aqa art coursework grade boundaries

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AQA GCSE Art & Design Grade Boundaries

Every year, I seem to lose that useful piece of paper or image with the AQA GCSE Art & Design grade boundaries on it. So, I’m sticking them all in a blog post here—useful for you and me. Remember, these are last year’s grade boundaries, and things may change in either direction.

Comparing 2023 to 2022, the grade boundary for a 9 came down by one mark. 8 remained the same.  It became harder to get a 3, 4, 5, 6 & 7 with each grade boundary going up one mark. The grade boundary for 1 and 2 remained the same.  I believe this means teachers must have been marking higher for a majority of grades and so the exam board had to make the grade boundaries higher.

Scroll down to see previous years’ grade boundaries.

Statement to Explain to Students Why Their Grade Might Change

Your likely grade might change because:

• The moderator might come in and change the grades. He/She might move the whole cohort up or down.
• The exam board might change the grade boundaries. They may move them up or down.

Historic Art & Design Grade Boundaries

It’s interesting to see how the grade boundaries have changed over time. They don’t usually move by more than one number, however, after covid, there was more of a change. Compare 2019 to 2022. Compare 2022 below to 2023 above.

I am happy to reply to art teachers who comment below, but if you are a student wanting to know what grade you will get, I will not respond as it is your own teacher’s job to answer your questions. (I’ve had far too many and have just deleted then all.)

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The Arty Teacher

Sarah Crowther is The Arty Teacher. She is a high school art teacher in the North West of England. She strives to share her enthusiasm for art by providing art teachers around the globe with high-quality resources and by sharing her expertise through this blog.

13 responses to “AQA GCSE Art & Design Grade Boundaries”

sorry just some additional info, her school only did component one, the portfolio, maybe that’s why?

All schools have only completed component 1. If the exam board is AQA, it is out of 96. Perhaps your daughter has remembered it incorrectly or the teacher slipped up and meant to say 96?

Hi, my daughter just got told her mark is 63 today, however her teacher told her that it is out of 72. I’m therefore quite confused. she seems to have gotten one of the highest marks in her class but the total mark being 72 isn’t correlating with these grade boundaries. she does fine art

Hi my daughter today received a mark of 50 for her textiles gcse (art & design) which is confusing is this a grade 5?

If the grade boundaries are the same as 2019 a 50 will mean your daughter hasn’t quite reached a 5. She will get a 4. However, it’s possible the grade boundaries might change.

Hi Sarah New teacher here and it’s my first year marking. I have a class of 6 Pupils and 9 pupils, for two different art subjects. Will the moderator we take the whole cohert down. Or do it one by one in a small class?

Hi Sarah, I’m guessing that if you enter the grades for both groups and get one ‘sample’ (list of students who will be moderated) that it would count as one cohort and be treated as such. If you get a separate sample for each class, it would be treated as separate cohorts. With groups that size I imagine all of them will be in the sample. For a definitive answer, why not contact your coursework adviser? If you ring or email your exam board, they will be able to tell you who that is. Moderators don’t change a single student’s mark but look to see if the cohort is in tolerance.

My daughter was given a final grade 73 – do you think this is likely to be a grade 7 or do you think the grade boundaries might be more lenient in 2022?

They might go up or down – it’s anyone’s guess!

My Daughter has been given a grade 63 today from her art teacher for her GCSEs but was told previously her work was at the level of a 7 = A so she is currently upset with her B grade comparing to 2019 grade boundaries, so my question is do you think the grade boundaries will change this year at all due to Covid?

I can’t predict if the grade boundaries will go up or down. I did wonder if they would go down because of covid, but that will only happen if teachers across the country have marked as normal i.e. marked like they would in non covid times. I fear teachers will mark too generously because their students have produced little because of covid and the boundaries could go up. In the last 15 years I don’t believe they have ever moved by more than one mark, so your daughter will most likely get a 6. She may have been given a 7 as the teacher was seeing potential but then it didn’t get realised, or it may be that the final outcome wasn’t as good as the sketchbook. Who knows! Ask your school for some feedback.

My daughter has an NEA for A Level Art. The maximum mark is 96 and her provisional mark is 82. What A Level grade does this equate to please ?

The A Level grade boundaries are different from above. Assuming your daughter is with the AQA exam board, an 82 is likely to be an A*. (Fantastic! Well Done!) Two things might change this. The moderator might come in and put all the marks of the whole cohort either up or down if he/she feels the school/college has been too mean or too generous. Or, the exam board could change the grade boundaries.

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A-level Art and Design

7201, 7202, 7203, 7204, 7205, 7206

• Specification
• Planning resources
• Teaching resources
• Assessment resources
• Introduction

Specification at a glance

• 3.1 Summary of subject content
• 3.2 Overarching knowledge, understanding and skills
• 3.3 Art, craft and design
• 3.4 Fine art
• 3.5 Graphic communication
• 3.6 Textile design
• 3.7 Three-dimensional design
• 3.8 Photography
• Scheme of assessment
• Non-exam assessment administration
• General administration

Subject content

Students choose one of the titles below for study.

• 1 Art, craft and design
• 3 Graphic communication
• 4 Textile design
• 5 Three-dimensional design
• 6 Photography

Assessments

Component details

Component 1: personal investigation.

This is a practical investigation supported by written material.

Students are required to conduct a practical investigation, into an idea, issue, concept or theme, supported by written material. The focus of the investigation must be identified independently by the student and must lead to a finished outcome or a series of related finished outcomes.

The investigation should be a coherent, in-depth study that demonstrates the student’s ability to construct and develop a sustained line of reasoning from an initial starting point to a final realisation.

The investigation must show clear development from initial intentions to the final outcome or outcomes. It must include evidence of the student’s ability to research and develop ideas and relate their work in meaningful ways to relevant critical/contextual materials.

The investigation must be informed by an aspect of contemporary or past practice of artists, photographers, designers or craftspeople.

The written material must confirm understanding of creative decisions, providing evidence of all four assessment objectives by:

• clarifying the focus of the investigation
• demonstrating critical understanding of contextual and other sources
• substantiating decisions leading to the development and refinement of ideas
• recording ideas, observations and insights relevant to intentions by reflecting critically on practical work
• making meaningful connections between, visual, written and other elements.
• be a coherent and logically structured extended response of between 1000 and 3000 words of continuous prose.
• include specialist vocabulary appropriate to the subject matter
• include a bibliography that, identifies contextual references from sources such as: books, journals, websites, through studies of others’ work made during a residency, or on a site, museum or gallery visit
• be legible with accurate use of spelling, punctuation and grammar so that meaning is clear.

Students can present the written material as a single passage of continuous prose or as a series of shorter discrete, but linked, passages of continuous prose incorporated within the practical work.

There is no restriction on the scale of practical work produced. Students should carefully select, organise and present their work for their Personal investigation to ensure it is well structured and provides evidence that meets the requirements of all four assessment objectives.

The personal investigation will be assessed as a whole. Evidence of meeting the requirements of all four assessment objectives must be provided in both the practical and written material. Please refer to Assessing the Personal investigation of the specification for more information on how to assess the Personal investigation.

Students must identify and acknowledge sources which are not their own.

Component 2: Externally set assignment

Separate question papers will be provided for each title. Each question paper will consist of a choice of eight questions to be used as starting points. Students are required to select one . Students will be provided with exam papers on 1 February, or as soon as possible after that date.

Preparatory period – from 1 February

Following receipt of the paper students should consider the starting points and select one. Preparatory work should be presented in any suitable format, such as mounted sheets, design sheets, sketchbooks, workbooks, journals, models and maquettes.

Supervised time – 15 hours

Following the preparatory period, students must complete 15 hours of unaided, supervised time.

The first three hours of the supervised time must be consecutive.

In the 15 hours students must produce a finished outcome or a series of related finished outcomes, informed by their preparatory work.

Students must stop work on their preparatory work as soon as the first period of supervised time starts. Students may refer to their preparatory work in the supervised time, but it must not be added to or amended.

Preparatory work and the work produced during the supervised time must be kept secure in between sessions of supervised time.

The work produced during the supervised time must be clearly identified as such. Students must identify and acknowledge sources which are not their own. Annotation and/or notes should use appropriate specialist vocabulary and be legible with accurate use of language so that meaning is clear.

At the end of the 15 hours of supervised time all the work submitted for this component must be kept secure.

Preparatory work and the work produced during the 15 hours of supervised time will be assessed together, as a whole, against all four assessment objectives. Students will be assessed on their ability to work independently, working within the specified time constraints, and developing a personal and meaningful response.

There is no restriction on the scale of work produced. Students should carefully select, organise and present work to ensure that they provide evidence which meets the requirements of all four assessment objectives.

Students must not have access to the internet during the 15 hours of supervised time. Students are allowed access to web-based applications, eg Adobe Creative Cloud, but all other internet access must be disabled.

The guidelines set out in the JCQ document ‘Instructions for the conduct of examinations’ must be followed.

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AQA AS Art Grade Boundaries 2016

Subject: Art and design

Age range: 16+

Resource type: Assessment and revision

Last updated

22 February 2018

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