Grade 5 Scholarship cut-off marks

The cut-off marks

The Department's performance report gives an all-island cut-off mark for each medium, and how many candidates reached it.

What the figures show

The cut-off is different for Sinhala and Tamil medium, and it moves from year to year: it depends on how that year's candidates performed, not on a fixed pass mark.

Roughly one candidate in five or six reaches the cut-off. Most children who sit the exam do not, and that says nothing final about how they will do later in school.

District cut-off marks are published separately and differ from district to district. We only list the all-island figures here, because those are the ones in the Department's own report.

The exam itself

In 2026 the exam was held on a single morning, with two papers: Paper II from 9.30 to 10.45, then Paper I from 11.15 to 12.15.

The Ministry of Education has said there is no decision to abolish the Grade 5 Scholarship exam under the curriculum reform that began in 2026.

Preparing

Short, regular practice works better for ten-year-olds than long sessions. Past papers under exam timing make the real paper feel familiar, and a calm child does better than a tired one.