Punjab's nine education boards — Lahore, Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Multan, Rawalpindi, Sargodha, Bahawalpur, Dera Ghazi Khan, and Sahiwal — are starting the SSC second annual examinations on October 6, 2026. With papers just days away, the two things that matter most right now aren't the subjects you haven't revised yet — they're making sure your roll number slip is in hand and that you know exactly where and when to be for each paper. Here's how to get both sorted.

The exam schedule at a glance

Class 10 written papers run from October 6 to October 16, opening with Education on the 6th and English Compulsory the following day, and closing with Chemistry on October 16. Class 9 papers follow immediately after, running October 17 to October 28, opening with Pakistan Studies (old course) and ending with Chemistry and General Science. Practical examinations for science subjects are scheduled separately, from October 30 through November 17 — for instance, Physics practicals fall on November 2-4, Chemistry on November 10-12, and Biology/Computer Science practicals on November 16-17. If you're a science-group student, don't treat your practicals as an afterthought just because they're scheduled weeks after your written papers; mark those dates now so they don't catch you off guard later in the term.

Paper timings you need to know

Morning session papers begin at 9:00 a.m., and afternoon session papers begin at 2:00 p.m. on all days except Friday, when the afternoon session shifts to 2:30 p.m. to accommodate Friday prayers. Boards consistently expect students to arrive at their examination center at least 30 minutes before the paper starts — arriving right at 9:00 or 2:00 risks being turned away or losing settling-in time before the paper begins, so build that buffer into your morning routine rather than treating it as optional.

Downloading your roll number slip

Every candidate is required to carry their roll number slip to each paper — boards will not let you sit an exam without it, so this isn't something to leave for exam morning. If you're a regular student enrolled through a school, your roll number slip is typically issued to you through your school rather than requiring you to download it yourself; check with your school first. If you're a private candidate, or your school hasn't yet distributed slips, you'll need to get it directly from your board's own website.

The general process is similar across all nine Punjab boards, though each board runs its own separate portal rather than a single shared Punjab-wide system: visit your specific board's official website (for example, BISE Lahore, BISE Faisalabad, or BISE Bahawalpur, matching the board you're registered under), find the option for the online roll number slip, and search using your registration or form number, your current roll number, or your personal details (name, father's name, class, and CNIC/B-Form details with dashes included) — most boards support more than one of these lookup methods, so if one doesn't return a match, try another before assuming there's an error with your record. Once it appears, download and print it well before your first paper, and double-check that your name, father's name, roll number, subjects, and examination center are all correct — if anything looks wrong, raise it with your board immediately rather than close to your exam date, since corrections take time to process.

Before you walk into your first paper

Two practical habits make the final days before SSC exams far less stressful: confirm your exact subjects, course version (new vs. old, where relevant), and group match what you actually studied, since boards have explicitly asked students to verify this before exams begin; and lay out your roll number slip, required stationery, and center address the night before each paper rather than searching for them in the morning. None of this replaces revision, but a mixed-up center address or a missing roll number slip is an entirely avoidable way to lose marks before you've even opened the question paper.