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.

500 terms, showing 481–490 (page 49 of 50).

U

Unseen poetry

A poem you have never read before, analysed in the exam. Method beats knowledge.

Urban regeneration

Rebuilding a run-down urban area, and who it is for.

Urbanisation

The growing share of people living in cities, and what follows from it.

Utility

How useful a source is for a specific enquiry. Not the same as how reliable it is.

V

Validation and verification

Checking data is sensible, and checking it was entered correctly. Different jobs.

Variable, constant and data type

A named store for a value, whether it can change, and what kind of value it holds.

Variables

The thing you change, the thing you measure, and everything you must hold still.

Vectors

A quantity with size and direction, written as a column or with an arrow.

Venn diagrams and sets

Overlapping circles showing what belongs to which group, with a notation of their own.

Vocabulary learning

Building the words. The defined list is the syllabus, and it is finite.

Something missing?

If there is a word or a process you have been nodding along to, tell us and we will write it up. This library exists because of the questions people were too polite, or too tired, to ask.

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