Combined Science

CCEA GCSE Double Award Science is the route most learners in Northern Ireland take. It covers biology, chemistry and physics and is worth two GCSE grades, awarded as a pair such as B-B or 6-5.

The content mirrors the separate sciences at reduced depth: cells, organisms, health, genetics and ecology; atomic structure, bonding, quantitative chemistry, rates, organic chemistry and analysis; and electricity, energy, waves, radioactivity, forces, motion and space.

Double Award is a full and demanding qualification that keeps A Level science open. Because it covers three subjects on a shared timetable, pace is the usual difficulty — targeted support on the specific weakest strand is the most efficient help.