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GCSE Specification

Hi everybody, I was wondering if any of you could tell me whether the official exam board specification for AQA Biology, Chemistry, and Physics is definitely everything you need to know, ie. the exam won't contain any questions that can't be answered from learning and applying the points they mention. For example, 'Students should be able to explain how vaccination will prevent illness in an individual, and how the spread of pathogens can be reduced by immunising a large proportion of the population.'-if I learn and understand how vaccination prevents illness, and how the spread of pathogens can be reduced by immunisation, will that be enough to satisfy the specification point? I understand that GCSEs are not just about memorisation and you have to be able to apply your knowledge as well, but if I understand the material mentioned in the specification and so can apply it to exam questions, surely that is all the exam will contain? Or will it contain content that we've never seen before and wouldn't be able to answer based on using the specification as a checklist? Thank you so much!
(edited 3 years ago)
You will never need to know anything that is not in the specification/textbook. There may be situations where you might have to interpret data or an experiment but important information will definitely be specified within the details of the question.
you should always use the spec for revision and a sort of checklist for a subject, sometimes they will try and reword things which can confuse you but as long as you have a lot of knowledge from the spec and practice from questions you should be good
Reply 3
Original post by LegsEleven17
You will never need to know anything that is not in the specification/textbook. There may be situations where you might have to interpret data or an experiment but important information will definitely be specified within the details of the question.


Original post by cluckiez
you should always use the spec for revision and a sort of checklist for a subject, sometimes they will try and reword things which can confuse you but as long as you have a lot of knowledge from the spec and practice from questions you should be good

Thank you so much, that's really helpful!
Original post by LegsEleven17
You will never need to know anything that is not in the specification/textbook. There may be situations where you might have to interpret data or an experiment but important information will definitely be specified within the details of the question.


:hahaha: funny that people are saying this when for GCSE Triple and combined trilogy higher (for Biology 2019). There were questions that were off spec! (I left a 6 marker completely blank thinking "I didn't revise enough, that's why I can't do the question" only to find out that the question was off-spec) can't trust AQA tbh... They said last year they that were going to remove a topic from the A-level chemistry spec because it was too hard, what do they do instead? Whack in a 6 marker in the paper for that topic... Honestly AQA but yeah OP only focus on learning stuff that's in the official specification.
Just stick to the specification as well as you can. Consider it your checklist/ cheat sheet. Exam boards should only ask you what they specify in the specification
Original post by 1st superstar
:hahaha: funny that people are saying this when for GCSE Triple and combined trilogy higher (for Biology 2019). There were questions that were off spec! (I left a 6 marker completely blank thinking "I didn't revise enough, that's why I can't do the question" only to find out that the question was off-spec) can't trust AQA tbh... They said last year they that were going to remove a topic from the A-level chemistry spec because it was too hard, what do they do instead? Whack in a 6 marker in the paper for that topic... Honestly AQA but yeah OP only focus on learning stuff that's in the official specification.

I mean I did OCR B triple science and never had issues but thinking about it some of my aqa subjects sometimes went a little off topic
Original post by LegsEleven17
I mean I did OCR B triple science and never had issues but thinking about it some of my aqa subjects sometimes went a little off topic

The OP is going to be doing AQA too for their GCSE sciences hence why I said what I said in my other post . Can't trust AQA. Either way I agree only learn stuff that's on the spec.
(edited 3 years ago)

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