Year 13 AQA A-Level Chemistry: 2027 Exam Dates and Deadlines

AQA A-level Chemistry (7405) is a two-year science qualification completed in Year 13, when a student sits three written papers and submits a Practical Endorsement mark reported separately from the grade. AQA's confirmed timetable for the June 2027 series sets Paper 1 for 28 May 2027, Paper 2 for 10 June 2027 and Paper 3 for 17 June 2027, with the Practical Endorsement deadline on 15 May 2027 — before any of the three papers are sat.

When do Year 13 AQA Chemistry students actually sit their exams?

AQA publishes one Exam Timetable each year covering every subject in a series, and the document behind Chemistry (7405)'s own key dates page is AQA's Exam Timetable for May/June 2027, covering A-level, AS, Level 3 certificates and Applied General. AQA's own dates and timetables page lists this document under the heading "Confirmed exam timetables" and states that the timetables there "are definitive," a status confirmed live on 7 September 2026. The dates below are AQA's own confirmed figures for the series a Year 13 cohort finishing in 2027 will sit, and AQA lists nothing on that page to suggest they will move before the series itself.

Every date above falls in May or June 2027, and only the contingency day extends past the third paper. The awarding bodies designate a single contingency day across the whole June series in case disruption forces a delayed sitting, and most series never need it — it is not a fourth exam. A student's own school or college is free to bring the Practical Endorsement deadline forward from AQA's 15 May 2027 cut-off: what AQA publishes is the latest date it will accept, not necessarily the date a particular school will actually set for its own students.

Why is the Practical Endorsement deadline before the written papers even start?

The parent guide to A-level Chemistry already explains what the Practical Endorsement is and how a student can fail it — this page does not repeat that. What it adds is the Year 13 mechanics: the actual submission deadline, and what happens to the mark if a student changes school partway through the course.

AQA's 2027 timetable sets 15 May 2027 as the latest date schools and colleges should submit "marks/assessments or levels" for "all units and components unless specified below" — and Chemistry's Practical Endorsement (7405/C) is not one of the small number of named exceptions, which AQA lists as Art and Design (31 May 2027) and Applied General assignments (11 June 2027). That is almost two weeks before Paper 1 on 28 May 2027, and the gap exists because the endorsement is assessed by a student's own teachers across the course and then externally moderated by AQA — a process that has to finish before results can be compiled, unlike a written paper, which AQA marks itself after the exam has been sat.

If a student moves school during Year 12 or Year 13, the Practical Endorsement mark does not have to be re-sat from scratch. AQA's own guidance on submitting marks and grades states: "Endorsement grades in GCSE English Language and A-level sciences can be carried forward across the JCQ exam boards. The most recent grade (including 'not classified') will be carried forward," and that "marks can be carried forward for the lifetime of the specification. There is no restriction on time between the original attempt and the re-take." AQA states this for A-level sciences as a group — Biology, Chemistry and Physics share the same endorsement structure — not for Chemistry specifically, and it sits inside AQA's guidance on re-entering a qualification under the same Unique Candidate Identifier, which is exactly the situation a transferring student is in. Requesting the carry-forward is something the new school's exams officer does on the student's behalf; it is not a form a parent submits directly to AQA.

Does an AS grade from Year 12 count towards the Year 13 A-level?

No. AS and A-level Chemistry have been decoupled qualifications since 2015 — the same year AQA's current specification was first taught — and AS Chemistry is entered under its own AQA code, 7404, distinct from the full A-level's 7405. It is sat and graded independently. The tutoring guide Cognito puts it plainly: "AS marks do not carry forward to the full A-Level: It is a separate qualification." A school that enters a Year 12 cohort for 7404 is making a decision about that year group's own qualification, not banking marks toward the eventual A-level grade two years later.

There is a genuine trap here, and it sits in AQA's administrative guidance rather than in the specification content. AQA's own general administration page for AS Chemistry lists 7404's Department for Education discount code as 1110 — the same discount code AQA lists for the full A-level, 7405. In AQA's own words: "If a student takes two specifications with the same discount code, Further and Higher Education providers are likely to take the view that they have only achieved one of the two qualifications." That is AQA's own description of how the discount-code system is likely to be read; what any individual university actually does with a particular UCAS application is a decision for that university, not something this page can predict.

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Why does Paper 3 make Year 13 revision different from Year 12?

Year 12 revision for AQA Chemistry — whether or not a school enters the AS — is scoped to a single year's teaching. Year 13 is not. Paper 3 (7405/3) is AQA's synoptic paper: the tutoring guide Cognito describes it as drawing on "any content" from across the full two-year specification, combined with practical-based questions and 30 marks of multiple choice, and identifies it as "the paper where students underperform most". A Year 13 revision plan built only around what has been taught since September will miss the Year 12 content that Paper 3 is entitled to draw on.

In practice, that means a Year 13 student's revision timetable has to run back across two years of notes rather than one — physical chemistry calculations first met in Year 12, organic mechanisms taught in Year 13, and the practical techniques and analysis skills examined across all three papers, not only Paper 3. Leaving Paper 3 preparation until after Papers 1 and 2 are finished, on 10 June 2027, gives a student only a week before their own paper on 17 June 2027 to revisit two years of content — which is why the synoptic element benefits from being built into revision from the start of Year 13, not bolted on at the end.

Which edition of AQA Chemistry 7405 is a Year 13 student on, and is it changing?

The code 7405 by itself does not say which edition of the course a student is following — AQA has published more than one specification under some subject codes over the years. For Chemistry, the specification live as of 7 September 2026 is the one AQA itself titles "AS and A-level Chemistry Specification for first teaching in 2015" — the same edition a Year 13 student sitting the June 2027 papers has followed since the start of Year 12.

For AQA's overseas centres only, A-level Chemistry (7405) is due to be withdrawn from 2028: AQA's own administration page states that "the last cohort for first teaching will be September 2026", "the last first sitting will be summer 2028", and a final resit opportunity follows in September 2029. This does not affect the specification as taught in UK schools and colleges. A Year 13 student sitting the June 2027 series in England, Wales or Northern Ireland is unaffected by that overseas change, and the 2015-edition specification they have followed through Year 12 and Year 13 remains the live specification for UK centres, with no withdrawal date announced.

How Leading Tuition supports Year 13 AQA Chemistry

Our expert A-level Chemistry tutors work with Year 13 students sitting AQA 7405 around exactly the calendar above: pacing revision sessions against the 28 May, 10 June and 17 June 2027 paper dates, and making sure Practical Endorsement evidence is complete well ahead of a school's own internal deadline, not just AQA's 15 May cut-off. For students who sat AS Chemistry (7404) in Year 12, or who are joining Year 13 from a different school or exam board, we build a synoptic Paper 3 revision plan that pulls Year 12 content back in alongside what is being taught in Year 13, rather than treating Year 13 as a fresh start.

For students continuing from A-level Chemistry into medicine, pharmacy or a chemistry-related degree, our tutors also work alongside our Medicine Prep Hub and our wider Chemistry tutoring support across every level, so a Year 13 programme can flex to cover admissions test preparation running in parallel with A-level revision. Book a free consultation to discuss a Year 13 AQA Chemistry programme built around your child's own school timetable, target grade and exam board.

Frequently asked questions about Year 13 AQA A-Level Chemistry