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 71–80 (page 8 of 50).

C

Cloud computing

Using someone else's computers over a network, and the trade-offs.

Coastal processes

How waves shape a coastline, and the management choices that follow.

Colloquial and formal register

How formal the language is, and matching it to audience and purpose.

Command word: evaluate

The command word that most often costs marks. It requires a judgement.

Command words

Also called Question stems, Directive words

The verb at the start of an exam question. It tells you what kind of answer earns the marks.

Comparing texts

Writing about two sources together. Comparison all the way through, not one then the other.

Complaints about a council's SEND service

When it is the council rather than the school, and which route applies.

Components of fitness

The measurable parts of being fit, and the tests for each.

Composition

How things are arranged within the frame, and where the eye goes.

Compound interest

Interest paid on interest. The same maths as depreciation and population growth.

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