Free notes for the whole GCSE Combined Science (9–1) double-award subject content shared by AQA Trilogy, Pearson Edexcel and OCR Gateway, organised as biology, chemistry and physics strands with Foundation and Higher clearly marked, plus a quick quiz, topical questions with mark schemes, and original practice sets for all six papers and the required practicals.
GCSE (9–1) · double award
Every chapter is a free notes page. Foundation is studied by every student; Higher is examined on Higher-tier papers only.
Cell biology, organisation, infection and response, bioenergetics, homeostasis, inheritance and evolution, and ecology — chapters 1–10.
Cell biology
Eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells, the microscopy required practical, cell division and stem cells, and transport in and out of cells.
9 Foundation · 0 Higher · 14 min read
Combined Science opens where life opens: the cell. Learn to label every organelle and say what it does, compare plant, animal and bacterial cells, run the microscopy practical without unit slips, and follow one cell through the cell cycle into two identical daughters.
7 Foundation · 0 Higher · 12 min read
Cells live or die by what gets in and out. Meet the three transport processes — diffusion, osmosis and active transport — master the surface-area-to-volume maths, run the osmosis practical with clean percentage-change working, and learn when each process costs energy.
Organisation
Digestion and enzymes, the heart and blood, health and disease, and the transport systems of plants.
7 Foundation · 0 Higher · 11 min read
Your lunch becomes your cells in a few hours, and enzymes do the carving. Learn the organ-by-organ journey, match each enzyme to its substrate and products, run the food tests and the amylase practical like an examiner wants, and turn timings into rates without slipping.
7 Foundation · 0 Higher · 11 min read
A double pump, three pipes and five litres of liquid tissue keep every cell alive. Trace the blood’s loop through the heart, tell arteries from veins, read the evidence linking lifestyle to disease, and explain what cancer is — and what raises its risk.
6 Foundation · 0 Higher · 7 min read
Plants run two plumbing networks: one-way pipes hauling water from the roots, and living tubes delivering sugars wherever they are needed. Learn the leaf’s layered design, read a transpiration graph, and work the uptake-rate maths with clean units.
Infection and response
Communicable diseases, the body’s defences, vaccines, antibiotics and the discovery of drugs.
7 Foundation · 0 Higher · 9 min read
Pathogens arrive by air, water and direct contact — and your body meets them with skin, acid, mucus and a two-wave immune response. Learn the disease case studies, the vaccination logic, why antibiotics miss viruses, and how a new drug earns its licence.
Bioenergetics
Photosynthesis and its limiting factors, and respiration — aerobic and anaerobic — with exercise and metabolism.
7 Foundation · 0 Higher · 11 min read
Two reactions run the living world: photosynthesis banks sunlight as glucose, and respiration spends it. Master the equations, read limiting-factor graphs, run the pondweed practical, chase the inverse-square law, and follow sprinters into oxygen debt.
Homeostasis and response
The nervous system and reflexes, blood glucose and diabetes, and hormones in human reproduction and fertility.
9 Foundation · 0 Higher · 16 min read
Your body is a thermostat, a glucose meter and a hormone switchboard all at once. Trace the reflex arc that yanks your hand off a hot pan, time reactions with a falling ruler, follow insulin and glucagon balancing the blood, and map the four hormones that steer the menstrual cycle.
Inheritance, variation and evolution
Reproduction and DNA, genetic diagrams and variation, and evolution from natural selection to classification.
8 Foundation · 0 Higher · 12 min read
From one fertilised egg to every living thing on Earth: decode DNA and the genome, predict crosses with Punnett squares, explain why bacteria beat antibiotics, and follow mutations through millions of years of natural selection.
Ecology
Communities and adaptations, quadrat sampling, material cycles, biodiversity and human impacts on ecosystems.
6 Foundation · 0 Higher · 10 min read
Count a field with a square frame, trace sunlight through food chains, follow water and carbon on their endless loops, and weigh what deforestation and fertiliser run-off cost the living world — then how we win some of it back.
Atomic structure, bonding, quantitative chemistry, chemical and energy changes, rates, organic chemistry, analysis, atmosphere and resources — chapters 11–20.
Atomic structure and the periodic table
Atoms, elements, compounds and mixtures, the model of the atom, and the periodic table with Groups 1, 7 and 0.
8 Foundation · 0 Higher · 12 min read
Everything is atoms — about a hundred kinds of them. Sort elements from compounds from mixtures, watch the atomic model evolve from plum pudding to shells, calculate a relative atomic mass from isotopes, and tour the reactive edges of the table: Groups 1, 7 and 0.
Bonding, structure and the properties of matter
Ionic, covalent and metallic bonding, the three states of matter, and the allotropes of carbon.
7 Foundation · 0 Higher · 9 min read
Why does diamond scratch glass while graphite slides into pencil lines? Follow electrons as they are transferred, shared and pooled — three bonding stories that explain melting points, conductivity and the strongest material known.
Quantitative chemistry
Conservation of mass, balancing equations, relative formula mass, moles (Higher) and concentration.
5 Foundation · 2 Higher · 9 min read
Chemistry bookkeeping: weigh everything, balance everything, predict everything. Prove mass is conserved, master Mr and concentration, then step up to moles and reacting masses so you can calculate exactly how much product a reaction will give.
Chemical and energy changes
The reactivity series and metal extraction, acids and salt preparations, electrolysis, and exothermic and endothermic reactions.
6 Foundation · 1 Higher · 9 min read
Why does iron rust away while gold gleams for ever? Rank the metals from couch potatoes to firecrackers, watch reactive metals shove tame ones out of their salts, and see how carbon prises metals from their ores — plus the bacteria-powered alternatives.
7 Foundation · 2 Higher · 15 min read
Acids hand out H⁺ ions, alkalis collect them, and salts crystallise out in between — then a dose of electricity rips ionic compounds back into their elements. Master the pH logic, the salt-making recipe, the two aqueous competition rules and the aluminium cell that keeps the country cans-and-planes supplied.
4 Foundation · 2 Higher · 10 min read
Every reaction is an energy deal: break bonds (pay energy), make bonds (bank energy), and the difference shows up on your thermometer. Classify reactions from their temperature ticks, read profiles like elevation maps, crunch bond energies at Higher tier, and master the polystyrene-cup practical.
Rates, organic chemistry and analysis
Rates of reaction and equilibrium, crude oil and alkenes, and chemical analysis with chromatography and gas tests.
6 Foundation · 1 Higher · 10 min read
Reactions are collision sports: more crashes with more energy means more product per second. Measure rates with syringes, balances and vanishing crosses, read curves and tangents like a stock chart, meet the catalyst that never gets used up, and let dynamic equilibrium call the shots at Higher tier.
7 Foundation · 0 Higher · 10 min read
Ancient plankton, cooked in mud for millions of years, end up as the fuel in your car. Split crude oil by boiling point, learn the alkane family rule, balance combustion equations, and finish with cracking — the recycling trick that turns surplus long chains into the short, useful ones and their alkene cousins.
6 Foundation · 0 Higher · 13 min read
What does "pure" actually mean to a chemist? One substance, one sharp melting point. Then learn the detective toolkit: chromatography that pulls an ink apart and stamps each dye with its Rf value, and four quick gas tests that name exactly what is bubbling out of the tube.
The atmosphere and using resources
The evolution of the atmosphere, greenhouse gases and pollutants, and using the Earth’s resources sustainably.
9 Foundation · 1 Higher · 14 min read
Four and a half billion years of air: volcanoes breathed out the first sky, the oceans drank its carbon dioxide, and green things filled it with oxygen. Then learn how we keep the planet running — clean drinking water, treated waste water, recycled metals and the life cycle assessments that weigh it all up.
Energy, electricity, the particle model, atomic structure, forces, waves and magnetism — chapters 21–30.
Energy
Energy stores and transfers, specific heat capacity, power, efficiency, and national and global energy resources.
8 Foundation · 0 Higher · 12 min read
Energy never vanishes — it just moves house. Track it between kinetic, gravitational and thermal stores, run the three big equations (½mv², mgh, mcΔθ), time your appliances with P = E ÷ t, and find out why every machine on Earth pays an efficiency tax.
8 Foundation · 0 Higher · 9 min read
Coal, wind, waves, atoms and sunshine — the planet's filling stations. Learn which supplies refill and which run dry, what each one costs the landscape, why calm days still need backup, and how the kilowatt-hour turns physics into your family's electricity bill.
Electricity
Circuits, current, resistance and the I–V practicals, plus mains electricity, power and the National Grid.
9 Foundation · 1 Higher · 11 min read
A circuit is a loop with rules: charge flows at a rate you can measure, energy is traded for volts, and every component bargains with resistance. Learn the series and parallel rulebooks, read the curves of lamps and diodes, and wire up the two required practicals with confidence.
7 Foundation · 1 Higher · 13 min read
The 230 V, 50 Hz supply in the wall is alternating current wrapped in a safety system of live, neutral and earth wires, fuses and double insulation — and the National Grid moves that power across the country at 400 000 V to keep cable heating tiny. Trace the energy from power station to plug and learn the power and energy equations that price it.
Particle model and atomic structure
Density, changes of state, gas pressure, and the atom with isotopes, radioactivity and half-life.
7 Foundation · 2 Higher · 12 min read
Everything is particles in motion: locked in a lattice, sliding past each other, or flying free. The particle model explains states, changes of state, why density packs mass into volume, why gas pressure pushes on every wall it meets — and why a bike pump gets warm. Master ρ = m/V, the displacement practical and the Higher latent-heat and pressure equations.
10 Foundation · 0 Higher · 12 min read
An atom is mostly empty space wrapped around a tiny, dense nucleus — and some nuclei are unstable enough to spit out alpha particles, beta electrons or gamma rays. Follow the model from plum pudding to Chadwick's neutron, balance nuclear equations, master half-life calculations, and learn how contamination differs from irradiation and why radon matters in UK homes.
Forces
Motion, Newton’s laws, stopping distances, work, elasticity and momentum (Higher).
10 Foundation · 0 Higher · 11 min read
Forces are the pushes and pulls that argue with an object's motion — and Newton's three laws are the rulebook for who wins. Read motion off graphs, weigh with W = mg, accelerate with F = ma, stretch springs with F = ke, and work out why braking from double the speed needs four times the road.
5 Foundation · 3 Higher · 11 min read
A force that moves something is a job with a receipt: work done, in joules, transferring energy between stores — quickly if you are powerful, slowly if you are not. Then (Higher) comes momentum, the quantity collisions cannot destroy, and the trick every crumple zone knows: stretch the impact time and the force collapses.
Waves
Wave properties and the wave equation, the electromagnetic spectrum, and the waves and infrared practicals.
10 Foundation · 0 Higher · 19 min read
A wave is a travelling disturbance that moves energy without moving stuff. Master v = f λ, learn the electromagnetic spectrum in order with one use and one hazard per band, and you can answer the wave question on any Combined Science physics paper — no lenses, no black-body curves, just the shared core.
Magnetism and electromagnetism
Magnetic fields, electromagnets, the motor effect, and Fleming’s left-hand rule and motors (Higher).
4 Foundation · 2 Higher · 12 min read
Every current makes a magnetic field — coil the wire and you can switch that field on and off, lift cars with it, and turn electricity into motion. From compass plots to the motor effect and the split-ring commutator, this chapter closes the Combined Science physics course.
Exam practice
Original QuizQuip questions written to look and feel like each of the six Combined Science papers, plus a required-practicals set. Free account for the paper, Pro for the mark scheme.
Seventy original Foundation-tier marks across cells and transport, digestion and the heart, disease and defences, and photosynthesis and respiration — ten multiple-choice questions plus structured questions, with a full mark scheme.
70 marks · 1 h 15 min
Open the setSeventy original Higher-tier marks across mitosis and stem cells, surface-area-to-volume reasoning, enzyme rate calculations, heart disease decisions, vaccination and resistance, and photosynthesis inverse-square maths — with a full mark scheme.
70 marks · 1 h 15 min
Open the setSeventy original Foundation-tier marks across homeostasis and reflexes, hormones and blood glucose, DNA and inheritance, variation and evolution, and ecosystems with quadrat maths — ten multiple-choice questions plus structured questions, with a full mark scheme.
70 marks · 1 h 15 min
Open the setSeventy original Higher-tier marks across negative feedback and the kidney, meiosis and genetic crosses with ratios, natural selection and speciation, and ecosystem maths from quadrats to trophic levels — with a full mark scheme.
70 marks · 1 h 15 min
Open the setSeventy original Foundation-tier marks across atoms and the periodic table, bonding, formula mass and concentration, reactivity and redox, acids and electrolysis, and energy changes — ten multiple-choice questions plus structured questions, with a full mark scheme.
70 marks · 1 h 15 min
Open the setSeventy original Higher-tier marks across isotopes and trends, giant structures, mole and limiting-reactant calculations, half-equations, electrolysis rules and a bond-energy calculation — with a full mark scheme.
70 marks · 1 h 15 min
Open the setSeventy original Foundation-tier marks across rates of reaction, fuels and cracking, chromatography and Rf values, tests for gases, the atmosphere and potable water — ten multiple-choice questions plus structured questions, with a full mark scheme.
70 marks · 1 h 15 min
Open the setSeventy original Higher-tier marks across tangent rates and equilibrium shifts, cracking balances and alkene tests, Rf analysis and gas tests, greenhouse mechanisms and potable water treatment — with a full mark scheme.
70 marks · 1 h 15 min
Open the setSeventy original Foundation-tier marks across energy stores and efficiency, circuits and mains power, density and states, and radioactivity and half-life — ten multiple-choice questions plus structured questions, with a full mark scheme.
70 marks · 1 h 15 min
Open the setSeventy original Higher-tier marks across kinetic-energy and specific-heat-capacity calculations, I–V characteristics, mains power and the National Grid, density methods and half-life maths — with a full mark scheme.
70 marks · 1 h 15 min
Open the setSeventy original Foundation-tier marks across forces and Newton's laws, work and power, waves and the electromagnetic spectrum, and magnets and motors — ten multiple-choice questions plus structured questions, with a full mark scheme.
70 marks · 1 h 15 min
Open the setSeventy original Higher-tier marks across F = ma and momentum maths, spring constants and elastic energy, wave calculations with seismic lags, EM-spectrum arithmetic and F = BIl motor-effect problems — with a full mark scheme.
70 marks · 1 h 15 min
Open the setSeventy original marks on the practicals examiners love: microscopy and osmosis, food tests and enzymes, pondweed and ruler drops and quadrats, salts and electrolysis, rates and chromatography, specific heat capacity, circuits, density, waves and infrared — with a full mark scheme.
70 marks · 1 h 20 min
Open the setQuestions
Also on QuizQuip
Also studying triple science?
No. AQA, Edexcel and OCR (Gateway) are exam boards and their names are used only to identify the specifications this content supports. QuizQuip is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to AQA, Pearson Edexcel or OCR. We write our own notes, quizzes and exam-style questions against the published DfE combined science subject content.
No. We never host or reproduce AQA, Edexcel or OCR past papers or specimen papers. Instead, every chapter has original exam-style questions with model answers and mark schemes, plus original paper-style practice sets for all six Combined Science papers at both tiers and a required-practicals set.
Combined Science is one qualification covering biology, chemistry and physics that awards two GCSE grades together (for example 7-6). You sit six written papers — two per science — each worth about a sixth of the marks. The QuizQuip course follows the DfE subject content shared by AQA Trilogy (8464), Pearson Edexcel (1SC0) and OCR Gateway (J250), organised as three strands in typical teaching order.
Foundation tier covers grades 1-1 to 5-5; Higher tier covers grades 4-3 to 9-9 and assumes all the Foundation content. Higher-only statements and questions are tagged with a Higher badge throughout, so you always know which material your tier examines.
Triple science awards three separate GCSEs and adds extra material — in biology topics such as monoclonal antibodies, the brain and the eye, the kidney and plant hormones; in chemistry topics such as nanoparticles, titrations, alcohols and polymers, and ion tests; in physics topics such as static electricity, pressure in fluids, moments, lenses and space physics. Those extras never appear here — the separate GCSE Biology, Chemistry and Physics hubs cover them with the same chapter-by-chapter pattern.
Each science has two papers. Biology Paper 1 covers cell biology, organisation, infection and response and bioenergetics (chapters 1–7); Biology Paper 2 covers homeostasis, inheritance and ecology (chapters 8–10). Chemistry Paper 1 covers atomic structure through energy changes (chapters 11–16); Chemistry Paper 2 covers rates, organic chemistry, analysis, atmosphere and resources (chapters 17–20). Physics Paper 1 covers energy, electricity, the particle model and atomic structure (chapters 21–26); Physics Paper 2 covers forces, waves and magnetism (chapters 27–30). Our paper-style practice sets follow exactly that split, in Foundation and Higher versions.
Magnification and unit conversion, percentages and percentage change, means and ranges, ratios and probability, rearranging and substituting physics equations, standard form, and graph skills including tangents. At least 20% of the marks assess mathematical skills, so every chapter carries fully worked examples.
Yes — AQA Trilogy names 21 required practical activities (seven biology, six chemistry, eight physics; Edexcel core practicals and OCR PAGs cover the same skills) and the written papers examine them every year. Every practical has method, variables, risks and typical results in the chapter that covers it, and our Required-practicals practice set drills all of them.
Yes. Every chapter’s notes are free and server-rendered, with Foundation and Higher clearly marked. The quick quiz has a free preview, the topical answers and practice-paper downloads need a free account, and mark schemes need QuizQuip Pro.
Not affiliated with AQA, Pearson Edexcel or OCR. AQA, Edexcel and OCR are exam boards; GCSE and GCSE (9–1) are qualifications offered by those boards. QuizQuip is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to any board. All content is original QuizQuip material written against the published DfE combined science subject content; we do not host past papers.
Notes are free to read. A free account adds the full quizzes, topical answers and paper downloads.