Text books for GCSE Sciences

[RedRose55]

Hi all,
Please can I ask for some help in understanding GCSE terminology and what textbooks are good for sciences?

1. What is science double award?
2. What’s 9-1 combined science triology?

All I know is that the school follows AQA board for science. I’m looking for a good text book that clearly explains each topic. Also it’ll be immensely helpful to have some practice workbooks or question banks

Please can anyone help?

Are you a parent?

Science double award - two grades are awarded at GCSE for science. Some brighter kids who can handle the extra work do a triple award and get three grades.

The trilogy text book is for the double award. 9-1 means the book is suitable for both foundation and Higher papers, foundation students sit an easier exam but the highest grades they can achieve is 5-5. Higher students can go up to 9-9.

What year is the child in and do you know whether they're doing double or triple science, foundation or Higher papers?

It's a bit confusing if you're new to it I'll grant you!

The CGP AQA trilogy revision guide is really good. Has all topics from biology, chemistry and physics (word friendly for pupils) along with revision questions to complete at the end of each topic.

Agreed re CGP revision guides, they're really good. If you're a parent looking to support your child then the text book alone could be problematic in a way. We use the Collins text books for AQA and you'd also need the teacher guide to go with it otherwise you don't get the answers to a lot of the questions in the student book.

Thanks @jelleefish and @user00119922

I’m trying to help a bright child who neglected school so far. she is perhaps only at a decent KS3 level. She wants to change everything now, work hard and be a doctor.

Some brighter kids who can handle the extra work do a triple award and get three grades.

Not always. Some schools allow an extra option for a third GCSE and all kids can do the triple award/separate sciences.

Did I understand this correctly? Triple Science means 3 separate GCSEs in biology, physics and chemistry?

For science, your child can either get one, two or three grades. In double award, they get two grades, but they are assessed across all three sciences.

Combined science means the same thing- the alternative is separate science, where students study biology, chemistry and physics as more discrete subjects and get an individual grade for each.

9-1 is the grading system used (like with all exams) and trilogy is just the exam board's label so you know which syllabus your child is doing.

These text books (you'll need to buy one per subject) are pretty good: www.amazon.co.uk/Biology-Combined-Science-Trilogy-Student/dp/0198359268/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&crid=1CS8XEKDALFZ2&keywords=aqa+gcse+combined+science&sprefix=aqa+gcse+combined+%2Cstripbooks%2C-1&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&qid=1566936715&sr=1-6

However, if your school has "kerboodle", you/your child can access them for free online.

I've just passed my science GCSE. The Cgp revision guide was good but I did need the text books to expand on what's in there.

True @BonnesVacances I was thinking narrowly there. I believe most schools do it that way though.

How old is the child @RedRose55?

Cross posted because I was looking up the textbook- yes, triple is 3 separate sciences, biology, chemistry and physics.

However, if a student is doing combined/double that's not a barrier to doing A-levels, as long as they get a decent grade. The important thing is that they are entered for "higher tier" so they can access the top grades.

What year is the student currently in? Do they know if most of their set in science are likely to be entered for higher/foundation?

Thanks all.
I heard “Hodders” and OUP in some older threads here. Are these outdated now? Im wondering how they compare with the ones @SansaSnark recommended above?

Bumping for more responses

You need to check that they cover the most recent changes to the GCSE (so they are the 9-1 specification, not one that gives letter grades!).

I can't comment on Hodders or OU, but DC's school also follows the AQA board and recommended the CGP books (and we got a discount through school, so this might be worth investigating).

Other have explained the difference between triple science and combined - does your child not know which they are taking? If they are a weaker student it is more likely to be combined.

@RedRose55

It might interest you to have a look at the AQA approved textbook list here: www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/science/gcse-combined-science-trilogy-textbooks-print-and-digital

There's a Hodder textbook on there but no OUP- it may be they haven't updated with the recent changes to the exam syllabus. Personally, I'd stick to the textbooks on the approved list. I haven't seen the Hodder textbook personally, so unfortunately can't comment on it.

FWIW, CGP revision guides are great, but they don't cover the full syllabus in enough detail to work as a stand alone textbook. If you specifically want a textbook, rather than a revision guide, then I don't think CGP alone is enough- however, the workbooks are great at giving students lots of additional practice, especially with the maths questions.

I'd also suggest looking through the syllabus which is available for free on the AQA website.

Sorry, I'm talking nonsense, the OUP (Oxford University Press) book is actually the one I recommended- but they're also available online through Kerboodle if your school has access, so I thought they were published by someone else.

Sorry if I've caused any confusion.

Science teacher here. I like these ones. CGP textbooks not revision guides. Lots of questions. Answers in the back. Clear explanations.
www.cgpbooks.co.uk/secondary-books/gcse/science/combined-science/scpat41-grade-9-1-gcse-combined-science-for-aqa

My kids did not like the CGP books for trying to understand the course. They are written in a very condensed, revision notes style, every word they contain is relevant. I bought textbooks for them as well - which they used when the teaching was confusing (or more worryingly non existent on a topic) They could easily read and understand topics from the textbook and then use the CGP resources once they had understood the topic. We did a different exam board so I can't recommend a textbook sorry.

We got the CGP books from Amazon for our son. They do different books for each syllabus/exam board, so make sure you get the right ones. For each syllabus/board, they do 2 or 3 styles of book. There's a basic revision guide, or a combined revision/question book or a purely question book. We found the basic revision guide a bit too shallow. He loved the combined revision/question book, and used them as his main text book, then got the question book for revision closer to the exams. He hated the text books provided by the school - he found them "too wordy" and really struggled to use them, hence why we bought him his own CGP sets - he got a full suite of grade 9s in all 3 sciences last year, so they must be ok!

OP, are they deft doing trilogy? There are 2 courses for AQA combined science. TBD, most school are doing trilogy. But I assume some must be doing synergy?

Can I recommend YouTube freesciencelessons instead? The students in my classes really rates him. These are students ranging from grades 1 to 9 if that makes a difference!

I also recommend the CGP books. We normally provide these for our students, so maybe wait and see if that's coming before you go out and buy? Although we start the course in year 9, my budget doesn't stretch (or didn't at the time) to purchase for that short until they start year 10. I just hope next week my budget hasn't been cut too much!
Also, school get a discount on these, so they may let you order via them (Ive some this before).

So many typos....new phone!

If you actually want textbooks as opposed to revision guides ( cgp ones are great for that) then imo the oup ones are the best
The top one on the photo, you will need one for each of bio, chem and phys.

Thanks a LOT everyone. We got the CGP student books to start with. I will order OUP textbooks a bit later once we make decent progress with what we have.

@Kazzyhoward Please could you post a link to the question book you mentioned in your post? It’ll greatly help in revising and identifying gaps.