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GCSE Practical Assessment

Introduction
Planning
Obtaining Evidence
Analysis
Evaluating

GCSE Practical Assessment - Introduction

(Note: at the moment, only the planning section of these pages in complete; I hope to finish the information for the other skills soon!)

The GCSE coursework counts for 20% of your final grade (in the Edexcel modular course at least), so it would be daft to not give it your very best effort to pick up critical marks that could make all the difference.

The purpose of this section is to help you! We will lead you through the four skills that you need to demonstrate in a piece of assessment work, advise you how to pick up extra marks and let you know what mark your draft write-up is likely to receive.

How is the GCSE Practical Assessment marked?

A piece of assessment work is marked on four criteria. These are:

Planning (P) - maximum mark 8
Obtaining Evidence (O) - maximum mark 8
Analysis (A) - maximum mark 8
Evaluating (E) - maximum mark 6

This leads to a maximum mark of 30 for a piece of work. You will usually carry out at least one piece of assessment work in each of Physics, Biology and Chemistry.

We provide downloadable guides to the marking of these criteria. These take the form of flow charts that leads you through each of the skills. All files are Adobe Acrobat (PDF) files - if you do not have Acrobat Reader installed go here:

What marks will I get?

Once you have completed a draft of your write up, you can use our pages to assess what mark you are likely to get for your effort.

Ready to begin? Then please tell me - What mark will I get for PLANNING?

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Wednesday, 28 October