OCR GCSE Combined Science grade boundaries 2025: every double grade

OCR GCSE Combined Science grade boundaries 2025

Combined Science is a Double Award: you sit one set of papers and receive two GCSE grades, written like 5-4. That is why the grades below run from 9-9 down to 1-1, 17 steps in all. The boundaries are from OCR's June 2025 GCSE document (version 1.0, 21 August 2025). Higher covers 9-9 to 4-3 and Foundation covers 5-5 to 1-1.

Both suites add up to 360 marks, but they get there differently. In Gateway A you sit six papers of 60 marks, two each in biology, chemistry and physics. In Twenty First Century B there are four papers: Biology, Chemistry and Physics of 95 marks each and a Combined Science paper of 75. Our OCR GCSE Combined Science guide covers the Gateway papers, and the board-wide OCR GCSE boundaries for 2025 put it beside the single sciences.

What changed from 2024

The sharpest change is on Gateway A Foundation. A 4-4 needed 194 in 2024 and 176 in 2025, a fall of 18 marks on a total of 360, and the 5-5 fell from 220 to 212. The Gateway A Higher boundaries changed far less, with 4-4 moving from 129 to 126 and 7-7 rising from 224 to 226. Twenty First Century B Foundation fell at 4-4, from 188 to 181, and its Higher tier stayed within a few marks of 2024. The 2024 numbers are from OCR's document of 13 March 2025.

Ofqual says boundaries vary from year to year to reflect the difficulty of each paper. A fall of 18 marks on a Foundation grade says that the 2025 Foundation papers were harder to score on, and a candidate with the same performance would have found the grade easier to reach.

Gateway A paper by paper, 2025

OCR also publishes notional boundaries for each paper. In a double award they run at the matching double grade only (5-5, 4-4 and so on). Each paper is out of 60.

Chemistry Paper 10 needed 50 out of 60 for a 9-9, the highest on the Higher tier, while Biology Paper 7 needed 44. Because every paper counts equally in Gateway A, a weak physics paper can be made up on the biology and chemistry papers.

Reading a double grade: two examples

• Gateway A Foundation. A candidate has 180 out of 360. The boundaries are 176 for a 4-4 and 194 for a 5-4, so the result is 4-4, 14 marks short of 5-4.
• Twenty First Century B Higher. A candidate has 150. The 5-5 boundary is 138 and the 6-5 boundary is 154, so the result is 5-5, 4 marks short of 6-5.

See OCR's GCSE grade guide for how component marks are added, with weighting where needed, before the total is compared with the boundaries.

Combined Science advice

• All three sciences count. Neglecting one costs marks on two papers in Gateway A and on a whole 95 mark paper in the B suite.
• Know the tier cap. Foundation ends at 5-5, and a Higher entry can fall to 4-3 and no lower.
• Use the right suite. A Higher 4-4 was 126 on A and 106 on B, a gap of 20 marks.
• Think in totals. A 360 mark total means every 10 marks is under 3 per cent, so a few extra marks in each paper add up.

Sit today's Combined Science paper

Combined Science Higher and Combined Science Foundation give a short timed paper of 8 questions across the three sciences. It is not an OCR paper, so use the percentage as a guide. A Gateway A Higher 4-4 was 35% of the total in 2025 and a 7-7 was 63%.

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UK · GCSEOCR GCSE Combined Science grade boundaries 2026OCR GCSE Combined Science June 2026 boundaries for Gateway A and Twenty First Century B, every double grade, with three years compared.