Understanding GCSE Science

🧪 Combined Science vs Triple Science

Your teen will take either Combined Science or Triple (Separate) Science.

Combined Science

  • Covers Biology, Chemistry and Physics, but with slightly fewer topics in each.

  • Students receive two GCSE grades (e.g. 7–6, 6–6, 5–4).

  • It’s the most common route and provides a solid foundation for all post-16 science options.

  • AQA offers two combined science courses known as Trilogy and Synergy. Trilogy is by far the most common. Synergy is a more integrated course, where topics from the three sciences are taught in thematic contexts (e.g. “life and environmental interactions,” “explaining change”).

  • Edexcel has just the one combined science course, so no confusion there.

  • Each science is assessed separately.

    • There are six exam papers in total (two for each subject: Biology 1 & 2, Chemistry 1 & 2, Physics 1 & 2).

    • Each paper is worth an equal proportion of the total marks.

  • All six papers contribute equally to a single combined total mark.

    • The marks from all papers are added together.

    • The combined total is then converted to a double grade.

  • The double grade represents the overall performance across all three sciences.

    • You might get, for example:

      • 7–7 if you performed very strongly across all three,

      • 6–5 if your performance was mixed (e.g. strong biology, weaker physics),

      • 4–4 if you’re at a secure standard pass across the board.

  • There’s no direct link between a specific science and one of the grades.

    • The two numbers don’t correspond to particular subjects — they’re a reflection of the overall performance across all six papers.

Triple Science

  • Students study each subject separately, in more detail.

  • They receive three separate GCSEs – one for Biology, one for Chemistry, and one for Physics.

  • Triple is ideal for students who enjoy science and may want to study it further.

  • In practice, if a child is deemed able, they will be entered for separate science whether you enjoy science or not. If you don’t intend to study science further and would rather take another GCSE, talk to the school about doing combined instead.

💡 If you’re not sure which course your teen is doing, check their timetable or ask the school — it’s often shown as “Combined Science” or “Triple Science”. If AQA is the exam board, you may hear of “Trilogy” which is the name for the most popular combined science course.

⚖️ Foundation or Higher Tier

Science GCSEs are split into two levels of difficulty for the exams:
Foundation Tier (grades 1–5) and Higher Tier (grades 4–9).

  • Foundation papers have easier content but cap the top grade at 5.

  • Higher papers include harder questions but allow students to aim for 6–9.

  • Schools usually decide the tier for each student by Year 11, based on mock results and teacher assessment. If your teen is entered for foundation tier and you really want a higher grade, and you decide to use a tutor, you may be able to convince the school to enter them for the higher tier. They may be reluctant unless you can provide some evidence of improved performance. Worth a shot though.

🧭 Whichever tier they are entered for, encourage your teen to focus on mastering the core ideas first.

🧬 Exam Boards

Different schools use different exam boards, such as:

  • AQA (most popular for science)

  • Edexcel (Pearson) (most popular for Maths)

  • OCR

  • WJEC (Welsh exam board)

  • Eduqas (English version of WJEC)

Each covers the same national curriculum topics, but the question styles, wording, and practical activities vary slightly.

Once you know the board, you can use the correct revision resources — websites like BBC Bitesize, Seneca Learning, and Cognito all have board-specific sections.

📈 Grades (Levels)

  • GCSEs use the 1–9 grading system, where 9 is the highest.

  • Level 4 is a standard pass; level 5 is a strong pass. For the sake of entry into further education (for example doing A-levels at college) a 4 may be sufficient, but sometimes a 5 is required.

🧫 Required Practicals

Each exam board includes required practical experiments. There are lots, and learning how they work is very important.
Students are tested on their understanding of these, not their lab skills.

Encourage your teen to:

  • Learn the purpose and method of each practical.

  • Understand what results show and what could go wrong.

  • Use revision videos or classroom notes to review them regularly.

In the exams, a common question involved simply remembering how to do the practical, so it’s important to memorise the steps.

Around 15% of the marks in the exams is related to the practicals.

💬 The Takeaway for Parents

You don’t need to know the science yourself — just help your teen stay:

  • Organised (notes, folders, key dates)

  • Motivated (celebrate small wins)

  • Consistent (short, regular revision beats cramming)