IGCSE Co-ordinated Sciences (Double Award) Tutoring, Cambridge and Pearson Edexcel
IGCSE Co-ordinated Sciences carries much of the content of the three separate sciences and earns two grades, so a student has to hold biology’s vocabulary, chemistry’s equations and the formulae of physics at the same time. The papers reward precision in each science, and a weak one drags down the double grade.
Short answer
IGCSE Co-ordinated Sciences (Double Award) is offered online, one-to-one.
A private lesson runs 90 minutes and starts at USD 95 per lesson; lessons are booked singly or in packages.
No group class runs for this exam.
From USD 95 per lesson
- Structure shown for Cambridge International, Pearson Edexcel
- Live online lessons of 90 minutes
- From USD 95 per lesson
How IGCSE Co-ordinated Sciences (Double Award) is assessed, board by board
2 awarding bodies examine this subject, and they do not examine it the same way: different papers, different weightings, different practical arrangements. Find your board — it is printed on your school's timetable and on past papers — and read that block. Nothing on this page describes one board's paper as though it applied to all of them.
Cambridge International
Cambridge IGCSE Sciences — Co-ordinated (Double) (0654)
| Component | Share of grade | Length | Marks | Format |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paper 1 (Core) or Paper 2 (Extended): Multiple Choice — Forty four-choice items | 30% | 45 min | 40 marks | multiple choice |
| Paper 3 (Core) or Paper 4 (Extended): Theory | 50% | 2 hours | 120 marks | short answer and structured questions |
| Paper 5: Practical Test — Experiments done in a laboratory. Schools enter for this or for Paper 6 | 20% | 2 hours | 60 marks | practical work |
| Paper 6: Alternative to Practical — A written paper about experiments, for schools that enter for it instead of Paper 5 | 20% | 1 hour 30 min | 60 marks | practical work and data response |
- Cambridge tiers this subject. Core candidates sit the Core papers and can be awarded grades C to G; Extended candidates sit the Extended papers and can be awarded A* to G. A student entered for Core cannot be given a grade above a C whatever they write, so if a sixth form is asking for a B in Co-ordinated Sciences, the entry tier is the first thing to check — and schools will usually still move a student between tiers if the work supports it.
- This is a double award: it is worth two IGCSE grades, both the same. The theory paper is two hours and 120 marks rather than 80, which is the practical difference students feel — biology, chemistry and physics all appear in the same paper and the switching costs time.
Checked on 22 September 2026
Pearson Edexcel
Pearson Edexcel International GCSE Science (Double Award) (4SD0)
| Component | Share of grade | Length | Marks | Format |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paper 1B: Biology | 33.3% | 2 hours | 110 marks | multiple choice, short answer and extended response |
| Paper 1C: Chemistry | 33.3% | 2 hours | 110 marks | multiple choice, short answer, extended response and calculations |
| Paper 1P: Physics | 33.3% | 2 hours | 110 marks | multiple choice, short answer, extended response and calculations |
- Pearson does not tier this subject: every candidate sits the same papers and every grade is reachable from them. That removes the entry-tier decision entirely, which is one of the practical differences between the two boards.
- Three two-hour papers, one per science, all sat in the same series. Six hours of examination for a double award — more examined time than Cambridge asks for, in exchange for never mixing the three subjects in one paper.
Checked on 22 September 2026
Cambridge International and Pearson Edexcel are the two IGCSE boards covered here. Some schools use OxfordAQA International GCSEs, which are examined differently again; if that is your board, tell us on the intro call and we will confirm tutor availability for your specification before you book.
What IGCSE Co-ordinated Sciences (Double Award) covers
The syllabus areas most boards share. Which ones appear, in what order and on which paper differs by board and by specification code — your own specification is the final word. Topic names are left in English, as they appear on the paper.
Biology: organisms and life processes
Characteristics of living organisms, cells and movement into and out of cells · Biological molecules and enzymes · Plant and human nutrition · Transport, gas exchange and respiration
Biology: coordination, inheritance and ecology
Coordination and response · Reproduction · Inheritance, variation and selection · Organisms and their environment · Human influences on ecosystems
Chemistry: principles
States of matter · Elements, compounds and mixtures · Atomic structure and bonding · Formulae, equations and the mole
Chemistry: reactions and materials
Energy changes and rates of reaction · Acids, bases and salts · The Periodic Table · The reactivity series of metals · Organic chemistry
Physics: forces, energy and matter
Motion and forces · Energy, work and power · Thermal physics · Density and pressure
Physics: waves, electricity and the atom
Waves, light and sound · Electricity and magnetism · Radioactivity · Space physics
Where IGCSE Co-ordinated Sciences (Double Award) marks are usually lost
Treating the double award as science-lite
Students sometimes choose a double award expecting a gentler course. The content says otherwise: Cambridge’s Co-ordinated Sciences includes inheritance, coordination and response, and nuclear physics, and Pearson’s Science (Double Award) is examined through the very same first papers that students of the separate sciences sit. Revision planned for a lighter course runs out of time in the final term.
Energy described the same loose way in three subjects
Energy appears in all three sciences — released in respiration, transferred in exothermic reactions, stored and transferred in physics — and each has its own expected wording. Students who reuse one vague phrase everywhere lose marks that a precise answer in the language of that science would have earned. Keeping a short glossary per science, and checking answers against mark schemes, fixes it.
Learning what happened in a practical, not how to run it
Both boards examine practical work across all three sciences: Cambridge through a Practical Test or an Alternative to Practical, Pearson through questions on the practicals its specification lists. Students often remember the result of an experiment but cannot say which variable was controlled, how a measurement was taken or how the method could be improved, and those are the marks being offered.
How we teach IGCSE Co-ordinated Sciences (Double Award)
A tutor first establishes which double award you are taking, because the two are examined differently. Cambridge’s Co-ordinated Sciences examines the three sciences together in tiered papers, with a separate practical paper; Pearson’s Science (Double Award) sets one paper per science, the same first paper sat by students of each separate science. Lessons then rotate through biology, chemistry and physics on a fixed cycle so nothing goes cold, with recall tests for definitions and physics equations and regular sets of calculations in chemistry and physics. Past-paper questions are marked against the board’s published mark schemes. For students who may later move to a separate science or an advanced course, the tutor can also cover the extra content those courses add.
There is no separate diagnostic, because there is no single test that stands in for two years of a school syllabus. The first lesson is the assessment: the tutor works through your recent marked work, past-paper questions from your own specification, and the units your school has already covered, and reads current level, gaps, exam technique and where school work stands. It is a normal paid lesson and it teaches as it assesses.
Related subjects and pages
IGCSE Combined Science
Online IGCSE Combined Science tutoring for Cambridge 0653: biology, chemistry and physics in one award, papers that mix all three, practicals from each.
IGCSE Biology
Online IGCSE Biology tutoring for Cambridge 0610 and Pearson Edexcel 4BI1: mark-scheme vocabulary, data and graph questions, genetics and practical skills.
IGCSE Chemistry
Online IGCSE Chemistry tutoring for Cambridge 0620 and Pearson Edexcel 4CH1: formulae, balanced equations, mole calculations, chemical tests, practicals.
IGCSE Physics
Online IGCSE Physics tutoring for Cambridge 0625 and Pearson Edexcel 4PH1: equations to recall and rearrange, units, motion graphs, practicals.
IGCSE Tutoring
Online IGCSE tutoring for Cambridge IGCSE and Pearson Edexcel International GCSE: tiers, papers, practicals by board, first-lesson assessment.
IGCSE prices
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