Exam Boards

How exam boards compare for Physics A level.
What is the best exam board for Physics in the UK?

AQA is the most popular

AQA is by far the most popular board for A level Physics accounting for over half of all entrants, 22.8k out of 45.8k total in 2026.

OCR comes in second, taking nearly a third with just under 14k students. Edexcel is third with 11 %, 4.8k students. WJEC which provides exams for Wales and Northern Ireland, while the same board uses the name Eduqas for England make up only a 6% together with under 2k and 1k students respectively.

Most students do not get to choose which exam board you sit. However, if you are a teacher or external student you should consider the data below when are choosing a board for yourself or your students. I don’t think the most popular is the correct choice. Having taught all these different boards and options I can offer some of my own insight.

For those of you that are stuck with your board, don’t worry the vast majority of content for the boards is the same and most students will achieve the same grade no matter what board they sit.

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AQA is the hardest

In terms of percentage required for each grade AQA is much lower than the other two main boards. This does not mean that AQA is easier, quite the contrary the exams themselves have been much harder, which has forced their grade boundaries to be lower.

In past years this has been quite demoralising for students, with the exams being so tough it has had a big effect on student confidence. I regard AQA as generally being too hard, and with question often being confusing and not well written.

This data is an average of the percentage required over the last five years 2022-2026 inclusive, with 2021 and before being omitted as these were teacher assessed grades during covid.

AQAs average does not include the option module in paper 3, as these are very different other boards and not directly comparable. OCR B is also not included, since it is uncommon (and I don’t like the structure of this course)

Grade britain provides some excellent data on where the grade land by board, and is an excellent resource for subject and exam boards in the UK.

From this data it might seem that WJEC/Eduqas are the best board to take if you want a better chance at higher grades. However, there is a distinct lack of resource available. For example the excellent website that I use all the time save my exams does not have resources beyond the past papers. The board does provide a free resource so see past paper questions by topic area, from their question bank here for WJEC and Eduqas. This has been down for significant periods of time in the past so you are probably better off using the ones I have made, WJEC and Eduqas.

Physics A level results by exam board

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Edexcel does have a slightly higher proportion of students getting top grades, and it is my preferred board for students. There are two approaches two the course. concept and salter Horners context led, but both approaches sit the same exam. While generally concept lead approach is preferred by myself and most students it is good to have an extra option.

Unlike WJEC/Eduqas there are lots more resources available, and teachers also have access to examwizard for making custom worksheets for your students. This software is a little old, but it works fine and is free. You can also use the international version of the course to get more resources. Just speak to your exam officers for access. If you don’t have access I have lots of pre made Edexcel resources for you.

As previously stated I think the AQA papers have been unnecessarily hard recently, but there is another reason I don’t like them and that is the cost of their exam pro software. You have to pay £145 per year for access to make worksheets, £220 per year for Physics Onscreen+ might be a great option and timesaver for making and marking homework if your school will pay for it.

The cost becomes significant if you want access for for all sciences GCSE and A level science subjects it is nearly £1000 a year just for science so a lot of schools won't have access to it. For schools with deeper pockets this might not be an issue.

OCR also has exam builder software is free to staff at Cambridge OCR centres. Unlike the other boards equivalents I have never had access to this software. So I can’t really comment on its function.

Since Edexcel, OCR and WJEC/Eduqas gives you access for free and AQA is charging significant amounts, coupled with the difficultly of their papers means that I cannot recommend them as an exam board.

OCR A

OCR tends to take a middle ground in most of my analysis. It’s the second most popular. The exams have recently been not as hard as AQA but not as consistent as Edexcel, and there is a good amount of resources available.

Please note this only Applies to OCR A, the content lead approach. OCR B is context lead approach. OCR B is not popular and personal I find the structure confusing and unhelpful. There are almost no resources available for OCR B. Generally I avoid it, and I suggest you do the same.

However OCR A, is a good alternative to Edexcel or AQA, and is my second choice of exam board.

If you want to compare content of the exam boards use this tool.

While the majority content for most boards is set by the national subject content and is therefore the same there are subtle differences.

Compare content

If you are leaving AQA be mindful that the content highlighted in the leaving behind AQA section mentions stuff from all the optional modules so isn’t relevant to all.

Edexcel wins.

Slightly better chance of higher grades,
Good access to additional resources.
Decent free software for teachers.
Consistent papers set at a reasonable level,
Additional resources available from its international version,
Two possible approaches to the same course

All this means edexcel is my recommendation. I am surprised only 11% of students end up sitting it. They have the most popular board for maths with over 2/3 of entrees in A level maths being edexcel, I hope they get a bigger fraction of physics in the future.