WAEC GCE 2026 Second Series: Timetable, Dates and CBT Format

What the second series is, and why this one matters

The WASSCE for Private Candidates, which most people still call WAEC GCE, is the exam you sit outside the school system. No principal signs you up: you register yourself, choose your subjects, and sit at a centre WAEC assigns. It runs twice a year, and this second series matters more than usual because of what happened on 5 August. WAEC released the school candidates' results that day: of the 1,950,726 candidates who sat, 1,200,514 obtained credits in at least five subjects including English Language and Mathematics. That is 61.54 percent, which sounds respectable until you flip it around. Roughly 750,000 students missed the five-credits benchmark that university admission depends on. On top of that, Vanguard reported that 167,486 results were withheld over suspected malpractice. If you are in either group, the second series is your fastest route to fixing things, because as a private candidate you can enter just the subjects you need to improve rather than repeating the whole slate, and the results should land in time to be useful for the next admission cycle. It is also the standard route for anyone who left school years ago and needs a WASSCE certificate now, whether for admission, work, or professional registration. Same certificate, same standard, different door.

The real timetable and dates, and the wrong ones still circulating

This needs saying clearly, because sources openly conflict. WAEC's official registration portal hosts a document titled the final timetable for the 2026 second series, internally dated August 2026, and it is the only version to trust. According to that document, the window runs from Friday 4 September to Wednesday 28 October 2026. The first entry, on 4 September, is the practical planning session for Foods and Nutrition 3 and Home Management 3. Orals and practicals run from 14 to 25 September, at times WAEC arranges individually and communicates to candidates directly. The main written papers start on Tuesday 22 September with Further Mathematics and finish on Wednesday 28 October. Meanwhile, at least one popular timetable site still claims the series runs from 25 October to 20 December and that no timetable has been released. That page itself admits its subject schedule is the 2025 edition shown for reference; it was simply overtaken when WAEC published the real document in late August. Two useful notes from the official timetable: where a question paper states a different duration from the timetable, the question paper wins, and candidates with special needs get one and a half times the allotted time. Download your own copy from registration.waecdirect.org, check each of your subjects against it, and confirm anything unclear with WAEC rather than with aggregator sites, including this one.

Registration is still open, and what it costs

Registration has been a moving target this year, so check the portal before you rely on any date, including this one. Last checked 1 September 2026: registration opened on 4 May, was originally meant to close on 31 July, was extended to 28 August, and WAEC's own portals now give Thursday 10 September 2026 — waecdirect.org states that PIN generation closes that day, and registration.waecdirect.org shows the same date, with biometrics and online registration due by 11:59pm. Several news reports are still quoting the older 28 August deadline; the portal is the one that counts. Be careful with the subject dates circulating on timetable websites: several are still showing the 2025 schedule, so check every one of your own papers against the official final timetable on the portal rather than against an aggregator. Notice too the odd wrinkle: registration closes six days after the first practical planning session on 4 September, so if your subjects include Foods and Nutrition or Home Management, register now rather than at the deadline. The fee is NGN 37,000, as WAEC announced in May 2026. Some reports quote NGN 37,500 in total, which is consistent with a NGN 500 bank or agent commission on top, so budget for that. If you see NGN 27,000 anywhere, that is last cycle's figure and it is stale. There are also reports of walk-in registration up to 24 hours before a paper at a higher fee, around NGN 45,000, but that amount is not verified, so treat it as a rumour with a price tag and confirm on the portal before you rely on it. Register at registration.waecdirect.org or through the WAECKONNECT app, and note for later that results are checked at waecdirect.org.

What the computer-based exam looks like on the day

WAEC has described this series as fully computer-based, and both myschool.ng and myschoolgist call the released document the CBT timetable, so plan for screens. Based on how WAEC has run its computer-based WASSCE since late 2025, the format reportedly splits by paper type: objective papers are answered entirely on screen, clicking through multiple-choice questions, while essay and practical papers are hybrid, with questions displayed on screen and answers written by hand in physical answer booklets. The official timetable document does not spell out the mode itself, so treat those details as reported rather than guaranteed, and expect your centre to brief you before your first paper. Practically, this changes how you should approach exam day. Arrive early, because computer-based sessions involve identity verification before you get a seat, and a queue at check-in is harder to absorb than at a paper exam. Bring your registration details and whatever identification your centre asks for, plus good pens, because the hybrid essay format still lives or dies on handwriting. Expect the software to let you move between objective questions and change answers before submitting, but do not assume any specific feature until you have seen the centre's own demonstration. One more detail from the official timetable worth knowing: Visual Art 3B question papers are given to candidates two weeks before the paper, so if you entered for it, ask your centre about collection.

How to prepare for an exam you sit at a screen

Most candidates prepare on paper and then meet the exam on a screen, and that mismatch costs marks. Reading a passage on a monitor is slower than on paper until you have practised it, and clicking through fifty objective questions has its own rhythm: answer what you know, flag what you doubt, come back at the end. So build screen practice into your revision instead of only drilling past topics in a notebook. The free mock exam generator on this site will build you a timed, WASSCE-style paper for any subject, and sitting it at a computer under the clock is close rehearsal for the objective papers without paying for a CBT centre session. The quiz tool suits shorter daily drills, ten or twenty objective questions clicked through the way you will click through the real thing. For essay papers, remember the hybrid format: you read on screen but write by hand, so practise handwritten answers under time, then run them through the AI marking tool to see where the marks leak. For mathematics, the math solver checks your working line by line, which matters because WAEC marking rewards method, not just final answers. The first written papers are on 22 September and the last is on 28 October, so count your own runway from today's date rather than from any date printed here. One full mock a week plus a daily quiz fits most runways, so long as your first mocks cover the subjects that come earliest.

Questions students ask

More WAEC / WASSCE practice