AQA, OCR, Pearson Edexcel and WJEC Eduqas each set a different compulsory structure for A-level Religious Studies — and the specifications diverge further on which world religions a student can actually study.
Book a Free ConsultationA-level Religious Studies is a two-year Level 3 qualification examined entirely by written papers, offered under separate Ofqual-regulated specifications by AQA (7062), OCR (H573), Pearson Edexcel (9RS0) and WJEC Eduqas (QAN 601/8700/1). A separate, Wales-only WJEC qualification shares the subject name but not the regulator. Which specification a student sits is set by their own sixth form, and it changes what is compulsory, what is chosen, and which religion can be studied.
Not sure which specification your child's sixth form has entered them for? Our expert A-level Religious Studies tutors teach to whichever board applies — AQA, OCR, Pearson Edexcel or WJEC Eduqas.
Book a Free Consultation Message us on WhatsAppA family rarely learns which board a sixth form uses for A-level Religious Studies until a specification code appears on a timetable or a statement of entry. AQA, OCR, Pearson Edexcel and WJEC Eduqas each set an Ofqual-regulated A-level in the subject, under their own codes.
AQA enters students under specification code 7062, confirmed on the cover of its own specification: 'A-LEVEL RELIGIOUS STUDIES (7062) Specification For teaching from September 2016 onwards For A-level exams in 2018 onwards Version 1.3 16 January 2026.' The same document gives its Ofqual qualification accreditation number directly: 'The Ofqual qualification accreditation number (QAN) is 601/8830/3.'
OCR's current A-level runs under code H573, with its own specification (Version 2.0, July 2026) opening: 'Cambridge OCR Level 3 Advanced GCE in Religious Studies H573 For first assessment in 2018.' Its accreditation number is stated as directly: 'The accreditation number for OCR's A Level in Religious Studies is QN:601/8868/6.'
Pearson Edexcel enters students under code 9RS0. Its own specification (Issue 5) states: 'Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Religious Studies (9RS0) First teaching from September 2016 First certification from 2018.'
WJEC Eduqas — the Ofqual-regulated brand WJEC operates for schools in England — enters A-level Religious Studies under a qualification accreditation number its own specification (Version 6, January 2025) states directly: 'Qualification Accreditation Number: 601/8700/1.' Its individual entry codes are route-dependent on the religion option a centre chooses: the specification records 'Route A – including Component 1 Option A: Christianity A120PA' as one example among six such routes.
Plain WJEC is the exception worth stating precisely rather than folding into the Eduqas figures above. WJEC's own GCE AS/A Level in Religious Studies specification (Version 5, January 2025) carries a cover-page statement that settles the point: 'APPROVED BY QUALIFICATIONS WALES… This Qualifications Wales regulated qualification is not available to centres in England.' It is also structured differently from Eduqas's three linear components: the same document states 'This specification is divided into a total of five units, two AS units and three A2 units,' with Unit 1 (An Introduction to the Study of Religion) weighted 15% of the full qualification and Unit 2 (An Introduction to Religion and Ethics and the Philosophy of Religion) weighted 25%. WJEC and WJEC Eduqas share a name and a subject title; they are not the same qualification, and a centre in England cannot use the Wales-only one.
Once a family knows which board a school has entered a student for, the practical question is how much choice that specification actually allows — and the four boards genuinely differ, not just in component count but in where the choice sits.
| Board | Code | Components/papers | Weighting | Where the choice sits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AQA | 7062 | 2, both compulsory | 50% / 50% | Component 2 only: one religion chosen from 5 |
| OCR | H573 | 3 (2 fixed + 1 chosen) | 33.3% each | Third component only: one religion chosen from 5 |
| WJEC Eduqas | 601/8700/1 | 3, all compulsory | 33⅓% each | Component 1 content: one religion chosen from 6 |
| Pearson Edexcel | 9RS0 | 3 chosen from 4 papers | 33.33% each | Which 3 papers to sit, plus a religion chosen from 6 if Paper 4 is one of them |
Sources: AQA, OCR, Pearson Edexcel and WJEC Eduqas specifications, quoted above and below.
AQA's own specification states: 'There are two assessed components. Students must take assessments in both Component 1 and Component 2 in the same exam series.' Component 1 (Philosophy of religion and ethics) has fixed content for every AQA student; the choice sits entirely in Component 2 (Study of religion and dialogues), where a school selects one religion from five options coded 2A–2E. Each component is a 3-hour written exam worth 100 marks and 50% of the A-level.
OCR's specification is explicit about the same split: 'Learners take components 01 and 02 and one from 03 to 07, to be awarded the OCR A Level in Religious Studies.' Components 01 (Philosophy of religion) and 02 (Religion and ethics) are fixed; the third is chosen, and OCR states the options directly: 'the third will be chosen from the five available options; Christianity (03), Islam (04), Judaism (05), Buddhism (06) or Hinduism (07).' Each of the three components is a 2-hour written paper worth 120 marks and 33.3% of the total.
WJEC Eduqas takes a third approach: every component is compulsory, but the religion choice sits inside Component 1 rather than a separate optional component. Its own specification states 'Learners must study all three components,' and each — Component 1 (A Study of Religion), Component 2 (Philosophy of Religion) and Component 3 (Religion and Ethics) — is a 2-hour written exam worth 100 marks and 33⅓% of the qualification.
Pearson Edexcel is the genuine outlier, and no captured competitor page states its mechanic correctly and completely in one place. Its own specification states: 'The Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Religious Studies consists of three externally-examined papers. Students are required to choose three papers from a choice of four.' The four are Paper 1 (Philosophy of Religion), Paper 2 (Religion and Ethics), Paper 3 (New Testament Studies) and Paper 4 (Study of Religion, itself a choice of one religion from six) — each 2 hours, 80 marks and 33.33% of the qualification. One combination is barred: the specification states 'Candidates who enter for Paper 3: New Testament Studies cannot enter for Paper 4B: Christianity.' No other board covered on this page offers a choice at the level of which papers to sit at all.
Working out what your child's own specification actually requires? Our A-level Religious Studies tutors start from the exact board and paper choices a school has entered a student for, not a generic syllabus.
Book a Free Consultation Message us on WhatsAppThis is stated here as a description of what each specification lists, not as a comparison of the traditions themselves. AQA's own religion-option content list, in the same specification cited above, names five: '2A Buddhism… 2B Christianity… 2C Hinduism… 2D Islam… 2E Judaism.' OCR's list, in its own words, is the same five: 'Christianity (03), Islam (04), Judaism (05), Buddhism (06) or Hinduism (07).'
WJEC Eduqas and Pearson Edexcel each list six, adding one religion neither AQA nor OCR offers. Eduqas's specification states its Component 1 routes directly: 'Option A: Christianity Option B: Islam Option C: Judaism Option D: Buddhism Option E: Hinduism Option F: Sikhism.' Pearson's Paper 4 options are worded the same way: 'Students take one of the following six options. 4A: Buddhism 4B: Christianity 4C: Hinduism 4D: Islam 4E: Judaism 4F: Sikhism.'
The practical consequence for a family is straightforward: Sikhism is only available as a study option under WJEC Eduqas or Pearson Edexcel. A student whose sixth form uses AQA or OCR chooses between the same five religions regardless of which of those two boards applies; a student under WJEC Eduqas or Pearson Edexcel has a sixth option that the other two boards' specifications do not list.
No, at any of the four boards. AQA's two components, OCR's three, WJEC Eduqas's three and Pearson Edexcel's three chosen papers are each described in their own specification as a written examination, and in every case the stated percentage weightings sum to 100% from written papers alone. None of the four specifications cited on this page contains a non-exam assessment section for A-level Religious Studies. A student's whole grade, at every board, is set by timed written papers.
AQA's own specification is explicit that GCSE Religious Studies is not a prerequisite: 'There are no previous learning requirements… However, we recommend that students should have the skills and knowledge associated with a GCSE Religious Studies course or equivalent.' That is a recommendation, not an entry requirement, and none of the four specifications cited on this page states a compulsory GCSE prerequisite for the A-level.
Grading follows the standard six-point A-level scale wherever a specification states it directly. AQA's own document confirms 'the A-level qualification will be graded on a six-point scale: A*, A, B, C, D and E,' with a result below the standard for grade E 'recorded as U (unclassified).' Pearson Edexcel's specification states the same shape of outcome for its own qualification: 'This A Level qualification will be graded and certificated on a six-grade scale from A* to E using the total subject mark. Individual papers are not graded' — so a student's marks across whichever three of the four Pearson papers they sat are combined before a grade is set, not graded paper by paper.
Specifications also change over time. Pearson Edexcel's current Issue 5 document already records one such change: 'Paper 2 – Anthology Extract 4 has been replaced for first assessment 2028.' A family with a younger child starting the course nearer that date should check the live specification for the anthology text actually being taught, rather than assuming the extract used by an older sibling still applies.
Each of the four boards offers one, and each describes it in its own current specification as co-teachable alongside the first year of the full A-level, though formally decoupled from it. AQA states this directly: 'the AS and A-level are co-teachable – although they are decoupled, the AS content links directly to A-level as it's the first half of the A-level course,' adding elsewhere that 'there is overlapping content in the AS and A-level Religious Studies specifications. This helps you teach the AS and A-level together.'
OCR's specification describes the same design in its own words: a 'co-teachable specification allowing for the AS Level in Religious Studies to be taught alongside the first year of the A Level.' Pearson Edexcel is the most detailed of the four on how this works in practice: 'Centres co-teaching AS and A Level can deliver the first three topics in each component in the first year, allowing students to be entered for the AS at the end of year.' WJEC Eduqas makes the equivalent statement for its own AS: 'Each component has also been designed to allow co-teachability with the WJEC Eduqas AS Religious Studies specification.'
None of the four descriptions above claims the AS and A-level are the same qualification — only that the first year of teaching can serve both, which is a scheduling design each board states for itself rather than a shared rule imposed on all of them.
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Already know which board and religion option your child's sixth form has chosen? Our A-level Religious Studies tutors build every session around that specification's own components, from AQA's fixed philosophy-and-ethics paper to Pearson Edexcel's choice of three papers from four.
Book a Free Consultation Message us on WhatsAppNone of the comparisons above change what a student actually needs to revise — that is set by the specification code and religion option on their own statement of entry, not by the subject name on a timetable. Our A-level tuition is built around whichever of AQA, OCR, Pearson Edexcel or WJEC Eduqas a student's own sixth form has entered them for, working from that board's own command words and paper structure rather than a generic religious studies curriculum.
Ready to start? Our expert A-level Religious Studies tutors teach every current specification — AQA, OCR, Pearson Edexcel and WJEC Eduqas — and build each programme around the exact papers and religion option a student's own school has entered them for.
Book a Free Consultation Message us on WhatsAppFamilies comparing subjects across a sixth form's options may also find our A-level History page useful — another essay-based humanities subject with its own board comparison and source-based assessment structure. For the full range of subjects we cover at this level, see our A-level tuition hub.
Four Ofqual-regulated specifications are currently live: AQA (7062), OCR (H573), Pearson Edexcel (9RS0) and WJEC Eduqas (QAN 601/8700/1). A separate qualification with the same subject name, WJEC's own GCE AS/A Level in Religious Studies, is regulated by Qualifications Wales rather than Ofqual, and its own specification states it 'is not available to centres in England.'
No. Across AQA, OCR, Pearson Edexcel and WJEC Eduqas, every component or paper is assessed by written exam, and each board's own weightings sum to 100% from written papers alone. None of the four current specifications lists a non-exam assessment section.
Yes, from a list set by the board. AQA and OCR each offer a choice of five religions: Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam and Judaism. Pearson Edexcel and WJEC Eduqas each offer a choice of six, adding Sikhism to the same five.
No. They are separately regulated. WJEC's own GCE AS/A Level in Religious Studies specification is approved by Qualifications Wales and states it 'is not available to centres in England.' WJEC Eduqas's specification is accredited by Ofqual and states the opposite restriction: it 'is not available for candidates in maintained schools and colleges in Wales.'
No. AQA sets two compulsory components; OCR and WJEC Eduqas each set three compulsory components. Pearson Edexcel is different again: its own specification requires a centre to 'choose three papers from a choice of four,' with one combination of papers forbidden - a paper on New Testament Studies cannot be taken alongside the Christianity option in the religion paper.
Each board offers one, and each describes it as co-teachable alongside the first year of the full A-level. AQA's own specification calls the AS and A-level 'co-teachable - although they are decoupled'; OCR, Pearson Edexcel and WJEC Eduqas each make the equivalent statement in their own specifications.
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