exactly when each part starts, what Paper I looks like, and what to do with the three days before it.
Date and time
- Papers I and II together, 08:30 – 11:40
- Paper III, 13:00 – 15:00
Times are from the Department of Examinations' official time table, issued on 6 October 2026. See the full O/L 2026 time table for every other subject.
What Paper I looks like
Paper I is the multiple-choice paper: four numbered options per question, one correct. In the 14 sittings we hold (2012 to 2025), each Paper I carried 27 to 39 questions that we could reproduce faithfully. This year it shares one morning sitting with Paper II, so the time between them is yours to divide.
The topics that have been asked almost every year
If you only look at one list in the last three days, make it this one. Each topic appeared in nearly every sitting we hold.
- වචනාර්ථ14/14
- රූඪි ව්යවහාර14/14
- ප්රස්තාව පිරුළු14/14
- නාම ආඛ්යාත ගැළපීම14/14
- ඡේද අවබෝධය14/14
- සමාස14/14
- අකාරාදි පිළිවෙළ14/14
- විරුද්ධ පද14/14
- පද භාවිතය13/14
- පර්යාය පද13/14
- අලංකාර13/14
- සාහිත්ය ඉතිහාසය12/14
The last three days
Three days before: Sunday 6 December
One full past Paper I on the clock, from a year you have not done. Mark it and write down every miss.
Two days before: Monday 7 December
No new papers. Go through your wrong-answer list and the topic list above, and read the explanation of every question you missed.
The day before: Tuesday 8 December
You sit your religion paper (Buddhism, Saivaneri, Catholicism, Christianity or Islam) that day. Give it your full attention, and keep Sinhala to one evening hour on the topic list above: nothing new, and early to bed.
Other papers fall in the days just before Sinhala, so the real last push is earlier: do your final full Sinhala paper on the last free day before them, not the night before.
In the hall
- Papers I and II are one sitting, 08:30 to 11:40, and Paper III follows at 13:00. Decide before the day how long you give the MCQs, so Paper II is not squeezed.
- For grouped questions ("for questions 1 to 3...") read the shared instruction twice. Answering a different question from the one asked is an easy way to lose a mark you knew.
No calculators and no correcting fluid in any O/L paper this year, and a phone in the hall is an offence that can be punished. Leave it at home. The full list is in the exam day checklist.
A real Paper I question, to warm up
“සේවකයෝ රාජකාරි නිමා කර කාර්යාලයෙන් පිටත් වූහ.” යන වාක්යයෙහි ‘කාර්යාලයෙන්’ යන්නෙහි විභක්තිය කුමක් ද?
- Aඅවධි
- Bආධාර
- Cසම්ප්රදාන
- Dකර්ම