OCR GCSE Design and Technology (J310): complete guide to the written exam, the iterative design challenge NEA and the J310 command words

OCR GCSE Design and Technology (specification J310) is assessed by two equally weighted components: a written exam, J310/01 Principles of design and technology, and a non-exam assessment, J310/02 the Iterative Design Challenge. Each is worth 100 marks and 50 percent of the qualification. The course teaches you to design and make functional prototypes by working through an iterative cycle of explore, create and evaluate, while building the technical knowledge of materials, mechanisms, electronics and manufacturing that the written paper tests. This page is the index: below is a map of the two components, the technical content areas, the maths you must master, and the command words that run across the whole course.

How J310 is assessed

OCR splits Design and Technology into two equally weighted components.

• Component 01 (J310/01), Principles of design and technology. A 2 hour written exam, 100 marks, 50%. It tests the technical principles: identifying requirements, learning from existing products, design thinking and communication, materials, technical understanding and manufacturing.
• Component 02 (J310/02), Iterative Design Challenge. The non-exam assessment (NEA), 100 marks, 50%. A chronological portfolio plus one final prototype, made in response to an OCR contextual challenge released on 1 June of the year before submission, internally assessed and externally moderated.

There is no second written paper. The NEA is where designing and making is evidenced; the written exam is where the underlying technical knowledge is examined.

The iterative design cycle

The heart of J310 is iterative design: a repeating loop rather than a single straight line.

• Explore. Investigate the context, the user and wider stakeholders, existing products, and the requirements, then write a design brief and specification.
• Create. Generate, develop, model and make ideas, communicating them through sketches, drawings, CAD and prototypes.
• Evaluate. Test the work against the specification and the user, then feed what you learn back into the next round of exploring and creating.

You go round this loop many times, each pass improving the product. The NEA portfolio must evidence the cycle repeating, not a one-off linear march from brief to product.

Component 01: the technical content

The written exam tests the technical knowledge that underpins good designing and making, across the topic areas below.

Identifying requirements and learning from others

Context analysis, primary users and wider stakeholders, design briefs and measurable specifications, anthropometrics and ergonomics, product analysis, the work of past and present designers and companies, and the social, moral and ecological issues that shape design including the 6 Rs and life-cycle thinking.

Design thinking and communication

Iterative design, freehand sketching, 3D pictorial drawing (isometric and perspective), exploded and assembly diagrams, working (orthographic) drawings, CAD, and physical and mathematical modelling.

Material considerations

The physical and working properties and the working of the six material categories: papers and boards, timbers (natural, manufactured and manmade boards), metals (ferrous and non-ferrous), polymers (thermoforming and thermosetting), textiles (natural, synthetic and blended), and electronic components.

Technical understanding

Forces and stresses, types of motion and mechanisms (levers, linkages, gears, pulleys, cams), electronic systems (input, process and output, with sensors and microcontrollers), and new and emerging technologies.

Manufacturing processes and techniques

Wastage, addition, deforming and reforming processes, scales of production (one-off, batch, mass and continuous), and quality control with tolerances.

Component 02: the iterative design challenge

The NEA is marked against criteria that mirror the iterative cycle.

• Exploring. Investigating the context, users and existing products; writing a brief and a measurable specification.
• Creating. Generating, developing, modelling and making, including planning the manufacture of a final prototype.
• Evaluating. Testing against the specification and the user throughout, and a final evaluation that judges fitness for purpose and suggests improvements.

The portfolio is chronological and concise (OCR limits its length), and quality of the prototype counts as well as the documented thinking.

The maths that runs across the course

J310 carries applied maths in the written exam. You must be confident with:

1. Scale ratios. Scaling a drawing up or down, reading and writing ratios such as 1:2, 1:5 or 2:1, and converting between drawing and real sizes.
2. Gear ratios. Working out the ratio from the number of teeth on meshing gears, and what it means for speed and direction.
3. Percentages. Percentage increase, decrease, waste and change, and reading data from charts.
4. Costing. Material and component cost from stock forms (price per sheet, length, roll, rod or kilogram) times the quantity used, including allowing for waste.
5. Fractions and ratios. Interpreting data and splitting quantities.

In every case the marks come from showing the working, attaching the unit, and interpreting what the figure means for the product or its cost.

The command-word ladder

OCR ties its command words to the depth of answer expected, so the verb tells you what earns the marks.

1. State, Name, Give, Identify. Short recall, one or two marks, no development.
2. Describe, Calculate. A worked number, or a point with some detail.
3. Explain. A developed reason, cause leading to effect.
4. Discuss, Evaluate, Justify. A two-sided argument leading to a supported judgement.

The 6 to 8 mark questions sit at the top of this ladder and decide the grade, so they need developed reasoning and, for evaluate and justify, a balanced conclusion applied to the product or context.

The topics, dot point by dot point

Each topic area has an overview guide, dot-point answer pages and a quiz. Browse the full set at /gcse-ocr/design-and-technology/syllabus.

For the official specification

OCR publishes the full specification (J310), past papers, mark schemes and exemplar iterative design portfolios at ocr.org.uk. Always revise from the current specification and OCR's own materials, because the question style, the maths and the NEA criteria are board-specific.