AQA A-Level Art and Design: the Personal Investigation (Component 1) quiz quiz

40%, equal to the externally set assignment

50%, an even split with the second component

25%, only a quarter of the overall A-level

60%

1000 to 3000 words

Roughly 500 to 1000 words of supporting prose

Somewhere between 3000 and 5000 words of prose

There is no written element required at all

As a wholly separate essay carrying its own block of marks awarded by a different examiner

Within the same four assessment objectives as the practical work

Only for spelling, punctuation and the accuracy of its grammar

It is not assessed and counts for nothing toward the grade

They mean precisely the same thing, so the two words can be swapped freely with no change of meaning whatsoever

The investigation question is always far broader and much more general than the theme it is supposedly derived from

The theme is the broad central idea; the question focuses it into something open you can investigate through making

The theme must always be written in words while the question is only ever expressed through finished drawings

It immediately looks impressive to teachers and visiting moderators even before any real work has begun on it

It closely matches a friend's theme so the two of you can share research, primary sources and finished outcomes

It can be comfortably finished within a single week, leaving plenty of spare time for revising other subjects

It offers strong primary sources, links to artists, allows varied media and can sustain months of work

Continuous, connected progress over time where each stage feeds the next

An intense burst of concentrated work right at the start and another large burst right at the very end

Working only during the final supervised assessment period rather than across the whole length of the course

Producing the largest possible number of finished pieces regardless of how they connect to one another

Having far too many different materials available to choose from at any one time

Research that stops generating new ideas

Drawing far too well and too neatly from the outset of the project

Working far too quickly through every stage of the investigation

Purely to make the finished portfolio look fuller and more substantial than it actually is

It does not matter because examiners simply ignore experiments and dead ends anyway when marking

They are visible evidence of development and review that AO2 and AO3 reward

Only to use up any spare pages left over at the end of the sketchbook before submission

To show only your very best finished pieces and leave out everything else you made along the way

To fill as many pages as you possibly can so the portfolio looks impressively thick and weighty

To carefully hide all of your experiments so only the polished outcomes are ever visible to the examiner

To make your development across the four objectives clear and easy to follow

Alongside your practical work so each feeds the other

Only in the final week, once all of the practical making has already been completed and handed in

Right at the very beginning, before you have even chosen a theme or done any practical work at all

After the practical project is fully finished, as a separate write-up reflecting back on it