NTA Exam Calendar 2026-27 – The National Testing Agency (NTA) has released its tentative exam calendar 2026-27 for the exam scheduled to be held from December 2026 to March 2027. According to the notification released by NTA on September 17, 2026 the exam calendar includes the dates for 14 major exams, including JEE Main, UGC NET, CSIR NET, and CUET PG.
This is helpful for students juggling Class 12 boards, postgraduate admissions, or a PhD application because this is the first time all these dates have appeared together in one place, letting students map out an entire academic year’s exam calendar months in advance instead of waiting for each notification separately.
Key Facts Box
- NTA released its tentative exam calendar for December 2026 to March 2027 on September 17, 2026.
- UGC NET December 2026 is scheduled for December 14-19, with buffer dates on December 20-21.
- Joint CSIR-UGC NET runs December 20-21, 2026, overlapping with the UGC NET buffer window.
- JEE Main 2027 Session 1 is set for January 22-24 and January 28-30, 2027, with January 31 held as a buffer date.
- CUET PG 2027 spans multiple windows: March 1-5, March 8, March 12-20 and March 24-25, with March 30-31 as buffer dates.
- Other exams on the calendar include NIFT (January 10, 2027), CMAT (February 7, 2027), AISSEE (January 31, 2027), and NITTT Part 1 and Part 2 (February 26-27 and March 5 and 7, 2027).
- NTA has explicitly labelled every date “tentative,” subject to change for administrative, academic, statutory or logistical reasons.
What NTA’s Exam Calendar Actually Tells You
An NTA exam calendar is a forward-looking schedule of test windows, released ahead of the individual, exam-specific notifications that follow later with full application details. It doesn’t open registration for anything — that comes separately, exam by exam, closer to each test date. What it does give students is something rarer: a single reference point for planning coaching schedules, study leave, travel, and which exams might clash on the calendar.
This particular release covers 14 examinations stretching from mid-December 2026 through the end of March 2027, spanning school-level entrance tests, postgraduate admission exams, and national fellowship-linked exams like UGC NET. Because NTA has explicitly flagged every date as tentative — subject to change for “administrative, academic, statutory, logistical or other unforeseen circumstances” — students should treat this calendar as a planning anchor rather than a locked schedule, and confirm each date again once the specific exam’s formal notification and application window open.
UGC NET and CSIR NET: December 2026 Dates
UGC NET, the exam that determines eligibility for Assistant Professor positions and Junior Research Fellowships at Indian universities, is scheduled for December 14-19, 2026, with December 20-21 held as buffer dates in case any shift needs rescheduling. The Joint CSIR-UGC NET, which covers science subjects and is jointly conducted with the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, runs on December 20-21, 2026 — the same dates as UGC NET’s buffer window, though as a separate exam for separate subjects.
For postgraduates and PhD aspirants, UGC NET remains one of the most consequential exams on this entire calendar. Clearing it with a JRF ranking opens the door to a funded PhD position at most Indian universities, while a plain NET qualification is the standard eligibility requirement for teaching positions in the humanities, social sciences, commerce and several science disciplines. With roughly three months between this announcement and the exam window, candidates have a realistic runway to plan revision, provided the formal application notification — which typically follows a few weeks after a calendar release like this — doesn’t slip much further.
JEE Main 2027: Session 1 Dates (and What’s Missing)
JEE Main 2027’s first session is set for January 22-24 and January 28-30, 2027, with January 31 kept as a buffer date for any candidates who need a rescheduled shift. This is the exam that determines admission to NITs, IIITs, and other centrally funded technical institutes, and serves as the qualifying stage for JEE Advanced, which decides IIT admissions.
One detail worth flagging clearly: this calendar release only covers Session 1. JEE Main has run in two sessions — one in January and a second in April — for several years now, giving candidates two attempts and letting NTA take the better of the two scores. Since this calendar only extends through March 2027, Session 2 dates for April 2027 simply aren’t part of this particular release and will be announced separately closer to that window. Class 12 students should not assume a second attempt isn’t happening — it almost certainly is — just that its date hasn’t been published yet.
CUET PG 2027: A Long, Multi-Window Exam
CUET PG, the entrance test for postgraduate admissions at central universities and a growing number of state and private universities, has the most sprawling schedule on this calendar: March 1-5, March 8, March 12-20, and March 24-25, 2027, with March 30-31 held as buffer dates. That’s a testing window stretching across most of March, reflecting how many subject combinations and shifts NTA has to accommodate for an exam that now covers a very wide range of postgraduate programmes.
For students finishing an undergraduate degree in 2027 and planning to apply for a master’s programme through CUET PG, this spread means checking the subject-specific date carefully once it’s announced rather than assuming the exam falls on a single day — a candidate’s actual test date could land anywhere across that three-and-a-half-week window depending on their chosen subject and city.
Other Exams on the Calendar: NIFT, CMAT, AISSEE, NITTT
Beyond the three headline exams, NTA’s calendar lists several other tests relevant to specific student groups:
- NIFT Entrance Examination — January 10, 2027, for admission to the National Institute of Fashion Technology’s design, management and technology programmes.
- CMAT (Common Management Admission Test) — February 7, 2027, one of the more accessible MBA entrance exams accepted by a wide range of AICTE-approved management institutes.
- AISSEE (All India Sainik Schools Entrance Examination) — January 31, 2027, for admission to Sainik Schools, a common early step for students eyeing a defence career.
- NITTT (National Intelligence Test for Teacher Training) — Part 1 on February 26-27 and Part 2 on March 5 and 7, 2027.
The calendar also references several other examinations — including tests for Army Cadet College, the Rashtriya Indian Military College, Rashtriya Military Schools, and SWAYAM-linked assessments — rounding out the full set of 14 exams NTA has scheduled across this four-month window.
Click here to check the notification released by NTA
Why This Calendar Matters for Different Student Groups
Class 12 Science Students
JEE Main Session 1 in late January 2027 lands close to most state boards’ pre-board exam schedules, which means Class 12 students in the science stream need to start blocking out a revision calendar now that balances board preparation with JEE prep, rather than treating them as sequential rather than overlapping commitments.
Postgraduates and PhD Aspirants
UGC NET in mid-December gives postgraduate students and PhD aspirants a firm date to work backward from. Anyone targeting a JRF-backed PhD position should treat the next roughly ten weeks as the core preparation window, since the formal UGC NET application notification typically opens only a few weeks before the exam itself.
MBA Aspirants
CMAT in early February gives MBA aspirants who missed or want to supplement other management entrance exams like CAT one more structured shot before the admission season wraps up, at institutes that specifically accept CMAT scores.
Design and Defence Aspirants
NIFT’s January 10 date and AISSEE’s January 31 date fall in the same broad exam season as JEE Main, so students applying to design programmes or Sainik Schools alongside a science-stream application should map out which exams fall on nearby dates and plan travel and revision accordingly.
What Could Still Change
NTA has been explicit that every date on this calendar is tentative. In practice, that usually means the broad month and rough date range hold steady, while exact shift timings, the number of days an exam spans, or a day or two of shift can shift once the formal, exam-specific notification is published. Students should treat this calendar as the basis for a study plan, not as a substitute for checking the official notification on exams.nta.ac.in once it’s released for each individual exam — application windows, eligibility details and city-choice options only appear at that later stage, not in this calendar.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. When did NTA release its 2026-27 exam calendar?
Ans. NTA released the tentative exam calendar covering December 2026 to March 2027 on September 17, 2026, listing dates for 14 major examinations including JEE Main, UGC NET, CSIR NET and CUET PG.
Q. When is UGC NET December 2026?
Ans. UGC NET December 2026 is scheduled for December 14-19, 2026, with December 20-21 held as buffer dates. The Joint CSIR-UGC NET for science subjects runs on December 20-21, 2026.
Q. When is JEE Main 2027?
Ans. JEE Main 2027 Session 1 is scheduled for January 22-24 and January 28-30, 2027, with January 31 as a buffer date. This calendar only covers Session 1; Session 2, typically held in April, will be announced separately.
Q. When is CUET PG 2027?
Ans. CUET PG 2027 is scheduled across multiple windows — March 1-5, March 8, and March 12-20, 2027 — with March 24-25 and March 30-31 held as additional test and buffer dates, depending on subject and city.
Q. Are these NTA exam dates final?
Ans. No. NTA has explicitly described every date on this calendar as tentative and subject to change for administrative, academic, statutory or logistical reasons. Students should confirm exact dates once the formal, exam-specific notification is released closer to each test.
Conclusion: What to Do Next
Use this calendar to block out a rough study and travel plan for the exams that apply to you — UGC NET in mid-December, JEE Main in late January, or CUET PG across March — but don’t finalise anything based on it alone. Watch exams.nta.ac.in for the formal, exam-specific notification for each test, since that’s when actual registration dates, fees and city-choice options will appear. Check back closer to each exam window for confirmed dates, since NTA has flagged this entire calendar as tentative.