Edexcel A-Level Physics (9PH0) 2026: Papers, Maths and Boundaries

Edexcel A-Level Physics is the Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Physics, specification code 9PH0, first taught from September 2015. It is assessed by three written papers worth 300 marks in total, with a minimum of 40% of those marks reserved for mathematics at Level 2 or above, plus a separate pass/fail Science Practical Endorsement that never affects the A*-E grade. The A* boundary required 239 of 300 marks in June 2026, twelve marks higher than in June 2025.

Is There More Than One Edexcel A-Level Physics? What 9PH0 Actually Is

Edexcel's A-level Physics carries one specification code: 9PH0. Its full title is the Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Physics, first taught from September 2015, with first certification from 2017; the specification referenced on this page is Issue 3. Unlike specifications that run two parallel editions under one subject name, there is no second 9PH0-equivalent to mix it up with -- one code, one specification. Students moving up from our GCSE Physics coverage often ask this exact question first.

What genuinely varies is how a school chooses to teach that one specification, not what a student sits in the exam hall. Pearson's specification names two alternative teaching approaches: a concept-led route, which groups content by physics topic, and the Salters-Horners Advanced Physics (SHAP) route, which teaches the same content through applied, context-led case studies. The specification states plainly that this is a teaching choice, not an assessment one -- the two approaches, in Pearson's own words, "lead to the same common assessment papers for this qualification". A student taught the SHAP way and a student taught the concept-led way at a different school sit identical papers, marked against identical mark schemes. If your child's school markets itself as running "Salters-Horners Physics", that describes how the course is delivered, not evidence of a different exam.

The other distinction worth clearing up here is between the A-level and the AS. Edexcel's AS Physics is a separate qualification, specification code 8PH0, with its own first-teaching date, its own certification and its own grade boundaries -- it is not a midpoint checkpoint inside the 9PH0 course. That separation is covered in full further down this page. For how Edexcel's Physics provision compares with AQA, OCR and CIE more broadly, see our A-Level Physics guide.

The Three Papers: What Each Is Worth And How Long You Have

All 9PH0 assessment sits across three externally-examined written papers, worth 300 marks between them, plus the separately-assessed Science Practical Endorsement covered later on this page.

Source: Pearson Edexcel A-level Physics specification (9PH0).

Paper 3 is worth the most, at 40% of the qualification and 120 of the 300 marks, and it is explicitly synoptic. Pearson's specification states that Paper 3 questions assess "conceptual and theoretical understanding of experimental methods (indirect practical skills) that will draw on students' experiences of the core practicals". That means revision cannot stop at "what topic is on which paper" -- Paper 3 reaches back across everything covered in Papers 1 and 2, filtered through practical method.

Which Topics Sit On Which Paper

Paper 1, Advanced Physics I, and Paper 2, Advanced Physics II, are Pearson's own names for the two content-based papers -- the specification splits the taught course into these two blocks, then examines each one separately before bringing everything back together in Paper 3.

That third paper is where students most often under-revise. Because Paper 3 is explicitly synoptic and practical-based rather than topic-based, a revision plan built purely around "finish Paper 1 topics, then Paper 2 topics, then start past papers" leaves Paper 3 preparation to the last few weeks, when it actually needs the same runway as the other two papers -- it draws on the full span of content plus the practical work completed across two years, not a fixed slice of it. A tutor working through 9PH0 typically interleaves core-practical review across both years precisely because Paper 3 cannot be crammed the way a single-topic paper can.

Why 40% Of Every Paper's Marks Are Maths Marks, Not Physics Marks

Every 9PH0 paper carries a fixed minimum share of marks that test mathematics rather than physics content. Pearson's specification states it directly: "a minimum of 40% of the marks across the three papers will be awarded for mathematics at Level 2 or above". Level 2 covers algebraic manipulation, rearranging equations, working with standard form and logarithms, reading and drawing graphs, and applying trigonometric relationships -- skills tested through physics questions, not a separate maths paper, but scored as maths regardless of whether the physics reasoning around them is correct.

The assessment-objective weightings make the same point from a different angle. Across the qualification, AO1 (knowledge and understanding) is worth 31-33%, AO2 (application of that knowledge) is worth 41-43%, and AO3 (analysis, interpretation and evaluation) is worth 25-27%. AO2, application, is the largest single objective, and a large share of "application" in physics means putting a formula to work: substituting values, rearranging for the unknown, checking units, reading a value off a graph. A student who can recite Newton's laws but struggles to rearrange an equation under exam pressure is losing marks that have nothing to do with understanding the physics.

The practical consequence is that a revision plan which treats maths as "something covered lower down the school" rather than an ongoing 9PH0 skill is revising against roughly two-fifths of the paper incorrectly. Families whose child needs dedicated support on the Level 2 maths content itself, rather than the physics built on top of it, can also see our A-Level Maths tutoring, or book a consultation to have both covered in one programme.

The 16 Core Practicals And The Science Practical Endorsement — A Pass/Fail That Never Touches The Grade

Separate from the three written papers, every 9PH0 student is entered for the Science Practical Endorsement, paper code 9PH0/04. It is internally assessed by the student's own teachers and externally monitored by Pearson, and it is graded on a straightforward pass or fail basis rather than contributing marks to the A*-E grade. Pearson's specification is explicit on this point: the Endorsement "will not contribute to the overall grade for this qualification, but the result will be recorded on the student's certificate". That distinction surprises a lot of parents, who reasonably assume practical competence feeds into the headline grade the way coursework does on some other qualifications. It does not -- a student can achieve an A* in Physics having only just scraped a pass on the Endorsement, and the certificate will show both results side by side without either affecting the other.

The specification prescribes 16 core practical activities, covering areas from measuring the acceleration of free fall to investigating resistivity and radioactive decay. A student does not need to complete all 16 to pass: Pearson requires a minimum of 12 practical activities, provided together they satisfy the specification's Appendix 5b and 5c requirements -- so a school can, in principle, drop up to four of the sixteen and still meet the Endorsement's own rules, as long as the remaining twelve between them cover the required range of practical skills and equipment.

The mechanism behind the pass is called CPAC -- common practical assessment criteria -- and it is not Edexcel's alone. Pearson's specification states that CPAC is "consistent across exam boards", and that the moderation visits checking a school's judgement are "coordinated across the exam boards by JCQ", the Joint Council for Qualifications. In practice that means a Physics teacher marking practical work against CPAC is applying the same national criteria whichever board's written papers their students are actually sitting -- the pass/fail threshold itself does not move between specifications, even though the 300 marks on the written papers plainly do.

For a family choosing between tutors, the practical implication is this: because the Endorsement never touches the grade, a tutoring programme focused purely on written-paper technique is not neglecting anything gradeable by leaving lab work to school time -- but a student who has not internalised the core-practical methods will still lose marks on Paper 3, which explicitly examines "indirect practical skills" drawn from those same sixteen practicals. The Endorsement and Paper 3 are administratively separate and educationally connected.

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The Formulae Sheet: What's Supplied And What Has To Be Memorised

One fact about 9PH0 that rarely reaches parents, and did not appear on any of the pages ranking for this search when this page was researched on 7 September 2026: students do not need to memorise formulae for Edexcel A-level Physics. Pearson's specification states it as a rule, not a courtesy: "Students need not memorise formulae for this qualification. The formulae below will be supplied in each examination. Any other formulae that are required will be provided in the question." The sheet, Appendix 8 of the specification, is issued with every paper, covering the standard equations across mechanics, materials, waves, electricity, further mechanics, nuclear and particle physics, and astrophysics.

That does not make the exam a formula-lookup exercise. Given the AO2 weighting covered above, most marks sit in selecting the right formula for an unfamiliar situation, substituting the correct values with the correct units, and manipulating the equation to isolate the quantity actually being asked for -- not in recalling the equation from memory. A student who has spent revision time memorising formulae rather than practising how to apply them under exam conditions has, in a real sense, prepared for the wrong exam.

How Many Of The 300 Marks Each Grade Needs — And How The Boundary Has Moved In A Year

Grade boundaries for 9PH0 are set after each exam series based on how the cohort actually performed, not fixed in advance, and Pearson publishes them separately for every series. The table below sets the June 2025 and June 2026 series side by side, both out of the same 300-mark total.

Source: Pearson Edexcel June 2026 and June 2025 A-level grade boundaries.

The clearest way to see how much tougher the top grade became is to do the subtraction directly: 239 marks required in June 2026 minus 227 marks required in June 2025 leaves a rise of 12 marks out of 300 -- roughly 4 percentage points of the total paper -- in a single year. Every other grade boundary moved up by a comparable margin between the two series, which is consistent with a cohort that performed more strongly overall in June 2026, not with any change to the specification itself. A student whose target grade sits close to a boundary cannot assume the June 2025 mark will still be enough; the safe planning approach is to work to a mark comfortably above the higher of the two series shown here, not the lower one. If you want a programme built around your child's actual target grade, book a free consultation.

AS Physics (8PH0): A Separate, Still-Live Qualification, Not "Half An A-Level"

Edexcel's AS Physics is not a midpoint checkpoint inside the 9PH0 course -- it is its own qualification, with its own specification code, 8PH0, its own formal title (the Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced Subsidiary GCE in Physics), its own first-teaching date of September 2015, and its own first certification in 2016. A school that offers AS Physics is entering students for a genuinely separate exam, sat and certificated independently of whether that student goes on to the full A-level.

That separateness is still active. Pearson published grade boundaries for AS Physics (8PH0) for the June 2026 series -- out of 160 total marks across its two papers, the boundaries were A 103, B 88, C 73, D 58 and E 43. Published boundaries mean the qualification was actually sat and awarded in that series; a search of Pearson's qualifications site on 7 September 2026 for an AS Physics withdrawal notice returned no results. That is not the same claim as "AS Physics will never be withdrawn" -- it is the narrower, checkable claim that as of the most recent series, the qualification was live, and no notice announcing its end had yet been published.

For a family weighing a one-year AS course against committing to the full two-year A-level, the practical point is that the two are genuinely different products, examined separately and graded on separate scales -- 160 marks against 300 -- rather than the AS simply being the first half of the A-level marked on its own.

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