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Syllabus · ICSE · CBSE · SSLC

What your board asks a student to write, and when it explains how.

Between Class 6 and Class 10, a student is asked to produce well over a hundred chemical formulas and balanced equations. Every board sets them before its own textbook teaches how one is written. These three pages list exactly what each board asks for, chapter by chapter, so you can see the gap rather than take our word for it.

Choose your board

  • ICSE

    Classes 6 to 9

    Formulas listed
    By theme
    Equations listed
    By theme

    A student writes symbols in Class 6 and balances equations in Class 8, three years and one year respectively before Class 9 explains valency and how a formula is put together.

  • CBSE

    Classes 7 to 10

    Formulas listed
    79
    Equations listed
    70

    Formulas and equations both appear from Class 7. Writing a formula is explained in Class 9 and balancing in Class 10.

  • SSLC

    Classes 8 to 10

    Formulas listed
    52
    Equations listed
    51

    The order is inverted. Balancing an equation is explained in Class 8, before either a chemical formula or a chemical equation has been explained.

Before any of it, the valencies

Every formula on these three pages is built from the valency of an element and the valency of a radical. Those are listed, with the rule that turns two of them into a formula, on valency and radicals — which is the page to send a student to first.

Against your syllabus

Every board asks for it before it teaches it.

The Playbook does not follow a board's chapter order, and it is not a substitute for the textbook. It teaches the notation each board assumes a student already has — which, as each board's own textbook shows, is assumed rather earlier than it is explained.

Chemistry across the three boards: when it starts, how much notation a student has to produce, and when the board's own textbook explains how. Compiled from the ICSE, CBSE and SSLC textbooks.
Board Chemistry starts Formulas to write Equations to write When writing them is taught
ICSE Indian Certificate of Secondary Education Class 6 Introduced from Class 8 Word equations from Class 7 Symbol, valency, formula of radicals and balancing — Class 9
CBSE Central Board of Secondary Education Class 7 About 75 across Classes 7 to 10 About 70 across Classes 7 to 10 Writing a formula — Class 9. Writing and balancing an equation — Class 10.
SSLC Secondary School Leaving Certificate, Kerala Class 8 About 50 across Classes 8 to 10 About 50 across Classes 8 to 10 Writing a formula — Class 9.

Notes on the textbooks, from reading them

These are the author's own notes, made while mapping the book against each board. They are observations about a textbook, not a complaint about a board — and they are the clearest evidence that the gap above is real.

Specific points where a board's textbook asks for notation it has not yet taught, or names a compound incorrectly.
Board Where The note
CBSE Class 7, Chapter VI — Physical and Chemical Changes Two of the chemical equations given in the chapter are not balanced.
CBSE Class 7, Chapter VI Fe2O3 is named Iron Oxide. The correct name is Iron(III) Oxide, or Ferric Oxide — Iron Oxide is Fe3O4.
CBSE Class 9, Chapter III — Atoms and Molecules An exercise asks for the formula of “Copper Nitrate”. Writing it requires a valency, so Copper(II) Nitrate — or Cupric Nitrate — would be answerable and Copper Nitrate is not.
CBSE Class 10, Chapter III — Metals and Non-metals The names of Cu2O and Cu2S are not given. They are Copper(I) Oxide and Copper(I) Sulphide — cuprous oxide and cuprous sulphide.
SSLC Class 8, Part I, Chapter IV — Basic Constituents of Matter Balancing of chemical equations is explained without a chemical formula or a chemical equation having been explained first.
SSLC Class 9 The variable valency of copper and iron is not explained, so the names of CuSO4, Cu(NO3)2, FeSO4 and FeCl2 cannot be worked out from what has been taught.

Questions

Which boards does this cover?
ICSE, CBSE and the Kerala State SSLC syllabus, from the class chemistry is introduced in to Class 10.
Where do these lists come from?
They were compiled by Lilly Joseph, the author of The Language of Chemistry, Playbook®, from each board’s own textbooks, chapter by chapter. Equations are recorded as the textbook sets them.
Do all three boards teach formula writing before they set it?
No, and that is the point of these pages. Every one of the three sets chemical formulas, and in two cases balanced equations, before its own textbook explains how to write one.

Sample copies go out to schools that ask.

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