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AQA Textiles Technology GCSE upcoming exam

I was just wondering if anybody else here is sitting the GCSE textiles exam with AQA (mine is on 21 June) and if so how many design ideas they had prepared for section A of the exam paper?
My teacher recommended we prepare a few different types of textiles products which meet the theme of rainforests but didn't clearly indicate what types of products to prepare or how many :confused:
If anyone is sitting this exam please let me know how many products you're preparing or just how your revision is going overall!

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I'm doing it on the 21st of June as well, and our teacher just told us to design two rainforest ideas for section A :smile:
Reply 2
Oh ok, thank you, is that two ideas based on any type of textile product?
Reply 3
I reckon if the exam board wanted you to design a specific product like a bag for example, they would've stated in the preliminary material as they did with a previous exam paper. The fact they haven't shows that we can probably choose any product.
Reply 4
Original post by dandanx
I was just wondering if anybody else here is sitting the GCSE textiles exam with AQA (mine is on 21 June) and if so how many design ideas they had prepared for section A of the exam paper?
My teacher recommended we prepare a few different types of textiles products which meet the theme of rainforests but didn't clearly indicate what types of products to prepare or how many :confused:
If anyone is sitting this exam please let me know how many products you're preparing or just how your revision is going overall!




YES can somebody else please answer this?! e.g what kind of products should we be designing? is clothing a type of product???? PLEASE ANSWER
Reply 5
would we be able to design an item of clothing like a shirt/jumper/shorts? or do they not come up under the category of products? :smile:
Reply 6
Clothing is a type of product! It can be a garment, an accessory, storage, decoration.. whatever as long as it's a textile product.

We've been told that it's a rainforest theme, but it's possible that the brief will be narrowed down further (i.e. it must be a sustainable product/make use of smart fabrics) in the exam but this has never happened with the current spec.

You need to come up with the idea independently! Basically just come up with enough designs (3 maybe?) to be prepared for anything extra they might throw at us, like a garment aimed at female adults and a storage product aimed at children for example. Different audiences, each could be designed to be being appropriate for different situations etc.
This will just make sure you're not starting anything from scratch in the exam.

It also has to be original! Things like cushions are difficult to make original, so an appliqued monkey onto a cushion won't get many marks for originality. My teacher advised us to kind of avoid them as they're dangerous regarding the originality marks...

When considering what they could potentially narrow it down to think about:
• Target market
• Sustainable/modern
• Occasion
• Luxury/mass market

Ideas for designs:
• Garments (dress, skirt, coat, trousers)
• Storage
• Decoration and home furnishings (wall hanging, throw, curtains, duvet)
• Accesories (bag, hat)



Helpful?
Reply 7
They dont award marks to you on the type of product just the design, materials,etc :smile:


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Reply 8
The exam board narrowing down the brief was my concern, I heard they could ask for something more specific than the context set but wasn't sure how specific this would be. For instance, I didn't know if they'd ask for a child's product or simply to include a functional fabric or something. I was thinking of becoming familiar with something like two items of clothing, two child's products and two home furnishings but then I'm afraid they'll ask for bags or something else which I won't have planned :confused:
You can design any type of product for this exam I think, in my school however to make it easier we all just designed gillets..

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Reply 10
I am doing this exam as well. I have designed one design, but my teacher said we should have about 4 or 5 good ones in case in the exam they are more defined that in the additional information we received about the topic of the designing question. I think I remembered seeing it mention using modern materials in the design, so I am guessing that specific marks will be awarded for using modern materials effectively in the design.

After going through some of the 'mock' exams that I have done it seems like the exam focuses on asking the advantages and disadvantages of different parts of the textiles world. This may be important to revise.
We were told that we could design anything but that we had to be prepared for a more specific brief in the exam. We were told to make sure that the products we designed were the same product, for example two cushions or two bags.


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Reply 12
Original post by dandanx
The exam board narrowing down the brief was my concern, I heard they could ask for something more specific than the context set but wasn't sure how specific this would be. For instance, I didn't know if they'd ask for a child's product or simply to include a functional fabric or something. I was thinking of becoming familiar with something like two items of clothing, two child's products and two home furnishings but then I'm afraid they'll ask for bags or something else which I won't have planned :confused:


I've planned 2 garment, 2 fashion accessories (e.g. bags/hats/scarves), 2 home furnishings and 2 children's products just in case :smile: it doesn't take too much time as I've just used the same techniques/theme for all of them as you're not going to use all 8.
Reply 13
OMG revising for textiles 3 days before exam :/ well basically two now! how bad is that?!?!?!?!?? :s-smilie: :/
Original post by V909
OMG revising for textiles 3 days before exam :/ well basically two now! how bad is that?!?!?!?!?? :s-smilie: :/


Lol i will have one day. I have a biology exam on wednesday so got to revise for that. Priorities!
what are some modern fabrics suitable for the designing section?
Hi, I need some help. On the design section of the AQA past exams they ask you to do a design sketch for your first idea and then a second sketch for your second idea. Do they both have to be the same product like two different designs for a cushion or can you have like a dress and then a cushion for the second idea?
Reply 17
It depends what they ask you so I'm lead to believe... If they want you to do two designs of the same type of product they'll add it to the specification, hopefully they wont and we'll be able to choose the product!
I'm struggling with the modern fabrics too, there's only so many suitable ones that exist :frown:
just try to get in as many modern ones as you can! Also yes, I've designed two different products and two different designs for the same product just in case. Textiles is my last exam and I want to do well so badly! Especially seeing as I've worked so so hard to get my coursework up to a really high grade, it would be such a shame for the grade to drop :frown: I hope the exams a nice exam.
Reply 19
Do you add colour to the first 2 initial ideas I'm doing the exam tomorrow aswell

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