GCSE Science

Combined Science consists of either Higher Tier (HT) or Foundation Tier (FT) papers AQA offer two different specifications entitled Synergy and Trilogy.

The qualifications are offered by the five main awarding bodies in England; AQA, Edexcel, OCR, CIE and Eduqas.

In August 2018, Ofqual announced that it had intervened to adjust the GCSE Science grade boundaries for students who had taken the "higher tier" paper in its new double award science exams and performed poorly, due to an excessive number of students in danger of receiving a grade of "U" or "unclassified".

[3] In 2020, Teach First published a report stating that only two female scientists, chemist and crystallographer Rosalind Franklin and paleoanthropologist Mary Leakey, were included in the GCSE Science curriculum, versus 40 male scientists who were named.

[4] The report argued that the lack of female role models in the science curriculum was perpetuating gender biases in the profession.