Class 10 (English Medium) Science

This chapter introduces how to identify chemical reactions, write and balance chemical equations, and classify the major types of reactions — combination, decomposition, displacement, double displacement, and oxidation-reduction (redox). It also covers the everyday effects of oxidation reactions, namely corrosion of metals and rancidity of food. This is one of the most scoring chapters for the Class 10 Board examination.

This chapter explores the chemical properties of acids and bases, indicators, their reactions with metals and carbonates, neutralisation, and the pH scale. We will also study the importance of pH in daily life, the family of salts, and important chemicals derived from common salt — sodium hydroxide, bleaching powder, baking soda, washing soda, and plaster of Paris. This is one of the most important chapters of the Class 10 board examination.

This chapter explores the physical and chemical properties of metals and non-metals, their reactions with oxygen, water, and acids, the reactivity series, and the formation and properties of ionic compounds. We also study the techniques used to extract metals — minerals, ores, concentration, reduction, refining — and the prevention of corrosion. This is one of the most important chapters of the Class 10 board exam.

This chapter introduces the fascinating world of carbon — the element that forms the backbone of all life. We explore why carbon forms covalent bonds, the versatile nature of carbon (allotropes, catenation, tetravalency), saturated and unsaturated hydrocarbons, structural isomerism, functional groups, the homologous series, IUPAC nomenclature, chemical properties of carbon compounds (combustion, oxidation, addition, substitution), and the chemistry of important compounds like ethanol and ethanoic acid. We also study soaps and detergents and the cleansing action of micelles. This chapter is a major source of board exam questions.

Welcome to one of the heaviest-tested chapters of Class 10 Science — typically 8-12 marks every Board exam and 2-3 NEET-foundation questions. We follow the complete journey of a living body: how energy enters via nutrition (autotrophic photosynthesis in plants; heterotrophic feeding in animals), how it is broken down via respiration (aerobic vs anaerobic), how nutrients and oxygen are circulated via the heart-pump and double circulation (in humans) and the xylem-phloem system (in plants), and finally how wastes are filtered out via the kidney's nephron and the plant's specialised excretory pathways. We close with a comparison of unicellular organisms (Amoeba uses simple diffusion) and multicellular organisms (we use specialised organ systems). By the end you'll have mastered every NCERT diagram, every NCERT-canonical phrase, and every Board exam trap — from the C4 leaf cross-section to the four-chambered heart to Bowman's capsule.

Control and coordination is the life process that helps organisms respond to changes in their internal and external environment. This chapter explores how living organisms — both animals and plants — sense stimuli and produce coordinated responses. In animals, the nervous system (with neurons, brain, and spinal cord) provides rapid electrical signals, while the endocrine system (with hormones) provides slower, longer-lasting chemical signals. In plants, coordination happens through plant hormones (auxin, gibberellin, cytokinin, abscisic acid, ethylene) and tropic movements (phototropism, geotropism, etc.). Topics include neuron structure, reflex action, the human brain, spinal cord, peripheral nervous system, plant tropisms, plant hormones, animal hormones, major endocrine glands (pituitary, thyroid, adrenal, pancreas), and disorders like diabetes, goitre, and dwarfism. This is a high-yield chapter for both Board exams and competitive exams like NEET — typically contributing 8-10 marks to the Class 10 Science paper.

This chapter explains why organisms reproduce and how variation arises, covering asexual modes of reproduction, sexual reproduction in flowering plants, the human male and female reproductive systems and the menstrual cycle, fertilisation, pregnancy and birth, reproductive health, contraception and family planning, and sexually transmitted diseases.

This chapter explains how traits and characteristics are passed reliably from parents to offspring. We study how variation accumulates during reproduction, the meaning of heredity and inherited traits, and Gregor Mendel's classic pea-plant experiments that revealed the rules of inheritance — dominant and recessive traits, the monohybrid cross (3:1) and the dihybrid cross (9:3:3:1). We then see how genes control characteristics through proteins, why each organism carries two copies of every gene on paired chromosomes, and how the sex of a human child is determined by the sex chromosomes (XX and XY). This is a high-yield, concept-and-numerical chapter for the Class 10 board exam and a foundation for NEET genetics.

This chapter studies how light behaves when it is reflected by mirrors and refracted by lenses. We revisit the laws of reflection and the images formed by plane mirrors, then study spherical mirrors (concave and convex) — their terms, ray diagrams, image formation, the New Cartesian sign convention, the mirror formula 1/v + 1/u = 1/f and magnification. We then take up refraction: bending of light, the rectangular glass slab, the laws of refraction (Snell's law), refractive index and its link to the speed of light, spherical lenses (convex and concave), the lens formula 1/v − 1/u = 1/f, magnification, and the power of a lens (dioptre). This is a formula- and diagram-heavy chapter worth strong marks in the Class 10 board exam.

This chapter explains how the human eye works as an optical instrument, its power of accommodation, and the common defects of vision (myopia, hypermetropia, presbyopia) with their correction using spherical lenses. It then applies the ideas of refraction and dispersion to natural phenomena: refraction of light through a prism, dispersion of white light and rainbow formation, atmospheric refraction (twinkling of stars, advance sunrise and delayed sunset) and scattering of light (the blue sky and the reddening of the Sun).

This chapter builds the ideas of current electricity: electric current as the rate of flow of charge (I = Q/t), electric potential difference (V = W/Q), and how they are related by Ohm's law (V = IR). It examines resistance and the factors it depends on (length, area of cross-section and material, via R = rho l/A), the equivalent resistance of resistors in series and in parallel, and the heating effect of electric current (Joule's law H = I^2 Rt) together with electric power (P = VI = I^2 R = V^2/R) and its everyday applications such as fuses and the kilowatt-hour.

This chapter explores the link between electricity and magnetism. It covers magnetic fields and field lines, the magnetic field produced by a current through a straight conductor, a circular loop and a solenoid (right-hand thumb rule, electromagnets), the force on a current-carrying conductor in a magnetic field (Fleming's left-hand rule) and its application in the electric motor, electromagnetic induction and the electric generator (Fleming's right-hand rule), and domestic electric circuits with their safety features (live, neutral and earth wires, fuses, short-circuiting and overloading).

This chapter studies how living organisms and their physical surroundings interact as an ecosystem. It covers the biotic and abiotic components of an ecosystem; producers, consumers and decomposers; food chains, trophic levels and food webs; the unidirectional flow of energy and the ten per cent law; biological magnification of harmful chemicals along food chains; and the impact of human activities on the environment - the depletion of the ozone layer by CFCs and the management of biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste.