OCR runs two parallel A-level physics specifications, and only one of them is being withdrawn — here is which is which, and what it means for a Year 12 start in September 2026.
Book a Free ConsultationOCR's A-level Physics qualification splits into two separate specifications: Physics A (H156 AS, H556 A-level) and Physics B, Advancing Physics (H157 AS, H557 A-level). OCR states on its own qualification page that it will stop offering Physics B: final first teaching is September 2026, the final AS assessment is June 2027, and the final A-level assessment is June 2028, with no resit opportunity afterwards. Physics A carries no such notice and continues unaffected.
Our expert OCR A-level physics tutors work with Year 12 and Year 13 students on both Physics A (H556) and the outgoing Physics B (H557), building every programme around the paper structure, practical endorsement and grade boundaries specific to whichever specification a student's school has actually entered them for.
Book a Free Consultation Message us on WhatsAppBoth specifications sit under the same subject name, "OCR A-level Physics", which is exactly why the distinction matters and why it is easy to miss. Physics A (specification codes H156 at AS, H556 at A-level, qualification number 601/4743/X) is OCR's larger, more widely taught physics course. Physics B, marketed as "Advancing Physics" (H157 at AS, H557 at A-level), is a smaller, context-led alternative built around real-world applications of physics rather than the same content taught in a more traditional order.
OCR's own words, from its Physics B qualification page: "Following the review of our suite of general qualifications, we will stop offering our AS Level and A Level Physics B (H157/H557) qualifications." The same page sets out three dates in full: the final first teach date will be September 2026, the final assessment opportunity for AS Level will be June 2027, and the final assessment opportunity for A Level will be June 2028.
| Stage | Specification code | Qualification number | Final assessment |
|---|---|---|---|
| AS Level | H157 | 601/4744/1 | June 2027 |
| A-Level | H557 | 601/4745/3 | June 2028 |
Source: OCR, "Important: Withdrawal of selected Cambridge OCR general qualifications", dated 12 May 2026, first published 19 March 2026.
OCR's own withdrawal notice is explicit about what happens after that second date: "There will not be a resit opportunity after the final assessment opportunity." That sentence is OCR's, not a paraphrase, and it carries a real consequence — a Physics B candidate who fails or misses the June 2028 sitting has no further chance to sit that specification again.
The 12 May 2026 dating on the notice matters for a different reason: the page states it "was first published on 19 March 2026", and its only change since then extended the final assessment window for AS Level Latin (H043) and AS Level Classical Greek (H044) — not Physics. The three Physics B dates above are identical on the withdrawal notice and on the Physics B qualification page itself, so there is no discrepancy between OCR's two sources to flag here.
Physics A gives the opposite signal. Its qualification page, checked live on 7 September 2026, contains no "withdraw" or "stop offering" language anywhere on it. That is the honest way to state a negative: OCR has not published a withdrawal notice for Physics A, and the absence of one, checked directly on OCR's own page rather than inferred, is what "unaffected" means here. Checking a school's specification code, not just the subject name, is the only reliable way to know which course a Year 12 student is actually on — ask for it directly, or look for "H556" or "H557" on the department's own scheme of work.
September 2026 is not a distant deadline for a Year 12 physics class beginning this term — it is the last date OCR will let a school first-teach Physics B at all. A department that started a fresh cohort on H157/H557 this September is running the final permitted intake. On the standard two-year linear route, that cohort sits its A-level in June 2028: exactly the final assessment opportunity OCR has set, with the "no resit" rule already confirmed above applying the moment that sitting closes.
A second, more immediate obligation falls only on Physics B, not Physics A. OCR's administration guidance lists A-Level Physics B (H557) among the specifications requiring students to study advance notice material — pre-released content published on the qualification page and on Teach Cambridge every year on 13 March, ahead of the external papers that draw on it. This is a live, dated, spec-specific requirement that sits on the outgoing course for as long as it continues to run, and it does not appear on Physics A's own administration page at all. A Year 12 student confirmed to be on Physics A does not have this obligation; a Year 12 student on Physics B does, every year the course is still taught.
Whether your Year 12 physics course is heading into a fresh two-year Physics A programme or finishing out the last permitted cohort of Physics B, our specialist OCR physics tutors build a programme around the exact modules, practicals and paper weightings your child's school is actually teaching — not a generic "A-level physics" syllabus.
Book a Free Consultation Message us on WhatsAppAS Physics A is a separate, standalone qualification with its own specification code, not "half an A-level" in any formal sense. OCR's own specification at a glance states that students must complete both AS components, Breadth in Physics (01) and Depth in Physics (02), to be awarded the AS Level in Physics A on its own — a certificate a student can hold without ever sitting the full A-level. Whether a school enters a Year 12 cohort for that standalone AS award, carries every student straight into the two-year A-level with no AS certification claimed, or uses the AS papers purely as an internal Year 12 progress check is a decision the school makes before Year 12 begins, and it is not one a student can change once the year is under way.
What genuinely differs between the two routes, beyond the qualification itself, is the paper structure and the marks behind it. AS Physics A draws only on the first four content modules and is assessed by two equally weighted papers. The full A-level draws on all six modules and adds a third written paper plus the non-exam practical endorsement, which the AS award does not require at all.
| Award | Component | Raw marks | Duration | Weighting |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AS (H156) | 01 Breadth in physics | 70 | 1 hour 30 minutes | 50% |
| AS (H156) | 02 Depth in physics | 70 | 1 hour 30 minutes | 50% |
| A-Level (H556) | 01 Modelling physics | 100 | 2 hours 15 minutes | 37% |
| A-Level (H556) | 02 Exploring physics | 100 | 2 hours 15 minutes | 37% |
| A-Level (H556) | 03 Unified physics | 70 | 1 hour 30 minutes | 26% |
| A-Level (H556) | 04 Practical endorsement | — | non-exam | Pass/Not Classified, reported separately |
Source: OCR, Physics A (H156/H556) specification at a glance.
OCR is not unusual in decoupling AS from the full A-level this way — the same separation shows up on Edexcel's A-level Physics (8PH0 AS, 9PH0 A-level), where AS is likewise a distinct, standalone qualification rather than a staging post. What is specific to OCR, and to this comparison, is that only one half of OCR's own two-specification physics offer, Physics B, is the one being withdrawn; the AS/A-level structure above belongs to the specification that is staying.
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The practical endorsement is reported on a student's certificate as "Pass" or "Not Classified", assessed directly by the student's own teachers rather than folded into the marks from papers 01 to 03. It never touches the written-paper grade; a student can achieve a top grade on the exams with a Not Classified endorsement showing alongside it, and vice versa.
What a centre has to certify is specific: OCR's centre declaration form confirms that "reasonable steps have been taken to ensure each learner has had the opportunity to do at least 12 practical activities which satisfy the skills criteria" set out in the specification. Those 12 activities are spread across both years of the course, not crammed into Year 13, so a Year 12 physics class is already building evidence toward the endorsement from its first term. OCR's current monitoring cycle for how centres deliver this "runs from September 2025 to May 2027", which means a Year 12 student starting in September 2026 completes their practical work inside a cycle OCR is actively auditing, not a gap year between checks.
The endorsement belongs to the full A-level only. It is component 04 of H556 and is not required for the standalone AS award (H156) at all — a student who leaves the course after the AS papers has no endorsement outcome to worry about, Pass or otherwise.
Our OCR A-level physics tutors coach the practical endorsement alongside the written papers, working from the same twelve core practicals a student's centre selects and the CPAC-style criteria OCR expects a Pass to meet, so a student who has fallen behind in the lab is not left to catch up alone.
Book a Free Consultation Message us on WhatsAppA student moving up from GCSE Physics should expect the practical demands of either OCR specification to be a step up in independence and record-keeping, whichever specification code their school confirms — the endorsement rewards a habit of accurate lab notes as much as it rewards technique.
Just one. OCR runs two parallel physics specifications: Physics A (H156 AS, H556 A-level) and Physics B, Advancing Physics (H157 AS, H557 A-level). OCR's own qualification page confirms it will stop offering Physics B, with final first teaching in September 2026, a final AS assessment in June 2027 and a final A-level assessment in June 2028. Physics A carries no such notice and continues as normal. Checking a school's specification code, not just the subject name, is the only way to know which one a Year 12 student is actually on.
OCR's withdrawal notice states plainly that there will not be a resit opportunity after the final assessment opportunity for Physics B. It does not say what alternative route, if any, is open to a student in that position, whether that means transferring onto Physics A's papers, an equivalent qualification, or another awarding body's specification. Leading Tuition has not found that detail published anywhere on OCR's site, and a family facing this should ask their school or OCR directly rather than assume an answer.
AS Physics A (H156) is a separate qualification with its own specification code, not half of the A-level, and OCR's own specification page states that students must complete both its components, Breadth in Physics and Depth in Physics, to be awarded the AS Level in Physics A on its own. A school decides at the start of Year 12 whether a student is entered for the AS award, the full two-year A-level, or the AS papers as an internal progress check with no certificate claimed - that decision shapes what a Year 12 physics timetable actually contains.
No. OCR's specification at a glance lists the practical endorsement as component 04 of the full A-Level H556, alongside the three written papers 01, 02 and 03, and says a student must complete all four components to be awarded the A-Level. The AS award (H156) needs only components 01 and 02, the Breadth and Depth papers, and has no practical endorsement requirement at all. A Year 12 student sitting only the AS papers is not building evidence toward the endorsement in the way a full A-level student is.
Advance notice material is pre-released content that OCR publishes so students can prepare specific topics before sitting certain external papers. OCR's own administration guidance lists A-Level Physics B (H557) as one of the specifications where candidates need to study this material, published on the qualification page and on Teach Cambridge every year on 13 March. Physics A (H556) is not on that list, so a Year 12 student confirmed to be on Physics A has no advance notice material to prepare for.
OCR's centre declaration form requires a school to confirm that reasonable steps have been taken to ensure each learner has had the opportunity to do at least 12 practical activities satisfying the skills criteria set out in the specification, spread across Year 12 and Year 13. The result is reported on the certificate as Pass or Not Classified rather than folded into the written-paper grade, and OCR's current monitoring cycle for this runs from September 2025 to May 2027, so a Year 12 student starting in September 2026 completes their practicals inside an active OCR monitoring window.
Both OCR sources cited above — the Physics B qualification page and the withdrawal notice, were read directly on OCR's own site on 7 September 2026, alongside the A-Level Physics tutoring page for the specification comparison that sits underneath both boards.
Our specialist tutors work with Year 12 and Year 13 students on both OCR Physics A and the outgoing Physics B specification, building every programme around the paper structure, practicals and endorsement requirements a student's own school is actually teaching. Leading Tuition is rated 4.8 out of 5 on Trustpilot from 58 reviews, and 91% of our students go on to achieve their desired grades. Read more on our A-Level Physics page or explore A-Level tutoring across every subject.
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