What is gcse photography like? And how does the exam work?

Hi, I'm thinking about taking photography as one of my gcse options and I was wondering what it was like. I want to pick something more creative but don't really want to pick art as I don't know if I'm good enough and also I'm a perfectionist and I spend lots of hours just on ks3 art so it would take up all my time at gcse. I am interested in photography and quite like the idea so I would just like to know everyone's thoughts on it. Also, how does the exam work? I know it makes up something like 40% of the grade but what is it? Do you take and edit pictures in school? Do you get your pictures elsewhere? Is it done in the classroom over a period of time or is it more like other subjects? Thanks for any help

https://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/art-and-design/gcse/art-and-design-8201-8206/specification-at-a-glance

Says art and design but you can just choose photography.

ok so for me, for the first half of year 10 i worked with my entire class doing a group project on identity as a whole but without an end piece taking pictures in class, then at the end of year 10 with mocks you have your first experience of working by yourself, where you pick a different theme. then basically for year 11 i think you just spend your time on your y11 mocks, filling your portfolio and actual gcse work.

now for the work:
most of the gcse consists of researching artists and reviewing your work - that's basically what gets you the grades so you have to be prepared to do quite a lot of work outside the classroom just writing up your practical stuff and researching
for the images, most of the time you take them outside of school because you kind of have control over your own project, but you could also use the resources of your school (e.g my school has a studio, dark room, film cameras etc)
for me, i edit most of my images in school as i don't have photoshop at home, but you don't always have to work digitally

exams:
so the exam is spanned over two days, where you have five hours each day to complete your final piece, and write up what you did. all the photoshoots, experiments, developments, development of compositions and research lead up to this.
i think 30%/40% of your final grade is based on coursework and your yr11 mock grade so ig that's cool

i would say, if you enjoy photography take it but understand that it's not all about just taking pictures, the bulk of it is written work. honestly because of how chill my teacher is and the fact i like photography makes it less of a subject for me and more just a hobby that i have to do work for.
i know people in my class who get 9s in every bit of their coursework but i don't really try as hard and i put things off until the last minute and i still get 7s in my work so if you basically understand what you're doing it will be fine.
i hope this helped? if you have any more questions i'll answer them

Thankyou, this was really helpful. I appreciate that there is a lot of written work involved and I don't mind that. I do really like the sound of it and I'm hoping that I will be able take it. Just a quick question: for the final exam, do you take the pictures in school? Thanks again

Thankyou, this was really helpful. I appreciate that there is a lot of written work involved and I don't mind that. I do really like the sound of it and I'm hoping that I will be able take it. Just a quick question: for the final exam, do you take the pictures in school? Thanks again

Thankyou, this was really helpful. I appreciate that there is a lot of written work involved and I don't mind that. I do really like the sound of it and I'm hoping that I will be able take it. Just a quick question: for the final exam, do you take the pictures in school? Thanks again

Sorry India I cant tell you. The obvious answer is talk to the teacher and check which exam board they are running, that was just aqa.

From what I know your allowed to have your pictures all printed out and ready for the exam as it comes under "preparation time " but you cany do anything to them at all to them . Eg cut them out or anything. Anything done to the photos will be done during the exam time (10 hours ) eg mounting them , drawing in them. Ect.

yeah sorry forgot to say I'm doing aqa. but the images you use are mostly the ones who took across your theme, you bring all of them in (digitally if you're using photoshop or physically if you're not) so they're all taken beforehand