A Level Art

exam board: aqa

A two-year course in which students direct their own creative investigation, developing a sustained personal project and a final examined response — building the independence, critical understanding and technical skill of a practising artist.

The course is built around two components: a Personal Investigation (60% of the final grade), a self-directed practical project supported by an extended written study, and an Externally Set Assignment (40%), a practical exam. Throughout, students initiate their own ideas, research artists and contexts, experiment with media, and refine their work from initial intention to realised outcome, evidencing all four assessment objectives.

Years 12 & 13

Component	unit knowledge & skills
Component 160% of A Level	Personal Investigation The heart of the course, and the direction is the student’s own. Each pupil sets a title that interests them and pursues their own creative investigation with tutorial guidance: researching at least three artist sources, exploring their interests in the style of chosen artists, developing observational drawing and transcriptions, and moving ideas forward in response to their contextual references — to a personal and meaningful final response that realises their intentions.
Component 1Written study	Personal Study (Essay) The Personal Investigation is supported by an extended written study of 1000–3000 words. Students clarify the focus of their investigation, demonstrate critical understanding of their contextual sources, and reflect on the decisions behind the development of their ideas — making meaningful connections between visual and written work, and acknowledging every source in a full academic bibliography.
Component 240% of A Level · Year 13	Externally Set Assignment The exam component. Each pupil chooses one of eight starting points set by the exam board and works through a preparatory period — building a title page, analysing artists, mindmapping and annotating ideas, and working in the style of chosen artists — before executing a final piece, or series of related pieces, in fifteen hours of supervised time that show skill and command of visual language.

Component

unit knowledge & skills

Component 160% of A Level

Personal Investigation

The heart of the course, and the direction is the student’s own. Each pupil sets a title that interests them and pursues their own creative investigation with tutorial guidance: researching at least three artist sources, exploring their interests in the style of chosen artists, developing observational drawing and transcriptions, and moving ideas forward in response to their contextual references — to a personal and meaningful final response that realises their intentions.

Component 1Written study

Personal Study (Essay)

The Personal Investigation is supported by an extended written study of 1000–3000 words. Students clarify the focus of their investigation, demonstrate critical understanding of their contextual sources, and reflect on the decisions behind the development of their ideas — making meaningful connections between visual and written work, and acknowledging every source in a full academic bibliography.

Component 240% of A Level · Year 13

Externally Set Assignment

The exam component. Each pupil chooses one of eight starting points set by the exam board and works through a preparatory period — building a title page, analysing artists, mindmapping and annotating ideas, and working in the style of chosen artists — before executing a final piece, or series of related pieces, in fifteen hours of supervised time that show skill and command of visual language.

Assessment

There is no written exam in A Level Art & Design: both components are practical, each marked as a whole against the four assessment objectives, with the written material and annotation required to be legible and accurate throughout.

Component 1: Personal Investigation

60%of Grade

1000–3000Essay Words

A self-directed practical investigation supported by an extended written study, informed by contemporary or past practice. Students must develop a sustained line of reasoning from an initial starting point to a finished outcome, or series of outcomes. No restriction on the scale of work, media or materials.

Component 2: Externally Set Assignment

40%of Grade

15hSupervised

Exam papers are released on 1 February, and each student selects one of eight starting points. A preparatory period is followed by fifteen hours of supervised, unaided work in which students realise their intentions. Preparatory work may be consulted but not added to during the supervised time.