Art GCSE

[Polly-alyssa]

After the summer holidays i'll be in year 9. my art teacher that i can start my art GCSE along with a few others in yr 9, (a yr early). I was just wondering what kinds of stuff do you need? Like how much coursework etc... Also, is the GCSE quite hard, like to achieve an A* ?

[Barwy]

LOADS of hard work, time and effort is needed. My teacher was saying it isnt skill thats needed but the fact that an examiner can look at someones work and see that they've spent time on it. Stupid really, but he's a stupid teacher.

I'm predicted A-C, A* if i really concentrate on it in my own opinion. To be honest I can't be anused with it anymore

[Polly-alyssa]

Well this year (year 8) i have spent hours on my art homework. coz i wnt a career in design aswell.
i hope you do well in ur gcse then XD

[Barwy]

heh, i want a career in Graphics and Design, at this rate i think I am going to be self-employed...more money that way, i should know :$

[iluvben]

Well just don't set your hopes too high on a A* because you might disappoint yourself big time.

[Stab]

Ok... GCSE art is hard, and people say its a dos and it really isnt.
It, and maybe theatre arts and textiles, are very different to other subjects, for example, art is a more personal subject because you work at it, and its your project that you have put a lot of work into.
Which makes it a dissapointment when you dont do well in it. I was predicted an A, but this year i got a C because the teacher doesnt like my new style of art...

[Playgirl]

It depends what kind of art it is, I do Art & Design and my teacher said its not hard to pass but you have to have loads of work and it all has to be annotated well.

[Corq]

As long as you know what you are doing you will be fine.

My teacher says you could just do a dot in the middle of a paper and you could still acheive a high grade if you could explain your motives for doing it and saying what it represents etc

But to me thats just plain stupid...

Oh well, you must be a talented artist to start a year early :eusa_clap

[Bear-Max]

Very much depends on what exam board you're on.

My course was done with AQA (I think), and it's dead hard. An A* requires about 98%, and there's so much work involved. Much of the time you don't get marks for the actual artwork you do, but for the comments you make about it and how you experiment with a variety of mediums and ideas. After doing Art in years 7, 8 and 9, you'll find the amount of writing required quite suprising.

[NekkLe]

Very much depends on what exam board you're on.

My course was done with AQA (I think), and it's dead hard. An A* requires about 98%, and there's so much work involved. Much of the time you don't get marks for the actual artwork you do, but for the comments you make about it and how you experiment with a variety of mediums and ideas. After doing Art in years 7, 8 and 9, you'll find the amount of writing required quite suprising.
I also done the AQA one and yes its intense. The amount of coursework that is needed is quite suprising, my folder was packed along with my 2 sketch books.

[Barwy]

I have no idea what im on :S

All i know is that i got 3 big A3 books i need to fill for each 3 topics we're doing and it aint gonna be fun

[FlyingJesus]

I didn't get a lot of coursework for my art GCSE.. then again, I didn't do any backup work at all for most of it, so I've failed for that reason alone. The actual art (if I may say so myself) was pretty good I thought, but like someone said, all they really care about at the examining board is that you can back up why you've done what you've done.

On a side note, I sold my exam piece for a cool £100 :8

[GommeInc]

My Art GCSE was relatively easy from what I remember, I got a B. In year 11 you had to make a model of your own choice, and you are able to make it within the year and the exam was a 10 exam I think which took 2 days, and you had to make something like a model, textile, painting etc.

[NekkLe]

We had the option to do a 'bigger' peice of work, so basically we were allowed to experiment.

[Polly-alyssa]

K thnx ppl. I see Art GCSE must be quite hard to achieve an A or A* then, and it takes lots of effort and time. I'm looking forward to doing my Art GCSE though, i hope it'll be fun.

[Drooped]

I found it easy. On my prelim i got a 2 which.. 1 being top credit 7 - not sit/ no mark. So... it's similiar to the letters. A - F.

But... i'm expecting to get an A for my proper exam, when i finished even the invidulators said it was amazing, so did my teacher. I was quite proud.

Art's easy if you DON'T concentrate on the pain your hand is going through [5 hours of constant sketching, colouring, shading]

It's also easy if you PRACTICE. we got all our items and drew them OVER AND OVER.

[Stab]

oh yeh and you should keep everything you do aswell, as i chuck most of mine away.

Don't be bothered by what other people do, because your style or art is different to them.

[Fomas]

Art is really difficult.
For the whole 2 years you need full commitment.

Its fun at times, but you need to do alot of work outside of the classroom.
Meaning extra lessons and homework.

Here is my art exam piece, i got a C...
And this is with 2 books of art work and 10 A2 sheets of research.

http://file006.bebo.com/large/2006/03/30/19/17499250a504920515b910147063l.jpg

[FlyingJesus]

I retract my statement from last month. Like I said, I didn't do a lot of work, in fact I pretty much didn't do any other than the actual art which I do enjoy. Still, I got an A, no effort involved. Basically with art I think it's something that you either got or you don't got, it's not easy to teach or learn. Saying that, I did only work out my style this year, after thinking I was hopeless all through year 10.

[womanizer]

For my GCSE coursework was 60% and the final exam course was 40%.

For coursework I had to pick 2 themes. I picked Cartoons and Egyptian. I completed 15 sheets for each topic which made 30 sheets in coursework. I also had to make a "Final" piece for eqyptian art and cartoons. The class spent 3 months for each final piece.

Next was the exam theme ours was "Surfaces" so I decided to do food. I done 15 A2 sheets again filled with food etc.

However the final piece was this was actually my GCSE exam, we didn't have 3 months, we had 10 hours.

Here is my GCSE which I done in 10 hours:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v192/monkeybear303/Finalpiecesmall.jpg

In the end I recieved 396/400 which is 99% if I'm correct. I recieved my A* and it was alot of work.

[WiseBen]

I did it as an extra GCSE, So it was only 1 after school lesson per week we had, which worked out about half of the time of normal art students. I was really not bothered about it the first year, but then in about the last six months i put in loads of work especially the exam and got an A which i was happy with :D Not sure what the mark ?/400 was though.

[Crouch]

Hmmm, I think urm... GCSE is the equivelant of a higher in Scotland? I don't take art, but a few of my friends have, and they say it's hard, but they enjoy it aswell, you do lots of practical work too.