OCR A-level Biology grade boundaries 2025: Biology A and B

OCR A-level Biology grade boundaries 2025

The table is copied from OCR's June 2025 A Level boundaries document (version 1.0, published 14 August 2025). OCR has two Biology A-levels, each out of 270 and each with its own column. The boundary is the lowest total that earns the grade.

Biology A is the course in our OCR A-level Biology guide. The board-wide boundaries for 2025 list the other OCR A-levels.

Biology A: the lowest A* share of the three sciences

A Biology A candidate needed 69% of the marks for an A* in 2025, against 90% in Chemistry A and 76% in Physics A. The A line was 60%, and the E line 25%. A lower share does not make the grade easier. OCR sets each course's lines from that course's own papers, so the shares are not comparable across subjects.

Biology A paper by paper, 2025

In Biology A, Paper 1 (Biological processes) and Paper 2 (Biological diversity) both needed 69 out of 100 for an A*, and the Unified paper needed 49 out of 70. Biology B has Fundamentals of biology (110 marks), Scientific literacy in biology (100) and Practical skills in biology (60). Its Practical skills paper had a notional A* of 40, 67%. OCR's paper boundaries are for information, since the grade comes from the total.

How 2025 compares with 2024

Biology A was almost motionless: A* at 187 in both years, and every other grade up by a single mark. The 2024 figures are in OCR's document of 15 August 2024. Biology B rose at every grade. Its A* went from 171 to 186, its C from 111 to 129 and its E from 72 to 91, a rise of 19 marks at the bottom of the scale.

Ofqual explains that boundaries vary from year to year to reflect the difficulty of each paper. A rise of 15 to 20 marks across the grades on Biology B says the 2025 papers were easier to score on than those of 2024.

AS Biology 2025

AS Biology A (H020) fell in 2025, with the A line going from 92 to 87. AS Biology B (H022) is shown at 78 for an A, which is the same figure as in 2024. Neither course has an A*.

Marks to grade: two Biology examples

• Biology A. A candidate scores 66 on Paper 1, 64 on Paper 2 and 43 on Paper 3, so 173 out of 270. The 2025 boundaries are 187 for an A*, 161 for an A and 137 for a B. 173 is above 161 and below 187, so it is an A, 14 marks short of an A*.
• Biology B. 75 on Fundamentals (out of 110), 60 on Scientific literacy (out of 100) and 38 on Practical skills (out of 60) make 173. The A line was 167 and the A* line 186, so the grade is an A, 13 marks short of an A*. In 2024 the A* line was 171, so the same total would have been an A* with 2 marks to spare.

OCR's How do we calculate your A Level grade? sets out the method.

Biology advice from the 2025 numbers

• Practise extended answers. Each Biology A paper has extended response questions, and a clear structure earns the level marks.
• Revise the whole course for Paper 3. Unified biology is 70 marks, 26 per cent of the grade, and draws on all six modules.
• Do not lean on last year. Biology B moved by about 15 marks at A* in a year.
• Keep up the practicals. The practical endorsement is a separate pass and does not add marks, but the practical skills are tested in the papers.

Practise with today's A-level Biology paper

Biology Advanced 1 and Biology Advanced 2 give a short timed paper of 8 questions. They are not OCR papers, so use the percentage as a pointer. In 2025 the Biology A A line was 60% and the B line 51%.

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