Edexcel GCSE Art and Design externally set assignment overview quiz quiz

60 percent

40 percent

100 percent

25 percent

1 May of the final year

The first week of September

2 January of the final year

The morning the exam begins

A fixed, detailed brief telling you exactly what you have to make

A set of multiple-choice questions about the history of art and design

A single finished example artwork for you to copy as closely as you can

Broad thematic starting points to choose from and interpret

All four assessment objectives

Only a single finished final outcome

Only the artist research stage

Only the observational recording work

1 hour of sustained focus

10 hours of sustained focus

30 hours of sustained focus

There is no fixed time limit

In one single continuous sitting only, with no breaks of any kind permitted at all

Spread out gradually over a whole term, whenever it happens to suit the student

Over a maximum of four sessions within three consecutive weeks

At home, completely unsupervised, in your own time and at your own pace

With your teacher actively helping you with the whole composition as you go

As a group, working together and freely sharing ideas with your classmates

Using brand new research that you only begin to start gathering on the day itself

Unaided, under exam conditions, with reference to the preparatory studies

Because you cannot start new development or get help, and 10 hours is limited

Because there is plenty of time, so you can change your mind whenever you like

Because deciding anything at all is strictly banned in every part of the course

Because the final outcome is not actually marked, so the choices do not matter

The preparation work is not marked at all, so only the final supervised piece really counts towards the grade

Three of the four objectives live in the preparatory period, and the supervised period is only for making

The supervised making period is actually worth nothing at all and has no bearing on your final mark

The exam paper itself quietly gives you all of the answers, so very little real planning is needed

It is much shorter and a good deal simpler than the personal portfolio component

It uses no real practical art skills at all and is purely a written exam on theory

It draws together the knowledge, understanding and skills built in the portfolio

It is marked on a completely different grid from the rest of the course

Spend the whole time perfecting just one small corner of the piece

Work as slowly and carefully as you possibly can the entire time

Leave the piece deliberately unfinished to show it is still in progress

In stages (block in, develop, refine, resolve) so the piece is finished

Focus it to a personal, source-rich angle you can investigate deeply

Make the final piece straight away, before doing any research at all

Copy an existing artist's work as closely and accurately as you can

Skip the preparation stage entirely and go straight to the outcome