Grade 8 Integrated Science End Term 3 Exam With Answers

Grade 8 Integrated Science moves from “what things are” to “how things work”: how cells specialise, how we breathe, how humans reproduce, how elements combine and how light behaves. Our exam follows the KJSEA style with a long multiple-choice section and a short calculation section, so the format is familiar long before the national paper.

• Living things: specialised cells (red blood cells, root hair cells), levels of organisation, the human breathing system, effects of smoking, human reproduction, the placenta and changes in adolescence.
• Mixtures, elements and compounds: chemical symbols, elements and compounds, atoms, physical and chemical changes, and uses of acids and bases such as antacids and agricultural lime.
• Force and energy: force and the newton, the spring balance, friction, pressure in solids and liquids, light (straight-line travel, plane mirrors, refraction and dispersion), insulators and fuses.
• Health and environment: respiratory diseases and air pollution.

Many questions take an everyday observation and ask for the science behind it. Why does a sharp knife cut better? Because the same force acts on a smaller area, giving greater pressure. Why are dams thicker at the bottom? Because liquid pressure increases with depth. Why do tyres have treads? To increase friction. Teach your child to spot the idea behind the situation (pressure, friction, refraction) and the answer usually follows.

The calculations use four formulas every Grade 8 learner should know by heart: pressure = force ÷ area; weight = mass × gravitational field strength (10 N/kg); the number of images between two mirrors = 360 ÷ angle − 1; and simple volume conversions (1,000 cm³ = 1 litre). Write the formula, substitute, calculate and add the unit.

• Saying the diaphragm relaxes during inhalation. It contracts and flattens.
• Placing fertilisation in the uterus instead of the oviduct.
• Writing “So” for sodium. The symbol Na comes from its Latin name.
• Calling melting or dissolving a chemical change. No new substance forms.
• Confusing mass (kg) with weight (N).
• Mixing up reflection (bouncing back) and refraction (bending).

Allow about 45 minutes for the 30 multiple-choice questions and 30 minutes for the four calculations, keeping the last 15 minutes to check units and skipped questions.

School exams often include labelled diagrams of the breathing system, the female and male reproductive systems, and ray diagrams for plane mirrors. Even though our online exam uses text, ask your child to draw and label each of these from memory once a week; it is the fastest way to lock in the vocabulary.

More Grade 8 exams are on the Grade 8 revision papers page. Use the Grade 8 CBC Challenge for daily practice, and see the Grade 8 guide for the curriculum.