OCR A-Level Art and Design the Externally Set Task overview quiz quiz

120 marks, 60 percent

60 marks, 30 percent

200 marks, 100 percent

80 marks, 40 percent

On or after 1 February in the year of certification

On 1 September at the very start of the school year

On the actual day that the supervised period begins

There is no set release date fixed by OCR for the paper

A single compulsory subject that every candidate must respond to in the same way

Several broad thematic starting points open to wide interpretation

A written essay question to be answered in continuous prose under exam conditions

A fixed list of named artists which the candidate is required to copy directly

Quickly, in a single rushed session, without building up any real line of enquiry across the assessment objectives at all

Only by carefully and faithfully copying the chosen artist's existing finished works in full detail

Like a compressed Personal Investigation across all four objectives, building a focused line of enquiry to a clear plan

Only as a set of brief written notes, with no practical visual experimentation involved at any stage

10 hours

3 hours

30 hours

15 hours

It may be brought in for reference but cannot be amended or further developed during or after the supervised sessions

It must always be left at home and may not be brought into any of the supervised sessions at all under any circumstances

It can be changed and added to completely freely at any point right through the supervised sessions

It must be entirely redone from scratch once the supervised period of fifteen hours has finally begun

Another student's preparatory work in the group

The candidate's own preparatory work

The published exam timetable for the series

Nothing in particular at all is required

So that the candidate can be quite sure of finishing the whole supervised piece comfortably early on

Because the written plans themselves are formally graded on their own as a wholly separate part of the whole component

Because the time is fixed and the preparatory work cannot be changed, so the hours are for making, not deciding

So that the candidate can avoid having to refer back to any of the preparatory work at all

Spend nearly all of the time on fine detail right at the very end of the period

Work in a random, unplanned way with no staging of the sessions at all

Only ever block the piece in roughly and quite deliberately never bring it to any finish at all

Establish the piece early, develop in the middle, and reserve time to resolve and finish

Realise the preparation's intentions, connect to the preparatory work, and be achievable in 15 hours

Be as large as possible, as colourful as possible, and made as fast as possible in the time

Copy a named artist directly, fill the whole page, and introduce a range of brand new untested materials

Ignore the preparation entirely, be as ambitious as possible, and deliberately run over the time

Ambition is completely banned by the specification and is always actively penalised in the marking

An over-ambitious plan that cannot be finished loses the AO4 marks for resolution and presentation

There is in practice unlimited supervised time available to complete the final outcome in

Markers always prefer small-scale work and award it higher marks than larger pieces

Pure luck on the day of the supervised session and nothing else besides

The sheer overall physical size of the final piece produced during the supervised time

Entering the supervised time with a thorough preparatory portfolio and a clear, resolvable plan

How many different named artists the candidate actually manages to reference within the work itself