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alevel art

just wondering how other people found art? what does a typical lesson look like? i was told you have a work book and a coursework book and i’m wondering what’s the difference? do you have to decorate the work book like the coursework book or is it different? do you choose a theme or do you get given a theme and do you research it independently or is it similar to gcse where you are guided and told you what pages to do? also just wondering how much work really there is compared to gcse? i never did work in lessons during gcse because i found it easier to do at home, id spend every other weekend catching up on work and getting ahead (like the entire weekend so i always found the workload manageable because id dedicate the entire weekend to getting it done) would this be possible at a-level or is more expected from you in lessons?

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Original post by daveeades

so my school works a little differently to yours i think. for us in year 12 we started with a 'practice project' on whatever we wanted to do for about 5 months just to understand how the a level works and the level of work we needed to produce. once we started component 1 we had unlimited amounts of sketchbooks that we had to hand all of in at the end (so not sure what you meant by workbook and coursework book). we could choose whatever theme we like - there has to be a substantial amount to it as you'll be expected to do it for a year so don't choose something very specific and vague, usually your teacher will talk you through it so make sure you have lots of ideas going beforehand. in lessons it was more like just supervised time but we were always encouraged to do practical work in lessons so we could take full advantage of all the art supplies and media and do research at home. as for gcse comparisons, i didnt do gcse art so i was thrown into the deep end but everyone else said that they felt it was a similar process just more work and time put into it. i ended up doing more work at home usually as i could pace myself without restricting myself to an hour then going to my next lesson but time management for art and maintaining ur other subjects over the 2 years is KEY. i wont lie, art is a difficult subject for a level as it requires a lot of commitment and hard work and long hours but itss subjective and entirely teacher assessed so sometimes you may want to do something but always listen to your teacher and pretty much do whatever they say as ultimately theyre the ones marking it