Pearson Edexcel Chemistry papers 1CH0/1F and 1CH0/2F, taught from the board's own specification, boundary tables and examiners' reports
Book a Free ConsultationFoundation tier Pearson Edexcel GCSE Chemistry tutoring from Leading Tuition is one-to-one teaching for papers 1CH0/1F and 1CH0/2F, which each carry 100 marks over 1 hour and 45 minutes and target grades 1 to 5. Every programme is built from the board's specification, its grade boundary tables and its examiners' reports, and 91% of our students achieve their desired grades.
Our expert GCSE Chemistry tutors help Foundation tier students across the UK prepare for Edexcel papers 1CH0/1F and 1CH0/2F, building each programme around the student's own mock results and the topics in the table below.
Book a Free Consultation Message us on WhatsAppPearson sets two written papers for Foundation tier Chemistry. The Pearson Edexcel GCSE Chemistry specification (Issue 4, March 2024) gives each paper 1 hour and 45 minutes, 100 marks, ten questions and 50% of the qualification. Calculators may be used, and each paper mixes multiple-choice, short-answer, calculation and extended open-response questions. Students sit every assessment at the same tier, in May/June of a single year.
| Paper | Topics examined | Time | Marks |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1CH0/1F (Paper 1) | Topics 1 to 5: key concepts in chemistry; states of matter and mixtures; chemical changes; extracting metals and equilibria; separate chemistry 1 | 1 hour 45 minutes | 100 |
| 1CH0/2F (Paper 2) | Topic 1 again, then Topics 6 to 9: groups in the periodic table; rates of reaction and energy changes; fuels and Earth science; separate chemistry 2 | 1 hour 45 minutes | 100 |
Topic 1 sits on both papers, so we revisit it in the second half of a programme and do not treat it as taught once and finished. The full topic split, the Chemistry-only markers and the practicals are set out on our Edexcel GCSE Chemistry overview; this page covers what is particular to the Foundation papers.
The board’s examiners describe how the papers are put together. In its June 2025 reports on Paper 1F and Paper 2F, the board’s examiners state that six of the ten questions form one of the Combined Science papers. The June 2024 report on Paper 2F gives the same count and adds that the final three questions in that paper are also found in the equivalent Higher tier chemistry paper. The June 2025 report on Paper 1F says two of the later questions also appear in Higher Tier Combined Science, and that these and a further question appear in Higher Tier GCSE Chemistry.
The specification puts the shared material in marks: 27 marks of each paper are overlap questions that appear in both the foundation and higher tier papers. The board’s tier-entry guide says overlap questions tend to come towards the end of the Foundation paper, and its June 2018 overlap table for Chemistry Paper 1 totals 27 marks. The same guide describes Foundation papers as generally starting with lower-demand questions to build confidence, with around half of the question items targeted at low demand and around half at medium demand.
The June 2024 report on Paper 2F also records two warnings that matter for planning. It says the separate science questions performed less well than the ones that also appeared on the Combined Science paper, and that questions containing a lot of information were often not attempted at all.
What this changes in our programme. We plan Foundation Chemistry as two blocks of work. The material a student shares with Combined Science is secured first, because it makes up six of the ten questions on each paper. The separate chemistry topics, Topic 5 on Paper 1 and Topic 9 on Paper 2, then get their own sessions; the June 2024 report points to testing for anions and cations as the part of Paper 2’s separate chemistry content to focus on. Because long, information-heavy questions went unattempted, we also train students to read a question with several sentences line by line and to write something for every part.
Our expert Chemistry tutors plan each Foundation programme around the shared and separate chemistry questions described above, paper by paper.
Book a Free Consultation Message us on WhatsAppThe specification states its notation once: “text in bold indicates content that is for higher tier only”. We checked that marker against the type in the PDF itself, not only the extracted text. Every statement in the left column below is set in a bold face while its neighbours are not, and section headings, which are also bold, are excluded. A number with a C, such as 5.8C, marks Chemistry-only content that the specification says is not found in Combined Science. That label is not a tier marker: 5.9C, 5.11C and 5.14C are plain type and are examined at Foundation, while 5.8C and 5.10C are bold.
| Topic | Set in bold: Higher tier only | Plain type beside it: examined at Foundation |
|---|---|---|
| 0 and 1: formulae, equations and key concepts | 0.4 write balanced ionic equations; 1.12 calculate relative atomic mass from isotope masses and abundances; 1.50 the mole defined by the Avogadro constant (6.02 × 1023) and relative particle mass in grams; 1.51 calculate moles and particles; 1.52 explain how the reactant not in excess controls the mass of product; 1.53 deduce stoichiometry from masses | 0.3 balanced equations with state symbols; 1.11 why isotopes make some relative atomic masses non-whole numbers; 1.48 masses of reactants and products from balanced equations; 1.49 concentration in g dm−3 |
| 3: chemical changes | 3.4 and 3.5 hydrogen ion concentration and pH, including a factor of 10 changing pH by 1; 3.7 dilute and concentrated; 3.8 weak and strong acids by degree of dissociation; 3.27 half equations at anode and cathode; 3.28 oxidation and reduction as loss or gain of electrons; 3.29 reduction at the cathode, oxidation at the anode | 3.2 the pH scale; 3.9 a base as a substance that reacts with an acid to form a salt and water only; 3.23 electrolysis defined; 3.30 copper sulfate solution with copper electrodes and the purification of copper |
| 4: extracting metals and equilibria | 4.2 displacement reactions as redox in terms of electrons; 4.8 evaluate bacterial and phytoextraction methods; 4.17 predict how the position of a dynamic equilibrium is affected by temperature, pressure and concentration | 4.1 relative reactivity of metals; 4.7 extraction method linked to the reactivity series; 4.15 ammonia as a reversible reaction reaching dynamic equilibrium; 4.16 conditions for the Haber process |
| 5: separate chemistry 1 | 5.8C mol dm−3 concentration and conversion from g dm−3; 5.10C titration calculations; 5.15C choose a reaction pathway from atom economy, yield, rate, equilibrium position and by-products; 5.16C and 5.17C molar volume; 5.18C Avogadro’s law for gas volumes; 5.20C predict how the rate of reaching equilibrium changes; 5.21C relate industrial conditions to raw materials, energy and yield | 5.9C carry out an accurate acid-alkali titration; 5.11C percentage yield; 5.14C atom economy; 5.19C the Haber process as a reversible reaction |
| 6, 7 and 9 | 6.12 halogen displacement as redox, naming what is oxidised and reduced; 7.14 energy change from bond energies in kJ mol−1; 9.22C why polyesters are condensation polymers and how they form | 6.11 relative reactivity of chlorine, bromine and iodine, used to predict astatine; 7.13 overall heat energy change as exothermic or endothermic; 9.21C uses of polymers related to their properties |
The specification’s “Use of mathematics” notes carry the same marking. Its bullets on calculations with numbers written in standard form when using the Avogadro constant, and on converting units where appropriate, particularly from mass to moles, are set in bold. The board’s tier-entry guide confirms the convention: all content for higher tier, including the required maths skills, is emboldened.
Where Foundation covers part of a topic, the line falls in a consistent place. In quantitative chemistry the plain-type points reach reacting masses (1.48), concentration in g dm−3 (1.49), percentage yield (5.11C) and atom economy (5.14C), and the bold points begin when the mole is defined (1.50). In electrolysis, Foundation includes defining the process (3.23) and the copper purification case (3.30); the bold points add half equations and the electron description of oxidation and reduction (3.27 to 3.29). In equilibrium, Foundation includes the Haber process as a reversible reaction with its conditions (4.15, 4.16 and 5.19C); the bold points add predicting how conditions move the position (4.17) or the rate of reaching equilibrium (5.20C).
What this changes in our programme. Our Foundation lessons are drawn from the right-hand column. We do not put the mole, half equations or equilibrium prediction on a Foundation timetable, because the specification marks them Higher-only. The time goes instead on the plain-type calculations, which examiners report as a point of lost marks in the next section, and on the plain-type practical, the titration (5.9C), where students need to handle the apparatus and the readings without the bold calculation that follows it.
Our expert Chemistry tutors teach Foundation students from the plain-type column above, so lesson time goes on the calculations and practicals this tier examines.
Book a Free Consultation Message us on WhatsAppThe board publishes an examiners’ report for each paper. We read the June 2025 reports for Paper 1F and Paper 2F and the June 2024 report for Paper 2F. They name specific habits, and we have turned each one into practice.
What this changes in our programme. Each of these becomes a standing drill: a calculation set with every line of working shown, a titration-reading exercise, a one-page list of gas and ion tests, and a weekly question that requires a Level 3 explanation. The drills use past questions from the board’s Foundation papers, and a student’s own errors decide which one we repeat.
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Our Foundation Chemistry tutors build the calculation, practical and recall drills from the examiners’ reports in this section.
Book a Free Consultation Message us on WhatsAppPearson publishes grade boundaries for the overall qualification, so each figure below is the total across 1CH0/1F and 1CH0/2F out of 200 marks. The table gives the Foundation tier only, for the three June series in our table.
| Series | Maximum | Grade 5 | Grade 4 | Grade 3 | Grade 2 | Grade 1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 2024 | 200 | 119 | 99 | 75 | 51 | 28 |
| June 2025 | 200 | 124 | 104 | 78 | 52 | 27 |
| June 2026 | 200 | 137 | 118 | 88 | 59 | 30 |
Expressed as a share of the 200-mark maximum, the boundaries are below. Each is the boundary divided by 200 and multiplied by 100.
| Series | Grade 5 | Grade 4 | Grade 3 | Grade 2 | Grade 1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 2024 | 59.5% | 49.5% | 37.5% | 25.5% | 14.0% |
| June 2025 | 62.0% | 52.0% | 39.0% | 26.0% | 13.5% |
| June 2026 | 68.5% | 59.0% | 44.0% | 29.5% | 15.0% |
Moving from the first series to the second, the boundaries changed by +5 marks for grade 5, +5 for grade 4, +3 for grade 3, +1 for grade 2 and −1 for grade 1. Moving from the second to the third, every boundary rose: +13 for grade 5, +14 for grade 4, +10 for grade 3, +7 for grade 2 and +3 for grade 1. The distance between the grade 5 and grade 4 boundaries was 20, 20 and 19 marks; between grade 4 and grade 3 it was 24, 26 and 30 marks; and from the grade 5 boundary to the 200-mark maximum it was 81, 76 and 63 marks.
Pearson also publishes notional component boundaries for each paper, marked out of 100. The board’s own explanation is that notional grade performance at component level plays no part in determining a qualification grade, so they are a guide and not a second set of targets. The Foundation figures for papers 1F and 2F are below.
| Series and paper | Grade 5 | Grade 4 | Grade 3 | Grade 2 | Grade 1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 2024, Paper 1F | 60 | 50 | 38 | 26 | 14 |
| June 2024, Paper 2F | 59 | 49 | 37 | 25 | 14 |
| June 2025, Paper 1F | 63 | 53 | 40 | 27 | 15 |
| June 2025, Paper 2F | 61 | 51 | 38 | 25 | 12 |
| June 2026, Paper 1F | 74 | 64 | 48 | 32 | 17 |
| June 2026, Paper 2F | 63 | 54 | 40 | 26 | 13 |
What this changes in our programme. We do not set a student’s target from one year’s table. The grade 4 boundary sat between 99 and 118 marks of 200 across the three series, so we mark mock papers against the highest of them, 118, and treat the lower figures as margin. We set targets on the total of both papers, because that is what the board grades, and use the per-paper figures only to see which paper a student’s marks are coming from. The board’s tier-entry guide says mock papers read against notional boundaries can give a close indication of performance.
The specification says the Foundation paper targets grades 1 to 5. It also says that for foundation tier, grades 1 to 5 are available, and that a grade 3 may be awarded to a Higher tier candidate whose mark falls a small number of marks below the 4/3 boundary. The tier decision is made by the school, and tutoring does not make it. The board’s tier-entry guide, written for the summer 2020 entry round, points schools to factors that include predicted grades, prior attainment, progression plans and temperament.
What the board says is useful to a family sitting Foundation. It says low-attaining students may be able to pick up more marks in the Foundation paper because the Higher paper starts at medium demand. It says certain question types, such as words in a box, sentence completion or line matching, appear only in the Foundation paper, and that Foundation papers may use more scaffolding within questions. For maths, it says the level assessed by Foundation papers is at least Key Stage 3 mathematics, and that maths skills account for 20% of the marks in Chemistry under Ofqual’s requirements.
Two points matter for a student who might want to change course later. First, the board says students predicted grade 6 or above should be aiming towards Higher tier, and that if grade 6 is a requirement for sixth-form study, it can only be achieved in the higher-tier papers; it advises speaking to post-16 providers about their requirements. Second, a separate science student can sit Foundation or Higher in each GCSE, so Chemistry at Foundation does not fix the tier for Biology or Physics. Our Foundation Edexcel GCSE Biology tutoring follows the same approach for that subject. If your child’s school is entering them for Higher Chemistry, see our Higher tier Edexcel GCSE Chemistry page, which is written from the Higher tier’s own documents.
What this changes in our programme. We start every Foundation student with a conversation about the school’s tier decision and the post-16 route, and we plan to the Foundation papers only when the entry is Foundation. We do not teach Higher-only content to Foundation entrants on the chance of a change, because the specification requires every assessment to be at one tier and a move changes both papers together.
Our expert Chemistry tutors turn the boundary table into a working target for each Foundation student and mark every mock paper against it.
Book a Free Consultation Message us on WhatsAppA programme begins from the student’s own evidence: the school’s course plan, recent mock marks and the errors on them. Each tutor then works through the Foundation papers in the order the specification sets them. Paper 1 content in Topics 1 to 5 comes first, with Topic 1 reviewed again once Paper 2 begins, followed by Paper 2 content in Topics 6 to 9. Calculation fluency runs alongside the topic work, because the examiners’ reports return to calculations on every paper we read.
Each session combines three elements. A recall drill covers tests for gases and ions, apparatus names and key terms. A calculation set uses the plain-type points: reacting masses, concentration in g dm−3, percentage yield, atom economy and titration readings. An exam-question section asks for explanations written to the board’s levelled marking, so a student practises moving from a one-point answer to a linked one. Practical work is covered through the core practicals named in the specification, since the June 2024 report asks for experience of all of them as a minimum.
Ahead of the May/June papers we switch to timed practice on past Foundation papers, using the board’s own mark schemes, and we compare the total against the highest boundary in the table above. Tutors report back to the family after mock results arrive, and the plan is adjusted to the errors found. The aim is a total across both papers that has margin over the boundary, not a lucky pass on one paper.
Yes. The specification says that for foundation tier, grades 1 to 5 are available, and grade 5 is the top of the range. In the three June series in our table, the Foundation grade 5 boundary was 119, 124 and 137 marks out of 200. Those marks are the total across 1CH0/1F and 1CH0/2F. Grade 6 is not available at this tier: the board's tier-entry guide says that if grade 6 is a requirement, it can only be achieved in the higher-tier papers.
Yes. The specification says students must complete all assessments for this qualification in the same tier, and the board's tier-entry guide adds that a separate science student can sit Foundation or Higher in each GCSE but cannot mix tiers between Papers 1 and 2. A student could therefore take Foundation Chemistry and a different tier in Biology or Physics. All assessment is sat in May/June of a single year, so a move of tier changes both 100-mark papers together.
The board's examiners' report on Paper 2F in June 2025 says the first question asked candidates to give the symbol of the element astatine and told them that they could use the periodic table to help. That report describes the question, not the printed sheet, so we ask each student's school which resources its papers carry. In lessons we practise reading symbols, atomic numbers and groups from a periodic table so the first question of Paper 2 is not a lost mark.
The Foundation grade 4 boundary was 99 marks out of 200 in June 2024, 104 in June 2025 and 118 in June 2026. As shares of the 200-mark maximum, that is 49.5%, 52.0% and 59.0%. Pearson publishes these as boundaries for the overall qualification, so the marks are the total of both papers. We mark mock papers against the highest of the three, 118, so a student who clears it has margin.
Pearson's examiners' reports for June 2025 say that six of the ten questions on Paper 1F form one of the Combined Science papers, and the June 2025 and June 2024 reports for Paper 2F say the same of Paper 2F. The June 2024 Paper 2F report adds that separate science questions performed less well than the ones that also appeared on the Combined Science paper. We therefore give Topics 5 and 9, the separate chemistry topics, their own sessions.
The specification sets calculation of masses of reactants and products from balanced equations (1.48), concentration in g dm−3 (1.49), percentage yield (5.11C) and atom economy (5.14C) in plain type, so they are examined at Foundation. It sets the mole definition (1.50), moles of particles (1.51), mol dm−3 concentration (5.8C) and titration calculations (5.10C) in bold, which is Higher-only. The June 2025 Paper 2F report asks candidates to practise empirical formula, concentration, reacting mass and percentage by mass calculations, always showing working.
The June 2025 Paper 1F report says answers involving apparatus should name specific apparatus found in a school laboratory, and its paper summary tells candidates to learn the full description of tests for gases and ions. The June 2024 Paper 2F report asks for experience of all the chemistry core practicals as a minimum and for secure knowledge of testing for anions and cations. We run these as short recall drills in every session.
Book a free consultation to talk through the Edexcel Chemistry papers and a programme for your child, or see our Edexcel GCSE Combined Science tutoring if the school enters your child for that course instead.
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