KJSEA Integrated Science 905/2: The Practical Based Paper Explained

Integrated Science appears twice on the KJSEA timetable. Paper 905/1 is sat on Thursday 29 October and runs 1 hour 40. Paper 905/2, the practical based paper, is sat on Friday 30 October and runs 1 hour.

Almost all revision goes into 905/1, because it looks like a normal paper. 905/2 is two questions worth 20 marks each, and it rewards a completely different set of skills.

How the two papers differ

What a practical based question asks for

A practical based question usually walks through an investigation. The child may be asked to state a hypothesis, identify variables, describe a method, record or interpret results, and then draw a conclusion. Marks are spread across all of those steps, which is why a child who writes only the conclusion scores poorly even when the conclusion is right.

The recurring language is worth learning properly:

• Independent variable. The one you deliberately change.
• Dependent variable. The one you measure.
• Controlled variables. Everything kept the same so the test is fair.
• Observation. What you saw or measured, with no explanation attached.
• Conclusion. What the results mean in relation to the hypothesis.

Children routinely mix observation and conclusion into one sentence and lose the observation mark. Teaching them to write those as two separate lines is worth doing this month.

Where marks are lost

How to practise without a laboratory

You do not need equipment. Most of what 905/2 tests is the ability to describe and reason about an investigation on paper.

Take any simple household situation and turn it into a written investigation. Which cloth dries fastest. Whether sugar dissolves faster in warm water. How the length of a string changes how fast a weight swings. For each, have your child write the hypothesis, the variables, a numbered method, a blank results table with units, and the conclusion they would expect.

Twenty minutes of that is worth more than an hour of reading science notes, because it drills the exact structure the paper asks for.

Do not neglect 905/1

905/1 carries 30 multiple choice questions plus a structured section. The multiple choice part rewards breadth of recall, so it is the one section where working through a lot of short questions genuinely helps.

Sit the two papers close together in practice at least once, because they fall on consecutive days in the real thing and the second day of a five day week is when tiredness shows.

For the wider plan, our six week KJSEA countdown puts Integrated Science in week 3, and reading the marking scheme explains how the separate steps of a practical answer are credited.

The KJSEA Complete Revision Course includes predictive papers for both 905/1 and 905/2 with a separate answer booklet, and timed mock practice is what turns knowing the structure into using it under pressure.