AQA A2 PROD3 Summer Product Design Exam

I have no textbook, my teacher has just given me a series of model answers of past questions to revise from which we have already answered throughout the year, where is everybody else getting their resources from for revision??

How many pages on average would be a good length for each question? I have no idea what length I should be aiming for

so i need to get like 90% in this exam to have any chance of getting an A.... im so ****ed! wish i did my coursework properly now :L

Apparently, last year in june 47/84 was an A Grade! thats 56% chaps

Modern technology is used in many industries, and enhances the speed in which products can be made and means that each product is exactly identical to the one produced before it.
In terms of development and coming up with a design computer aided design (CAD) may be used. This involves using computers to generate either two dimensional or three dimensional drawings. The two dimensional drawings are usually referred to as wire frame models, the main benefits of these are, they don’t take up much memory on a computer which they will be saved on, also it gives the designer a way or seeing how the design fits together and where problems may occur, the earlier in the whole design process errors are found the less expensive it will be for a firm to scrap the idea. Designers at Wedgewood ceramics use CAD drawings once mood boards have been created and clients have been made aware of the product. However the CAD drawings made by Wedgewood would more than likely not be wire frame, but instead 3D colour rendered diagrams, this is because there are no mechanical systems within pottery, so the main selling point are the aesthetics, this is the key thing that designers look to develop using CAD, the pre made shapes of pottery will already be saved on computers.
Prototypes are also made using technology by using rapid prototyping technology; this is also seen at Wedgewood as they use a method known as FDM (fused deposition modelling). This is when a nozzle containing a liquid polymer, Wedgewood use ABS is used to extrude the molten polymer which builds up layers of a design until a whole prototype is made, this is useful as the prototypes can be made within the space of 24 hours compared to the time it would take a human to produce out of clay, which was the previous method used before the introduction of this technology. Stereo lithography is another similar method that could be used. Once produced these prototypes can then be painted and printed upon, to give a extremely realistic 3D model. Rapid prototyping technology greatly reduces lead time, which is the time to go from design ideas to the final manufacture of the product. At Wedgewood the lead time for a six piece dinner set can be reduced from several months to a few weeks, greatly increasing capacity and increasing efficiency.
Another method of development used by Wedgewood is that patterns that will eventually be printed upon pottery such as plates can be drawn by hand and then scanned onto a computer. Once on the computer the design can be copied, pasted, cut, saved, cropped etc, which enables a final pattern to be made. This is then saved and can be printed out as transfers, enabling it to easily be put onto pottery and sold.

You are a DON
thank you so much, extremely helpful info there.
best of luck to everyone tomorrow (i know i'll be needing it)

Not looking forward to this exam tomorrow, I'm hoping a little bit of knowledge and a whole lot of luck/common sense will get me through it. ugh.

In regards to remsy's question infiniteJIT answered it quite well.

I was thinking of going down the route of discussing mobile phone development, and how microprossesors allow the phones to be developed into smaller more ergonomically friendly form factor packages. then you could carry on to talk about CAD/CAM systems of designing and manufacturing the phone and rapid prototyping initial designs to cut costs and reduce time to market which is important in the fast moving world of technology.

the one thing the answer above didn't mention is how computers helped in CAQ (computer aided quality management systems) utilising technologys such as CMM (coordinate measuring machine)

hope that helped a little, I'm just hoping the grade boundries stay low, a 40% A would be perfect at this point in time XD

every little helps!
personally, im very confident for the iconic design/famous designer question. but that is the only one, and i have to agree with you there, common sense is how im hoping to get through this. i love the practical side of DT, got full marks, but when it comes to exams.... that just brings my marks right down. ridiculous education system.