Year 10 (ages 14 to 15)
For most students Year 10 is the first full year of GCSE courses. The content is harder and exams are on the horizon, even if they are still more than a year away.
What changes
- New GCSE content arrives quickly in all three subjects.
- Science becomes more calculation-heavy, including energy, waves, formula mass and moles.
- Foundation and Higher tier decisions begin to be made in maths and science.
Exams and tests
Most schools set end-of-year exams in Year 10, and some use them to decide the tier a student will sit. The GCSE exams themselves are usually in Year 11.
Topics worth practising in Year 10
- Factorising quadratics: Factorise expressions, from taking out a common factor to quadratics and the difference of two squares.
- Sequences: Continue sequences, find the nth term of a linear sequence, and spot geometric and quadratic patterns.
- Area of a circle: Find the area and circumference of circles, leaving answers in terms of π or using 3.14, and work back to the radius.
- Energy: Calculate gravitational potential energy, kinetic energy and efficiency, and link them in a falling object.
- Waves: Use wave speed, frequency, wavelength and time period, and work out distance from an echo.
- Formula mass: Work out relative formula mass from a formula and the percentage by mass of an element in a compound.
- Moles: Use moles, mass and relative formula mass, and work out the mass of a product from a reacting mass.
- Language techniques: Name the language technique in an example: simile, metaphor, personification, alliteration and more.
- Punctuation: Choose the correctly punctuated sentence, covering commas, apostrophes, speech marks, colons and semicolons.
- Reading comprehension: Read a short passage, then answer questions on finding information, inference, word meaning and the writer’s methods.
Tips
- Practise the topics your class has just covered, then mix in older ones.
- Learn each science equation by using it, not just reading it.
- Use mock papers to find out which topics to revise, rather than revising everything.
Every school plans its own timetable, so topics and exam dates vary. This is a guide, not a timetable.