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Art gcse sufferers

Let us all gather together to discuss the many perils of taking GCSE Art...

Need help? Need to Rant? Post below.

Edit: Who has actually finished their summer homework? not me :colondollar:

(edited 10 years ago)

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Reply 1

username1118458

Oh God where do I start, I regret choosing GCSE Art since Day 1! I hate how you need to show so much development in your work, and how you need to always link all your work to an artist otherwise it's irrelevant no matter how good the actual piece of artwork is.

The worst is how hard it is to get an A* grade!

Reply 2

contradicta

Original post by yellowcopter

always link all your work to an artist otherwise it's irrelevant no matter how good the actual piece of artwork is.

This. You're basically not allowed to have you're own ideas !

Reply 3

Changing Skies

I'm going into year 13 now but I did GCSE Art and it frustrated me too much. I had plenty of perfectly reasonable and different ideas but was told that it would be "rubbish". I took art to express myself, not be told what to do :tongue:

plus I ended up with a B (what makes it worse is that I was 1 mark off an A) even though I was really proud of a few of my drawings. Silly subject :rolleyes:

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Reply 4

username1118458

Original post by contradicta

This. You're basically not allowed to have you're own ideas !

It's very annoying, I did a really awesome typology on street signs but because I couldn't find an artist to reference, I lost vital marks. :frown:

I still need an artist so if anyone knows any good ones to reference to a photography typology of street signs, that'd be great. :biggrin:

Reply 5

kmcg97

GCSE Art is the worst!!! My teachers always ranted on about how everything must have an artist link and how everything must show development, yet always told us 'this is your GCSE so do what you want' WHAT????

So glad i'm shot of it, and passed it!

Reply 6

contradicta

Original post by yellowcopter

It's very annoying, I did a really awesome typology on street signs but because I couldn't find an artist to reference, I lost vital marks. :frown:

I still need an artist so if anyone knows any good ones to reference to a photography typology of street signs, that'd be great. :biggrin:

I don't know of any sorry :/

I guess this is why my teacher makes us pick an artist first and then work in the artists style.

Speaking of teachers mine is bat**** crazy!

Reply 7

username1118458

Original post by kmcg97

I'm trying to get at least an A in it but it's so hard. My teachers are the same, they say stuff like this then make us do the most irrelevant work. Doesn't make any sense and they wonder why we get C grades!

Original post by contradicta

I don't know of any sorry :/

I guess this is why my teacher makes us pick an artist first and then work in the artists style.

Speaking of teachers mine is bat**** crazy!

My teacher is awful. Hope I don't have him for Year 11!

Reply 8

kmcg97

Original post by yellowcopter

Exactly! We did Marine Life as a unit in Year one of the course... and spent the whole time doing drawings and rubbings of shells? Surely that should have been covered in Texture?

I lost all faith and interest in the subject when I realised it was a restricted and badly taught (in my case) mess.

Reply 9

contradicta

Has anyone started one of their final pieces? If so which Artist is it linked to?

My first piece is linked to David Hockney.

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 10

username1118458

Original post by kmcg97

Exactly! We did Marine Life as a unit in Year one of the course... and spent the whole time doing drawings and rubbings of shells? Surely that should have been covered in Texture?

At the start it was alright, but then we started doing a bunch of random stuff and it was so irrelevant such as block printing, and no actual artist linked to the work we did.

Original post by kmcg97

I lost all faith and interest in the subject when I realised it was a restricted and badly taught (in my case) mess.

Exactly I agree! All our work is a random mess with no actual link, consistency or meaning now. :frown:

Reply 11

Judge Jasel

Thank god! No more art coursework, final pieces, clay sculptures, photos and creepy teacher!!!

I made it out alive!! :biggrin:

Reply 12

L'Evil Fish

I didn't do any work in year ten and the first half of year eleven...

Then for the exam I did loads of work!

Ended up with:
68/80 and 70/80 which was an A overall!

I was ecstatic because I was meant to get a C :smug:

It's all about development.

The A* grade is ridiculous, can only drop 2 marks in coursework. But exam is more lenient generally.

Good luck!

Reply 13

tillycat123

I came out with a chuffing E!!!
portfolio was crap I know that but my set piece I worked so hard, really immersed myself. Did the caged option, lots of artists for the research good drawings, half the class copied me as I was the only one actually doing the work.

my clay work was good. Only to get my statement of results to show an E for the exam.

fuming!!! Have email teacher but no response still, can you ask for a remark on this, I don't know?

Reply 14

heyitselerijane

*Just going into Year 11*
I think Art will be the death of me. I'm really bad at time management, got really behind on unit 1, done no art all summer including the catch up/editing unit 1 and unit 2 latest homework. SO BASICALLY I'M SCREWED. Its all due a week Wednesday. I'm mostly delaying it cause I'm afraid I'll screw it up? Any tips or help or anything?
*My unit 1 topic was food and unit 2 is music & dance*

Thanks, nice to know other people are suffering too:[]

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Reply 15

contradicta

*Holds prayer circle for current year 11 art students* :grouphugs:

Do you know what type of work your expected to do for your unit 2? Observational drawings, artist studies, compositions?

I'm currently finishing the second to last piece of summer homework.

Reply 16

Niassuh

Thanks for this thread, I went through so much stupid pain for Art :frown:

I'll just repost from the other thread then.

I worked so hard on my first project, compared to my second one. There was loads of backup work for that one, but my final piece was the problem. I handed it in at the end of year 11 (Year 10 in Engladn/Wales I think) half finished but my teacher said it was ok because I had the summer and next year to finish it.
And yet, i did nothing. I was sewing my quilt together at 4AM the night before the final date to hand it in to CCEA. It turned out to be weird looking: you could tell which parts I had done the year before and which were night before. Still! I managed to get 200/200! I had a figurative heart attack when I saw that, but when it comes to GCSE Art, BACKUP IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING.

It was the second project that I ****ed over entirely. I just didn't put the work in. My final piece was ok, but I didn't have the backup work. There was a maximum limit of 8 A2 pages. I handed in about 4. I spent the last crucial night fixing up my first project instead of the second which had virtually nothing. ART STUDENTS, DO NOT NEGLECT WHAT YOUR TEACHER TELLS YOU TO DO. NEVER UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES.

I still got 130/160 which put me into solid A territory, even though I was expecting a D...But...that was way too much stress for an A. Needless to say, I dropped Art for A levels.

Wow, that's rather long. Tl;dr: If you're doing GCSE Art, do what your teacher says. Do it well and in time, or your sanity will suffer.

Reply 17

Hazllye

Wow, I think I must be one of the few who actually enjoy it! I'm going into Year 12 now and carrying on with art as an A Level.
At times in the last year (or to be honest, for the whole of the last year) I was getting annoyed with the amount you have to do and how I had to do every little thing the teacher said. But when it came down to when the work had to be handed in, I looked through it, and I was actually quite glad about what she made me do because it ended up looking alright. In the end, I got 160/160 UMS, and most of that is just down to producing a tonne of work (even if its mainly information on artists and little sketches here and there) and doing exactly what your teacher tells you to do.
But I think my other subjects suffered because of it :/ when I was meant to be revising for other subjects, I was actually spending whole days at school and home (10-12 hour days near the deadline) finishing off bits of work..

Reply 18

username1118458

Original post by L'Evil Fish

It's all about development.

The A* grade is ridiculous, can only drop 2 marks in coursework. But exam is more lenient generally.

Good luck!

How did you manage to pick yourself up? :frown:

I so just want to get GCSE Art over and DONE with, however I'm hovering around a high C/B. I just want to get it up to A, even if it's a low A.

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 19

username1118458

Original post by contradicta

Has anyone started one of their final pieces? If so which Artist is it linked to?

My first piece is linked to David Hockney.

You're doing more than 1 final piece? I though for the exam you only do 1 final piece?

My mock Art exam was Tim Noble & Sue Webster related, and I only just managed to get a C.

Original post by contradicta

*Holds prayer circle for current year 11 art students* :grouphugs:

Do you know what type of work your expected to do for your unit 2? Observational drawings, artist studies, compositions?

I'm currently finishing the second to last piece of summer homework.

Unit 2 is the exam right? You just get given a topic then research a few artists leading up to the exam, about 5 artists, do loads of responses related to them you know the usual stuff then merge all your responses into a huge final piece with development from each of your responses.

It's easier said then done because, the mock was so hard for me. :frown: