Combined Science (Trilogy) at GCSE

At St John Payne the majority of students follow the Combined Science (Trilogy) course. It leads to a 'double award' GCSE in Combined Science and a grade made up of two consecutive numbers. These range from 9-9, 9-8, 8-8, 8-7, 7-7 down to 1-1. Both numbers in these grades can be counted for sixth form/ college/ apprenticeship entry tarifs meaning that a grade of 6-6 for example would count as 12 points.

The course is divided into Foundation and Higher Tiers. The Foundation Tier allows access to grades 1-1 to 4-4 (the "weak" pass) and 5-5 ( the "strong" pass) with the Higher Tier allowing access to grades 4-4 to 9-9. However, students failing to score at 4-4 in the Higher Tier exams will be unclassified (U) and receive no grade. 

The tier of entry that a student sits for their GCSE is not recorded on their GCSE certificate; a student achieving a 5-5 on the Foundation Tier course is indistinguishable from a student achieving a 5-5 on the Higher Tier course. For this reason and because of the risk of receiving a 'U' grade on the Higher Tier paper it is recommended that students targeting a 5-5 grade opt to sit the Foundation Tier paper.

Entry for the Combined Science course is the default for all students who are not offered a place on the Single Subject Science course (SSS).  As with the SSS course, each student will have two periods per week of Biology, Chemistry and Physics each with a specialist teacher. Based on the average performance in Y9 testing students are assigned to either an H (Higher Tier) or F (Foundation Tier) class. The purpose of splitting the classes into tiers is to enable the most progress to be made by the most students. As a department, we keep a close watch on students' performance and should at any stage it become apparent that they would make more progress in the alternative tier, then we will seek to make the change as soon as practicably possible

.The Combined Science course is a difficult GCSE which in many ways is a more academically challenging than the old Single Subject GCSEs and certainly significantly harder than the old Combined Science GCSE it replaces. As a result, students who achieve at Grade 7-7 and above are well-prepared to take up any of the three sciences at 'A' Level. However, because of the high demands of 'A' level, students achieving below this level are not suited to the course and - in their best interests - will not be offered an 'A' Level place.

The school follows the AQA syllabus details of which can be found HERE. Unfortunately, while the school has a limited number of textbooks for classroom use it is unable to provide a personal copy for students. Parents wishing to buy textbooks can use the links below. This is not a requirement of the course.

The best form of revision is to complete past paper questions, a bank of which are stored here on SJP Science in each of the three subject areas. Revision guides are not a magic bullet but they can be useful in structuring students revision. The book that we recommend is the CGP 'all in one' revision guide linked below. Please ensure that you buy the correct version of the book  - Classes with an "H" in their name need the Higher Level edition, classes with an "F" need the Foundation Level edition.

For a guide on how to revise effectively, please click the powerpoint presentation below.