GCSE Examinations and Assessment

Nationally validated assessment and certification for students taking the Salters GCSE course is provided by Oxford and Cambridge and Royal Society of Arts Examinations (OCR).

OCR provide a nationally validated assessment which matches the teaching course and rewards the skills and competence it promotes, as well as the scientific knowledge and understanding which it delivers.

The topic-based nature of the course allows each area of science to be revisited in several units, providing gradual development and reinforcement of science ideas. This leads to terminal examinations, supported by coursework that is assessed using the scheme common to all GCSE sciences. The exmainations are set in two tiers, Foundation (grades GG - CC) and Higher (grades DD - A*A*; with an allowed grade EE).

In each tier, for the double award course (code 1974), candidates take three, 90 minute, papers. Each paper includes questions drawn from all three attainment targets. Questions are set in context, often based on story-lines which students solve using their science knowledge. This arrangement of content is unique to Salters, and allows candidates to demonstrate that they can draw on knowledge from different areas of science to understand real-life situations.

A specification for Science: Single Award (1975) is based on a sub-set of the course units. In each tier, single award candidates take the first of the three double award papers, then a second paper of 45 minutes, containing half of the content of the second double award paper.

GCSE specifications, past examination papers, sample papers for the 2003 specification, mark schemes, end-of-unit tests and support materials for coursework assessment are published by OCR.

Click here to visit the OCR website.

OCR
1 Hills Road
Cambridge
CB1 2EU

Tel: 01223 553311