Science GCSE

[grapehyacinthisactuallyblue]

Not British, so no clue about education system. I'm sorry for asking basic question.

What is the difference between doing triple and double science? I assume that one does 3 subjects and one does 2.

Does it make difference in the future educational choice?

What kind of choice/subjects you can do if you do double, and what kind of courses needs triple science?

I don't know if it's the same everywhere. But in my DD's school, they offer triple science (ie 3 exams - biology, chemistry, physics) studied separately. They also offer combined which covers all 3 sciences in one lesson which gives the equivalent of 2 GCSE.

Which to opt for really depends on the individual and their likely career aspirations. If they are inclined towards medical professions or engineering etc I imagine it makes sense to do the 3 sciences separately. If they lean more towards creative ambitions or humanities, then maybe go for the combined

All 3 sciences are done for both. One has less content to is equivalent to 2 gcses. The other has more so is equivalent to 3 gcses.

As a PP says they can also offer 3 separate gcses for each of the sciences rather than a combined option

I had no idea, great help. Thank you!

Double/combined science is perfectly sufficient for most future things. At DD's school it would give the pupil 10 lessons per fortnight, i.e. 1 every day. Overall grade is 6-5, or 7-7 or whatever

The 3 single sciences are good for someone who really enjoys science and who is highly likely to want to do science A levels. Again at DDs school this equates to 14 lessons per fortnight which would be a lot if you didn't like science! 3 separate grades so could get e.g. 7,6,4

You can generally do A level sciences from only double, but you might need to do some prep work after GCSEs to be ready.

Both have higher or foundation tier papers. For double/combined it is all higher or all foundation. For the separate sciences you choose per subject.

Triple isn't harder, it is just more topics. A lot to revise though.

Also worth considering…

Combined science is a combined grade so for example 5-5 or 7-8 etc. All the exams that students take (6) combine together towards this one double grade. This means that if you are brilliant in Biology questions but absolutely flunk physics questions, it will average out.

Whereas with separate sciences you get the grade purely for that subject ie Biology, Chemistry, Physics. So if Biology was your strong you could get a 9 but get a 4 in physics.

So in some ways combined can be detrimental if your strengths between the sciences differ a lot.

Thank you for info. That really make perfect sense. Glad I asked here.
Thanks again!

The other thing to know is that schools vary in how they offer combined/triple.

In some schools, top sets accelerate through the syllabus in KS3, and then at GCSE the top sets do triple in the same amount of time that the lower sets have for combined. That will mean that the school decides who gets to do triple, and they will end up with an extra GCSE compared to others.

In other schools, doing triple uses up one of your GCSE options, and so those doing triple have more science lessons than those doing combined. That means it's pupil choice to do triple, although weaker students might be discouraged from that option. In some schools the triple science sets might be a set for all of their lessons, so that they can cover the material in whatever order they want. At DDs school that didn't work out for some reason, so they have some lessons which are "combined" and some lessons in which they cover the extra material. There are only a handful of kids in the combined lessons who are not doing triple. It's a shame they didn't put an appeal out for anyone who wanted to switch to triple to balance the numbers up - I know at least one of that handful might have switched quite readily.