GCSE Biology and Chemistry

Hi, I am a homeschooled student and I am going to be studying GCSE Biology and Chemistry from September. However, I am not sure which exam board would be easiest for these subjects. If I could get some replies that would be great. Thanks.

Reply 1

HannahBanana??

Hi,
My mum home-schooled me for a while and works with home-schooled children atm and she said AQA, Edexcel and OCR are the typicals, and the other two in the UK are WJEC and CCEA. I do AQA for both, and I think there's a lot more content out there for them but I have nothing to compare it to, and a few google searches say it's easier too.
Good luck!

(edited 2 years ago)

Reply 2

PixiePresents

For sciences, AQA is the most common exam board and there's way more recourses on the internet for it so I would really recommend AQA

Reply 3

bl0bf1sh

Hello,
I'm not sure about easiest, but a lot of people study for AQA exams. Their website is relatively clear and easy to use, and there are lots of resources online which focus on the AQA syllabus for a particular subject. Obviously I'll be a bit biased as all my subjects (apart from maths, which was Edexcel) for both GCSE and A-level have been AQA, so I can't really give much of a comparison between different boards, and I don't know how it would be for homeschooled students, but I did find AQA GCSE chemistry and biology decent.
Have you had a look at the websites for the different exam boards, and at different resources (online and textbooks etc.) that you might use?
I hope this is of some help, and good luck with whatever you end up doing!

Reply 4

truevirgo06

Hi guys, thank you all so much for your quick replies, this has really helped me decide which exam board to choose!

Reply 5

truevirgo06

Hi guys. Just another question. As I am homeschooled, do I need to do any practicals for both Biology and Chemistry at GCSE?? Is it just normal written exams?? Thanks.

Reply 6

global_astro

Original post by truevirgo06

I personally studied these subjects under the WJEC Exam Board since I'm in Wales and I found them to be easy enough to get my head around. The amount of content wasn't too much to struggle with either. Although my exams ended up being replaced with 2 assessments for both of the subjects due to covid, the questions were still official ones from past exam papers and they were also easy enough to answer even if you didn't completely understand the subject perse, at least in my position.

AQA definitely packs more content than WJEC however I'm not less valued than an AQA student or anyone else studying under a different exam board. I'd perhaps reccommend going onto BBC Bitesize and comparing some of the revision guides they have on a couple of subjects between different exam boards if you'd like to get a feel of the difference in the amount of content. Hope that makes sense!

Original post by truevirgo06

Hi guys. Just another question. As I am homeschooled, do I need to do any practicals for both Biology and Chemistry at GCSE?? Is it just normal written exams?? Thanks.

Under normal circumstances, a practical would be required as part of your final grade, however since you're homeschooled and under the current covid restrictions, I doubt they'd ask for you to do one. However, it's better to be safe than sorry so I'd get in touch with a representative of the exam board you're going to study under or a local high school/college you might choose to take the exams at and see what they advise. Good luck on your GCSEs, you'll do great!

Reply 7

HannahBanana??

Original post by truevirgo06

Hi guys. Just another question. As I am homeschooled, do I need to do any practicals for both Biology and Chemistry at GCSE?? Is it just normal written exams?? Thanks.