WJEC GCSE Combined Science: Double Award units, grades and 2027 dates

WJEC GCSE Combined Science: two courses in 2027

WJEC does not call its Welsh double science course "Combined Science". The name used in Wales is GCSE Science (Double Award), and a new Made for Wales course, GCSE The Sciences (Double Award), takes over from it. Both appear on the 2027 timetable, so check which one your school entered you for. Both are tiered (Higher A* to D, Foundation C to G) and both are not available to centres in England, where Eduqas runs its own Combined Science.

GCSE Science (Double Award), the current course

Each written unit mixes short answers, structured questions, extended writing and data response questions, some in a practical context. This table follows the specification (version 2, January 2019); WJEC has since changed the practical assessment for its single sciences, so ask your teacher what applies to your Unit 7.

GCSE The Sciences (Double Award), the new course

Units 1 to 6 are written papers of 1 hour 15 minutes. Units 1 to 3 should be taught before Units 4 to 6, and Unit 7, with a practical task and a written task of an hour each for every enquiry, should be taken in the final year. The qualification is first awarded in summer 2028 (approval number C00/4968/2). All dates come from WJEC's final summer 2027 timetable; see our WJEC GCSE timetable 2027.

WJEC double award grades

Both courses give a double grade, because the qualification is worth two GCSEs. The Sciences uses an eight-grade double scale from A*A* to GG, built from uniform marks out of 700. The units are worth 100 uniform marks each for Units 1 to 3, 110 each for Units 4 to 6 and 70 for Unit 7, and Foundation tier is capped at 69 and 76 uniform marks, just under a grade B on the unit.

The current Science (Double Award) course is reported on a fifteen-point scale from A*A* to GG, with each unit scored on a uniform scale of 120 (Units 1 to 6) or 80 (Unit 7), 800 in all. The totals WJEC publishes for each double grade are:

Read how Welsh GCSE grades work in GCSE grades in Wales.

Worked examples in WJEC Double Award style

Biology: cardiac output

Each beat of a heart sends out 65 cm³ of blood, and it beats 80 times a minute:

Chemistry: moles of sulfuric acid

Find the moles in 4.9 g of sulfuric acid, H₂SO₄ (Ar: H = 1, S = 32, O = 16):

Physics: wave speed

Sound travels as a wave with frequency 170 Hz and wavelength 2.0 m:

Use the daily paper as a short timed mock for WJEC Double Award Science

Uni-Sine publishes a new free daily paper on each track: GCSE Combined Science Foundation and GCSE Combined Science Higher. It is a short timed mock: 8 questions worth 25 to 35 marks, marked instantly, with worked answers. It is not a full exam paper and it is not written by the exam board, so use it as a quick timed practice test alongside the board's own specimen and past papers.

• What it covers well: cells, health, ecology, atoms and the periodic table, chemical reactions, quantitative chemistry, forces, electricity, waves and energy, mixed across the three sciences.
• What it does not cover: the split into single-science units. One Combined Science paper mixes all three sciences in 8 questions, while a WJEC unit is one science. To rehearse a single unit, use the Biology, Chemistry or Physics tracks, and use WJEC papers for the practical unit.

Do one mixed daily paper a day, then use the single-science papers to drill the unit that is next on the timetable.

Exam answers

Uni-Sine does not publish official answers, past paper answers or mark schemes from the exam board. The answers and a worked mark scheme for each daily paper come with that day's paper once it is marked, so you can see where every mark was won or lost.

Common mistakes in WJEC Double Award

• Revising for the wrong course. The Sciences Units 1 to 3 and Science (Double Award) Units 1 to 6 are different papers with different unit names.
• Treating all six units as equal on the day. They are different subjects on different dates, so plan by date.
• Skipping the practical unit. It is 10% of the grade.
• Looking for 9 to 1 grades. WJEC Wales uses double grades from A*A* to GG.

Read next

UK · GCSEWJEC GCSE Combined Science grade boundaries 2026WJEC's June 2026 Science (Double Award) boundaries: double grades out of 800, raw marks for all seven units and the move from 2025.