Drama

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.

Transcript

Welcome to this AQA training session exploring assessment for GCSE Drama and A-level Drama and Theatre. My name is Fiona Dorman-Jackson and I have worked as a drama associate for AQA for a number of years.

Hopefully you'll have already seen our what makes good assessment videos about the principles of assessment, which cover concepts such as validity and reliability and what those terms mean. In this video, I'm going to talk about how those principles apply in GCSE Drama and A-Level Drama and Theatre. The purpose of this session is to explain how the assessment objectives are applied in the AQA GCSE Drama and A-level Drama and Theatre specifications and to describe how our assessment tasks are designed and created reflecting the principles behind good assessment in order to ensure our assessment tasks are valid and to support your own assessment understanding and assessment practice. The intention is that this will help you to further understand the reasons behind the content and design of question papers, mark schemes and even the specifications themselves and our hope is that this knowledge will support you to produce your own valid assessment tasks in GCSE Drama and A-level Drama and Theatre.

Assessment Objectives

Let’s start by considering assessment objectives, however before I do so, it is important to clarify that the assessment objectives are not unique to AQA and they are shared by all exam boards and pre-date the specification itself as they were decided upon by the regulator, Ofqual, following consultation with each exam board. This ensures consistency within the qualification across different boards. It may also be worth mentioning that the percentage weighting for each assessment objective was also determined by Ofqual in consultation with exam boards and again, remains the same across all boards, although each exam board does have autonomy from this point on to determine where and how the assessment objectives are applied within their own assessments.

There are four assessment objectives in total for both GCSE and A-level and we will start by having a look at these four assessment objectives, their similarities, and where they are assessed. At GCSE, assessment objective 1 is - Create and develop ideas to communicate meaning for theatrical performance.  And at A-level there is a step up and a little more nuance evident in this assessment objective as it becomes - Create and develop ideas to communicate meaning as part of the theatre making process making connections between dramatic theory and practice.

Although assessment objective 1 is more nuanced at A-level, At both GCSE and A-level this assessment objective has an overall Ofqual prescribed weighting of 20%.  In both AQA’s specifications AO1 is completely assessed within Component 2. Assessment objectives 2, 3 and 4 are the same at both GCSE and A-level.

The first of the identical assessment objectives is AO2 which states students must be assessed upon their ability to ‘Apply theatrical skills to realise artistic intentions in live performance’.  The Ofqual prescribed weighting for AO2 is 30% and in AQA’s specification this is split between Components 2 and 3, with 10% of the overall weighting being assessed in Component 2 and 20% in Component 3.

Assessment objective 3 - Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of how drama and theatre is developed and performed.  This has an Ofqual prescribed weighting of 30% and forms the basis of the assessment of Component 1, the written exam, at both GCSE and A-level alongside assessment objective 4, which is - Analyse and evaluate their own work and the work of others. This assessment objective has an Ofqual prescribed total weighting of 20%; 10% of which is assessed in the written exam, in Section C of Component 1.  The other 10% is assessed in Component 2, Devising Drama, at GCSE.  At A-level it is assessed in Component 3 - Making Theatre.

We will consider the implications of these assessment objectives in terms of assessment design shortly, however it also worth mentioning a few other stipulations made by Ofqual in relation to these qualifications which need to be considered, incorporated and responded to when designing the specification. This includes, alongside several other things, the minimum number of performance texts to be studied at each level, some of which AQA include in the written exam and some in Component 3.  Plus, the requirement at A-level, for students to study and be assessed on the work and methodologies of two, influential theatre practitioners. There is also a stipulation that specifications in drama and theatre, in addition to having a written exam, must require students to participate in a minimum of two performances, one devised and one from a performance text which has been studied as part of the course, hence the reason for having one component focused on devised work and one on scripted performance at both levels.

GCSE Drama - Section A

Now we’ve confirmed the assessment objectives, we are going to begin to consider how they are applied to GCSE component 1 in a way that facilitates the key assessment principles explained in AQA’s generic assessment principles training.

The intention with Section A is to provide an accessible, quick and easy way into the paper for GCSE students via four multiple choice questions, each worth one mark.  This section should, as much as possible, put students at their ease and settle them into the exam via closed questions, testing students’ knowledge and understanding of drama and theatre terminology – including stage positioning and staging configurations and the roles and responsibilities of theatre makers; which is the content included, although not totally restricted to, that listed at the beginning of the specification.

Section A, is therefore a way of focusing students and building their confidence before they move onto responding to the higher tariff questions in the main body of the exam paper. Each multiple-choice question is carefully constructed to include one correct answer and two distractors, each of which should be a plausible, although an incorrect response to the question. For example, in this question, option C is the correct answer and both options A and B are plausible responses. However, in contrast to this question, in this second example options A and B are not plausible and option C gives away too much information meaning that a student who had no knowledge or understanding of theatre roles could very easily guess the correct answer via the use of the word lighting in both the question and in the answer, which means this would not be a valid Section A question.

As students move through the GCSE paper the weighting of each question gradually increases from the one-mark questions in Section A to, in Section B, questions worth 4 marks, to 8 marks, to 12 marks, then 20 marks.  In Section C, one question is worth 32 marks which is the highest tariff question on the exam paper. The gradual increase in tariff weighting reflects the fact that the questions get progressively more demanding as students move through the exam paper.  This design provides all students with a fair chance of gaining some marks in the less demanding, lower tariff questions, alongside questions with a higher demand which are designed so they are not too discriminatory to prevent less able students the opportunity to evidence their knowledge and understanding but also discriminatory enough to enable more able students to fully demonstrate the depth and detail of their knowledge and understanding of how drama and theatre is performed.

There is much consistency within the design and appearance of the whole exam paper at GCSE for a number of reasons including that this reassures students, it ensures comparability over time and it helps to avoid construct irrelevant variance.  You may recall this term from the generic training, meaning the introduction of unintended variables in the assessment itself, such as convoluted language which could get in the way of a student understanding the specific requirements of the question. The clear layout and language of the question papers add to the accessible nature of the papers for students.  The question writers aim is to ensure students understand how to respond fully to the requirements of the question.

The questions use similar wording year on year, and this helps to ensure that the questions assess student’s knowledge and understanding of drama and theatre rather than their reading level or their comprehension of the question requirements.  This reduces the cognitive load for students and ensures the wording of the questions do not get in the way of students showing what they know and understand helping to ensure students are given the opportunity to gain the credit they deserve.

GCSE - Section B

The main changeable element of each question in Section B year on year is the extract from each set text in the question paper.  Students must study the whole text therefore the extract will be familiar to them however they will not know which actual specific section of  the text will appear in the question paper each year.  This helps us to reliably sample student’s knowledge and understanding of the set text and their knowledge and understanding of how it should be performed.

If you consider the overall design of the paper the extract needs to be no longer than one side of A4 in order that the extract can appear in the exam paper on the left-hand side of the paper and can be considered alongside the questions which appear on the right-hand side.  This design makes the paper easy for students to navigate and means that students do not need to turn pages to link a question to the extract supporting them to navigate their way through the questions and therefore the whole paper easily.

The number of lines of each extract across the paper does not have to be comparable for several reasons – some texts are ‘denser’ than others, a shorter section of text from one play may offer as many opportunities for performance and design opportunities as a longer one from another play.  In addition, as this is not an ‘unseen’ extract students will know the text before they go into the exam and therefore are not reading the extract for the first time before beginning to consider how they will respond to the questions.

The extract must also offer interesting opportunities for performance and design interpretations and include a smaller section of text, which will be the shaded extract in the exam paper.  The shaded extract should provide an opportunity for students to explore how two characters might interact with one another and there should be some movement within the ‘journey’ the character named in bold in the question goes on within the short-shaded extract.

In addition, there should be another key line offering vocal and physical performance potential for the .2 question focus.  It may also be worth mentioning that there is no requirement for the extract to be a completely new extract year on year.  It could be that there is some overlap with extracts used previously or that the characters who form the focus of the question change however let’s move to the questions now. In these Romeo and Juliet focused questions, as the first question is based on a setting, the second and third questions focus on one character, in this case Lady Capulet.  The fourth question is centred on a second character, Juliet in this case. This is why the extract must include at least two actors and the aim is that it probably wouldn’t include more than four/five characters in total. This is so that there is enough content within the dialogue to securely set questions focused on two characters.

The fifth question is always a design question.  However, in this example from A Taste of Honey, as the first question is focused upon costume design, the first three questions will always focus on the same character. Another pattern you may have noticed is that question X.3 is always one character interacting with anther actor, therefore, this is another reason why the extract must include at least two actors. Before we discuss specific question structure, now is a good time to look at the guiding principles of paper design and question wording which you will notice embedded throughout upcoming examples.

These include:

That command words should be included at the beginning of a sentence to provide clarity about what students are expected to include in their response. Standard wording or instructions within questions ensures consistency across the different extracts which is of course imperative to attaining valid outcomes. Where possible, sentences within a question should be simple and short to eliminate interpretation and/or misunderstanding issues. Key information is emboldened to help students quickly identify and focus on the essential aspects of the question. Similarly, question writers use bullet points to clearly display additional, specific, strands of information so students can provide as accurate and targeted response as possible. Finally, papers are designed to include sufficient white space to improve readability by preventing the text appearing too dense, thus reducing eye strain for students.

If we move through and begin to consider the design of each question now, starting with the X.1 questions which always relate to an element of design (costume, set, props, lighting, sound or puppets, if appropriate, for the text/extract) for one of the characters (if costume) or setting of the extract.

The parts of the question which change appear in bold to support students to focus on these aspects during the exam.  Therefore, in terms of the .1 question this is the design focus and, if applicable, if it is a costume question, the character name.

X.1 questions always require a design which reflects either the social, cultural or historical context of the play, or the conventions of the period in which it was originally created, such as the late 19th century as shown in the third example on screen. This part of the question largely remains the same year on year so all design areas can be considered within this context when studying the play although there may be some change in the context of the Blood Brother’s question as this play moves from the 1960’s to the 1980’s. Also, there may be some change in the Around the World context, as this play has many different locations. Finally, there may be some change in The Great Wave context as this play takes place in both Japan and North Korea from 1979 to 2003.  The date or year and the location are always stated in the question for students' information.

The students role when answering the question appears very clearly at the start of each question. Here you can see it is: “You are designing…..”. The command verb on this first question for four marks is ‘describe’ and it appears clearly at the start of a short sentence informing students of what they have to do, which is to ‘Describe your design ideas for the costume.’

The generic Level of Response marking grid used for this question is focused on how well students describe their design ideas and how appropriate their design ideas are to the extract and the text as a whole.  The grid is, as with all questions, in addition to the indicative content provided in the mark scheme for each question.  Level of Response mark schemes are broken down into different levels, each of which has a criteria descriptor showing the overall performance criteria of the level, followed by further bulleted criteria content.  Indicative content for each question is also provided to further support and guide examiners to mark students' responses holistically, and to credit a wider range of responses.  In this type of mark scheme examiners apply a principle of best fit, first, identifying the appropriate level, and then the mark within the level.  The focus of the Level of Response mark schemes is on assessing the quality of students' responses, rather than assigning a mark per correct point which only occurs in Section A of the GCSE paper.

Now onto considering the wording and requirements of the .2 question. These question, such as the two on screen, always focus on one line from the extract and always follow the same structure.

You are performing the role of (Character name). Describe how you would use your vocal and physical skills to perform the line below and explain the effects you want to create. You will notice that The command verb is again describe with the additional demand of ‘and explain’ – so there is a slight increase in demand here as the tariff weighting of the question increases although students are only having to consider one line of the extract in these questions. Then follows the line from the extract. The line from the text is always around 10-20 words and it should provide interesting points for vocal and physical delivery for students to discuss.

Moving to the .3 question. The demand increases again as well as the amount of text students have to consider in their response as this incorporates an interaction between two characters with the character named in the question having some kind of a ‘journey’ within the extract. The command verb is explain for these 12 mark questions and students are also given a specific focus, such as in this question from the 2022 series , the Nurse's distress. Students will be performing the same role as that identified in the .2 question, in this case from the 2022 series, it’s the nurse within Romeo and Juliet.  Students will need to explain how they might use performance space and interact with the other character in the shaded part of the extract.

These X.3 questions always follow the same structure.

You are performing the role of a named character.  Focus on the shaded part of the extract. Explain how you might use the performance space and interact with the actor playing (second character’s name) to show the audience (a particular feeling/emotion/effect)

The .4 and .5 questions also always have the same wording as you can see here on the screen.  These questions are more demanding as they are worth 20 marks. The command verbs are both describe and explain with the focus of the question being on performing the role of a second character within the extract and the play as whole or working as a designer on one aspect of design within the extract and the play as a whole.

The consistency in the wording of the questions across the paper avoids confusion and ensures that the exam paper provides a valid assessment tool and despite the many optional routes with nine different set texts, the mark a student achieves does not depend upon the set text they study. There is also consistency evident in the wording and appearance of the mark scheme for Section B, with all the questions using a Levels of Response mark scheme in which the generic content remains the same with the wording mirroring the command verb in the question and the additional bullet pointed criteria underneath very clearly reflecting the assessment requirements of the question.

In addition to the generic marking grid, examiners have further specific indicative content showing some of the key information or aspects a student may include in their response to each question. The detail in the indicative content of the mark scheme for each question enables those marking the assessment tasks to reward students fairly and consistently. The headers of each section of the indicative content clearly state that a student ‘may’ or ‘might’ refer to the some of the following information which also allows examiners applying the mark scheme to reward students who have given a less expected but valid response so ideas which do not appear in the indicative content can also be credited.

We are often asked by teachers, ‘how many points should students be making in their response?’. When you look at the mark scheme you can see that the number of points the students makes is not mentioned at any point. Instead, examiners consider the quality of response and whether it is a limited, reasonable, good or excellent description, explanation or both and not the number of ideas or points the student makes. It is also worth noting that a small number of points made with lots of detail, or a large number of points with less detail are both are ways of demonstrating knowledge and understanding and are both rewardable.

GCSE – Section C

Let us move to considering the requirements of Section C which, like Section B, incorporates assessment objective 3 - demonstrate knowledge and understanding of how drama and theatre is developed and performed and in addition incorporates part of assessment objective 4 - analyse and evaluate the work of others.

In line with the assessment objectives these questions require students to discuss or describe and then to analyse and evaluate the live theatre they have seen.  There are three questions in this section including performance and design focused questions. As in other sections of the paper the questions follow a similar structure each series.

With performance, questions have the following format: Describe how one or more actors used their vocal and physical skills to (create convincing characters) for the audience. Analyse and evaluate how successful they were in (showing their character) for the audience. Or, as on this question:  Describe how one or more actors used their vocal and physical skills to create a dramatic effect for the audience.  Analyse and evaluate how successful they were in creating dramatic effect for the audience. You could make reference to: vocal skills, for example pitch, pace and tone of voice; physical skills, for example, body language and facial expression; a scene or section and/or the production as a whole.

Design questions have the following structure: Describe how the (set design) was used to [communicate time and/or place] for the audience.  Analyse and evaluate how successful the set was in (communicating time and/or place) for the audience.  You could make reference to: Materials and effects; Space, scale, levels, colour; A scene or section and/or the production as a whole.

Bullet points are used here to clearly display additional specific strands of information students could include in their response in order to further support them to respond to this higher tariff question. Sometimes design questions will offer students the option of choosing from two design skills, as in this question, when they can focus on either the costumes or lighting.

The generic mark grid for these Section C questions reflect the two assessment objectives they incorporate with the assessment objective 3 - demonstrate knowledge and understanding of how drama and theatre is developed and performed - being worth 12 marks and assessed via the level of description students include, in response to the specific focus of the question, of how the performance or design is developed and performed, the range of theatrical skills referenced and of how exact, well-developed and precise the description of performance or design skills are.

And for assessment objective 4 - analyse and evaluate the work of others - being worth 20 marks and assessed via the level of analysis and evaluation students provide in their responses.

Component 2 – NEA

Let’s  briefly now look at another part of the assessment - Component 2, the NEA or non-examined assessment.

At GCSE this incorporates:

AO1: 20%           Create and develop ideas to communicate meaning for theatrical performance

AO2: 10%           Apply theatrical skills to realise artistic intentions in live performance

AO4: 10%           Analyse and evaluate their own work and the work of others

Students are required to create a devised performance with a devising logbook. The devised performance at both GCSE and A-level incorporates assessment objective 2 - Apply theatrical skills to realise artistic intentions in live performance. At GCSE, the devising log incorporates assessment objective 1 - Create and develop ideas to communicate meaning for theatrical performance which is assessed in Section 1 and Section 2 of the devising log and assessment objective 4 - Analyse and evaluate their own work and the work of others which is assessed in Section 3 of the devising log.

One of the key differences between NEA and exam assessment is that the NEA work is marked by teachers in centres and then moderated by AQA.  As I'm sure you're aware, this moderation is to ensure that all students across the country have had the mark scheme applied in the same way.  The moderators have been trained to work to the agreed AQA standard as part of the standardisation process and their job is to ensure that each centre’s marks are in line with that agreed national standard for Component 2, as if they've all been marked by one person.  In order to do this, they need to see a sample of work throughout the full range of each centre’s marks, from the highest to the lowest. In order to support teachers to mark this Component accurately, the standardisation material from the June series is available for teacher online standardisation in the following autumn.  Using the same material for moderator standardisation and for teacher standardisation helps to ensure consistency across all who are assessing the Component and helps to maintain consistency year on year.

Component 3 – NEA

And if we now just touch upon the final component and consider assessment in Component 3. At GCSE this incorporates:

• AO2: 20% Apply theatrical skills to realise artistic intentions in live performance
• The scripted performance at both GCSE and A-level incorporates assessment objective 2 - Apply theatrical skills to realise artistic intentions in live performance.

No supporting written work is required at GCSE.

Regulators require that students study a minimum of one complete performance text at GCSE and a minimum of two key extracts from a second performance text.  One of these texts is assessed in Component 1 and the two extracts are assessed via the students’ performance in Component 3.  It is also stipulated that this text contrasts with the complete and substantial performance text students answer on in Component 1 hence the prohibited play combinations outlined in the specification and the requirement to have the Component 3 performance text approved by your NEA. It is perhaps worth mentioning that this is not an acting exam and whilst students do need to demonstrate their vocal and physical performance skills, the assessment of this component requires students to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of the play text, their script, via their personal interpretation of the text. This is one of the reasons why the specification states that the wording of the text must not be modified.  If students change the playwright’s words, then it is highly possible this could impact their achievement in relation to bullet points three and four.

A-level Drama and Theatre

If we move to considering the application of assessment objectives and the structure and design of the A-level written exam paper now, and we can see from this table that the written paper is worth 40% of the total final grade and assesses students' ability within AO3 to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of how drama and theatre is developed and performed as well as AO4 which is a student’s ability to analyse and evaluate their own work and the work of others. As with GCSE, the exam paper has been carefully designed to enable students to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding with the ethos underpinning the question setting being the desire to facilitate students to show their ability within the subject.

The questions are designed to enable lower-ability students to evidence their knowledge and understanding, whilst also providing an opportunity for higher-ability students to demonstrate the depth and detail of their knowledge and understanding of how theatre professionals create meaning for an audience or, in other words, how drama and theatre is performed (AO3). Consistency is key within question design, the language used within questions and the construction of the paper itself to, again, ensure comparability over time and to avoid construct irrelevant variance.

A-level - Section A

If we start by considering Section A.  The role students must take when answering the question is always defined at the beginning of the question.  For example: “As a designer or as a director”, “As a performer or” etc. This is followed by the command verb ‘discuss’ as you can see on the screen to my right. If the focus of the question is on performance or directing, then the character name usually appears shortly after this as can be seen in the questions here linking to Creon and Haemon.  Alternatively, the design role may be specified. Students are always asked to refer to one or more separate sections of the play, or two or more separate sections, or two or three sections depending on the character or the focus of the question. Some questions are given a specific focus / have a distinct brief for example “Discuss how you would create comedy for the audience from the interactions between Benedick and Beatrice” or “Discuss how your designs would help to create contrasting moods….”. In other questions, students determine their own brief and nominate their ‘preferred audience response’ or as you can see in the second question on the screen ‘to convey your interpretation of his character’.

It is important to note that any character who appears in the text provides a legitimate character to form the focus for a question.  Finally, there are a choice of two questions for each set text which, because one question offers students the option to respond in one of two roles, actually means there are almost three choices of questions for each set text.

A-level - Section B

Let us move to considering the requirements of Section B which, like section A, is focused on assessment objective 3: Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of how drama and theatre is developed and performed. Many considerations are given to the choice of extract which is again not an ‘unseen’ extract and, therefore, as students will know the text before they go into the exam it is not essential for all extracts to be precisely the same length in the paper, rather the extract should provide comparable opportunities to respond to the three compulsory questions set on each set text in Section B.

The printed extract must provide comparable opportunities to respond to the three compulsory questions on each set text.  The first question, in this case from Teale: Bronte, always requires students to respond as a director to a section of the extract. The second question, ‘as a performer’ usually to links to a different section of the extract and the third question, ‘as a designer’ normally facilitates reference to the whole extract. Therefore, if you are creating bespoke question material for your students, when choosing the section of text for the extract, the key is to ensure that it will provide students with opportunities for design and typically have two sections, although there can be overlap in the extract when the questions have a different focus or requirement.

The command verbs in each question largely remain the same and are usually, ‘explain and justify’ and, as in Section A, some questions are given a specific focus / have a distinct brief for example as you can see on the examples here which ask ‘to create an engaging start to the play’ and ‘to create an appropriate period and production style at this point in the play.’ In other questions, students determine their own brief and nominate their ‘intended effects for the audience’ or their ‘preferred audience response’. Consistency remains evident in the wording and appearance of the mark scheme for Sections A and B, with the questions having a Levels of Response mark scheme in which the generic content remains the same each series, with the bullet pointed criteria closely and clearly reflecting the assessment requirements of the question/s.  In addition to the generic marking grids, examiners have further specific indicative content showing some of the key information or content a student may include in their response to each question. This all supports examiners to reward students fairly and consistently.

A-level - Section C

Let us move to considering the requirements of Section C which incorporates assessment objective 3 – to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of how drama and theatre is developed and performed and in addition incorporates part of assessment objective 4 – to analyse and evaluate the work of others.

As you can see to my right from the 2023 series, there are four questions in Section C, and they always include two performance and two design focused questions. These questions require students to ‘explain’ and to ‘analyse and evaluate’ the live theatre they have seen. As in other sections of the paper, the questions follow a similar structure year on year with questions asking students to begin by briefly explaining how one performer, or one or to two performers, or two or more performers have used their skills to do something specific which forms the focus of the question or, in the case of designers, to briefly explain how a specific design, such as a sound designer, created suitable moods or atmospheres.

Students are then asked to analyse and evaluate the contribution – whatever is the focus of the question has made to the total dramatic effectiveness of the production.

The generic mark scheme for these Section C questions, reflects the two assessment objectives the questions incorporate with the assessment objective 3 - demonstrate knowledge and understanding of how drama and theatre is developed and performed being worth 5 marks with the criteria being focused on the demonstration of knowledge and understanding of aspects such as the form and style of the production, the interpretation of the text and how meaning is created  within the performance and the creative and artistic choices made by the production team. And for assessment objective 4 - analyse and evaluate the work of others being worth 20 marks and assessed via the analysis and evaluation students provide on the piece of live theatre they discuss.

Mark schemes have a vital role to play in the validity and reliability of each assessment task.  If mark schemes are not clear, then two examiners may award different marks for the same response which would prevent the assessment task from being reliable.

Component 2 – NEA

Let’s briefly now look at another part of the A-level assessment - Component 2, the NEA or non-examined assessment.  This section of the course is worth 30% of the total grade and is focused upon AO1 and AO2, both of which are displayed on screen. Students are required to create a devised performance which is assessed against assessment objective 2 and a working notebook which is assessed against assessment objective 1, hence the 20 marks awarded for section 1 of the working notebook rationale and research, and 20 marks being awarded for Section 2 – development and refinement. As referenced previously, to support teachers to mark this component accurately, the standardisation material from the June series is available for teacher online standardisation in the following autumn.  Using the same material for moderator standardisation and for teacher standardisation helps to ensure consistency across all who are assessing the Component and helps to maintain consistency year on year.

Component 3 – NEA

And if we now touch upon the final component and consider assessment in Component 3. This component focuses upon AO2 and AO4.  The scripted performance incorporates assessment objective 2 and the reflective report focuses upon assessment objective 4. The regulator requires that students study a minimum of two complete and substantial performance texts, assessed in Component 1.  Plus, a minimum of three key extracts from three different texts, which are assessed in Component 3 via the reflective report and examined performance.  The texts and extracts must represent a range of social, historical and cultural contexts, and must have been professionally commissioned or professionally produced. It is also stipulated that these texts differ from the complete and substantial performance texts students answer on in Component 1 hence the prohibited play combinations outlined in the specification and the requirement to have the Component 3 performance texts approved by your NEA. This provides students with a rich range of opportunities and challenges for both independent and supported study of the three texts. Again, it is worth reinforcing that this is not an acting exam and whilst students do need to demonstrate and are assessed on their vocal and physical performance skills, the assessment of this component requires students to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of the play via their personal interpretation of the text.

Earlier on in this session I mentioned that regulators require students to study and be assessed on the work and methodologies of two, influential, theatre practitioners at A-level, one of whom is assessed in Component 2 and the second one is applied to Component 3, hence the reason for two sections of the marking grid one; focused on the students' performance of the text and the other on their application of the practitioner. We are often asked by centres to provide information on each of the practitioners in our specification, however if we did this, we would not be able to assess students securely or validly on any of the practitioner information they reproduced from the provided guidance as this wouldn’t be their own work.

I hope this session has given you an insight into the assessment design process at AQA and if you have any further questions then please do email drama@aqa.org.uk

Thank you for your time.

Questions you may want to think about

• How can you use these insights to prepare your learners for exams?
• Do your internal assessments reflect the approach of the exam? To what extent do you want them to?
• What’s the most important or surprising thing that you’ve learned? How might it influence your teaching?