Past papers

AQA A-level Physics (7408)

Read off AQA’s 7408 specification, version 1.3 dated 1 June 2017, at printed pages 8 to 10, 71, 72 and 73, and confirmed against the June 2025 and June 2019 question papers, which agree with it on the durations, the marks and the section structure. Every claim on this page is made against that named version. If AQA publish a revision it supersedes this page until the page has been re-checked against it, so always confirm the year you are sitting against AQA’s own site.

The A-level is three written papers of two hours each. Papers 1 and 2 are 85 marks and carry 34 per cent apiece. Paper 3 is 80 marks and the remaining 32 per cent, split into a compulsory Section A of 45 marks on practical skills and data analysis and a Section B of 35 marks on one optional topic. The scaled marks add to 250: 85, 85, 45, and one option’s 35.

25 of the 85 marks on each of Papers 1 and 2 are multiple choice. AQA gives both papers as “60 marks of short and long answer questions and 25 multiple choice questions on content.” On the June 2025 and June 2019 Paper 1 those 25 sat in a Section B of their own at the back, questions 09 to 33, each with four responses. We did not see Paper 2’s front matter, so we do not claim the same two-section labelling for it; the mark count is the sourced part.

Your option is fixed at entry, by entry code, not chosen in the exam hall. AQA’s wording for Section B is “Students enter for one of sections 9, 10, 11, 12 or 13”, and the codes are 7408A for Astrophysics, 7408B for Medical physics, 7408C for Engineering physics, 7408D for Turning points in physics and 7408E for Electronics. Your centre’s entry decides which Section B booklet lands on your desk.

Where to get them

AQA publishes its own past papers and mark schemes on the A-level Physics (7408) assessment resources page. A series appears there about a year after it was sat, and stays up for roughly three years; your teacher can reach the most recent ones sooner through Centre Services. Always take a paper from AQA rather than from a revision site, so that you get the right version with its insert and its mark scheme.

How the qualification is broken down

Where the mapping is rough

This is the cleanest of the four mappings, because the library’s units were drawn on AQA’s sections in the first place. Papers 1 and 2 share no unit at all. The two “part of the unit” markers are honest rather than awkward: Materials keeps fluids and viscosity, and Waves keeps lenses, for boards that set them.

The point-by-point view is the AQA specification map.

Pearson Edexcel A-level Physics (9PH0)

All 191 rows have been checked against Pearson’s own PDF of the 9PH0 specification, Issue 3 dated November 2018, statement by statement: every number matches the specification’s own numbering and every label matches what that statement says. Twenty-five rows had been captured mid-sentence and were completed from the document at the same time. The paper structure, timings and marks below were read from the same PDF. Issue 3, dated November 2018, is the oldest of the four source documents this page is built on; every claim here is made against that issue, and a later issue would supersede it, so always confirm the year you are sitting against Pearson’s own site.

Three externally examined written papers, plus a practical endorsement that is reported separately. Papers 1 and 2 are 1 hour 45 minutes and 90 marks each, 30 per cent apiece. Paper 3 is 2 hours 30 minutes and 120 marks, the remaining 40 per cent, and it can draw on anything. No other board of the four has a single component worth that much. All three examined papers are sat in May or June of a single year.

Across the three papers, at least 40 per cent of the marks target mathematics at Level 2 or above. The question types can include multiple choice, short open, open response, calculation and extended writing, without a fixed block for any of them. Paper 3 can combine two or more topics and asks about the conceptual and theoretical understanding of experimental methods, which is what gives it the highest AO3 share of any single paper on any of the four boards.

Two routes lead to the same three papers. This site teaches the concept-led route, and every Edexcel tag in the library is a concept-led statement number. A Salters Horners centre sits the same papers, for the same durations and the same marks, with different contexts on the front of the questions. Two of those contexts, Technology in Space and Digging up the Past, are split across Papers 1 and 2 by named statement number, so a Salters Horners student cannot revise either one for a single paper.

Where to get them

Pearson publishes its own past papers and mark schemes on the Edexcel AS and A level Physics (2015) course materials page. Take a paper from Pearson rather than from a revision site, so that you get the right version with its mark scheme.

How the qualification is broken down

Where the mapping is rough

Circular motion is Edexcel’s Paper 1, through topic 6 Further Mechanics, while simple harmonic motion is Paper 2. Edexcel cuts the Periodic motion unit in half, which is why that unit shows as part of Paper 2 and one of its lessons genuinely belongs to Paper 1.

One lesson in the Gravitational fields unit, The field concept, carries statement 108, which is an electric-field statement. That may be a deliberate general-field tag or it may be a mis-tag on our side; it is flagged rather than resolved.

A few single lessons reach further than the rows show and are left out of them: two Nuclear physics lessons and two Turning points lessons sit inside Paper 1’s topic 8, and single lessons from Particles, Electric fields and Medical physics land in Paper 2. One lesson in Measurements reaches Paper 2 through the electronvolt, which is left out because Measurements is already on both papers through Topic 1.

The point-by-point view is the Edexcel specification map.

OCR A-level Physics A (H556)

Read off OCR’s specification for A Level Physics A (H556), version 3.0, dated March 2026, the newest of the four source documents this page is built on; the check was made on 3 August 2026. The assessment table in that document carries no printed page number, so the attribution is to the named version rather than to a page. If OCR publish a revision it supersedes this page until the page has been re-checked against it, so always confirm the year you are sitting against OCR’s own site.

Three written components and a practical endorsement, and you must complete all four. Components 01 and 02 are 2 hours 15 minutes and 100 marks each, 37 per cent apiece. Component 03 is 1 hour 30 minutes and 70 marks, the remaining 26 per cent, and is synoptic across all six modules. The three written components are taken in the same series at the end of the course, and there is one series a year, in May and June.

Components 01 and 02 open with Section A, 15 marks of multiple-choice questions, then Section B, 85 marks of short-answer questions including structured problems, calculations and practical work, plus extended responses. You answer all questions. OCR is the only one of the four boards that puts multiple choice in a fixed block at the front of a paper.

Modules 1 and 2, practical skills and the foundations of physics, are examined on both 01 and 02. That is why Measurements appears under both components below, and it is not a duplication. At least 40 per cent of the marks across the written examinations assess mathematics at Level 2 or above in a physics context. Calculators are permitted for components 01 to 03, subject to the current JCQ rules.

Where to get them

OCR publishes its own past papers and mark schemes on the AS and A Level Physics A (H156, H556) assessment page. Take a paper from OCR rather than from a revision site, so that you get the right version with its mark scheme.

How the qualification is broken down

Where the mapping is rough

Five of the library’s units carry AQA option names, and for OCR that content is compulsory rather than optional. Medical physics is module 6, and three Turning points lessons are H556/02 material. If a unit name looks like somebody else’s option, check the specification map before deciding it is not for you.

Some single lessons cross the other way and are left out of the rows above: Diffraction gratings and two Quantum phenomena lessons reach 01 through module 5’s stellar spectra, Scalars and vectors reaches 02 through module 2, and The field concept reaches 02 through module 6. Listing Waves or Mechanics against 01 or 02 on the strength of one lesson would mislead more than it helps.

The point-by-point view is the OCR A specification map.

Cambridge International AS and A Level Physics (9702)

Read off the Cambridge 9702 syllabuses for 2025 to 2027 and for 2028 to 2030, at printed pages 11, 12, 15, 40, 42, 43, 49 and 50. We compared the assessment pages of the two editions line by line: every paper name, duration, mark total, percentage weighting, question count and mark allocation is identical between them. One table serves both cohorts.

Five papers, and the AS Level is a real qualification inside the A Level rather than a stage of it. Papers 1, 2 and 3 are the AS papers and also count towards the A Level; Papers 4 and 5 are A Level only. Every paper is externally assessed. There is no coursework and no teacher-assessed component anywhere in 9702: Cambridge examines practical skills by examination, in Papers 3 and 5.

Weightings are given twice below because Cambridge gives them twice, once as a share of the AS Level and once as a share of the A Level. Three routes are allowed: the AS Level on its own, the A Level staged over two years with Papers 1 to 3 in the first year and Papers 4 and 5 in the second, or all five papers in one series. An AS route is graded a to e, an A Level route A* to E.

There are no optional topics. Medical physics, topic 24, and Astronomy and cosmology, topic 25, are compulsory Paper 4 content, which is the opposite of AQA. Topics 1 to 11 are the AS content and are assumed knowledge for the A Level components; topics 12 to 25 are the additional A Level content.

Data and formulas are printed as page 2 in Papers 1 and 2, and as pages 2 and 3 in Paper 4. Papers 3 and 5 get no data or formulas page, so if you are sitting Paper 5 you have no printed constants. Neither edition states which calculator is permitted or prints a materials list, and we have not gone looking elsewhere for one.

Where to get them

Cambridge International publishes its own past papers and mark schemes on the Cambridge International AS and A Level Physics (9702) past papers page. Take a paper from Cambridge rather than from a revision site, so that you get the right version with its mark scheme.

How the qualification is broken down

Where the mapping is rough

Five of the library’s units carry AQA option names, and Cambridge has no options at all. Astrophysics and Medical physics are compulsory Paper 4 content for you, not a choice, and two Turning points lessons and one Engineering physics lesson are compulsory Paper 4 material under Cambridge’s own topic names. If a unit name looks like somebody else’s option, check the specification map before deciding it is not for you.

One Astrophysics lesson, the Doppler effect and Hubble’s law, is partly AS content, because Cambridge sets the Doppler effect for sound waves at 7.3. The unit as a whole is not AS content, so Astrophysics is not listed against Papers 1 and 2. One tag putting Electronics on Paper 4 has not been checked, so it is left out rather than shown, and one Measurements lesson reaches Paper 4 through the mole alone.

The point-by-point view is the CIE specification map.