The ten required practicals, the two-table equation sheet and the per-paper marks the board comparison page doesn't cover.
Book a Free ConsultationAQA GCSE Physics, specification 8463, is a two-paper separate-sciences GCSE assessed entirely by written exams: Paper 1 and Paper 2 each last 1 hour 45 minutes, carry 100 marks and are sat at Foundation or Higher tier. The specification sets ten required practicals, not the eight AQA's own marketing page claims, and its Appendix A holds two separate equation tables rather than the single figure usually quoted.
Studying AQA GCSE Physics (8463)?
Our expert GCSE physics tutors build every programme around the AQA 8463 specification specifically — the ten required practicals, the two-table equation sheet and the per-paper assessment objective weightings a student is actually examined on, not a generic physics syllabus.
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Book a Free Consultation Message us on WhatsAppPaper 1 examines Topics 1 to 4 of the specification — Energy, Electricity, Particle Model of Matter and Atomic Structure — in a written exam lasting 1 hour 45 minutes, worth 100 marks and sat at either Foundation or Higher tier. Paper 2 covers Topics 5 to 8 — Forces, Waves, Magnetism and Electromagnetism, and Space Physics — on the same timing, marks and tier structure, and AQA's own specification at a glance notes that Paper 2 questions may also draw on the energy and electricity content from Paper 1. Between them the two papers carry 200 marks in total, and the question types are multiple choice, structured, closed short answer and open response.
8463 is a linear qualification: everything is examined at the end of the two-year course, with no modules to resit along the way. AQA's scheme of assessment states plainly that exams and certification "are available for the first time in May/June 2018 and then every May/June for the life of the specification" — worth checking, because a spec code alone never proves which edition of a specification is in force on a given page. The honest check is to look for a second, later specification document sitting alongside the one on screen. On the 8463 landing page there is exactly one PDF card, dated 21 September 2015 and titled "GCSE Physics Specification for first teaching in 2016" — no second, later edition sits next to it. A further check on AQA's own URL structure confirms the page is a real, maintained one rather than a stub: removing the "/specification/" segment from the specification-at-a-glance address returns AQA's own "This page was not found" message, not a generic catch-all page.
Foundation tier entries use code 8463F and Higher tier entries use code 8463H; the Ofqual qualification accreditation number is 601/8751/7, and AQA's own subject hub lists the next scheduled exam date for GCSE Physics as 25 May 2027. There are no overlaps between 8463 and any other AQA qualification at this level, so a school cannot be teaching a hybrid of separate Physics and another AQA science under this one entry.
Search a little and two different numbers turn up on aqa.org.uk itself. The specification's own landing page carries a marketing section headed "Why choose AQA," and it promotes "our eight required practicals" as a selling point. The specification's assessment section says something different. Section 8.2, Required practical activities, opens: "A rich practical experience will include more than the ten required practical activities" — and a second, independent AQA page aimed at private candidates repeats the same figure from a different angle: "A minimum of ten experiments are required for this physics qualification."
The practical-assessment section of the specification is the one that actually governs what gets examined, and it numbers the practicals individually from practical 1 to practical 10 — ten separately specified activities, not eight. AQA's "eight" reads like an editorial slip rather than an older figure being carried over: nothing on aqa.org.uk documents an eight-practical version of 8463 ever existing. Revision sites are not always more reliable either — some quote twelve, a figure that matches neither AQA number and appears to conflate GCSE Physics with a longer list drawn from Combined Science or a different specification. The number that governs assessment, confirmed independently on two separate pages of AQA's own specification, is ten.
| RP | What it investigates | Also in Combined Science? |
|---|---|---|
| RP1 | Specific heat capacity of one or more materials | Yes |
| RP2 | Effectiveness of different materials as thermal insulators | No — Physics only |
| RP3 | Resistance: wire length at constant temperature; resistors in series and parallel | Yes |
| RP4 | I–V characteristics of a filament lamp, a diode and a resistor | Yes |
| RP5 | Densities of regular and irregular solid objects and liquids | Yes |
| RP6 | Force–extension relationship for a spring | Yes |
| RP7 | Effect of force on acceleration at constant mass, and mass at constant force | Yes |
| RP8 | Frequency, wavelength and speed of waves in a ripple tank and in a solid | Yes |
| RP9 | Reflection of light by different surfaces and refraction by different substances | No — Physics only |
| RP10 | Infrared absorption and radiation, and how it depends on the surface | Yes |
Only RP2 (thermal insulators) and RP9 (reflection and refraction of light) are unique to separate Physics; the other eight also count toward GCSE Combined Science: Trilogy and GCSE Combined Science: Synergy. AQA lists a second, shorter set of codes alongside the ten practicals: apparatus-and-technique codes AT1 to AT7 are common with combined science, while AT8 is physics only. Practical-based questions are not confined to a separate practical paper — they appear inside Paper 1 and Paper 2 and count for at least 15% of the overall marks for the qualification.
Working through AQA's ten required practicals?
Our GCSE physics tutors take students through each of AQA's ten required practicals in turn — RP2 and RP9 included — alongside the exam-style questions AQA builds around them, so practical recall stops being the part that costs marks on Paper 1 and Paper 2.
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Book a Free Consultation Message us on WhatsAppThe gcse-physics comparison page already covers the overall assessment objective split that applies across every GCSE Physics specification and every exam board: 40% AO1 (knowledge and understanding), 40% AO2 (application) and 20% AO3 (analysis and evaluation). What is specific to AQA is the range each paper is allowed to sit within. AQA's scheme of assessment sets it out as a band, not a single figure: AO1 is weighted 37–43% on Paper 1 and 37–43% on Paper 2, AO2 the same 37–43% on each paper, and AO3 17–23% on each paper — landing on the 40/40/20 overall split only once both papers are combined. Neither paper is set up as the easy recall paper against the other as the hard analysis paper: both carry a near-identical mix of all three objectives.
AQA also publishes a physics-specific tier-overlap figure that the comparison page does not carry, on a resource aimed at schools reviewing their exam board choice: 30% of marks are common between Foundation and Higher tier for GCSE Physics specifically. AQA states the purpose of that overlap directly — "This level of overlap allows us to be surer of the equivalence of standard across the common grades, and to be more confident in the awarding of these common grades" — and it is a genuinely subject-specific figure: overlap percentages are set per qualification, so a number quoted for a different GCSE science does not transfer to Physics.
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Not sure which equations your child needs to recall?
Our GCSE physics tutors drill the 23-equation recall list and the 12-equation equation-sheet list separately, because they test different skills — and cover the AQA 8463 tiering rules that decide what grade is even reachable.
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Book a Free Consultation Message us on WhatsAppAQA's Appendix A is not one list of equations; it is two, doing different jobs. The first table, headed "In solving quantitative problems, students should be able to recall and apply the following equations, using standard SI units," holds 23 equations a student is expected to know from memory. Of those 23, only one — equation 9, momentum, p = mv — is marked Higher Tier only; every other equation on that table is common to both tiers.
The second table carries a different heading: "Students should be able to select and apply the following equations from the Physics equation sheet." These 12 equations are not recalled from memory at all — they are printed on the equation sheet supplied with the exam, and the skill being tested is selecting and rearranging the right one, not remembering it. Five of the twelve are Higher Tier only: equations 1, 3, 8, 10 and 11.
Add the two tables together and AQA's Physics equation set totals 35 equations, of which 6 are Higher Tier only — one from the recall table and five from the equation-sheet table. AQA does not state that combined total anywhere in its own prose; it is arithmetic performed here on AQA's two published tables, and it should be read as a derived figure rather than a quoted one. It also corrects a count that currently appears on this site's own GCSE Physics comparison page, which states Appendix A holds "23 numbered equations… of which 8 are marked as Higher Tier only." AQA's own table marks only one of the 23 recall equations as Higher Tier, not eight — the miscount sits in the appendix count only, not in that page's separate point about which exam years require equation recall at all.
GCSE Physics is graded on the same nine-point scale as every other GCSE: 1 to 9, where AQA is explicit that "9 is the best grade." Tiering caps what is achievable before a single mark is scored. A Foundation tier entry can be awarded a grade in the range 1 to 5; a candidate who falls short of the standard for grade 1 is recorded as unclassified. A Higher tier entry targets grades 4 to 9, and AQA builds in one piece of protection for a student who narrowly misses the Higher tier's floor: "A student sitting the Higher Tier who just fails to achieve grade 4 will be awarded an allowed grade 3." There is no equivalent safety net running the other way — a Foundation tier candidate cannot be awarded a 6, however strong the paper, because the tier itself sets the ceiling.
The tiering decision has to be made before the exam rather than after it, and in most schools it is a staff decision rather than a family one — ask the science department which tier a student has been entered for well ahead of the exam, not after.
Foundation or Higher tier — and is the ceiling right?
Our GCSE physics tutors help families decide between Foundation and Higher tier entry for AQA 8463, then build a programme around whichever tier a student is actually sitting, so revision time goes on the marks that tier can award.
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Book a Free Consultation Message us on WhatsAppThe AQA 8463 detail above — the practical count, the per-paper AO ranges, the two equation tables and the tiering mechanics — sits alongside our wider GCSE Physics board comparison, which covers how AQA's arrangements compare with Edexcel, OCR and WJEC Eduqas, and our GCSE and A-level physics tuition, part of our GCSE tuition programme generally. Students moving on to AQA A-level Physics after 8463 carry the same board's approach to practical work and equation handling into Year 12, so knowing the GCSE specification in this detail is not wasted once the exam is over.
Ten. AQA's specification section on required practical activities states that “a rich practical experience will include more than the ten required practical activities,” and a separate AQA page for private candidates repeats the same figure: “a minimum of ten experiments are required for this physics qualification.” The specification numbers them individually from practical 1 to practical 10. A marketing section elsewhere on the same specification landing page, headed “Why choose AQA,” promotes “our eight required practicals” instead, but that section is not the assessment part of the specification and does not govern what is examined. Some independent revision sites quote twelve, which matches neither AQA figure. Ten is the number that decides what a student needs to have covered before the exam.
Paper 1 examines Topics 1 to 4 — Energy, Electricity, Particle Model of Matter and Atomic Structure. Paper 2 examines Topics 5 to 8 — Forces, Waves, Magnetism and Electromagnetism, and Space Physics — and AQA notes that Paper 2 questions may also draw on the energy and electricity content from Paper 1. Both papers last 1 hour 45 minutes, carry 100 marks and are sat at Foundation or Higher tier, making 200 marks in total across the qualification. Every candidate sits both papers; there is no route through separate Physics that examines only one topic half of the specification.
Two separate totals, not one. AQA's Appendix A holds a 23-equation table students are expected to recall from memory, of which only equation 9 (momentum) is marked Higher Tier only. A second table lists a further 12 equations that are printed on the exam's equation sheet and have to be selected and applied rather than memorised; five of those twelve — equations 1, 3, 8, 10 and 11 — are Higher Tier only. Combined, that is 35 equations across both tables, with 6 marked Higher Tier only. AQA does not state this combined total anywhere in its own prose; it is the sum of the two published tables.
30%, according to AQA's own physics-specific comparison resource for schools reviewing their exam board choice. AQA explains the purpose of the overlap directly: it allows the board to be “surer of the equivalence of standard across the common grades” when awarding results. This figure is specific to Physics — overlap percentages are set per qualification, not applied as one fixed rule across every GCSE science — so a Foundation candidate and a Higher candidate sitting AQA Physics are tested on a substantial shared core even though the tiers award different grade ranges.
Two of the ten: RP2, investigating the effectiveness of different materials as thermal insulators, and RP9, investigating the reflection of light by different surfaces and the refraction of light by different substances. The other eight — specific heat capacity, resistance, I–V characteristics, densities, force–extension in a spring, force and acceleration, wave speed and frequency, and infrared absorption and radiation — also count toward GCSE Combined Science: Trilogy and GCSE Combined Science: Synergy. AQA marks the distinction in the specification text itself, noting which apparatus-and-technique codes (AT1 to AT7) are shared with combined science and which (AT8) belongs to separate Physics only.
AQA sets a range rather than a single figure for each paper: AO1 (knowledge and understanding) is weighted 37–43% on Paper 1 and 37–43% on Paper 2; AO2 (application) the same 37–43% on each paper; and AO3 (analysis and evaluation) 17–23% on each paper. Combined across both papers this produces the overall 40/40/20 split used across every GCSE Physics specification and exam board. The practical effect is that neither paper is weighted toward pure recall or pure analysis — both carry close to the full spread of all three assessment objectives.
Leading Tuition's GCSE physics tutors build lessons around the AQA 8463 specification specifically: the ten required practicals and which two are physics-only, the two-table equation sheet in Appendix A, and the per-paper assessment objective weightings that decide where marks are actually won or lost. A first session identifies which topics and practicals are weakest before a programme is planned around them. We are rated 4.8/5 on Trustpilot and 91% of our students achieve their desired grades. Book a free consultation or message us on WhatsApp to discuss a programme built around AQA 8463.
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