Changes to 2021 exams for GCSE Engineering

Published: Monday 28 Sep 2020

We’ve been working hard to make the relevant changes to our qualifications following Ofqual’s decisions on summer 2021 exams, so here are the changes you need to know about for GCSE Engineering.

These changes only apply to the 2021 exam series.

GCSE Engineering (8852)

The following non-exam assessment (NEA) sections have changes for 2021.

Problem solving

• Problem solving should be evident in the prototype design but students aren’t required to demonstrate this in a final prototype.

Engineering skills

• This section has been reduced from 15 to 10 marks
• Students will no longer be assessed on the skill of making but will be required to show their ‘intentions of prototypes’ and demonstrate their understanding of the processes involved in making
• The assessment no longer requires students to make a final prototype - instead, they can show their understanding of the processes involved in making by writing about them. However, making skills are important for progression to future study, and for students' understanding, so we’d encourage you to continue to allow students to make wherever possible. This is one way of demonstrating the knowledge tested in the 2021 ‘Engineering skills’ section and is the best way to inspire and enthuse students in the subject.

Testing and evaluation

• There’s no expectation to test a final made prototype, but students should test their prototype designs.

NEA will still count as 40% of the overall GCSE qualification.

There are no planned changes to NEA sections in Drawing and conventions, Production planning or Applying systems technology.

There are no planned changes to the exam. The same specification content should be covered as always; the exam questions and associated mark schemes will look the same as in previous years of this specification.

We know that you’ll want to know more about the changes for next summer. We’ll publish further information in the coming months with updates about the summer 2021 exams.

See all updates