ICSE Class 10 Biology Syllabus


ICSE is an autonomous educational board of school education in India and is mainly known for its standard educational pattern that provides students with quality education. The ICSE syllabus for Class 10 contains all basic subjects in a required manner. We at CoolGyan’S provide the ICSE syllabus for Class 10 Biology along with the mark-wise weightage for every chapter, so that students can have a good idea about the pattern of the exam. For the year 2020-2021 ICSE  Class 10 Biology syllabus was further reduced, due to the pandemic. Find the reduced syllabus below.

Download ICSE Class 10 Biology Reduced Syllabus PDF for 2020-21

The ICSE syllabus for Class 10 Biology includes:

1. Basic Biology

(i) Cell Cycle and Cell Division:

Cell Cycle – Interphase (G1, S, G2) and Mitotic Phase

Cell Division: Mitosis and its stages.

  • A basic understanding of Meiosis as a reduction division (stages not required).
  • A brief idea of homologous chromosomes and crossing over leading to variations.
  • Significance and major differences between mitotic and meiotic division.

(ii) Structure of chromosome:

Basic structure of chromosome with elementary understanding of terms such as chromatin, chromatid, gene structure of DNA and centromere.

2. Plant Physiology

(i) Absorption by roots, imbibition, diffusion and osmosis; osmotic pressure, root pressure; turgidity and flaccidity; plasmolysis and deplasmolysis; the absorption of water and minerals; active and passive transport (in brief); The rise of water up to the xylem; Forces responsible for ascent of sap.

(ii) Transpiration – process and significance. Ganong’s potometer and its limitations. The factors affecting rate of transpiration. Experiments on transpiration. A brief idea of guttation and bleeding.

(iii) Photosynthesis: the process and its importance to life in general; experiments to show the necessity of light, carbon dioxide, chlorophyll, formation of starch and release of oxygen; carbon cycle.

3. Human Anatomy and Physiology

(i) Circulatory System: Blood and lymph, the structure and working of the heart, blood vessels, circulation of blood (only names of the main blood vessels entering and leaving the heart, liver and kidney will be required). Lymphatic system.

(ii) Excretory System: A brief introduction to the excretory organs; parts of the urinary system; structure and function of the kidneys; blood vessels associated with kidneys; structure and function of nephron

(iii) Nervous system: Structure of Neuron; central, autonomous and peripheral nervous system (in brief); brain and spinal cord; reflex action and how it differs from voluntary action.

Sense organs – Eye: Structure, functions, defects and corrective measures: Ear: Parts and functions of the ear.

(iv) Endocrine System: General study of the following glands: Adrenal, Pancreas, Thyroid and Pituitary. Endocrine and Exocrine glands.

ICSE Class 10 Biology Marking Scheme

The duration ICSE Class 10 Biology paper is for two hours, and the overall marks are of 100 among which 80 marks is for theory, and 20 marks will be for Internal Assessment of practical works.

SubjectTheory PaperInternal Assessment of Practical Work
Biology80 Marks

20 Marks

ICSE Class 10 Biology Exam Pattern

The exam pattern of ICSE Class 10 Biology provides the marks’ distribution, number of questions and important topics. Before starting the exam preparation going through the exam pattern of Biology will help students to understand what type of questions they can expect from each chapter.

The Biology question paper is divided into two sections:

  1. Section I carries 40 marks, all questions are compulsory, and it mainly contains short answer questions on the entire syllabus.
  2. Section II carries 40 marks, which contains six questions and students are required to answer any four out of six questions.
For Biology (2 Hrs)
Section I  – Short compulsory questions worth 40 marks
Section II  – 6 questions out of which any 4 are to be solved worth 40 marks

The syllabus of ICSE Class 10 for Biology helps students to get an idea about the course content so that they can prepare themselves accordingly. Studying according to the syllabus of ICSE Biology will help them to fetch more marks in the exam. It also provides information about the time duration and the subtopics related to each chapter.

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