Education A to Z

Education and Curriculum Terms: A Guide for Students and Teachers

Please note: This page explains a word or a process in education. It is general information about the system, the law and the guidance in England — not advice about your child, your school or your exam. If a decision is going against you, get advice from one of the free services we link to before you agree to anything or miss a deadline. If you are revising, check your own exam board's specification: boards word things differently and yours is the one that marks you.

Revising? We write GCSE revision songs — a playlist covering most subjects and the English set texts. Listen to the revision playlist.

49 terms filed under C, showing 41–49 (page 5 of 5).

C

Context

Also called AO3, Social and historical context

When and where a text was written, and what that meant. Assessed explicitly, and easy to do badly.

Cooking methods and food science

What heat does to food, and why a recipe works.

Correlation and causation

Two things moving together is not one causing the other.

Coursework

Also called NEA, Non-exam assessment, Controlled assessment

Assessed work done outside an exam. Marked by your teacher, moderated by the board.

Crime and deviance

Behaviour that breaks the law, and behaviour that breaks a norm. Not the same.

Cumulative frequency and box plots

Graphs showing how data accumulates, and the five-figure summary.

CV

A one- or two-page summary of what you have done. Tailored, not generic.

Cyber security basics

The common attacks and the standard defences, as the specification frames them.

Cyclical structure

A text that ends where it began. Rarely an accident.

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