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

OCR A-level Physics grade boundaries 2025

The table copies OCR's June 2025 A Level boundaries document (version 1.0, 14 August 2025). OCR has two Physics A-levels with their own papers, so there are two columns. A boundary is the lowest total that earns the grade, and the total is out of 270 in both.

Our OCR A-level Physics guide covers Physics A, and the board-wide A-level boundaries for 2025 show Physics beside the other subjects. The practical endorsement is a separate pass and does not add to these totals.

Physics A paper by paper, 2025

Physics A has Paper 1 (Modelling physics, 100 marks), Paper 2 (Exploring physics, 100 marks) and Paper 3 (Unified physics, 70 marks). Physics B has Fundamentals of physics (110 marks), Scientific literacy in physics (100) and Practical skills in physics (60). OCR's notional boundaries for each paper show where the marks were hard.

In Physics A the second paper had the highest boundaries, with 84 for an A* against 75 on Paper 1. The Unified paper needed 47 out of 70, which is 67%. In Physics B, the Scientific literacy paper had the lowest A* share, at 72 out of 100, or 72%. These figures are for information because the grade is decided on the total.

How 2025 compares with 2024

Physics A hardly moved at the top (A* from 207 to 206), but it rose through the middle and bottom: the A by 4, the C by 6 and the E by 10. The 2024 numbers are from OCR's document of 15 August 2024. Physics B rose at the top, with A* going from 194 to 203 and A from 158 to 174, but its E fell from 64 to 59.

Ofqual's explanation is that boundaries vary from year to year to reflect the difficulty of each paper. The pattern for Physics A, a flat A* and a rising E, means the extremes behaved differently from the middle of the range.

AS Physics 2025

AS Physics A (H156) is out of 140 and AS Physics B (H157) is also out of 140. There is no A* at AS. Physics A's A fell from 101 to 93 in 2025, while the Physics B AS boundaries are the same as in 2024.

Marks to grade: two Physics examples

• Physics A. A candidate scores 68 on Paper 1, 75 on Paper 2 and 44 on Paper 3, so 187 out of 270. The 2025 boundaries are 206 for an A*, 179 for an A and 151 for a B. 187 is above 179 and below 206, so the grade is an A, 19 marks short of an A*. At the 2024 boundaries the A was 175, so the same total was an A with 12 marks to spare, against 8 now.
• Physics B. 80 on the first paper (out of 110), 70 on the second (out of 100) and 45 on the third (out of 60) is 195 out of 270. The A line is 174 and the A* line is 203, so this is an A, 8 marks short of an A*.

OCR's How do we calculate your A Level grade? describes the method: add the component marks, apply weighting where needed, and compare the total with the boundaries.

Physics advice from the 2025 numbers

• The long papers decide the grade. In Physics A, Papers 1 and 2 are 200 of the 270 marks.
• Do not skip the Unified paper. It is 70 marks, 26 per cent of the grade, and it mixes the whole course.
• Write units and equations. A data booklet gives the equations in Physics A, but you still need to choose and apply them.
• Use the right course. An A* was 206 on A and 203 on B, so check your H code.

Practise with today's A-level Physics paper

The daily papers on Physics Advanced 1 and Physics Advanced 2 give a short timed paper of 8 questions. They are not OCR papers, so they are a pointer. A score near 66% was the 2025 Physics A grade A line, and 76% was the A*.

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