AS Art & Design students are required to submit:
- 1 x project (a two or three-dimensional final work, maximum weight 4.5kgs and maximum dimension in any direction of 750mm, completed within the 15 hour Art Exam)
- A maximum of 2 x A1 sheets (4 sides) of preparatory work (a body of work illustrating a visual response to one examination question, using any appropriate colours, tones, mediums, processes or techniques. The preparatory work is to be completed before the examination and must include direct observation from primary sources, research, analysis and 2D and/or 3D development of ideas. It should be comprised entirely of your own drawings, photographs and/or designs. The preparatory work must be:
- Mounted on a maximum of two sheets of A1 paper that are fastened together at the top left hand corner by a piece of string (or something similar);
- Clearly labelled and distinguishable from the examination piece (this is especially important in Graphic Design and Photography where the boundary between prep work and examination work is sometimes not clear);
- Brought in its entirety into the examination room at the start of the exam. After the first examination session, the work can no longer leave the examination room and it is unable to be accessed between examination sessions.
Preparing for the AS Art Exam
The AS exam paper should be given to students as soon as the school receives it (at the discretion of the Art teacher/s), a minimum of three weeks before the Controlled Test itself. If students are enrolled correctly (and well in advance), the examination paper should arrive several months before the examination, which gives students ample time to prepare. It can sometimes be advantageous to withhold the examination paper a few days until their AS Art Coursework is completed, as this ensures that students have their focus on one component at a time. It is essential that the Coursework deadline is relatively early, however, to give students maximum time to prepare for the exam.
The exam paper is simply a list of topics, from which you must select one. Some topics are very broad and have a lot of room for personal interpretation (i.e. “on the edge”) while others are narrow and suitable for those who like more direction (i.e. “an arrangement of several different items of footwear”). Some are tailored specifically for Design students (i.e. design a poster for a Festival of Dance to be held in your district or region. Include essential information, such as the location, dates, times and venue”) whereas others are general. You should discuss their topic selection with your teacher and seek guidance regarding interpretation and choice of source material. You are able to interpret questions in any way you wish.
The examination artwork does not have to relate to your AS coursework in any way – but there are obvious advantages to having some overlaps. It is worth remembering that the examination is worth much more than the Coursework, yet there is far less time to complete it. One helpful strategy can be for students to follow a similar process to that used in their Coursework (i.e. using the same artist models and a similar pattern of development), as this allows students to work much faster. Students have to ‘think’ and worry less, and simply put all of their effort into producing stunning artwork within the short time frame given. The subject or theme is of course totally different (because it is selected from the examination paper), and thus the students are excited and invigorated about their work, despite the processes being very similar to their Coursework, at least in the initial stages. As the work progresses, the new topic usually drives the work in a new and exciting direction, so the final pieces are quite different.
One important difference between the examination and Coursework that should be stressed is that is that observation from primary sources is essential within the examination submission. This means that, at some point, (usually in the very early stages of investigation – if not for the whole duration), students must work whilst looking directly at a scene or object. In other words, they must not draw from photographs. The purpose of this requirement is two-fold: firstly it ensures a direct interaction between viewer and subject (hopefully resulting in work that is more personal, detailed and ‘authentic’); secondly it avoids students attempting to create a submission based entirely from plagiarised second hand images (those taken from the internet etc).
Before the AS Art Exam:
- Finish your preparation work. Do not expect to be able to complete any of the prep work during the examination itself. If you finish your final examination project early (except perhaps in the case of extremely abstract works), you should ask yourself whether your artwork is too simple or poorly executed. At AS Level, students are required to have an extremely competent final piece. The examination is fifteen hours long for good reason. Many students find the fifteen hours not enough. It is in your absolute best interests to have all preparation work completed in advance of the first examination session, so that you can use every second of the fifteen hours to produce the most amazing final piece ever.
- Plan what your final examination artwork will look like, and how long each stage will take you. Obviously you cannot plan it exactly – and certainly do not attempt to complete a whole ‘practice’ version in advance (I have seen some students attempt to do this and their ‘real’ works rarely turn out as well as the practice one). But plan it enough so that you don’t waste any examination time thinking about what to do. Your preparation work should allow you to practise all the different components of the final work (perhaps not in exactly the same way, but enough that you are confident you can execute every aspect of it). Practised setting up the still life or pre-print high-quality photographs to work from.
- If you are an AS Painting student (i.e. specialising in Painting and Related Media) you are permitted to prepare your ground (the undercoat) in advance, which may also include patterned or textured paper. An undercoat (of course) must not include any outlines. Other areas, such as Graphic Design, Textiles making, Sculpture and Ceramics, candidates can, in addition to their supporting work, prepare specific material for the examination beforehand. If you are unsure what is permissible, you should contact CIE directly for clarification.
- Ensure all the equipment you need to use is ready and working – pencils sharpened / paint tubes full etc.
- Bring your supporting work to the exam! If you forget to bring it to your first examination session, you will not be allowed to submit it later. You will just have to hand in your final piece;
- Set up your work station. Immediately before the examination, you will be let into the room to set up your equipment, materials and a still life, if needed. You should set up everything you need and you should not have to share basic equipment with anyone else. Put your supporting sheets of work neatly beside you to refer to. Note: You are not allowed access to any books, magazines or artwork of other artists. Artwork will probably be on the walls, but you must not access this, copy it or try to submit it as your own. You are also not allowed to use any hazardous items in your work, such as needles, syringes, broken glass, razor blades, barbed wire, or those that contravene bio-security immigration rules, such as unfired clay, animal skin or fresh organic matter (i.e. leaves).
During the AS Art Exam
- You may move around the room to empty your water jar / get additional materials etc, although this should be minimised to reduce disturbance of other students;
- Tracing is allowed only on rare occasions, for example, when incorporating a motif that had been designed earlier as part of a Graphic Design submission. It is not acceptable for a Painting and Related Media student to bring an enlarged photograph to the exam and trace it. In the rare circumstances where tracing or copying is permissible, it is to be done from the supporting work and must take place within the examination;
- You are allowed technical assistance during the exam should you need it, such as assistance firing ceramics, welding metal sculptures or pouring out photographic chemicals, however at no stage can you ask your art teacher (or exam supervisor) for any advice about your art or design work. All decision-making that occurs within the examination session must be your own. Any conversation between you and the invigilator must be minimal and only that which is essential. Students must not communicate with each other. It is often preferable that it is not your art teacher within the room, to prevent subconscious grimaces from the teacher when a poor colour choice is made, for example (:)). It can also put the students at ease to have a ‘non artist’ in the room – so they don’t feel pressure from an art specialist watching and ‘judging’ their efforts as they work;
- Note that CIE recommends that the 15 hour examination be broken into shorter sessions lasting no more than 3 hours at a time, with the whole exam ideally being completed over three consecutive days;
- Once the exam is over, work can be dried, sprayed with fixative, trimmed, mounted, ceramics fired, labelled etc, prior to posting away.
Assessment:
The Controlled Test is worth 60% of your final AS grade and 30% of your final A Level Art grade. It is externally assessed (i.e. marked entirely by CIE examiners). Most countries send examination work to Cambridge University to be marked; other counties, like New Zealand, are lucky enough to have the examiners travel to them.
The final exam work and supporting pages are assessed together and are given a single mark out of 100. The following assessment criteria are given as a guide:
The 2011 AS Art & Design 9704 Controlled Test Assessment Criteria
AS Art Exam Examples:
This AS Art Exam example by Nikau Hindin achieved 98%
Further examples of AS Art exam work will be added here over the coming months.
To inspire you, here is a beautiful youtube video of students working on their A-Level Art exam final pieces (note: this is not CIE A Levels, but it is a great video all the same)…
This blog post relates to the AS Controlled Test (also known as the AS Art Exam) Component 1, CIE 9704 A-Level Art and Design – the International version of A-Levels, run by the University of Cambridge. Information is sourced from the CIE A-Level Art and Design syllabus. It is hoped that the examples of student work and other posts on this site will also be of value to students studying Art under other examination boards, including those studying Level 1 – 3 NCEA Art in New Zealand.
Written by Amiria Gale [artist + experienced teacher]:
- Art and Design Teacher for seven years;
- Faculty Co-ordinator, responsible for the course design, curriculum development and assessment of Art and Design work in high-achieving Auckland schools;
- Bachelor of Architectural Studies; Bachelor of Architecture (First Class Honours) and Graduate Diploma of Teaching (Secondary);
- CIE Accredited Art & Design and Design & Technology Coursework Assessor.
[This is part of a series of blog posts aimed at assisting Art A-Level students to gain exemplary grades]
Hi Amiria, your blog is very interesting and extremely informative ! I am a teacher who is handling the AS and A- level Art for the first time. I am from India.
Would be really nice if you could put up some A-grade as well as B-grade achievers work examples of controlled test to see in which way one needs to work in the preparation sheets and in which all way one needs to move… i mean the development stages to reach the final Art piece . why i ask this of you is because my students have’nt got good grades though they followed their heart and mind and worked more like their coursework in which they all got an A , and they in for a great shock not understanding why they got less grade in the exam… So please give us an insight into the Controlled Test if you can… like what all the examiners expect to see and how must our students need to perform… please help me out.
thank and regards-
padma
Hi Padma,
I am hoping for the site to be of value to teachers as well as students, so thank you for your comment. I am pleased you are finding the site informative.
I would love to upload some B-grade work. In fact, I think it would be very beneficial if I were to upload benchmark examples for every grade, however the difficulty is that students who achieved lower results are reluctant to have their work uploaded for public viewing, even if anonymous. This is something I am investigating, however, as there may be some who would be more than happy to have their lower grade work on display to help others (Note: if any students reading this fall into this category, I would love to hear from you). Perhaps some of your own students might not object to this?
It is unusual to have students consistently achieving more poorly in one Art & Design paper than another. Usually students gain very similar results in the Controlled Test and Coursework. A one grade variation is not uncommon, but it is rare for it to happen to most students in a class. I would guess that this probably does indicate that the students are not developing their work adequately or are making some other error, i.e. not working from first-hand sources (this is a requirement for the exam, whereas it is not compulsory for Coursework).
I will be uploading some A-Grade examination work over the next few months, which should help you understand the process required, and I will put some more thought into how I might acquire lower grade work.
Thanks and good luck with your students. Please don’t hesitate to ask further questions if you need to.
Amiria
hey,
the information for the exam here is so helpful, i wish i would have read it during the time i was still finishing up my exam, but unfortunetly i didn’t. from what you have mentioned, i’ve realised a big error that i have made, which is i did not work from direct observations. instead, i have worked from first hand photographs and included them on the A1 boards.
i have a question, for the exam, are we expected to first explore different scenes or settings and then choose one and continue studying and experimenting with that? or are we suppose to study and experiment with many different views and finally draw one for the final piece? and also in what manner or aspect does the final piece have to DIFFERENT from the preparatory sketches?
Don’t worry about not having drawn directly from the objects themselves… For all the examiners know, you may have drawn from observation and then simply taken the photographs as a record… They really just want to ensure that a) you are not copying from photographs that OTHER people took – i.e. those off the net or b) tracing your own photographs and avoiding drawing at all… Otherwise, as I mentioned earlier, they are very forgiving, and look for opportunities to reward students, rather than penalise…
As for your question, there is no one right answer. In a landscape based topic, in my experience, it is more usual for students to pick one particular location, then draw this from a range of angles, and then develop their compositions with reference to different artists (exactly as occurs with Coursework). The final work will be different to earlier ones in the same way that the coursework final work is different to the starting point. Normally students will not just draw something from a range of angles and then do ‘another angle’ for the exam, as this doesn’t show much development. On the other hand, a very competent student can get away with this – particularly if they demonstrate an outstanding understanding of composition.
so the difference in terms of the preparatory works and final work should be that they are not a repitition of the same thing over and over again but instead, the final work shows some difference as a result of development, from the starting point and through the preparatory works?
Exactly
in regard with artist reference…
should artists be chosen, who deal with similar topics/themes, or can they also be chosen on the bases of influence from the type of medium they use, the manner in which the use a medium, or for the way in which they develope their compositions – compositional structures, or use of colors etc…?
Artists do not need to use the same topic or theme. They can provide inspiration and ideas for technique / use of media etc as you suggest. This is totally fine – and very common.
hey,
i read this in one of the examiner reports: Where the work had been referenced to the work of others, all too often this was solely from books or the Internet.
does this mean that when works of artists are referenced, the artists should preferably be local artists who the student can go meet and be influenced by, rather than just getting to know about the artist from books or the internet? should one such local artist be studied for the AS exam?
[as well as the A level coursework? then the same local artist can be used for the personal study?]
also, it goes on to say: A failure to use primary research undermined the attainment levels. –> how is primary research different from researching through books and the internet to gain knowledge? is it to directly meet the artist?
Primary research means not just talking to the artist and seeing how they work and use mediums, but also going to galleries and seeing how paintings look in the flesh – textures and transparency and other tactile surface qualities are often not evident in books…and neither are the scale of works…and sometimes it is hard to see brush strokes and fine details etc… there is lots to be learnt from looking closely at real artworks. It helps with technical skill, but also with making students excited and passionate about art…
That’s what I meant by my previous comment…it’s not that they deduct marks, but that it will hinder your own performance and make it harder for you to produce great work…
Hi SJ,
Great to see you are reading the examiner reports. They are an invaluable resource and all students and teachers should read them.
The key word in this phrase is solely. There is nothing wrong with referencing artists that you have studied from books and/or the internet, as long as you view some artist work in the flesh. CIE encourages visiting galleries etc so that you see artwork in person, as there are many surface qualities to paintings that are just not evident in printed form.
It is accepted, however, that many local artists are just not as ‘valuable’ to a student as a more well known or critically acclaimed artists. i.e. sometimes the only artists that a student is able to visit are rather novice-like themselves. Therefore, it is more than acceptable to study artists whose work you cannot access. Just as long as you don’t solely do this. This is just a recommendation, however (purely as it is advantageous to students to see real artworks) – it is not something that the examiners are likely to deduct marks for. It is more that students who learn firsthand from paintings are more likely to produce better works themselves and are thus more likely to get better marks. The only exception to this is the Personal Study, in which it is essential that you can visit some of the artworks (and ideally the artist) yourself. If you cannot, you are unable to get your Outline Proposal Form (the form outlining your intentions within your Personal Study) approved.
also, you mentioned the wayin which a topic like landscapes can be approached, can the same be done for a topic like view of rooftops, or facades of buildings? wherein one location is chosen and studied from different angels in the preparatory sketches, and developed along the way, in terms of composition, color sheme….?
along the way, do u show experimentation with media in the exam as well? or do you focus more on different techniques and working with only one media towards the end…?
The best way to think of the examination is that it is the same as the coursework – except that a) firsthand observation is required at some point, and b) the initial topic is set by the exam paper. Media experimentation is all part of it. Generally by the end, students are working in one style (which could be one medium or a combination of media). Did you see the first A1 sheet of Nikau’s AS exam preparation I posted on this blog post (it is at the bottom in one of my responses to a comment). Her topic was suspension, and she drew suspended rotting fruit and vegetables.
Seeing as you have finished your exam, I wouldn’t worry about it anymore! There is nothing you can do to change what you have done. You are a talented student – just relax and hope for the best
hey, you are right!
i know that the exam is done.. i am just a little concerned that i might not have done the right stuff maybe… anyways, i might just consider redoing it perhaps…
thanx for all your help!
Hey,
I read in a earlier response, and also in the syllabus, that for the final exam I have to use primary observation. I used pictures that I took myself, but I didn’t draw from observation because it is a pop-art piece. Is it fine? or should I not execute it in that style?
Thanks
Hi Richard,
If you are referring to the examination / controlled test, then yes, you should definitely complete some works from observation. You can develop your later work into a pop art piece if you so desire. If you are referring to Coursework, it if generally beneficial for students to also include observational work. The danger with completing an entire submission in a pop art style – or an abstract style etc – is that it can hit and miss…i.e. you run the risk that the examiners may not ‘get’ it. If you have strong observational work (the logical place to include this is at the beginning, as your ‘starting point’) then this immediately reassures the examiners that you have skill and are thus deserving of high marks.
Hope this clarifies things for you.
hello. i was wondering if i can answer the questions through photographs? like for instance, the question asked for a specific theme. then i experiment it and took pictures and include it into my A1. i was planning to include paintings and photographs. does including photographs has its limitations? i dont want to include ‘too much’ photographs.
Hi Ahmad,
I just want to check that you are studying CIE? This is my area of speciality and thus my comments relate directly to this.
In the CIE Controlled Test, students can certainly use photography as part of their answer. (Photography students obviously answer the entire question using photographs, but I take it from your question that you are a Painting student).
I have just recently uploaded an AS exam submission, and you can see that on her first A1 sheet (top right) there are photographs. As you are a Painting student, I would definitely be wary of including too many photographs, however. You should also not put on photographs that you just directly copy in your paintings (the examiners don’t like to see students just slavishly copy photographs).
Please let me know if you need further clarity with this point.
Thanks and good luck!
Hello, as you wrote :
“One important difference between the examination and Coursework that should be stressed is that is that observation from primary sources is essential within the examination submission. ”
What if there really isn’t anything in my current environment, related to my idea that I can actually observe and sketch?
Will it be enough to just show sketches of my initial ideaas and inspirations ?
Hi Lisa,
What is your exam topic? I find it very hard to believe that there is nothing available for you to draw from first hand. The examiners really do need to see realistic recording of form at some point in your submission, and they strongly prefer this to be from first hand experience. Please let me know your topic and I will give your further advice. Thanks!
Thanks for the quick reply!
My topic is ‘Hidden’ and my idea is , how you/ you’re made to hide your real feelings etc in the society. Since I’ve taken a whole graphical approach to it, I can’t think of anything to observe and draw :/
Maybe live studies of faces ? (half hidden in the dark etc) ?
Also , would the examiners appreciate flat paint-ed final work?
Hi Lisa,
Yes I would definitely be looking at people; people concealed by things (veils / glasses / objects…although be careful not to be cheesy); overlays of images (similar to the artwork at the bottom of this page) containing conflicting emotions etc. I would begin by drawing directly from life, and also by taking a whole lot of photographs of people showing different emotions that you can then draw from. Possibly just one person, photographed over and over again.
As for whether the examiners appreciate flat painted work…do you mean flat as in 2D (i.e. a normal painting) or flat as in lacking in tone? If you mean the latter, this is very risky, as images containing many large areas of flat tone can lack detail and do not give candidates as much opportunity to demonstrate skill. There are always exceptions, but I would be very wary of this. A standard 2D painting, however, is absolutely fine!
Hello again,
Thank you so much for the suggestions!
And by flat paint I did mean the -latter, lacking in tone! Thanks for the information
Alright one last question.
Do examiners appreciate digital work (done completely by yourself ofcourse)
Hi Lisa,
Completing digital work as part of the preparatory work for an AS Painting exam is relatively rare, however the few students of mine who have done this have found it very advantageous (see the digital work in the example by Nikau above). Obviously, if a student is specialising in Painting, the final work must be a painting – and the majority of the prep work should be paintings or drawings, however digital work can certainly play a part. In my view, it has many advantages (speed of work / creative potential etc).
Graphic Design students often produce submissions that have a significant digital component, of course – but I assume your question relates to Painting?
Hiya!
I have just been given my exam title for a2 fine art…”Combinations and Alliances” and I was thinking of doing still life… but I kinda want to do something a bit different! So I have been looking at artists like Audrey Flack and Janet Fish…I was wondering if you could think of any more? Maybe some with mixed media?
Thanks for the help!
Gemma
Hi Gemma,
I have a collection of my favourite paintings and drawings on Pinterest that you might be interested in looking at. There are many that use creative, fun mixed media techniques and many still life works.
I am not sure if you saw my post on inventive uses of media? There might be some info in there that helps. I am in the middle of writing the second blog post in this series, but I am spending all my time answering comments at the moment, so I am not sure when I will get this finished. (If you sign up to the blog above right, you will be alerted whenever I write a new blog post).
Hope that helps!