The exact paper structure, given-versus-memorised formulae and five-year boundary trend for Pearson's 1ST0 specification
Book a Free ConsultationEdexcel GCSE Statistics (1ST0) is a separate, single-award GCSE that Pearson offers alongside GCSE Mathematics, assessed through two 1-hour-30-minute papers worth 80 marks each. 31,836 candidates sat it in the June 2026 provisional series, up from 28,782 in June 2025, and Higher tier's top grade boundary reached 129 out of 160 marks in June 2026 — the highest of the last five series.
Already have a tier and a target grade in mind for GCSE Statistics? Our expert Edexcel GCSE Statistics tutors build every session around a student's own tier, paper technique and the exact formulae their assessment does and does not give them.
Book a Free ConsultationMessage us on WhatsAppBoth papers in Edexcel GCSE Statistics carry an identical shape. Paper 1 (code 1ST0/1F at Foundation tier, 1ST0/1H at Higher) and Paper 2 (1ST0/2F or 1ST0/2H) are each 1 hour and 30 minutes long, each worth 80 marks, and each contributes exactly 50% of the qualification. Pearson's specification does not split its three content areas — the collection of data, processing and analysing data, and probability — across the two papers; every paper, at both tiers, draws on all three.
| Detail | Paper 1 | Paper 2 |
|---|---|---|
| Duration | 1 hour 30 minutes | 1 hour 30 minutes |
| Marks | 80 | 80 |
| Weighting | 50% | 50% |
| Foundation paper code | 1ST0/1F | 1ST0/2F |
| Higher paper code | 1ST0/1H | 1ST0/2H |
Across the whole qualification, Assessment Objective 1 (recalling and applying statistical techniques) carries 55% of the marks (±3), AO2 (interpreting and analysing) carries 25% (±3), and AO3 (understanding and evaluating the statistical enquiry cycle) carries 20% (±3), under Pearson's own published tolerance. That split is identical on each paper — 27.5% AO1, 12.5% AO2 and 10% AO3 of the whole qualification, on both Paper 1 and Paper 2. A fifth of the entire grade is therefore AO3, the objective a memorised formula alone cannot satisfy.
Foundation tier is graded 1 to 5 and sat on papers 1ST0/1F and 1ST0/2F; Higher tier is graded 4 to 9 and sat on 1ST0/1H and 1ST0/2H, though Pearson's specification allows a grade 3 to be awarded to a Higher-tier student who falls a small number of marks short of the 4/3 boundary. A student sits one tier only, decided by their school ahead of the exam series, and the tiering rule is identical on both papers rather than being split between them.
Edexcel GCSE Statistics carries the Ofqual qualification number 603/1084/4, and Pearson's specification confirms first teaching from September 2017 with first certification from June 2019 — useful context for a family checking that a school's scheme of work is running against Issue 2 of the specification, dated December 2017, rather than an earlier issue. The full specification, including the exemplar assessment materials, is published by Pearson.
AO3, worth 20% of the qualification, is built entirely around a five-stage process Pearson's specification calls the statistical enquiry cycle, and it is the clearest structural difference between GCSE Statistics and the statistics content inside GCSE Maths. The five stages, taken directly from the specification, are: planning an investigation; sourcing and collecting appropriate data, recognising the constraints involved; processing and presenting the data; interpreting results with reference to the context of the original question; and communicating findings clearly while evaluating how reliable the work actually is.
None of those five stages is a calculation. A student can compute a mean, a standard deviation or a correlation coefficient correctly and still lose AO3 marks by failing to say what limited the data collection, or what a result actually means for the question that was asked. Revision material built around topic lists — sampling methods, averages, correlation — covers the mechanics well but rarely drills the cycle itself, which is precisely the fifth of the grade Pearson has set aside for it.
The formula sheet is where Foundation and Higher tier genuinely diverge, and it is a distinction the ranking topic-list guides do not draw. Foundation tier has no formulae sheet at all. Despite that, Pearson's specification states that one formula — for calculating a rate of change, such as a birth rate — is still given directly within the assessment, because Foundation students are expected to use it but are not required to memorise it.
Higher tier students receive a dedicated formulae sheet, printed on page 2 of every Higher-tier paper, containing four formulae: the skewness formula, two equivalent forms of the standard deviation formula, Spearman's rank correlation coefficient, and the same rate-of-change formula given to Foundation-tier candidates.
That still leaves several formulae used only at Higher tier that Pearson states explicitly are NOT given: the Petersen capture-recapture formula, used to estimate a population size from two samples; the standardised score formula; the weighted mean and geometric mean formulae; and the specification's own rules for identifying outliers. Pearson's own wording leaves no ambiguity — students, in the specification's words, 'will be expected to know these formulae; they will not be given in the assessments.' A Higher-tier student who has only ever practised applying a formula copied from the sheet, and has never had to recall the capture-recapture formula unaided, is exposed on exactly the marks this gap is designed to test.
| Tier | Formulae sheet | Given in the assessment | Must be memorised |
|---|---|---|---|
| Foundation | None | Rate of change | — |
| Higher | Page 2 of the paper | Skewness; standard deviation (two forms); Spearman's rank; rate of change | Petersen capture-recapture; standardised score; weighted mean; geometric mean; outlier rules |
Not sure whether your child's school has entered them for Foundation or Higher tier? Our Edexcel GCSE Statistics tutors work from the actual formula sheet — or lack of one — your child will see in the exam, not a generic statistics syllabus.
Book a Free ConsultationMessage us on WhatsAppPearson publishes a full grade-boundary table for 1ST0 after every exam series. Tracking the same boundary across five consecutive series shows a trend that neither a single series nor a past-papers archive can show on its own.
| Series | Foundation grade 4 (of 160) | Higher grade 9 (of 160) |
|---|---|---|
| June 2022 | 76 | 121 |
| June 2023 | 71 | 120 |
| June 2024 | 70 | 125 |
| June 2025 | 68 | 121 |
| June 2026 (provisional) | 66 | 129 |
Source: Pearson Edexcel GCSE grade boundaries, June 2022 to June 2026 (provisional), retrieved 7 September 2026.
At Foundation tier, the grade 4 boundary has fallen in every one of the last four series, from 76 out of 160 in June 2022 to 66 out of 160 in the June 2026 provisional series — a fall of 10 marks, or 6.25 percentage points of the total (10 ÷ 160 = 6.25%). At Higher tier the grade 9 boundary has moved the opposite way and less smoothly, rising from 121 in June 2022 to 129 in the June 2026 provisional series, its highest point across the five series — a rise of 8 marks, or 5 percentage points of the total (8 ÷ 160 = 5%).
My son was low in confidence after COVID and the gaps in learning were building up. Using this service helped plug those gaps, rebuild confidence, and improve his ability to learn properly again.
We arranged maths and English tuition ahead of GCSEs and both tutors were brilliant. My daughter's grades improved, and by results day she achieved two grades higher than in her mock exams.
I attended an English bootcamp with Leading Tuition and the experience was excellent. The teacher gave focused attention to the small group while keeping the lessons interactive and engaging.
31,836 candidates sat Edexcel GCSE Statistics in the June 2026 provisional series, Pearson's own results statistics show, up from 28,782 in the June 2025 final series — a rise of 3,054 entries, or 10.6% (3,054 ÷ 28,782 = 0.1061). In the June 2025 series, 53.8% of candidates achieved grade 5 or above and 71.4% achieved grade 4 or above.
Pearson's specification names direct progression routes to AS and A-level Mathematics and Further Mathematics, plus Level 3 subjects including Biology, Economics, Geography, Psychology and Sociology, and vocational qualifications such as a BTEC in Business. It also states, more generally, that the qualification supports progression into training and employment where quantitative methods are used.
GCSE Statistics is sat alongside GCSE Maths rather than instead of it. Pearson's own prior-knowledge appendix lists content the specification assumes a student already has from their GCSE Maths teaching — standard form, ratio and proportion, and the general equation of a straight line, y = mx + c — so a student struggling with GCSE Statistics is often missing GCSE Maths foundations rather than anything specific to statistics. Our GCSE Maths tutoring page covers those foundations directly, and our maths tutors regularly work across both qualifications with the same student.
None of that prior-knowledge overlap shows up in the entries figures as a straightforward substitution. A school timetabling GCSE Statistics is adding a qualification alongside GCSE Maths, not replacing it — Statistics is not one of the two tiers of GCSE Maths and does not appear on a school's core timetable in the way English, Maths and Science do. That is part of why the 10.6% rise in entries between June 2025 and June 2026 is worth noting on its own terms: it reflects more schools choosing to offer an additional, genuinely optional qualification, not a shift within an existing compulsory subject.
Ready to find out where your child's Statistics tier and grade sit against these boundaries? Our Edexcel GCSE Statistics tutors run a short diagnostic against the actual 1ST0 paper structure before building a programme around it.
Book a Free ConsultationMessage us on WhatsAppEdexcel GCSE Statistics is specification code 1ST0, Issue 2, dated December 2017. Pearson's own specification document states first teaching from September 2017 and first certification from June 2019, and the qualification's Ofqual qualification number is 603/1084/4. The two papers are coded 1ST0/1F and 1ST0/1H at Foundation tier and 1ST0/2F and 1ST0/2H at Higher tier. A different code, or an edition with no date attached, is not describing the specification a student sitting Edexcel GCSE Statistics is actually entered for.
Both Paper 1 and Paper 2 of Edexcel GCSE Statistics last 1 hour and 30 minutes, carry 80 marks and are worth 50% of the qualification each, according to Pearson's specification. Both papers assess all three content areas - the collection of data, processing and analysing data, and probability - rather than splitting them across the two papers. Foundation tier is entered on papers 1ST0/1F and 1ST0/2F and awards grades 1 to 5; Higher tier is entered on 1ST0/1H and 1ST0/2H and awards grades 4 to 9, with an allowance for grade 3 close to the boundary.
The statistical enquiry cycle is the five-stage process Edexcel's specification builds Assessment Objective 3 around, worth 20% of the qualification. Pearson names the stages as planning; sourcing and collecting data; processing and presenting; interpreting results in context; and communicating findings while evaluating the work done. A student who can carry out the calculations correctly but cannot explain why a sampling method was chosen, or what a result means for the original question, is missing marks the specification sets aside for that judgement specifically - marks a topic list alone will not prepare them for.
Foundation tier has no formulae sheet, though the specification states that one rate-of-change formula is still given directly in the assessment despite the absence of a sheet. Higher tier students receive a page-2 formulae sheet containing the skewness formula, two forms of the standard deviation formula, Spearman's rank correlation coefficient and the rate-of-change formula. Several formulae used only at Higher tier are not given anywhere, including the Petersen capture-recapture formula, the standardised score formula, the weighted and geometric mean formulae, and the rules for identifying outliers - Pearson's own wording is that students 'will be expected to know these formulae; they will not be given in the assessments.'
Foundation tier's grade 4 boundary out of 160 marks has fallen across five series: 76 in June 2022, 71 in June 2023, 70 in June 2024, 68 in June 2025 and 66 in the June 2026 provisional series, a fall of 10 marks. Higher tier's grade 9 boundary has moved the other way and less smoothly: 121 in June 2022, 120 in June 2023, 125 in June 2024, 121 in June 2025 and 129 in the June 2026 provisional series - its highest point across the five series, all published directly by Pearson.
31,836 candidates sat Edexcel GCSE Statistics in the June 2026 provisional series, Pearson's own results statistics show, up from 28,782 in the June 2025 final series - a rise of 3,054 entries, or 10.6%. In the June 2025 series, 53.8% of candidates achieved grade 5 or above and 71.4% achieved grade 4 or above. The qualification is sat alongside GCSE Maths rather than instead of it: Pearson's specification lists prior knowledge including standard form, ratio and proportion and the equation of a straight line, all GCSE-Maths-level content.
Pearson's own specification names progression to AS and A-level Mathematics and Further Mathematics, to Level 3 subjects including Biology, Economics, Geography, Psychology and Sociology, and to vocational qualifications such as a BTEC in Business. It also states more generally that the qualification supports progression into training and employment where quantitative methods are used. For a family choosing between GCSE options, that breadth is part of the case for the subject: it is not a niche add-on but a qualification Pearson positions as feeding directly into the sciences, social sciences and quantitative business routes at Level 3.
OCR's own live GCSE subject list, checked on 7 September 2026, runs alphabetically from Ancient History through Combined Science and carries no Statistics entry. A site-restricted search of eduqas.co.uk and wjec.co.uk for GCSE Statistics on the same date returned only statistics-within-Maths teaching resources and exam-results archives, never a standalone GCSE Statistics qualification page from either board. That is absence from each board's live subject list on the date checked, not a claim that a qualification was withdrawn - a family should always check a board's own live subject list on the date they read this page, rather than assuming a page found online is up to date.
Leading Tuition's tutors work from the 1ST0 specification's actual paper structure, formula sheet and enquiry-cycle requirements every week, not a generic statistics topic list.
91% of our students achieve their desired grades, and we are rated 4.8 out of 5 on Trustpilot from 58 reviews. See our maths tutoring service or the A-level Maths guide.
Book a Free Consultation