Year 13 OCR A-Level Maths: H240 or H640 for the June 2027 Series

OCR runs two separate A-Level Mathematics specifications for the June 2027 exam series: H240 (Mathematics A, qualification number 603/1038/8) and H640 (Mathematics B, co-developed with Mathematics in Education and Industry, MEI, qualification number 603/1002/9). Which one a Year 13 student sits was decided before Year 12 began and cannot be switched mid-course. This page sets out what actually differs between the two for a Year 13 candidate: past-paper access, the large data set, exam mechanics and withdrawal status.

H240 or H640: Which OCR A-Level Maths Are You Actually Sitting?

A Year 13 OCR maths student is on one of two entirely separate specifications, and confusing them wastes revision time on the wrong past papers and the wrong large data set. H240, OCR's Mathematics A, carries qualification number 603/1038/8. H640, Mathematics B, carries qualification number 603/1002/9 and is, in OCR's own words on the H640 qualification page, “developed in collaboration with Mathematics in Education and Industry (MEI)” — a description OCR itself published, not one this page has added.

OCR publishes no self-service tool that lets a student enter their name or school and be told which specification they are on. The reliable way to check is the code printed on the entry slip or exam paper itself, or the school's own options-form record from when the choice was made at the start of Year 12 — which is also when the choice was locked in, since neither qualification's own OCR page describes a process for moving a student's registration from one to the other mid-course.

Getting this wrong is not a minor mix-up. H240's past papers, mark schemes and large data set are filed under a different specification code to H640's on OCR's own site, so pulling revision material against the wrong code means practising the wrong statistics content and the wrong large data set in the run-up to June 2027, on top of the paper structure differences below.

Where Can a Year 13 OCR Maths Student Get Official Past Papers?

OCR states plainly that “full assessment teaching materials, including secure assessment materials, are now only available on Teach Cambridge” — a login restricted to registered teachers, so a student or parent cannot open the full secure archive directly. OCR's own free public past-paper tool is ExamBuilder, described on the same assessment page as a way to “assemble bespoke mock exams and topic tests from past papers.”

That gating explains the search results a Year 13 student actually sees. The real organic top five Google results for this exact search term, checked 7 September 2026, are all third-party resource sites, not OCR itself: past-paper mirrors, a teacher's topic-by-topic revision blog, and a question bank. Several carry H240 material only, with no H640 (MEI) content at all, and one explicitly treats OCR and OCR MEI questions as interchangeable — “suitable for all UK A Level Maths qualifications unless otherwise stated” — without ever explaining that H240 and H640 are two different, separately coded specifications with different large data sets.

For a Year 13 student trying to build a genuine past-paper bank before June 2027, that third-party dominance is worth knowing in itself. It means checking which specification a resource site actually covers before relying on it, rather than assuming a maths past paper found online necessarily matches the code printed on your own entry.

H240's Large Data Set or H640's ‘Large Data Set 10’: Which Applies to You?

What the large data set is, and why every UK A-Level Maths specification includes one, is covered on our A-Level Maths tutoring page. What matters for a Year 13 OCR candidate is that OCR runs it differently across its own two specifications — and changed one of them on 3 September 2026, midway through the current Year 13 cohort's course.

H640 and its AS partner H630 (both Mathematics B, MEI) moved to a repeated data set. OCR's own subject update states: “Instead of using a different data set each series, we're reducing the number of large data sets issued. This means we will use ‘large data set 10’ for future assessments.” The series-by-series detail matters, because it does not apply evenly: the June 2027 H640/02 series still uses the large data set confirmed in August 2024, not ‘large data set 10’ — that begins with the AS H630/02 series from 10 June 2027, and only reaches the full A Level H640/02 series from 10 June 2028 onward.

H240 sits outside this change entirely. OCR's own specification page names its large data set directly as a single sample assessment file, not a scheme that rotates by exam series at all. A H240 candidate revising from material that mentions ‘large data set 10’ is reading something written for the other OCR specification.

In practice, that means a Year 13 H640 candidate revising for the June 2027 series should still be working from the pre-2024-confirmed dataset rather than ‘large data set 10’ material aimed at students sitting from the June 2028 series onward — checking the series date printed on any revision resource before trusting it, rather than assuming the newest-sounding version is the correct one.

Is Either OCR A-Level Maths Specification Being Withdrawn?

H240 and H640 do not appear in OCR's withdrawal notice of 12 May 2026, checked 7 September 2026. That notice, titled “Important: Withdrawal of selected Cambridge OCR general qualifications,” lists dozens of specification codes against a final assessment date, and a full-text search of the notice for both H240 and H640 returns no match for either.

The one mathematics-related item the notice does name is narrower than either full A-Level specification: Y436, “Further Pure with Technology,” an optional paper within the separate Further Mathematics B (MEI) qualification, has a final assessment opportunity of June 2028. That is a single optional component of a different qualification from H240 or H640, not either A-Level Maths specification itself.

For contrast, the same notice lists OCR Biology B (H422) and Physics B (H557) with a final assessment opportunity of June 2028 each. A withdrawal like that is exactly the kind of thing this notice does record when it applies to a qualification — which is why its silence on H240 and H640 is informative rather than simply an absence of information.

OCR reviews and republishes this notice periodically: it states the update was first published on 19 March 2026 and last updated 12 May 2026, the version checked for this page. A Year 13 student with a genuine concern about withdrawal is better served checking the notice directly, at the date they read it, than relying on a static summary that will not reflect a later revision.

What's Different About Sitting the H240 Exam Itself?

Two mechanics of H240 change how a Year 13 candidate sits the paper, and neither is about which calculator to bring or which formulae are given — our A-Level Maths tutoring page already covers both of those across all five UK A-Level Maths specifications.

First, OCR states plainly that “there are no non-calculator questions” on H240: a calculator is usable throughout every paper, unlike GCSE Maths, which reserves one paper for non-calculator work. Second, H240 uses “separate question and answer booklets” — candidates write in a dedicated answer booklet rather than the space printed under each question, which OCR says lets a student “see the whole question and all parts of their solution without the distraction of turning pages.”

On the marks themselves, OCR's own specification-at-a-glance confirms each of H240's three papers is worth 100 marks and runs for 2 hours, with all three counted equally toward the overall grade.

Both facts change how revision should be sequenced. Because every H240 paper allows a calculator throughout, technique that depends on manual working under time pressure needs building alongside calculator fluency from the first term of Year 13, rather than saved for a dedicated non-calculator paper that H240 simply does not set.

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Students also taking Further Maths alongside either H240 or H640 can find board-specific detail on our A-Level Further Maths tutoring page. For the ground shared by every UK A-Level Maths specification — the calculator rules, the memorised formulae list, and whether an A* is harder here than elsewhere — see our A-Level Maths tutoring page; and for the subject in general, our maths tutoring page covers what a programme looks like across every stage.

Frequently Asked Questions About Year 13 OCR A-Level Maths

What is the difference between OCR A-Level Maths H240 and H640?

H240 is OCR's Mathematics A specification, qualification number 603/1038/8. H640 is Mathematics B, qualification number 603/1002/9, developed in collaboration with Mathematics in Education and Industry (MEI) — OCR's own description on the H640 qualification page. They are two separately coded qualifications, not two names for the same course, and a school chooses one for its Year 12 cohort before the course starts. OCR publishes no online tool that tells a student which one they are on; the code on the entry slip or exam paper, or the school's own options-form record, is the reliable source.

Can a Year 13 student switch from H240 to H640, or the reverse?

OCR's published materials treat the specification choice as fixed once a Year 12 cohort begins studying it, because H240 and H640 carry different assessment structures, different large data sets and different qualification codes. Neither qualification's own OCR page describes a process for moving a student's registration from one to the other mid-course. A genuine change would mean re-entering the student under the other code, which is a school administrative decision, not something OCR's published materials confirm as routine.

Where can a Year 13 OCR maths student get official past papers?

OCR states that full assessment teaching materials, including secure assessment materials, are now only available on Teach Cambridge — a login restricted to registered teachers, not something a student or parent can access directly. OCR's own free public past-paper tool is ExamBuilder. The real organic top five Google results for this exact search term, checked 7 September 2026, are all third-party resource sites; several carry H240 material only, and one explicitly treats OCR and OCR MEI questions as interchangeable without explaining that they are two different, separately coded specifications.

Which large data set applies to H240 candidates in June 2027?

H240 candidates use OCR's static sample Large Data Set file, named directly on the qualification's own assessment page. Unlike H640/H630, it is not a series-dated scheme that changes by exam sitting, so the 3 September 2026 policy change to ‘large data set 10’ does not affect H240 at all.

Which large data set applies to H640 (MEI) candidates in June 2027?

The June 2027 A Level H640/02 series still uses the large data set confirmed in August 2024, according to OCR's own subject update dated 3 September 2026. ‘Large data set 10’ begins with the AS H630/02 series from 10 June 2027 and reaches the full A Level H640/02 series only from the June 2028 series onward — so a June 2027 H640 candidate is not yet on ‘large data set 10’.

Are OCR A-Level Maths H240 or H640 being withdrawn?

No. H240 and H640 do not appear in OCR's withdrawal notice of 12 May 2026, checked 7 September 2026 — a search of the notice's full text for both codes returns no match. The one mathematics-related item on that notice is Y436, an optional paper within the separate Further Mathematics B (MEI) qualification, with a final assessment opportunity of June 2028.

Does H240 include any non-calculator papers?

No. OCR states plainly that there are no non-calculator questions on H240 — every paper allows calculator use throughout. H240 also uses separate question and answer booklets rather than space printed under each question on the question paper itself.