Art & Design
GCSE art assessment objectives, AO1 to AO4, explained for teachers
Four objectives, a quarter each, in the same words on every board. What differs is the mark scheme, and the plain question each objective is really asking.
The objective wording is quoted from the AQA GCSE Art and Design exam guide on this site, which quotes the specification. The rest is from the Art department handbook.
Every GCSE art and design specification in England is built on the same four assessment objectives, in the same words, and each one is worth a quarter of the qualification. The objectives are national. The mark schemes are not.
The four objectives, word for word, and the question each one asks
The middle column is the wording as the specification gives it. The right-hand column is the version for a corridor conversation, because it is the question the objective is actually asking.
| Objective | The wording | The question |
|---|---|---|
| AO1 Develop | Develop ideas through investigations, demonstrating critical understanding of sources. | Did the research change the work? |
| AO2 Refine | Refine work by exploring ideas, selecting and experimenting with appropriate media, materials, techniques and processes. | Was anything chosen, and rejected, for a reason? |
| AO3 Record | Record ideas, observations and insights relevant to intentions as work progresses. | Can you see the thinking at the moment it happened? |
| AO4 Present | Present a personal and meaningful response that realises intentions and demonstrates understanding of visual language. | Does the outcome do what the student said it would? |
What each objective needs the sketchbook to show
The sketchbook is the only place three of the four objectives can actually be seen, which makes how students are taught to use it a mark-bearing decision.
- AO1. Sources investigated and used, not an artist page that the work then ignores. Critical understanding means the research changed something.
- AO2. Media tried, compared and selected, with the failures left in. A page where three things were attempted and one chosen is worth more than three finished pages.
- AO3. Observation and reasoning recorded as work progresses, as the objective says. Annotation written in May about work made in November is not recording.
- AO4. This one mostly lives in the outcome, but the sketchbook is where the intention it realises has to be visible.
Annotation is where most of AO3 is won or lost, and it is the part most often done too late. GCSE art annotation: what earns marks takes it apart with one experiment written up four ways.
Both components assess all four objectives
At AQA the portfolio is worth 60% of the qualification and the externally set assignment 40%, but every objective is assessed in both: 15% each in the portfolio and 10% each in the assignment, which makes 25% each overall. There is no component to sit out, and the assignment is not a making exercise with a portfolio attached. That split is AQA’s, so check your own board’s specification for its component weightings.
What is national, and what is not
The objectives are set nationally. The mark schemes are not, and that is the distinction most departments have the wrong way round. Boards set their own marks for each objective and write their band descriptors in their own vocabulary. Each board has its own page on this site, quoted from its own specification:
- AQA GCSE Art and Design assessment objectives
- Pearson Edexcel GCSE Art and Design assessment objectives
- OCR GCSE Art and Design assessment objectives
The GCSE art assessment objectives, compared by board page puts them side by side, and the secondary art department handbook compares all four boards including WJEC Eduqas.
Holistic does not mean impressionistic
Assessing a submission as a whole means you do not total marks for individual pieces. It does not mean forming a general impression and then finding a band to fit it. The discipline is to judge each objective across the whole submission in turn, and only then look at the four together. The handbook reports that departments who do this find their AO3 judgements drop and their marking becomes far more defensible at moderation.
Mark AO3 first, alone, before you have formed a view of the student. It is the objective most often over-credited, because recording is spread thinly through a book and generous impressions accumulate.
Whatever you decide about marking, give students the four questions in the right-hand column above as a self-assessment before a deadline. They are short enough to remember and specific enough to act on, which is more than can be said for most mark schemes handed to fifteen-year-olds. For how departments keep their judgements consistent, see art moderation and standardisation.