Edexcel GCSE Physics (1PH0) 2026: Equations and Grades

Pearson Edexcel GCSE (9-1) Physics is specification 1PH0, confirmed “Available to learners” on Ofqual’s own register under qualification number 601/8609/4. Its Appendix 2 splits equations into two separate lists rather than the single list most guides assume: roughly 20 a student must recall unaided, and 11 supplied on an exam formulae sheet. Of those 31 equations combined, only 5 — about 16% — are actually Higher Tier only.

What Edexcel GCSE Physics (1PH0) actually is, and how we confirmed it is the live edition

The specification’s own title page states its full name precisely: “Pearson Edexcel Level 1/Level 2 GCSE (9-1) in Physics (1PH0)”, first taught from September 2016 and first certificated from June 2018. The document in front of a school today is Issue 4, dated March 2024, and Issue 4 is not a cosmetic relabelling: Edexcel’s own summary of changes lists two edits made since the previous issue — named subject advisors were removed from the “Get help and support” section, and spec point 10.25 was emboldened to align the highlighting convention with the Combined Science specification. A document still being actively revised is a specification still in use, not an archived one.

That is a reasonable inference from the document itself, so we checked it independently at the regulator rather than taking Pearson’s word for it. Ofqual’s live register — not the generic gov.uk landing page that register.ofqual.gov.uk now redirects to, but the searchable tool at find-a-qualification.services.ofqual.gov.uk — lists “Pearson Edexcel Level 1/Level 2 GCSE (9-1) in Physics” with status “Available to learners”, qualification number 601/8609/4, national availability England, Northern Ireland and International (Wales is not listed), a regulation start date of 18 March 2016 and an operational start date of 1 September 2016. That QN cross-checks exactly against the specification’s own Appendix 9 codes table, which states the identical figure.

We went a step further than most competing pages and checked whether a second, parallel live edition exists anywhere — the kind of trap that has caught other specifications on this site before. Searching Ofqual’s register for “Physics” under its default “Available to learners” filter returns 24 qualifications across every level and board; reading the full result set across both pages of results, this GCSE-level Pearson Edexcel entry appears exactly once, alongside the separate Level 3 AS/A-level Physics entries. There is one live 1PH0, and this page describes it.

Two equation lists, not one — and only 5 of 31 are Higher Tier only

Most revision guidance treats a GCSE physics equations appendix as a single numbered list. Edexcel’s own Appendix 2 is not that. It states directly that it “identifies which equations students are required to recall and apply (list a) and which they are required to select from a list and apply (list b)”, and that list (b) “also includes three additional equations to the DfE equations” — the Department for Education’s own statutory minimum. List (a) holds roughly 20 equations a student must know from memory and reproduce unprompted. List (b) holds roughly 11 equations that will be printed, ready to use, on a formulae sheet supplied at the end of the exam papers — the student’s job there is selecting the right one and applying it, not recalling it. That is a genuinely different obligation from a single memorise-everything list, and a parent buying revision material needs to know which of the two kinds of preparation their child actually needs for each equation.

Layered onto that two-list structure is a second distinction: some equations in each list apply to Higher tier only. Edexcel states the rule plainly on page 13 of the specification — “text in bold indicates content that is for higher tier only” — and repeats it at the head of Appendix 2 itself: “Equations required for higher tier only are shown in bold text.” That is a formatting convention, not a labelled column or a footnote marker, and it is invisible to a plain-text copy-paste or a skim-read of a PDF. We did not eyeball it. We extracted the PDF’s own font and span metadata for every line of Appendix 2 and read the bold flag directly, then cross-checked the result against an independent source: BBC Bitesize’s own Edexcel physics topic list separately tags one topic “Momentum — Higher”, which corroborates the finding rather than being where it came from.

The result, counted separately for each list:

• List (a) — recall from memory: just 1 of the roughly 20 equations is Higher Tier only — spec reference 2.24, momentum = mass × velocity.
• List (b) — select from the formulae sheet: 4 of the roughly 11 equations are Higher Tier only — spec references 2.26 (force = change in momentum ÷ time), 12.13 (force on a current-carrying conductor at right angles to a magnetic field), 13.7P (the transformer turns-ratio equation) and 15.14P (pressure due to a column of liquid = height × density × gravitational field strength).

Add those together and the working is straightforward: 1 (list a) + 4 (list b) = 5 Higher-Tier-only equations, out of roughly 20 + 11 = 31 equations in total across both lists. 5 ÷ 31 is about 16%. That figure is this page’s own calculation from Edexcel’s own document, not a number Edexcel states directly anywhere — and it is drawn entirely from 1PH0’s own Appendix 2, independent of any other exam board’s equations appendix. A Foundation-tier student can, in practice, set aside 5 of the 31 published equations entirely; a Higher-tier student needs all of them, and needs to know which 5 will not appear on the formulae sheet at all.

The two papers: codes, marks and timings

1PH0 is assessed by two written papers, sat at the end of Year 11, each carrying equal weight and each consisting of ten questions:

Source: Pearson Edexcel GCSE (9-1) Physics specification, Issue 4.

27 marks on each paper are overlap questions common to both Foundation and Higher tier papers — 54 marks across the qualification on which both tiers are judged identically. For a borderline candidate that is the clearest evidence available of where a tier decision actually bites: over a quarter of every paper is set at a level both tiers must answer the same way.

How 1PH0 is graded: the nine-point scale, tiering and the AO split

1PH0 is graded and certificated on a nine-grade scale from 9 to 1, using the total mark across both papers — individual papers are not graded on their own. Foundation tier makes grades 1 to 5 available; Higher tier makes grades 4 to 9 available, with a safety-net grade 3 awarded if a Higher-tier candidate’s mark falls just below the 4/3 boundary. A Foundation entry has a hard ceiling at grade 5, whatever the mark; a Higher entry has a floor, with the safety net as the only exception.

Edexcel’s own Assessment Objective table shows the split is identical on both papers, stated to a precision most general guides do not carry: each paper allocates 20 marks to AO1 (knowledge and understanding), 20 marks to AO2 (application) and 10 marks to AO3 (analysis and evaluation), each paper totalling 50% of the qualification. Combined across the whole GCSE that becomes AO1 40% ±3, AO2 40% ±3, AO3 20% ±3, 100% in total. The ±3 tolerance band is Edexcel’s own published figure, and it is the detail a plain “40/40/20” summary from a general guide leaves out.

The eight core practicals, named — and what happens if a centre misses the deadline

Edexcel’s own term is core practical — not AQA’s “required practical” — and the specification names all eight directly, each with its own spec reference:

• 2.19 — the relationship between force, mass and acceleration, using trolleys.
• 4.17 — measuring the speed, frequency and wavelength of a wave in a solid and in a fluid.
• 5.9 — refraction in rectangular glass blocks.
• 5.19P — how the nature of a surface affects thermal energy radiated or absorbed.
• 10.17 — constructing electrical circuits to investigate potential difference, current and resistance, for a resistor and for a filament lamp, in series and in parallel.
• 14.3 — the densities of solids and liquids.
• 14.11 — the specific heat capacity of water, including a temperature-time graph for melting ice.
• 15.6 — the extension of, and work done on, a spring under an applied force.

Completing all eight is not optional and not merely a teaching recommendation. Centres must submit a Practical Science Statement to Pearson confirming every student has completed all eight mandatory core practicals, due by 15 April in the year the students sit their examinations. Edexcel’s specification is explicit about the consequence of missing it: “Any failure by centres to provide this Practical Science Statement will be treated as malpractice and/or maladministration.” That is a compliance deadline that sits months before the exam itself, and a family confirming a school’s readiness has more reason to ask about it in the spring term of Year 10 than in the run-up to May.

There is no separate practical exam and no coursework component anywhere in 1PH0. We searched the full extracted specification text for every variant of a non-exam-assessment term — “coursework”, “non-exam assessment”, “controlled assessment” and “NEA” — and found none. Practical understanding is examined entirely through questions inside the two written papers: “Working scientifically will be assessed through examination and the completion of the eight core practicals”, with students expected to “use their knowledge and understanding of these practical techniques and procedures in the written assessments.”

The maths requirement Edexcel states as a level, not a percentage

Several GCSE science specifications state a minimum share of marks that must draw on mathematical skills. Edexcel’s 1PH0 does not use that mechanism at all. Instead it sets a minimum level of maths per tier: “The minimum level of mathematics in the foundation tier examination papers will be equivalent to Key Stage 3 mathematics. The minimum level of mathematics in the higher tier examination papers will be equivalent to foundation tier GCSE in Mathematics.” A Higher-tier physics candidate is therefore expected to handle maths pitched at Foundation-tier GCSE Maths — a qualitative floor set against another qualification’s own tier, not a number.

That is a genuine structural difference, not a gap in the document. We checked by locating and reading every ‘%’ character across the full extracted specification text — nine occurrences in total — and every one of them is either a paper-weighting statement (the two 50% figures) or the Assessment Objective breakdown already covered above (40%/40%/20%, plus the per-paper 50% figures). None of the nine relates to a minimum share of marks requiring maths, and none relates to practical-based content either. A parent looking for “what percentage of the exam is maths” will not find that number in Edexcel’s own specification, because Edexcel does not publish one — it publishes a level instead, and that is a different kind of answer, not a missing one.

What each grade needed in June 2026, and how far it moved from June 2025

Pearson publishes 1PH0’s subject grade boundaries after every series, out of a maximum of 200 marks across both papers combined. The tables below are read directly from Pearson’s own June 2026 and June 2025 grade-boundary documents.

Three shifts stand out from comparing the two series directly, out of 200 marks in both. On Foundation tier, the grade 4 boundary rose from 114 in June 2025 to 118 in June 2026 — up 4 marks, or 2 percentage points. On Higher tier, the top grade 9 boundary rose from 161 to 163 — up 2 marks, or 1 percentage point. And the Higher-tier grade 4 boundary — the mark a Higher-tier candidate needs for the standard GCSE pass grade — stayed at exactly 71 in both series, unchanged. A candidate targeting the standard pass on Higher tier needed the identical mark in both years; a candidate near either tier’s ceiling needed a handful more marks in 2026 than in 2025.

These are subject-level boundaries on the full qualification, not component boundaries, and they are reset every series to hold the standard rather than to make one year comparable to the next as a target. Use them to size the gap between a mock result and a target grade for the year just gone, not as a number to revise towards for the series ahead — June 2026’s confirmed boundaries were published on results day, and each future series gets its own boundaries only once its own results day arrives.

Physics or Combined Science? Edexcel’s own single name for the combined route

Unlike some other awarding bodies, Edexcel gives its combined-science route no separate marketing name of its own. Working through 1PH0’s own specification — used here to flag content that belongs to single-science Physics only, such as spec point 3.18P — Edexcel refers to the combined route simply as “the GCSE in Combined Science”: the specification states plainly that certain content is “in Physics and is not found in the GCSE in Combined Science (e.g. 3.18P).” There is no separate brand name of the kind other boards use — Edexcel’s combined qualification is its own separate specification, coded 1SC0, but the Physics specification’s own cross-reference text names it only descriptively. A family checking which qualification a school actually teaches should confirm the paper code on a past paper rather than a marketing name, since Edexcel’s own documents do not lean on one.

None of the detail above is generic GCSE physics advice with Edexcel’s name attached to it. The two-list equation structure, the Higher-Tier-only tally, the eight named core practicals and their 15 April deadline, and the maths-level mechanism are all specific to 1PH0 and independently verified against Edexcel’s own specification and grade-boundary documents, not carried over from another board’s appendix or another page’s figures. For the board-by-board comparison across AQA, OCR and WJEC Eduqas, see our GCSE Physics comparison page; for the combined-science route itself, see our Edexcel GCSE Combined Science page; and for students continuing into sixth form on the same specification family, our Edexcel A-level Physics tutoring page covers the next stage. Our GCSE physics tutors build every 1PH0 programme around the structure covered above — which equations a student needs to recall against which they need only select, the eight core practicals a school is actually teaching, and the tier decision each family is weighing.

Frequently Asked Questions About Edexcel GCSE Physics (1PH0)

Does Edexcel GCSE Physics require memorising equations, or are they given?

Neither answer alone is right. Edexcel's Appendix 2 splits its physics equations into two separate lists: list (a), roughly 20 equations a student must recall and apply from memory, and list (b), roughly 11 equations selected and applied from a formulae sheet supplied at the end of the exam papers. List (b) also adds three equations beyond the Department for Education's own statutory minimum. So a student does still need to memorise a genuine list of equations -- just not all of them, and Edexcel's own document is explicit about which equations fall into each group.

Which of Edexcel's GCSE Physics equations are Higher Tier only?

Just 5 of the 31 equations across both lists are Higher Tier only, established by extracting the bold-text formatting Edexcel's specification uses to mark them, not by eye. In list (a), only spec reference 2.24, momentum = mass x velocity, is Higher Tier only. In list (b), four are Higher Tier only: 2.26 (force = change in momentum / time), 12.13 (force on a current-carrying conductor), 13.7P (the transformer turns-ratio equation) and 15.14P (pressure due to a column of liquid). That is roughly 16% of the combined total.

What are Edexcel's eight core practicals in GCSE Physics?

Edexcel names all eight directly by their own specification references: 2.19 (force, mass and acceleration using trolleys), 4.17 (speed, frequency and wavelength of a wave), 5.9 (refraction in rectangular glass blocks), 5.19P (thermal radiation and absorption), 10.17 (electrical circuits with a resistor and a filament lamp), 14.3 (densities of solids and liquids), 14.11 (specific heat capacity of water) and 15.6 (extension and work done on a spring). Edexcel calls these core practicals, not AQA's required practicals.

What happens if a school misses the Practical Science Statement deadline for GCSE Physics?

Centres must submit a Practical Science Statement to Pearson confirming that every student has completed all eight mandatory core practicals, and it is due by 15 April in the year the students sit their examinations. Edexcel's specification states the consequence directly: any failure by centres to provide this statement will be treated as malpractice and/or maladministration. That deadline sits a full exam season before results day, so it is worth confirming with a school well before the summer term rather than assuming it is a formality.

Is there coursework or an NEA component in Edexcel GCSE Physics?

No. A full search of Edexcel's 1PH0 specification for coursework, non-exam assessment, controlled assessment and NEA finds none of those terms anywhere in the document. Practical understanding is assessed entirely inside the two written papers, alongside knowledge and application questions -- Edexcel's own words are that working scientifically is assessed through examination and the completion of the eight core practicals, with students using that practical knowledge in the written assessments themselves.

What maths level does Edexcel GCSE Physics require?

Edexcel states a minimum maths level per tier rather than a percentage of marks. The Foundation tier papers require maths equivalent to Key Stage 3 mathematics; the Higher tier papers require maths equivalent to Foundation-tier GCSE Mathematics. No percentage-of-marks figure for maths-based or practical-based content appears anywhere in the specification -- every percentage in the document is a paper weighting or an Assessment Objective figure, checked across all nine percentage figures the specification contains.

What were the June 2026 grade boundaries for Edexcel GCSE Physics?

Out of 200 marks, Foundation tier's grade 4 boundary was 118 and Higher tier's grade 4 boundary was 71 in June 2026. Compared with June 2025, Foundation's grade 4 rose from 114 to 118 (up 4 marks), Higher's grade 9 rose from 161 to 163 (up 2 marks), and Higher's grade 4 -- the standard pass mark for that tier -- stayed at 71 in both series, unchanged. Figures are Pearson's own published subject grade boundaries for 1PH0.