IB November 2026 Exam Dates, Schedule, and Study Calendar

Two things worth internalising. First, unlike May there is no scheduled break dayin the middle of the session — May 2026 had 1 May off, November runs straight through. Second, the whole thing is compressed into 16 examination days. If you have a language, a science and a maths, your papers are almost certainly stacked across all three weeks rather than clustered.

For context on cohort size: the November 2025 session saw 23,392 DP and CP students receive results, with a global average of 29.3 points — a smaller and slightly lower-scoring cohort than May, which is normal for the November sitting.

Every paper in the session, in order. Language B rows — the ones English B and French B students need — are highlighted. Durations are the official paper lengths; reading time, where your subject has it, sits on top.

Want this filtered to only your own subjects, with your local start times? Our IB exam calendar tool builds a personalised, printable version from the same official schedule.

The dates above are the same for every candidate on earth. The times are not. Every school is assigned an exam zone — A, B or C — plus a sub-zone based on its UTC offset, and that assignment does not change between sessions. The times below are local, and they do not shift for daylight saving.

There is no variance in start times within a morning or afternoon session. If you do not know your zone, your IB Coordinator does — ask once, write it down, and never guess again.

Anchor this on your last paper and count backwards twelve weeks — that is your start date. For a session ending 13 November 2026, a full twelve-week run begins in the week of 24 August 2026. If you are reading this later than that, compress Phase 1 rather than skipping Phase 2.

A November-specific warning about Phase 3: because the session runs straight through with no break day, the gap between your first and last paper can be three full weeks of sustained exam conditions. Plan recovery into it deliberately — the students who fade are usually the ones who treated week one like a sprint.

Worth knowing, because it explains most of the “why is my paper there?” frustration. The IB publishes the principles it schedules against:

• Clashes are minimised using real registration data, not guesswork — the timetable is optimised so the fewest students worldwide hit a conflict.
• Public and national holidays cannot all be respected. The DP runs in too many countries for that to be solvable.
• Regional and cultural links are accounted for where possible. The IB's stated example: Arabic literature and language examinations are not scheduled on a Friday.
• Almost all subjects sit on consecutive days — which is why your Paper 1 and Paper 2 are usually back to back.
• The largest subjects are deliberately spread out, not scheduled consecutively, to distribute workload. Languages and sciences are placed across the weeks for the same reason.
• The schedule is kept as short as possible while holding conflicts to an acceptable level — hence November's compressed three weeks.

And on rescheduling: an examination cannot be moved without authorisation from the Assessment Division at the IB Global Centre in Cardiff. Your school applies on your behalf, and it is granted only in exceptional, documented circumstances. There is no student-initiated route.

You now have the dates. The part that decides the grade is what happens in the twelve weeks before them — and in a compressed November session, the margin for drifting through September is thinner than in May.

Bespoke Learning matches students with IB-trained educators who know these papers: Paper 1 text types, Paper 2 reading and listening technique, Individual Oral preparation, and the exam-day timing that turns a 5 into a 7.