You said, we listened - Year 10 tests for new Science GCSEs - Ann Wolstenholme 12 July 2016

Teachers have told us how valuable it would be to have a test to use to assess learners’ progress at the end of Year 10.

So, we are producing Year 10 tests for our new GCSE (9-1) Gateway Science and Twenty First Century Science suites.

The tests will contain the same style and range of questions as the new GCSE science exams, but will be a combination of Foundation and Higher Tier questions. Each test will contain questions targeted across the assessment objectives, and at assessing mathematical and practical skills. The first half of the tests will be at Foundation Tier and the second half at Higher Tier. The aim is that learners should take the whole paper to help assess which tier they should be entered for. The tests will be set out in such a way that they can be split into Foundation and Higher Tiers if so wished.

The tests will be available from spring 2017 with detailed mark schemes, which teachers can use to provide immediate feedback on their learners’ progress. Teachers will be able to submit the results to OCR through an easy to use analysis tool. This tool will show how your learners are performing against those at other schools.

We will be sending out more communications about these tests in September along with an opportunity for you to register your interest.

Sign up to register your interest in the practice papers, so we can notify you as soon as they are released.

We are really excited about this project and hope you will continue to be involved. Please email us at GCSEScience@ocr.org.uk with any feedback.

About the author

Ann Wolstenholme - Subject Specialist - GCSE Sciences

After working in the assessment side of OCR for many years, Ann has been a Subject Specialist on the GCSE sciences for the last two years working with both of our GCSE Science suites.