OCR GCSE Art and Design (9-1) Past Papers & Mark Schemes

The preparatory period is where you build the foundation for your final piece. Use it to research artists whose work connects to the theme, experiment with materials and techniques, and develop your ideas through iterative sketches and studies. Do not arrive at the 10-hour supervised session without a clear plan. Moderator reports consistently highlight that the strongest submissions show a clear journey from initial ideas to a resolved final piece. Document your thinking through annotation — explain why you made each decision, which artists influenced you, and how your ideas evolved. This annotation is assessed under AO1 (developing ideas). In the supervised session, manage your time carefully across the 10 hours. Allocate roughly 1–2 hours for setup and initial work, 5–6 hours for the main creative work, and 2 hours for refinement and finishing. The final outcome does not need to be large — quality and intent matter more than scale. Read the moderator reports from previous years to understand the assessment standard. They describe real student work at different grade levels and explain what lifts a submission from competent to exceptional.