It depends where you go what you get to do.
My class was lucky enough to do a practical unit for the "Media Production" section (section 2 in the exam). We were required to make a 3-5 minute film, either to entertain or be informative, targeted at both males and females age 18-25. We had three weeks for pre-production, three to film it and then two for post-production. My group made a documentary about what can be done for £20 or less in Glasgow with a focus on clubs, gigs and cinemas.
Some other schools/colleges do a different unit instead which I
think involves the creative side of coming up with the ideas but don't actually execute them...
youjustburnkid could probably tell you more/correct me if I'm wrong.
For Media Analysis (section 1 in the exam) it's quite similar to English, in a way. You're given a text (ours was this
Amnesty International teleshopping spoof) and have an hour to write an essay on it in the exam. There is also an unseen analysis section on the exam (it's external and can be sat at any point in the year, I think - we did it immediately after finishing the unit at the start of March) that required analysing an unseen text. I'm not sure if it was just my class, or all classes, that analysed magazine covers for this section.
We also studied a Glaswegian film (
Small Faces) for one unit - it was relevant to a NAB rather than the final exam.
*quoted just to get her attention because I want to know too, haha*