CCEA GCSE Biology: units, practicals, C* grades and 2027 dates

CCEA GCSE Biology: how the course is built

CCEA first taught this course in September 2017 and it keeps three units. Students do nine prescribed practicals over two years and are assessed on two of them. The same content is also available through Double Award Science. At least 40% of the assessment, by weighting, has to be taken at the end of the course, and each unit can be resat once before cash-in; the better result counts unless that unit is needed for the terminal rule.

Units 1 and 2 are compulsory structured questions with short answers, extended writing and calculations, taken at one tier. Booklets A and B in Unit 3 must be taken at the same tier. CCEA morning papers normally start at 9.15am. The dates come from CCEA's final GCSE timetable, and our CCEA GCSE timetable 2027 adds the contingency day and results day.

What the Biology units cover

• Unit 1: Cells, Living Processes and Biodiversity.
• Unit 2: Body Systems, Genetics, Microorganisms and Health.
• Unit 3: Unit 3 is practical skills, built on the nine prescribed practicals. Booklet A uses two of them, set each year, and Booklet B tests practical method, data and calculations on paper.

Higher-only content is in bold and Foundation papers are set only on the normal type. Biology calculations are short: rates, percentage change, magnification and ratios.

Worked examples in CCEA Biology style

A rate from a count

A student counts 24 bubbles of oxygen from pondweed in 3 minutes. Divide the number by the time:

Always give the rate with its unit. If the experiment is repeated with the lamp twice as far away, the rate falls because less light reaches the leaves, a limiting factor.

Percentage loss in mass

A potato cylinder in strong sugar solution falls from 12.0 g to 10.2 g. Take the loss as a fraction of the start and turn it into a percentage:

The cylinder lost 15.000000000000005% of its mass because water left by osmosis. Write the minus sign or the word loss so the direction is clear.

CCEA GCSE Biology grades

CCEA adds the uniform marks from each unit to find the grade. Its scale has nine grades, A*, A, B, C*, C, D, E, F and G, with U below. Foundation reaches C* to G, and Higher reaches A* to D with an allowable E. C* is the odd one out compared with England's 9 to 1; GCSE grades in Northern Ireland lines them up.

Use the daily paper as a short timed mock for CCEA GCSE Biology

There are two Biology tracks to practise on, GCSE Biology Foundation and GCSE Biology Higher. Each daily paper is a short mock of 8 questions and 25 to 35 marks, not a CCEA paper.

• What it covers well: cells and transport, photosynthesis, enzymes and digestion, respiration, the nervous system and homeostasis, genetics, evolution, ecology and disease, which match the topics across Units 1 and 2.
• What it does not cover: the written practical questions of Booklet B, the school-based practicals of Booklet A, and any CCEA specific content on microorganisms and biotechnology.

Sit a paper against the clock and write down the topics that lost marks. Then swap in a CCEA Unit 2 past paper, which is the longest and heaviest.

Exam answers

Uni-Sine does not publish official answers, past paper answers or board mark schemes. Answers and a worked mark scheme come with today's paper once you have marked it, line by line.

Common mistakes in CCEA GCSE Biology

• Ignoring the practical units. Unit 3 is 25% of the grade, so the nine prescribed practicals deserve proper revision.
• Describing a graph without data. Quote a pair of values from it.
• Mixing up osmosis and diffusion. Osmosis is water moving across a partially permeable membrane.
• Writing "it" in explanations. Name the structure or substance.

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UK · GCSECCEA GCSE Biology grade boundaries 2026: raw marks by unitCCEA GCSE Biology grade boundaries for Summer 2026: raw and uniform marks for Units 1 to 3 at both tiers, plus the 400 mark subject lines.