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Professional Development
Learning opportunities and training designed to enhance skills and knowledge.
Bringing assessment to life
Here you’ll find a series of videos that tell you how we design assessments in specific subjects.
There'll be points in the videos to pause and carry out short tasks or discuss your thoughts. You may find it useful to have a copy of the relevant specification along with a past paper and mark scheme to refer to.
Accounting
03 May 2024 Duration: 23 minutes This video looks at how the general assessment principles are applied in A-level Accounting. It considers the importance of assessment objectives, command words and the role of different types of questions. It also looks at double entry skills and the different approaches to mark schemes.
Art and Design
20 May 2024 Duration: 35 minutes This video looks at how the general assessment principles are applied in GCSE and A-level Art and design. Starting with a detailed look at the assessment objectives and how they work, the video considers the role of externally set assignments and explains the assessment criteria and our holistic marking approach, demonstrating the continuity between GCSE and A-level.
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Biology
03 May 2024 Duration: 26 minutes This video looks at how the general assessment principles are applied in A-level Biology. It looks at assessment objectives, different question types, and gives an insight into our question paper development process. It also looks at the different types of mark scheme and demonstrates how questions can be developed for use in the classroom.
Business
03 May 2024 Duration: 23 minutes This video looks at how the general assessment principles are applied to GCSE Business. It considers the importance of assessment objectives and how they are used in questions and the role of different question types in the exam. The video considers quantitative skills in the development of Business assessments and provides insights into how items are created.
Chemistry
03 May 2024 Duration: 23 minutes This video looks at how the general assessment principles are applied in A-level Chemistry. It looks at the assessment objectives, the role of different question types, including questions involving mathematical content and practical work, and explains how we design questions to differentiate effectively. The video also provides insights into how we analyse student performance to ensure and improve the quality of our assessments.
Citizenship Studies
06 Oct 2023 Duration: 15 minutes This video looks at how the general principles are applied in Citizenship Studies. It looks at different question types, the importance of source materials in question design and demonstrates how questions can be developed for use in the classroom.
Computer Science
28 Sep 2023 Duration: 24 minutes This video shows how we assess programming skills in Computer Science (GCSE/AS/A-level) and how to correctly apply the mark schemes. The subtle differences in how mark schemes are applied to handwritten program code (GCSE) and that produced in an IDE (AS/A-level) are also considered. We use examples of student work to illustrate the application of the mark scheme and also give you the opportunity to write your own mark schemes in response to the answers we provide.
Dance
03 May 2024 Duration: 19 minutes This video looks at how the general assessment principles are applied in GCSE Dance. It considers the structure of the written paper and looks at the importance of assessment objectives and command words within the different question types. The video also looks at the different approaches to mark schemes.
Design and Technology
06 Oct 2023 Duration: 25 minutes This video looks at how general assessment principles are applied in Design and Technology. Specifically, it explores the different question types used in the subject, use of language, context and imagery in questions and aspects of mark scheme design.
Drama
03 May 2024 Duration: 41 minutes This video looks at how the general principles are applied in GCSE Drama and A-level Drama and Theatre, covering both the written assessments and the non-exam assessment. It considers assessment objectives, the different question types and how they are structured and the selection of extracts. The video also considers aspects of mark scheme design and provides ideas for creating your own assessment materials.
Economics
28 Sep 2023 Duration: 25 minutes This video looks at how general assessment principles are applied to Economics and contribute to the development of high-quality assessments in Economics. It considers the importance of assessment objectives and of quantitative skills in the development of Economics assessments and identifies the role of different types of questions. The video also explains the relationship between the assessment objectives and mark schemes and finishes by providing some examples of student responses to some past questions.
English Language
28 Sep 2023 Duration: 25 minutes The first half of this video focuses on GCSE Language and looks at the benefits of having a single assessment objective per question and how those assessment objectives work. It also looks into mark scheme design and the importance of careful selection of unseen sources. The second part of the video shifts the focus to A-level Language and looks at how the assessment objectives, mark schemes and questions contribute to the overall assessment design.
English Literature
03 May 2024 Duration: 20 minutes This video looks at how the general assessment principles are applied in GCSE and A-level English Literature. Starting with a detailed look at the assessment objectives and how they work, the video considers how questions are framed to elicit the required knowledge, understanding and skills and demonstrates the continuity between GCSE and A-level. The video explains our holistic marking approach and the principles of levels of response mark schemes.
Environmental Science
25 Jun 2024 Duration: 20 minutes This video looks at how the general assessment principles are applied in A-level Environmental Science. It considers the importance of assessment objectives and command words and how they are used in questions. The video also looks at the use of resources in our question papers and considers the different types of mark schemes.
Food and Nutrition
03 May 2024 Duration: 24 minutes This video looks at how the general assessment principles are applied in GCSE Food Preparation and Nutrition. It considers the assessment objectives, the design of different question types and the use of context to ensure accessibility. It also looks at the different types of mark scheme and provides some useful ideas for classroom practice.
Mathematics
28 Sep 2023 Duration: 15 minutes This video focuses on how mark schemes are developed in GCSE Mathematics. It covers the principles that underpin Maths mark schemes, including how marks are allocated to be fair to all students. We look at how a mark scheme for a problem-solving question is created and refined and how some questions need a very different approach.
Media Studies
28 Sep 2023 Duration: 31 minutes This video looks at how assessments are created for GCSE and A-level Media Studies and how these can help you in your own practice. It is broken down into three areas, moving from the principles of assessment, through how these are applied by AQA within Media Studies, to how they can be applied by teachers of the subject.
Music
03 May 2024 Duration: 31 minutes This video looks at how the general assessment principles are applied in GCSE and A-level Music. It considers the Assessment Objectives, the practical tasks and role of coursework, the types of questions, and mark schemes as well as the role of optionality within the two specifications, showing you how they provide for a valid and reliable assessment.
Philosophy
03 May 2024 Duration: 21 minutes This video looks at how the general assessment principles are applied in A-level Philosophy. It takes a detailed look at the link between the specification content and the exam questions, focusing on the different question types and how they are constructed to reflect the assessment objectives and assess the different specification topics.
Physical Education
28 Sep 2023 Duration: 19 minutes This video gives insight into how Physical Education assessments and mark schemes are designed. It sets out how assessment objectives are key in determining the question types and the command words used in the assessment. It goes on to look at the steps taken to avoid bias and ensure all students are fairly treated.
Physics
03 May 2024 Duration: 26 minutes This video looks at how the general assessment principles are applied in A-level Physics. Starting with a detailed look at the assessment objectives, the video considers the assessment framework for Science, and the different types of questions. It looks at the language of questions and how we can vary the level of demand of a question to suit its purpose. The video also provides insights into how we develop our assessments.
Politics
03 May 2024 Duration: 12 minutes This video looks at how the general assessment principles are applied in A-level Politics. It looks at how questions are structured and the role of assessment objectives and command words. It also considers the synoptic and comparative elements of the assessment as well as aspects of mark scheme design.
Psychology
28 Sep 2023 Duration: 20 minutes This video focuses on three aspects of assessment in A-level Psychology. They are the link between the specification and exam questions, how to use appropriate language in assessment tasks and how a mark scheme is written to reflect the question wording and to be a useful assessment tool.
Sociology
28 Sep 2023 Duration: 20 minutes This video focuses on how general assessment principles are applied in A-level Sociology. It looks at the language of assessment, including the use of command words, the importance of stimulus materials in question design and the different approaches to mark schemes.
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