Science practice questions
5 topics and 100 questions, each with a worked explanation. Tap an answer to check it, or open “Show answer & explanation”.
Most state grammar-school 11+ papers test English, maths and reasoning. Some independent schools and scholarship papers also ask science questions, and these follow the National Curriculum for primary school. This section covers the Year 5 topics. Check with the school which subjects its entrance papers include.
Every question has one correct answer and an explanation that says why. Read the explanation even when you get the answer right, because the reasoning is what helps with questions you have not seen before.
Life Cycles & Reproduction
Compare the life cycles of a mammal, an amphibian, an insect and a bird, and learn how plants and animals reproduce.
How to approach this
A life cycle is the series of changes a living thing goes through from the start of its life to the point where it can make new life. The four groups you need to compare are mammals, amphibians, insects and birds.
Mammals are born alive and feed on their mother's milk. Birds hatch from eggs with hard shells. Amphibians such as frogs lay jelly-covered eggs in water, and the young (tadpoles) live in water before changing into adults that can live on land. Many insects, such as butterflies, go through four stages: egg, larva (caterpillar), pupa (chrysalis) and adult.
Plants can reproduce in two ways. Sexual reproduction uses pollen and seeds. Asexual reproduction makes a new plant from a part of the parent, such as a runner, bulb, tuber or cutting, and the new plant is a copy of the parent.
Which way do strawberry plants make new plants using runners?
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Correct answer: C. Asexual reproduction
Runners are stems that grow along the ground and make new plants without seeds. This is asexual reproduction.
What is the correct order for the life cycle of a frog?
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Correct answer: D. Spawn, tadpole, froglet, adult frog
Frogs lay spawn (eggs in jelly). These hatch into tadpoles, which grow legs and become froglets, then adult frogs.
A hen's egg hatches into a chick. Which group of animals does a hen belong to?
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Correct answer: A. Birds
Hens are birds. Birds hatch from eggs.
What happens after a flower has been pollinated?
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Correct answer: A. Seeds begin to form
After pollination and fertilisation the flower makes seeds, usually inside a fruit.
What is the pupa stage of a butterfly also called?
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Correct answer: B. A chrysalis
The pupa of a butterfly is called a chrysalis. Inside it the caterpillar's body changes into an adult butterfly.
What is the correct order for the life cycle of a butterfly?
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Correct answer: B. Egg, caterpillar, pupa, adult butterfly
A butterfly begins as an egg. The caterpillar hatches and grows, then forms a pupa (chrysalis), inside which it changes into an adult.
Which of these animals is born alive rather than hatching from an egg?
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Correct answer: B. A dog
Dogs are mammals, which give birth to live young. The others all start life as eggs.
What is reproduction?
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Correct answer: A. Making new living things of the same kind
Reproduction is the process by which living things make new living things of their own kind.
A new plant grown from a cutting is...
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Correct answer: D. A copy of the parent plant
Cuttings are parts of the parent, so the new plant is an exact copy of it.
What is the name for the young of a butterfly that hatches from the egg?
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Correct answer: A. A caterpillar
The young stage of a butterfly is the caterpillar, which eats a lot and grows.
What is pollination?
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Correct answer: C. The transfer of pollen from one flower to another
Pollination is the movement of pollen, often by insects or the wind, to another flower so that seeds can form.
Where do frogs lay their eggs?
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Correct answer: C. In water
Frogs lay their spawn in water, where the tadpoles then live.
Which animals lay eggs with hard shells?
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Correct answer: B. Birds
Birds lay hard-shelled eggs. Amphibians lay soft, jelly-covered eggs.
Which group of animals feeds its young on milk?
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Correct answer: A. Mammals
Mammals are the group in which mothers feed their young on milk.
Which is NOT a stage in the life cycle of a butterfly?
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Correct answer: A. Tadpole
Tadpoles are young frogs. Butterflies go through egg, caterpillar, pupa and adult.
Which animal group goes through a pupa stage?
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Correct answer: D. Insects
Many insects, such as butterflies, have a pupa stage in which the body changes.
Which of these is a way a plant can reproduce without seeds?
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Correct answer: D. Growing from a bulb
Bulbs, tubers, runners and cuttings all grow new plants from part of the parent.
Which animal grows inside its mother for the longest time before being born?
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Correct answer: C. An elephant
An elephant's pregnancy lasts about 22 months, much longer than a human's.
About how long does a human baby grow inside its mother before being born?
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Correct answer: B. About 9 months
A human pregnancy lasts about nine months.
What is a tadpole?
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Correct answer: A. The young stage of a frog
A tadpole is a young frog that lives in water and breathes with gills.
Materials: Dissolving, Separating & Changes
Properties of materials, solutions, separating mixtures by filtering, sieving and evaporating, and reversible and irreversible changes.
How to approach this
Materials are chosen for a job because of their properties: how hard they are, whether they let light through (transparent), whether they carry heat or electricity (conductors) or stop it (insulators), whether they dissolve in water (soluble) and whether a magnet picks them up.
When a solid dissolves in a liquid, it spreads out into tiny pieces that cannot be seen and a solution is formed. You can get the dissolved solid back by letting the liquid evaporate. Solids that do not dissolve are insoluble and can be separated from a liquid by filtering. Solids of different sizes can be separated with a sieve.
Some changes are reversible: melting, freezing, dissolving and evaporating. Others make new materials and cannot easily be reversed: burning, baking, rusting and mixing vinegar with bicarbonate of soda.
Which of these is a reversible change?
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Correct answer: B. Melting chocolate
Melted chocolate can be cooled and set again. The others make new materials.
Which method separates sand from water?
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Correct answer: B. Filtering
A filter holds back the sand while the water passes through.
Which of these is a property of a material?
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Correct answer: A. It is hard
Hardness is a property that can be tested. The others describe cost, colour in a shop or place.
What is a solution?
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Correct answer: C. A liquid with a solid dissolved in it
A solution is made when a solid dissolves completely in a liquid.
What happens when vinegar is added to bicarbonate of soda?
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Correct answer: C. It fizzes and a gas is made
The fizzing shows that a new material, a gas, is being made. This is an irreversible change.
What happens when sugar dissolves in water?
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Correct answer: B. It spreads out into the water and forms a solution
Dissolving means the sugar breaks into tiny pieces that mix with the water. The result is called a solution.
Which material is the best electrical conductor?
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Correct answer: C. Copper
Metals such as copper conduct electricity well, which is why wires are made of copper.
Why is a jacket made from wool or fleece good for keeping warm?
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Correct answer: D. These materials trap air and are good insulators
Trapped air and poor heat conduction keep body heat in.
Which separating method works best for tea leaves in a pot of tea?
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Correct answer: D. Filtering
A tea strainer is a filter that holds back the leaves while the tea passes through.
Which of these will a magnet pick up?
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Correct answer: A. A steel paper clip
Steel contains iron, which is magnetic. Plastic, glass and wood are not.
Salt is added to water and stirred until it disappears. What is the water now called?
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Correct answer: C. Salty water, a solution
The dissolved salt is still there, even though we cannot see it. You could get it back by evaporating the water.
Which method separates pebbles from sand?
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Correct answer: A. Sieving
Sand passes through the holes in a sieve, but the pebbles are too big.
Which of these is insoluble in water?
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Correct answer: C. Sand
Sand does not dissolve in water. Sugar, salt and instant coffee all do.
How can you get salt back from salty water?
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Correct answer: D. Let the water evaporate
Evaporation removes the water and leaves the salt behind.
A material that lets electricity pass through it is called...
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Correct answer: D. A conductor
Metals are good electrical conductors. Insulators, such as plastic, do not let electricity pass.
When ice melts and then freezes again, this is an example of...
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Correct answer: D. A reversible change
Melting and freezing change the state of water but it is still water, and can be changed back.
Which of these is an irreversible change?
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Correct answer: A. Baking a cake
Baking changes the ingredients into something new that cannot be changed back.
A material that dissolves in water is...
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Correct answer: D. Soluble
Soluble materials dissolve. Insoluble materials do not.
What is a mixture?
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Correct answer: A. Two or more materials mixed together but not joined to make something new
In a mixture the materials are still the same materials and can often be separated again.
Why do saucepan handles often have plastic or wood on them?
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Correct answer: A. These materials are poor conductors of heat
Plastic and wood are thermal insulators, so the handle does not get hot.
Earth & Space
The Sun, Earth and Moon, the solar system, day and night, and how the Earth and Moon move.
How to approach this
The Sun is a star at the centre of our solar system. Eight planets orbit it: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. A moon is a body that orbits a planet. The Earth has one Moon.
The Sun, Earth and Moon are all roughly spherical. The Earth spins on its axis once in about 24 hours. This spin causes day and night: the half of the Earth facing the Sun has daytime and the other half has night. It also explains why the Sun appears to move across the sky, rising in the east and setting in the west.
The Earth takes about 365 days to travel once around the Sun, and the Moon takes about 28 days to travel once around the Earth. Ideas about the solar system have changed over time: people once thought the Sun went around the Earth.
In the UK, where is the Sun in the sky at midday?
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Correct answer: D. In the south, high up
In the northern hemisphere the Sun is highest in the south at midday.
How long does the Earth take to spin round once?
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Correct answer: A. About 24 hours
One spin takes about 24 hours, which makes one day.
Which of these gives out its own light?
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Correct answer: A. The Sun
The Sun is a star and makes its own light. We see the Moon because it reflects sunlight.
What causes day and night?
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Correct answer: A. The Earth spinning on its axis
As the Earth spins, different places turn towards or away from the Sun.
Which is the largest planet in the solar system?
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Correct answer: C. Jupiter
Jupiter is by far the biggest planet.
How long does the Moon take to go around the Earth once?
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Correct answer: A. About 28 days
The Moon orbits the Earth about once a month.
Which planet is closest to the Sun?
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Correct answer: D. Mercury
Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun.
When it is daytime in the UK, what is it like on the opposite side of the Earth?
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Correct answer: A. Night-time
Half of the Earth faces the Sun and has day, while the other half is in shadow and has night.
Which planet do we live on?
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Correct answer: C. Earth
We live on the third planet from the Sun, Earth.
Why can we see the Moon?
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Correct answer: C. It reflects light from the Sun
The Moon is not a light source. It reflects the Sun's light.
What is a moon?
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Correct answer: B. A body that orbits a planet
A moon is a natural object that orbits a planet.
In the UK, in which direction does the Sun appear to rise?
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Correct answer: B. East
The Sun appears to rise in the east and set in the west.
Why does the Sun appear to move across the sky?
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Correct answer: C. The Earth is spinning
The Sun only seems to move. It is the Earth's spin that carries us round.
Pluto was reclassified in 2006. What is it now called?
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Correct answer: C. A dwarf planet
Pluto is now classed as a dwarf planet, so there are eight planets.
What is at the centre of our solar system?
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Correct answer: B. The Sun
The Sun is the star at the centre. All the planets orbit around it.
How many planets are in our solar system?
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Correct answer: D. Eight
There are eight planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.
How long does the Earth take to go around the Sun once?
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Correct answer: D. About 365 days
One orbit takes about 365 days, which is a year.
Which scientist's idea was that the Earth orbits the Sun?
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Correct answer: A. Copernicus
Copernicus suggested the Sun is at the centre. Ptolemy had an earlier model with the Earth at the centre.
Which of these is the correct order, starting nearest to the Sun?
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Correct answer: B. Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars
The order of the inner planets from the Sun is Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars.
What shape are the Sun, Earth and Moon?
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Correct answer: D. Roughly spherical
They are all approximately spherical, like balls.
Forces & Machines
Gravity, air and water resistance, friction, and how levers, pulleys and gears make jobs easier.
How to approach this
A force is a push or a pull. Gravity is the force that pulls objects towards the Earth, so unsupported objects fall. Air resistance and water resistance are forces that push against things moving through air or water and slow them down. Friction is a force between two surfaces that rub together. It slows or stops moving things, and it can make heat.
A parachute has a large surface so it catches a lot of air, which gives large air resistance and a slow fall. Streamlined shapes reduce air and water resistance.
Levers, pulleys and gears are simple machines. They let a smaller force have a bigger effect. A long spanner makes it easier to turn a nut, a pulley helps lift heavy loads and gears change the speed or direction of turning.
What does a pulley do?
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Correct answer: C. Makes lifting a load easier
A pulley changes the direction of the force and can make it easier to lift a load.
What do gears do?
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Correct answer: A. Change the speed or direction of turning
Gears with teeth that mesh together pass on and change turning movement.
A sycamore seed spins as it falls. This helps the seed because...
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Correct answer: D. Air resistance slows its fall so it travels further
The spinning wing catches the air, so the seed stays up longer and is carried away from the tree.
What force pulls objects towards the Earth?
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Correct answer: A. Gravity
Gravity pulls everything towards the centre of the Earth.
Which is the best way to reduce friction between two moving parts of a machine?
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Correct answer: B. Add oil
Oil makes surfaces slippery, so they rub less.
What is the force that slows a bicycle when the brakes are applied?
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Correct answer: D. Friction
The brake pads rub on the wheel, and the friction slows the bicycle.
Why does a parachute make a person fall slowly?
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Correct answer: B. It has large air resistance
The large canopy catches a lot of air, so air resistance pushes up against the fall.
What force acts on a boat moving through water?
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Correct answer: B. Water resistance
Water pushes against anything that moves through it. This is water resistance.
Which type of force acts without touching?
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Correct answer: D. Gravity
Gravity pulls from a distance. Friction and pushing need contact.
A feather falls more slowly than a stone because...
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Correct answer: D. Air resistance affects the feather more
The feather's larger surface compared with its weight means air resistance holds it back.
Which of these is a lever?
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Correct answer: A. A seesaw
A seesaw is a lever that pivots around a point in the middle.
What happens to the speed of a moving object if friction acts on it?
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Correct answer: A. It slows down
Friction works against movement, so it slows a moving object.
What is a force?
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Correct answer: D. A push or a pull
Forces are pushes or pulls. They can start things moving, stop them, or change their direction.
Which scientist is linked to the idea of gravity, after an apple fell from a tree?
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Correct answer: D. Isaac Newton
Isaac Newton developed the theory of gravitation. Galileo also studied falling objects.
What does a lever help you to do?
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Correct answer: D. Move a load using less effort
A lever lets a small force have a greater effect.
Which surface would give the most friction?
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Correct answer: B. A rough carpet
Rough surfaces grip more, so they cause more friction.
Which will fall fastest in air?
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Correct answer: B. A solid stone
A stone is heavy for its size and has little air resistance, so it falls quickly.
A long-handled spanner makes it easier to undo a nut because...
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Correct answer: C. It acts as a lever
The longer the handle, the greater the turning effect from the same push.
When you rub your hands together they get warm. Which force causes this?
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Correct answer: B. Friction
Friction between your hands changes movement into heat.
Which shape would move through water most easily?
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Correct answer: B. A streamlined shape
Streamlined shapes have smooth curves that reduce water resistance.
Working Scientifically
Plan fair tests, choose what to change, measure and keep the same, read tables and graphs, and draw conclusions from results.
How to approach this
Scientists find answers by testing ideas. In a fair test you change one thing (the independent variable), measure what happens (the dependent variable) and keep everything else the same (the control variables). If more than one thing changes, you cannot tell which one caused the result.
Take accurate measurements with the right equipment and repeat them. Repeating shows whether results are reliable, helps you spot mistakes and lets you find an average. Record results in tables, then show them in bar charts or line graphs so that patterns are easy to see.
A good conclusion answers the question using the evidence. It describes the pattern in the results and explains it, and it does not claim more than the results can show.
What does "reliable" mean when we talk about results?
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Correct answer: A. You get similar results when you repeat the test
Reliable results can be trusted because repeats give similar values.
What should a good conclusion do?
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Correct answer: D. Answer the question using the evidence
A conclusion links the results to the original question.
A bar chart shows the time taken for ice cubes to melt wrapped in different materials. The shortest bar is for foil. What does this tell us?
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Correct answer: B. Ice melted fastest with foil
A shorter time means the ice melted more quickly.
Why do scientists repeat their measurements?
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Correct answer: C. To check results are reliable and spot mistakes
Repeating gives more trustworthy results, and lets you find an average.
A table shows that sugar dissolves faster as the water gets warmer. What is the conclusion?
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Correct answer: B. Warmer water dissolves sugar faster
The pattern in the results shows the more the temperature rises, the less time it takes to dissolve.
A scientist measures the same thing five times and gets 14 cm every time. What does this suggest?
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Correct answer: A. The measurement is reliable
Getting the same result each time suggests that the measurement can be trusted.
Pip tests whether the height of a ramp changes how far a car rolls. What should Pip measure?
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Correct answer: D. How far the car rolls
The distance rolled is the result, so it is what you measure.
What is the variable you measure called?
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Correct answer: B. The dependent variable
The dependent variable depends on what you change, and it is what you measure.
Why do scientists use standard units such as centimetres and seconds?
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Correct answer: A. So that everyone can compare results
Standard units mean measurements mean the same to everyone.
Which question can be answered with a fair test?
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Correct answer: A. Does the length of a string change how fast a pendulum swings?
A fair test needs something you can change and measure.
Pip tests whether the height of a ramp changes how far a car rolls. What should Pip keep the same?
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Correct answer: B. The car and the surface it rolls on
The ramp height is what is changed and the distance is what is measured. Everything else should stay the same.
Which tool would you use to measure 250 ml of water accurately?
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Correct answer: C. A measuring cylinder
A measuring cylinder measures the volume of liquid.
What is the variable you change in an experiment called?
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Correct answer: D. The independent variable
The independent variable is the one you choose to change.
In a fair test, how many things do you change at a time?
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Correct answer: C. One
If only one thing changes, any difference in the result must be caused by it.
Which tool measures temperature?
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Correct answer: C. A thermometer
A thermometer is used to measure temperature in degrees Celsius.
What is a prediction?
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Correct answer: A. What you think will happen, using what you know
A prediction is a statement of what you expect to happen before the test.
Which is the best way to show how a plant's height changes over six weeks?
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Correct answer: A. A line graph
Line graphs show how something changes over time.
A student tests two plants. One is in sun with lots of water, the other in shade with little water. Why is this not a fair test?
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Correct answer: B. Two things were changed
Light and water both changed, so you cannot tell which caused any difference.
A result is much higher than the others in a repeated test. What should you do?
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Correct answer: B. Check for a mistake and repeat the test
A result that does not fit may be due to a mistake, so check and repeat it.
Which of these is a control variable when testing how much water different paper towels absorb?
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Correct answer: D. The size of each paper towel
The size of each paper towel must stay the same. The brand is what you change.