Download Combined Science Syllabus
Avice Michonski
Cambridge IGCSE Combined Science gives learners the opportunity to study Biology, Chemistry and Physics, each covered in separate syllabus sections. It is a single award qualification, earning one grade.
We have updated Cambridge IGCSE Combined Science to make sure that it continues to reflect current educational thinking and meet the needs of learners, schools and higher education institutions around the world. We have made the new syllabus clearer and more consistent with the single sciences. This is helpful for teachers who are teaching more than one science syllabus, and students who will enjoy a more coherent experience across each science.
This course provides full coverage of the revised Cambridge IGCSE Combined Science syllabus (0653). Carefully developed features including plentiful questions, worked examples and key terms build firm scientific knowledge and develop practical skills.
We provide a wide range of support so that teachers can give their learners the best possible preparation for Cambridge programmes and qualifications. For teachers at registered Cambridge schools, support materials for specific syllabuses are available from the School Support Hub (username and password required).
I get this query many times over the past few years from desperate parents. Their children has not been doing well for Pure Sciences in school, and the school has repeatedly advise their children to drop to combined science (or it could be a sudden bombshell by the school, as experienced by some parents).
The syllabus content of combined Physics is about 75% of Pure Physics. Similarly, combined Chemistry is about 75% of Pure Chemistry. So a student who drops from Pure Science to Combined Science studies lesser things (about 25% lesser). Lesser stress it may seem.
Upon dropping, most students will feel an immediate sense of relief. Combined science papers are generally easier, so students dropping from Pure Science will generally score better. Apart from that, the bell curve may also be more advantageous, because students who took combined science early on are generally students who are weaker in science.
In the month of June in sec 4, the teacher suddenly informed the mum that her daughter is too weak in Physics and was advised to drop to combined science. The mum was shocked; what happened to the assurance given over the past year? Desperate, she came to me for help. Upon discussion, I realised her daughter had a good memory, and was able to answer a number of Physics explanation questions logically. Her pitfall was in the calculations segment of the Physics papers, which was tough for most O Level students.
The Cambridge IGCSE offers three types of Sciences, Combined Science, Coordinated Science, and Pure Science. This article will dive into these three types of Sciences and discuss their differences and how students should prepare for their IGCSE science examinations.
The three types of sciences offered by IGCSE Cambridge differ mainly in content and assessment. Combined Science syllabus coverage is much condensed than the Coordinated Science and Pure Science. Coordinated Science is also a combination of Biology, Chemistry, and Physics but its syllabus coverage is much more in-depth than Combined Science. Pure Science is to take Biology, Chemistry, and Physics themselves as a subject.
Besides offering a wider range of content in Coordinated Science, it also rewards students with a double award qualification, earning two grades. Combined science, on the other hand, only awards students with one qualification and one grade.
Pure Science is all the Sciences but taken individually. It will be three separate subjects, Biology (0610), Chemistry (0620), and Physics (0625). This will mean the syllabus coverage for each individual subject is wider and more in-depth as compared to the Coordinated Sciences.
The best way to prepare is to have an experienced tutor guide you through your learning journey. Having a professional tutor can help you to bridge any knowledge gaps and expand your knowledge of the concept. Additionally, IGCSE science tuition offers you a platform to get your science questions and doubts answered. Moreover, having an IGCSE science tuition online brings extra convenience to you. You can take IGCSE science tuition in the comfort of your own home.
At Tutopiya, we offer IGCSE Science tuition for the three types of Sciences. We have trained and experienced tutors for all three sciences and we will match these tutors according to your learning needs and requirements. In addition, new students are entitled to a free trial session with a matched tutor to experience an online science tuition lesson on the Tutopiya platform!
All in all, the IGCSE Science is manageable with the right study methods and techniques. In addition, having IGCSE Science tuition can help give you the extra boost that you need for your IGCSE science exam!
This is a 9 Slide PowerPoint presentation which explains how the Combined Science 0653 Cambridge syllabus is laid out for 2025-2027. The slides give an overview of the recent changes as well as a link to the official CIE website with the original specification. Embedded in the file are 3-word documents that explain the Chemistry, Biology and Physics syllabus in more detail.
This is the perfect overview for anyone new to teaching the Chemistry, Biology and Physics Cambridge Combined Science Course or for anyone who wants to show students an overview of the course at the beginning of the year.
As well as the PowerPoint presentation you will also find the three separate Word Documents with the Chemistry, Biology and Physics syllabus. I think this is useful for those who want to print it out and tick off what they have covered/as a table of contents etc, or as a handout to students showing what they need to cover for the exam.
As always, I am happy to convert to other formats for those who are not MS fans.
In the senior year, students must take CPSC 490, an independent project course, in which a student selects an adviser to conduct original research with substantial work in a subfield of computer science. With permission of the DUS, students may enroll in 490 more than once or before their senior year.
The Computer Science department offers two degree programs, B.S. and B.A., and combined majors with Economics, Electrical Engineering, Mathematics, and Psychology. Each program provides a solid technical education yet allows students to take the broad range of courses in other disciplines that is an essential part of a liberal education.
The programs share a common core of five computer science courses, including CPSC 201 and courses in discrete mathematics, data structures, systems programming and computer architecture, and algorithm analysis and design. This core is supplemented by electives and, for the combined majors, core courses in the other discipline. The capstone of the major is the senior project, in which students conduct original research under the guidance of a faculty mentor.
The Certificate in Programming prepares students to program computers in support of work in any area of study. While the certificate does not provide the grounding in theory and systems that the computer science majors do, it does provide a short path to programming literacy that can be completed in a span of four terms. Majors in Computer Science, and in the joint programs with Economics, Electrical Engineering, Mathematics, and Psychology, or in Computing and the Arts may not pursue the Certificate.
The Nuffield Science Teaching Project was a programme to develop a better approach to teaching science in British[n 1] secondary schools, under the auspices of the Nuffield Foundation. Although not intended as a curriculum, it gave rise to alternative national examinations, and its use of discovery learning was influential in the 1960s and 1970s.
For each of the three sciences, a working group was established headed by a full-time organiser, appointed for three years, and including a consultative committee of experts, and six or seven team leaders, expert teachers on one-year appointments who headed local groups of half a dozen science teachers which would develop and test materials. The physics project was organised first, under Donald McGill; the chemistry project was under H. F. Halliwell, and the biology project under W. H. Dowdeswell. The initial focus on the course to 'O' level was extended to 'A' level and a Junior Science Project on primary school teaching was added by 1966;[10][11] later in the 1960s Nuffield also began a Combined Science Project, a Secondary Science Project for pupils who would not take 'O' levels, the Nuffield Language Teaching Programme in modern languages, and programmes in mathematics, classics, and social studies.[12][13] McGill died in March 1963 and was succeeded at the physics project by Eric M. Rogers.[14][15] John Maddox was added as an assistant director of the foundation and coordinator of the project as a whole.[12] In 1966 the development phase came to an end and teachers' guides, pupils' question books and other material were published in time for the school year starting in autumn 1967.[16] Nuffield sponsored Area Committees, training of tutors to train teachers, television programmes on teaching Nuffield science, and two films showing actual chemistry classrooms: Exploring Chemistry and Chemistry by Investigation.[17] The Local Education Authority teachers' centres and specialist centres at teacher training institutions also provided training in Nuffield methods;[13][18] the project itself established the Centre for Science Education at Chelsea College, which was able to grant degrees.[19]
Organisers were charged simply with creating "a coordinated set of materials, for use by teachers in any way they saw fit."[20] The foundation also gave instructions to avoid public announcements or debates for two years.[21] The approach taken in all three sciences was inquiry-based:[19][22][23] teaching "for understanding, not learning" in a manner that was both logical and based on experiments, with pupils "learning through doing",[24] being 'a scientist for a day' and deriving scientific laws through 'guided discovery' rather than 'prov[ing] theory'. The project used an apocryphal Chinese proverb, "I listen and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand" as a motto.[25][26] Halliwell, the chemistry project organiser, has said that he was greatly influenced by Sir Percy Nunn, under whom he studied in the 1920s;[27] another important influence was work in the United States, particularly the Physical Science Study Committee's reformed physics course, with which Rogers had been involved at Princeton University.[26][28] The teachers' guides outlining the class activities were explicitly described as "not a syllabus", but many teachers used them as a "bible".[29][30] Particularly for physics, kits of apparatus for class experiments were developed in association with manufacturers; government money was readily available at the start of the project for schools to purchase equipment and improve their laboratories.[31][32] Distinct Nuffield 'O' and 'A' level examinations were instituted, although they were originally intended only as a temporary measure.[33]
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