Why the question comes up at all
Cambridge runs two versions of IGCSE Physics. 0625 is the international one, graded A* to G. 0972 is graded 9 to 1, to match the reporting scale used for GCSEs in England, and it is not available in every administrative zone.
The practical consequence is that almost every past paper archive, revision guide and tutoring site is labelled 0625, because that is the larger population. A 0972 student ends up with a reasonable worry: is this material actually mine, or am I revising someone else's exam?
What I compared
I have read every published examiner report for 0625 and 9702, so the reports were the obvious place to start. Then I went further and compared the source documents directly.
A full-text comparison of the two syllabus PDFs. Section 3, the subject content, is identical apart from a single sentence — the one that says Core candidates can achieve a maximum of grade C, restated as grade 5. Every learning outcome is otherwise word for word the same. Section 4 differs in 16 places, all of them grade-scale strings. Paper structure, durations, mark totals and weightings are identical.
June 2021 across every component that session (Papers 11, 21, 31, 41, 51 and 61), June 2024 Paper 11, and June 2025 Papers 11, 12, 21, 22, 31, 41, 51 and 61. Where the text could be extracted cleanly the papers are text-identical once you strip the candidate barcode and the print-house code. Where the PDFs use embedded fonts that garble text extraction, I rendered the pages to images and compared them pixel by pixel instead: around 291 differing pixels out of roughly 967,000 per page, and all of them inside the candidate-number barcode.
Mark schemes: the same question numbers, the same answers, the same mark allocations, differing only in whitespace. Examiner reports: for the matching paper sections, the commentary is word for word identical, down to the individual question notes. The full 0625 report is longer only because 0625 ran more paper variants that session.
Every question, every diagram, every data table, every mark allocation is the same. What differs is the code on the cover and the barcode with your candidate number in it.
Cambridge says the same thing, less precisely
Cambridge publishes a short note on past papers for 0972 which states that the syllabus is graded from 9 to 1 but is otherwise the same as 0625, and that you can therefore use the 0625 past papers. That note is from 2016 and is about teaching rather than about the papers themselves. The comparison above is the stronger version of the same statement: not "you may use these", but "these are the same documents".
What actually differs
Four things, and only one of them changes anything about how you revise.
1. The grade scale, and where the boundaries sit
| 0625 | 0972 | |
|---|---|---|
| Core papers (1 and 3) can achieve | C to G | 5 to 1 |
| Core maximum grade | C | 5 |
| Extended papers (2 and 4) can achieve | A* to G | 9 to 1 |
| Enter Extended if you are aiming for | grade C or above | grade 4 or above |
| Enter Core if you are expected to achieve | grade D or below | grade 3 or below |
The row that matters is the fourth one. Grade 4 sits at the old grade C boundary, and grade 5 is the Core ceiling. If someone tells you "you need a C for A Level", the 0972 translation is a 4 — and in practice most sixth forms want more than the minimum.
2. Grade thresholds are published separately
This is the one thing you should not carry across. Cambridge issues a separate grade threshold document for 0972, on the 9 to 1 scale, for each series. Look up the 0972 thresholds, not the 0625 ones — the 0625 table will hand you letters you then have to guess at.
3. Series availability
0625 also runs a March series for schools in India. 0972 does not, and it is not available in all administrative zones. Both run June and November.
4. Cambridge ICE
0625 counts towards the Cambridge ICE group award. The 0972 syllabus has no ICE section.
One thing worth knowing about the examiner reports
Because the reports are the same documents, the examiner commentary written about a 0625 paper is commentary about your paper. That is the material this whole site is built from: the questions examiners single out, the wrong answers they quote, the phrasing that loses marks when the physics was understood. It is the most useful revision resource Cambridge publishes and almost nobody reads it.
Trainers built from those reports
Free, and written for the papers you are actually sitting — whichever code is printed on them.
Common questions
Is Cambridge IGCSE Physics 0972 the same as 0625?
Yes, in every way that affects your revision. The syllabus content is identical apart from one sentence about grade letters, and the question papers, mark schemes and examiner reports are the same documents issued under two codes. The difference is the grade scale: 0972 reports 9 to 1, 0625 reports A* to G.
Can I use 0625 past papers to revise for 0972?
Yes. They are not merely similar papers, they are the same papers. Cambridge says the same thing in its own past paper information for 0972: the syllabus is otherwise the same as 0625, so you can use the 0625 past papers.
What is a grade 4 in 0972 worth in 0625 terms?
Grade 4 sits at the old grade C boundary. Both syllabuses tell candidates aiming there to enter for the Extended papers. Grade 5 is the Core ceiling, which is where 0625 caps Core candidates at grade C.
Which grade thresholds should a 0972 candidate look up?
The 0972 ones. Cambridge publishes a separate grade threshold document for 0972 on the 9 to 1 scale, so the 0625 threshold table will not tell you what you need.
Is 0972 harder than 0625?
No. Same paper, same mark scheme, same examiners. The only thing that changes is the label printed on your certificate.