AQA AS level Product Design

Seeing as I have not found a thread I took it upon myself to start one

For the AS level product design exam what are your revision techniques ?!

I'm Really struggling to find ways because the specification is so brief and in my opinion is not that good... What text books? resources? Any help would be greatly appreciated Even if you sat this last year could you give me a little advice

thanks

Also, I revised from referring to the GCSE resistant materials textbook .

It actually worked for my A2 exam and most definitely did for AS!

Also get a highlighter and go through the AQA Product Design specification and go over past papers with your teacher. Make sure your teacher marks it, as they will mark harshly and give constructive criticism.

I worked my socks off for this module. My advice? Start revision ASAP. Start doing mind maps etc and look at the past two papers.

If metals came up in Jan 2013, then it won't really come up again in June (well I might be wrong). Also look at the pattern of the past papers and so on.

It also depends on your coursework. If you scored a high 'A' you can still manage a good grade. A2 Product design is WAY MORE interesting than AS, and the coursework is slightly easier.

Please give me some rep if you found this interesting.

Thanks for the quick reply! I've got the nelson thorns aqa textbook and it just seems that the majority of what's written inside is entirely irrelevant which is kind of annoying.. So would you say learn the types of each material then learn the processes involved with those materials?

Is there anything else that springs to mind? Also just wondering what did you make for both your C/W's ?

Thanks for the quick reply! I've got the nelson thorns aqa textbook and it just seems that the majority of what's written inside is entirely irrelevant which is kind of annoying.. So would you say learn the types of each material then learn the processes involved with those materials?

Is there anything else that springs to mind? Also just wondering what did you make for both your C/W's ?

I used to be a former A-Level Product Design student.

I really loved this subject. I honestly did.

I got A's in my AS and A2 coursework and I got an A for my A2 exam .

However, I want you to know something. Although, I scored highly in the coursework and the A2 exam, I ended up getting a B for product design overall. Why? Because of the AQA AS Level Product Design exam.

I did the exam first time with little revision and got a C. I then resat the exam with hardcore revision and got a D! After I requested a remark, I scored a high C. I was extremely pissed off because I was marked unfairly.

All I'm saying is, you have to revise so much. I remember when I did my resit in June 2012, plastics came up a lot!

Also, A2 Product Design is so much easier and funner .

Just make sure, you know all the processes. The first few questions in the exam are straight forward and some of them can be answered based on what you did in your coursework.

Boy I miss those days of Product Design .

Good luck!

I have found that I have not found many online resources for 3D Product Design so I am grounded to using PowerPoints that my teachers have created that are available to me. The only other resource that I can recommend is the AQA AS/A2 Design & Technology: Product Design (3-D Design) which is the book that was assigned to me from the school.

It's quite a wordy book if you don't mind trawling through a lot of information to condense but it has everything you need and the specification highlights where we need to stop for our revision (page 130). I would advise purchasing the book, but 2nd hand is always a good option from Amazon or places like that. I think this is a subject that most sites neglect as it's not their most popular.
I am still struggling to find online resources as we speak but my best advice, from taking GCSE Graphics, is to purchase the textbook.

A revision technique if you're struggling... I used my GCSE's as a test of my knowledge and that was a stupid mistake. I crammed the night before my exam and managed to get an A in my written theory exam! To be honest, it wasn't that difficult. But, the way that I learnt was through creating a PowerPoint from a chunky piece of information, I then condensed the PowerPoint down into a written mindmap. I then highlighted key points on the mind map and made a further-condensed version on another sheet of paper. Condensing and re-condensing information is an effective way of learning if you're a kinaesthetic learner like me. But, I do not really revise any other ways. I could suggest reading through exam papers and creating questions on que cards and writing out long answer questions on a whiteboard as that is also an effective way of learning. I don't really have any more advice and I hope I was helpful.

Good luck! I am in the same boat as you are so I wish you all the best.