Grades 1 to 5, what AQA marks Higher-only, and boundaries by June series
Book a Free ConsultationAQA GCSE Physics Foundation Tier (8463F) is the version of the 8463 qualification that awards grades 1 to 5 from two written papers of 1 hour 45 minutes and 100 marks each. Our expert Foundation physics tutors teach the papers as they are sat: the calculations and the equations sheet first, then the content, leaving out only what the specification marks (HT only).
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Our expert GCSE physics tutors help Foundation Tier students work through both 8463F papers, topic by topic, building each programme around the student's own mock results, school and AQA specification.
Book a Free Consultation Message us on WhatsAppAQA's report on the examination for 8463/1F in June 2024 says the paper is set at two levels of demand. Low demand questions are targeted at students working at grades 1 to 3, and standard demand questions at students working at grades 4 to 5. The report adds that a student's final grade rests on attainment across the qualification as a whole, not only on the questions aimed at the level they are working at.
Calculations are where the two levels separate most visibly. For grade 1 to 3 calculations, the report says the equation is always given and students are not required to rearrange it. At grade 4 to 5, it says students are expected to rearrange equations and convert units, and it says grade 4 to 5 calculations were answered more successfully because every student had a Physics Equations Sheet with all the equations printed on it. The reports for both Foundation papers then name the questions on which marks were lost.
| Paper and question, June 2024 | What was asked | What AQA's report says |
|---|---|---|
| 8463/1F 02.3 | A low-demand calculation | 94% scored 2 marks; for low-demand calculations the equation is provided in the rearrangement needed. |
| 8463/1F 03.5 | A standard-demand calculation worth 3 marks | 56% scored all 3 marks. |
| 8463/1F 05.6 | A temperature-change calculation | 35% scored 3 marks and 45% scored none; the report calls it a good discriminator between students who could and could not rearrange an equation. |
| 8463/1F 07.5 | A standard-demand calculation needing a unit conversion | 72% multiplied the numbers given and scored 2 marks; very few attempted the unit conversion; 8% scored 3 marks. |
| 8463/1F 10.3 | Energy transferred from power and time | 67% scored 2 marks for multiplying power by time; most attempts to convert the power were incorrect; 3% scored all 3 marks. |
| 8463/2F 07.2 | A pressure calculation | 58% scored all 3 marks; the unit of area in m2 confused some students into squaring 49. |
| 8463/2F 07.5 | A percentage calculation | Too difficult for many students; a common answer was 75% instead of 25%. |
| 8463/2F 07.6 | Writing down the equation with the sheet to hand | 3% wrote down no equation and 7% quoted the wrong one. |
| 8463/2F 07.7 | A spring constant calculation | 77% got all 3 marks; some struggled to rearrange the equation. |
| 8463/2F 07.8 | A velocity calculation worth 4 marks | 24% gained all 4 marks; those who did not usually failed to show a full substitution and stopped at 2as. |
The 8463/2F report also describes a pattern behind several of these rows: a significant number of students think that a value with a square or a cube in its unit has to be squared or cubed, so that an area of 49 m2 becomes 492 when substituted into the equation. The 8463/1F report states the marking principle for 3-mark calculations: the first mark is for the substitution, the second for the rearrangement and the third for the answer.
The Physics Equations Sheet AQA issued for use in June 2024 is headed with the key "HT = Higher Tier only equations", and AQA's assessment resources page lists that insert as "(Foundation; Higher)". A Foundation candidate therefore holds the same table as a Higher candidate, and the rows beginning HT are the ones outside the Foundation papers. They are the pressure due to a column of liquid, momentum, force as change in momentum over time taken, and the force on a conductor at right angles to a magnetic field carrying a current, and the transformer equations. The specification marks the same equations HT in Appendix A.
The specification divides its equations by what a student must do with them. The specification gives equations students should be able to recall and apply, and equations students should be able to select and apply from the Physics equation sheet. Our AQA GCSE Physics (8463) overview carries those tables, so this page does not repeat them. The June 2023 papers show the kind of question that remains for the student: in 8463/1F, question 04.3 asked "Write down the equation which links energy (E), power (P) and time (t)" and question 10.2 asked which equation links charge flow, energy and potential difference; in 8463/2F, question 06.6 asked for the equation linking frequency, wave speed and wavelength and question 09.6 asked which equation links area, force and pressure.
What this changes in our programme. Every Foundation calculation topic is taught in the same steps, because those are the steps the reports show marks leaving at:
Calculation marks are the quickest to win
Our expert GCSE physics tutors help Foundation Tier students rehearse naming the equation, substituting in full, rearranging and converting units on the questions in AQA's own 8463/1F and 8463/2F questions. Book a call about Foundation Physics tutoring for your child.
Book a Free Consultation Message us on WhatsAppAQA's specification says content applicable only to Higher Tier is indicated by (HT only), placed next to a topic heading where it applies to the whole topic, or immediately before a paragraph or bullet point. The label (physics only) is a different marker: the specification uses it to separate this GCSE from the content co-taught with GCSE Combined Science: Trilogy, so we read only (HT only) as Higher-only. Paper 1 assesses topics 1 to 4 and Paper 2 assesses topics 5 to 8, which sets the first column below.
| Paper | Specification section | Foundation keeps | Marked (HT only) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4.1.2.2 Efficiency | Recall and apply both efficiency equations. | Describe ways to increase the efficiency of an intended energy transfer. |
| 1 | 4.3.3.2 and 4.3.3.3 Gas pressure | 4.3.3.2 Pressure in gases (physics only): calculate the change in the pressure or volume of a fixed mass of gas at constant temperature. | 4.3.3.3 Increasing the pressure of a gas (physics only) (HT only): explain how doing work on an enclosed gas, for example with a bicycle pump, raises its temperature. |
| 1 | 4.4.2.3 Half-lives | Explain half-life; determine the half-life of an isotope from given information. | Calculate the net decline, expressed as a ratio, in a radioactive emission after a given number of half-lives. |
| 2 | 4.5.1.4 Resultant forces | Calculate the resultant of two forces that act in a straight line. | Describe the forces on an isolated object; use free body diagrams; resolve a single force into two components at right angles; use vector diagrams (scale drawings only). |
| 2 | 4.5.5.1 Pressure in a fluid | 4.5.5.1.1 Pressure in a fluid 1: the equation pressure = force normal to a surface over the area of that surface. | 4.5.5.1.2 Pressure in a fluid 2 (HT only): the pressure due to a column of liquid, differences in pressure at different depths, and the factors which influence floating and sinking. |
| 2 | 4.5.6.1.3 Velocity | Explain the vector–scalar distinction for displacement, distance, velocity and speed. | Explain qualitatively, with examples, that motion in a circle involves constant speed but changing velocity. |
| 2 | 4.5.6.1.4 The distance–time relationship | Determine speed from a distance–time graph. | Find the speed of an accelerating object at a given time by drawing a tangent and measuring the gradient. |
| 2 | 4.5.6.1.5 Acceleration | Draw velocity–time graphs from measurements and interpret lines and slopes to determine acceleration. | Calculate distance travelled (or displacement) from the area under a velocity–time graph, including enclosed areas and counting squares. |
| 2 | 4.5.6.2.1 and 4.5.6.2.2 Newton's First and Second Laws | Apply Newton's First Law to objects moving at uniform velocity or changing speed or direction; recall and apply resultant force = mass × acceleration. | The name inertia for the tendency to continue at rest or in uniform motion; inertial mass as a measure of how difficult it is to change velocity, defined as the ratio of force over acceleration. |
| 2 | 4.5.6.3.4 Factors affecting braking distance 2 | Explain the dangers caused by large decelerations. | Estimate the forces involved in the deceleration of road vehicles in typical situations on a public road. |
| 2 | 4.5.7 Momentum (HT only) | The heading itself carries the marker. | Momentum = mass × velocity; conservation of momentum in events such as collisions; 4.5.7.3 Changes in momentum (physics only). |
| 2 | 4.6.1.4 Sound waves and 4.6.1.5 Waves for detection and exploration | These headings carry (physics only) (HT only). | The range of normal human hearing, 20 Hz to 20 kHz; ultrasound and echo sounding; seismic P-waves and S-waves. |
| 2 | 4.6.2.2 Properties of electromagnetic waves 1 | Construct ray diagrams to illustrate the refraction of a wave at the boundary between two media. | Absorption, transmission, refraction and reflection varying with wavelength; refraction caused by the difference in wave velocity; wave front diagrams. |
| 2 | 4.6.2.3 and 4.6.2.4 Properties of electromagnetic waves 2; uses and applications | 4.6.2.4 lists applications, for example radio waves for television and radio. | Radio waves produced by oscillations in electrical circuits and inducing alternating current when absorbed; brief explanations of why each type of electromagnetic wave suits its application. |
| 2 | 4.6.3.2 Perfect black bodies and radiation | Explain that all bodies emit radiation and that the intensity and wavelength distribution depend on temperature. | Explain a body's temperature from the balance between radiation absorbed and emitted, including the factors that determine the temperature of the Earth. |
| 2 | 4.7.2 The motor effect | 4.7.2.1 Electromagnetism: explain how a solenoid can increase the magnetic effect of the current. | 4.7.2.2 Fleming's left-hand rule, 4.7.2.3 Electric motors and 4.7.2.4 Loudspeakers (physics only): each heading carries (HT only). |
| 2 | 4.7.3 Induced potential, transformers and the National Grid | The topic heading carries (physics only) (HT only). | 4.7.3.1 Induced potential, 4.7.3.2 Uses of the generator effect (alternator and dynamo), 4.7.3.3 Microphones and 4.7.3.4 Transformers. |
| 2 | 4.8.1.3 Orbital motion, natural and artificial satellites | Describe the similarities and distinctions between the planets, their moons and artificial satellites. | For circular orbits, gravity leading to changing velocity but unchanged speed; for a stable orbit, the radius changing if the speed changes. |
Some topics are marked from the top: the heading of 4.5.7 Momentum is itself marked (HT only), so the momentum calculations sit outside a Foundation plan. Many other items are marked statement by statement inside a topic that Foundation otherwise covers, so the topic cannot simply be dropped: resultant forces, motion graphs and the laws of motion each keep a Foundation half. And not every unusual item is Higher-only. The red-shift section, 4.8.2, is headed (physics only) alone, and the pV = constant calculation sits under 4.3.3.2, whose heading carries (physics only) alone, so both stay.
What this changes in our programme. A Foundation plan stops at the marker: statements beginning (HT only) are not taught, and the plan keeps the Foundation half of the same topic, such as the resultant of two forces in a straight line or speed from the gradient of a distance–time graph. Lesson time that a Higher course spends on momentum, the motor effect and transformers goes instead to the calculation practice in the previous section and to the Foundation half of each shared topic.
Foundation Tier physics, taught to the specification
Our expert physics tutors help Foundation students across the UK cover exactly the 8463F content, and practise the calculations the examiners' reports single out. Book a short call about Foundation GCSE Physics tuition for your child's school and mock results.
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AQA sets grade boundaries on the total scaled mark out of 200, because Paper 1 and Paper 2 each carry a scaling factor of 1 on 100 marks. The table gives the 8463F row from AQA's grade boundary document for each June series: the mark out of 200 that earns grades 5 to 1.
| Series | Grade 5 | Grade 4 | Grade 3 | Grade 2 | Grade 1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 2022 | 135 | 115 | 83 | 52 | 21 |
| June 2023 | 133 | 120 | 86 | 53 | 20 |
| June 2024 | 136 | 122 | 89 | 56 | 24 |
| June 2025 | 144 | 131 | 95 | 59 | 24 |
| June 2026 | 141 | 126 | 92 | 58 | 24 |
As a share of the 200 marks, the same boundaries move within a narrow band. The grade 4 boundary was 57.5%, 60.0%, 61.0%, 65.5% and 63.0% in the five series, and the grade 5 boundary was 67.5%, 66.5%, 68.0%, 72.0% and 70.5%.
| Grade | Lowest boundary | Highest boundary | Spread in marks | Mean of the five series (sum of the five boundaries ÷ 5; share = mean ÷ 200) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | 133 (June 2023) | 144 (June 2025) | 11 | 137.8 (68.9%) |
| 4 | 115 (June 2022) | 131 (June 2025) | 16 | 122.8 (61.4%) |
| 3 | 83 (June 2022) | 95 (June 2025) | 12 | 89.0 (44.5%) |
| 2 | 52 (June 2022) | 59 (June 2025) | 7 | 55.6 (27.8%) |
| 1 | 20 (June 2023) | 24 (June 2024) | 4 | 22.6 (11.3%) |
| Change from the first row to the last | Grade 5 | Grade 4 | Grade 3 | Grade 2 | Grade 1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 2022 to June 2026, in marks out of 200 | +6 | +11 | +9 | +6 | +3 |
The spread and the gaps stand out. The grade 4 boundary has the widest spread of any grade, 16 marks between its lowest and highest series, so a single series is a poor guide to a target mark. And the neighbouring boundaries sit closer together at the top: grade 5 sat 20, 13, 14, 13 and 15 marks above grade 4 in the five series, and grade 4 sat 32, 34, 33, 36 and 34 marks above grade 3.
AQA's documents also give notional component boundaries for each Foundation paper, which AQA describes as being for illustrative purposes only. They are not boundaries a student is graded against, because the grade is set on the total. They show how the 200 splits between the papers in each series.
| Series | Grade 5, 8463/1F | Grade 5, 8463/2F | Grade 4, 8463/1F | Grade 4, 8463/2F | Grade 3, 8463/1F | Grade 3, 8463/2F |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 2022 | 69 | 66 | 59 | 56 | 43 | 40 |
| June 2023 | 69 | 64 | 63 | 57 | 45 | 41 |
| June 2024 | 72 | 64 | 66 | 56 | 48 | 41 |
| June 2025 | 72 | 72 | 66 | 65 | 48 | 47 |
| June 2026 | 68 | 73 | 60 | 66 | 44 | 48 |
What this changes in our programme. We mark every mock paper out of 100, add the two papers to a total out of 200, and read the total against the whole band in the tables rather than against one series. A student whose mock total sits inside the grade 4 band of 115 to 131 is told that, and the plan targets the calculation marks that the examiners' reports show are lost, because those are the marks practice targets directly. We use the paper-by-paper figures only to see which paper is lagging.
Mock results as a starting point
Our expert GCSE physics tutors help Foundation Tier students read a mock total against the full range of AQA boundaries and plan the weeks before the exam around the marks that can still move. Book a call about Foundation Physics tuition.
Book a Free Consultation Message us on WhatsAppAQA's guide, titled "Tiering guide: Foundation or Higher tier for GCSE sciences?", says the Foundation tier goes all the way up to a grade 5 for Biology, Chemistry and Physics. The specification sets the same range for 8463: a Foundation candidate is awarded a grade from 1 to 5, and below grade 1 the result is U. The guide also says nobody is a better judge of a student's ability than their teacher, so the entry decision belongs to the school.
The guide was written by AQA after the 2018 exams, the first for the current specifications. Among its advice is a sentence about the allowed grade 3 that the Higher Tier awards: if a school feels a student might rely on that grade from the outset, it is "probably worth entering them for the Foundation tier". It also says 30% of the marks on each tiered paper are common to both tiers, and suggests looking at performance on those common questions in mock exams. Our AQA GCSE Physics Higher Tier tutoring page sets out the other tier's content and range.
AQA's tiering quick-reference poster states that in the separate sciences a student must sit the same tier within each separate science but does not have to sit the same tier for all three. A student can be on Foundation physics while sitting another science at a different tier. The same Foundation pattern runs through our pages for AQA GCSE Chemistry Foundation Tier and AQA GCSE Biology Foundation Tier.
What this changes in our programme. We do not choose the tier. Our tutors work from the tier on the student's entry, and when a mock result sits near the top of the Foundation range we tell the family what the school's mock marks and AQA's guidance each say, and leave the decision with the teacher.
A programme starts from the student's mock papers rather than from a generic scheme. The first session sorts the marks lost on each paper into calculation steps, recall, and extended answers, using the pattern the examiners' reports describe. Content then follows the specification order for the papers: Energy, Electricity, Particle model of matter and Atomic structure for Paper 1, then Forces, Waves, Magnetism and electromagnetism, and Space physics for Paper 2, stopping at each (HT only) marker. Practice papers are AQA's own, taken from its past papers and mark schemes finder, and each is timed to the 1 hour 45 minutes of the real paper.
The extended-answer marks need separate attention. In the June 2024 report for 8463/1F, question 11.1 asked how resistance should be measured from a photograph of the apparatus: many answers said only to measure the resistance, 3% reached Level 3 and 16% Level 2. Our tutors have students write the method as a sequence naming the instrument, the quantity it reads and the equation that turns the readings into the result. The specification itself is on AQA's GCSE Physics 8463 page, and our GCSE Physics tutoring page covers the other boards.
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Reviewed October 2026: specification wording, equation sheet keys, boundaries and examiner-report figures checked against AQA's own documents.
Ready to start on the Foundation papers?
Our expert Foundation GCSE physics tutors help students across the UK prepare for 8463F with the calculation drills, content and timed papers described above. Book a call to talk through the school, mock results and target grade.
Book a Free Consultation Message us on WhatsAppGrades 1 to 5. AQA's specification says a student taking Foundation Tier assessments will be awarded a grade within the range of 1 to 5, and a student who fails to reach the minimum standard for grade 1 is recorded as U (unclassified) and receives no qualification certificate. The Foundation entry code is 8463F, and the Higher entry code is 8463H. Both papers are sat in the same series, because the qualification is linear and every assessment comes at the end of the course.
The specification heading reads 4.5.7 Momentum (HT only), so AQA marks the whole topic as Higher Tier content. Appendix A also marks the equation momentum = mass × velocity with HT, and the equations sheet for June 2024 prints it under the same key. Conservation of momentum, collisions and 4.5.7.3 Changes in momentum all sit under that heading. Newton's Second Law, resultant force = mass × acceleration, stays in a Foundation plan as an equation to recall and apply.
Yes. The June 2023 front covers for 8463/1F and 8463/2F list the Physics Equations Sheet as enclosed material, and AQA's June 2024 report for 8463/1F says all students had a sheet with all the equations printed on it. The sheet for June 2026 carries the key HT = Higher Tier only equations. A sheet does not select the equation for a student: in the June 2024 report for 8463/2F, question 07.6, 3% wrote down no equation and 7% quoted the wrong one.
Out of 200 marks, the grade 4 boundary was 115 in June 2022, 120 in June 2023, 122 in June 2024, 131 in June 2025 and 126 in June 2026. The grade 5 boundary was 135, 133, 136, 144 and 141 in the same five series. Grade 1 sat between 20 and 24 marks. These are the 8463F rows in AQA's grade boundary documents for each series, and the table above gives grades 5 to 1 for each one.
Each paper is a written exam of 1 hour 45 minutes worth 100 marks and 50% of the GCSE. Paper 1 assesses topics 1 to 4: Energy, Electricity, Particle model of matter and Atomic structure. Paper 2 assesses topics 5 to 8: Forces, Waves, Magnetism and electromagnetism, and Space physics, and AQA says its questions may draw on energy changes and transfers from Energy and Electricity. Question types are multiple choice, structured, closed short answer and open response.
AQA's tiering quick-reference poster says that in the separate sciences a student must sit the same tier within each separate science but does not have to sit the same tier for all three. A student can therefore be entered for physics at Foundation (8463F) and for biology at Higher, if the school judges that right. The school makes the entry, and AQA's tiering guide says nobody is a better judge of a student's ability than their teacher.
The specification says that in Foundation Tier papers questions assessing maths requirements will not be lower than that expected at Key Stage 3. Its maths skills include using ratios, fractions and percentages and making estimates of simple calculations. The June 2024 reports show where those skills lose marks: in 8463/2F question 07.5, a common answer to a percentage calculation was 75% instead of 25%, and in 8463/1F question 07.5 only 8% scored 3 marks once a unit conversion was needed.
The specification says exams are available every May/June for the life of the specification. The boundaries on this page come from AQA's grade boundary documents for June 2022, June 2023, June 2024, June 2025 and June 2026, each carrying a row for 8463F. Grade boundaries are set on the total scaled mark out of 200, because Paper 1 and Paper 2 each carry a scaling factor of 1 on 100 marks.
Book a free consultation to talk through your child's mock results, target grade and the Foundation papers with an expert physics tutor. See also our AQA GCSE Physics overview.
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