Previous exam papers - observations

 BTEC exams - Previous papers

*Note - look for the Feedback from BTEC that was sent April 2022 - I've kept a copy in the Exam Folder on my USB key

New May 2022 - BTEC have sent us examples of Power-points for the Lush brief and they have absolutely tonnes of written annotations and analysis and explanations despite the brief says you're limited to 600 words. 

The 600 word limit relates to the speakers notes only. Write as much as you feel necessary in the main slides with the images. It does seem that all the examples of Merits and Distinctions include the use of a lot of text with the images. 

BTEC exams are tough. No teacher input, no resources, no feedback or guidance, just a few bits of paper with some vague indications with regards what you need to do and a strict deadline. Then you're given a period of time to research and collate information. 

This information that you're allowed to take into the exam is limited to bullet points and six A 4 sides with images on.

*Note about the images. The most efficient way of adding these images  to your 6 sides is to save them all immediately into your Image folder as JPEG files. Then when you've finished collecting them; screen grab all of the images when they're in Windows and paste the screen grab into your final page - no mistakes - all sorted. Or make a proper contact sheet in Photoshop. 

You have to read the information on the brief and make sense of it yourself, no conferring with other students, no asking your teacher - nothing. 

This here is a lecturers take on what may have been expected in a past exam. 'May be expected' needs to be emphasized because it is entirely subjective.

The last two exams have been very similar. You've had to put yourself into a situation where the client 'Frog Bikes' and 'The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds' ask you to come up with ideas to promote their brand/product to a audience of a specific age group. You're given an imaginary scenario in the form of a brief with a series of parameters and choices.

Your response to the brief is to research and collate your information and images at the first stage and then make a Power-point that you'd present to the company in an imaginary scenario in order that they'd choose your idea over everyone else who's 'Pitching for the job'. 

Within the brief for the two previous exams, there are a couple of choices that you have to make. Previously these have related to Demographics and they type of work you're going to produce. The demographic component asks you to choose from an age range. Are you going to target an older age group or a younger one? The other choice, which allows flexibility for the type of course you're doing, asks you to choose 2D work or 3D work. One of the options will suit your specialty. 

In the guidance, it stated previously that you can do primary research in your own time outside of college. An observation I've made over the recent years is that none of my students have ever done primary research, they've always relied on secondary research and this may be one of the reasons they have scored relatively low grades?

The premise of the RSPB exam seemed to be that you were expected to make decisions about a number of things and show evidence of having explored options relating to these decisions. One of them seemed to be the venue. Where was your art/design work going to be? Did it matter if you were vague about this, or would it have been beneficial to go to the nearest RSPB reserve/centre near you and Photograph the venue inside and outside (primary research); surely this shows far more determination and commitment and you're acting like a real practitioner? 

If you were to take a far more pro-active primary research approach, you would then be able to see how existing 'Point of sale' material is used at these venues and be able to make observations as to whether the existing approaches are good/bad and fit for purpose for your chosen demographic. You might even go to similar places to see how they use media, point of sale and display methods to communicate to their audience/customers? How do they address different demographic groups? 

It may have been beneficial to have done research into a range of ways organisations like the RSPB and similar (Your local wildlife trust) present their information and communicate with their audience and whether the methods differentiate age groups and what that differentiation looks like?

If you're proposing ideas for presenting point of sale and information, you may have benefited from producing a page where you looked at and identified options that may have been considered? This may have included sizes and costs and things such as whether it was permanent fixtures or something that might re-usable and put to another use once this campaign was over, perhaps keeping on-board or promoting sustainability. Materials might have been considered given that you'd have thought an organisation like the RSPB would be onboard with limiting the use of plastic? 

Another thing students may have done was identified brand identity - looking at and considering the use of the RSPB's brand colours and logo... as well as any wording/phrases associated with the RSPB. They may have then considered things like how dominant these graphic elements might be when used in conjunction with any of the signage/point of sale/displays?

One element of the work that students seemed baffled by was the notion that they had to potentially use images of birds in the work, they didn't know whether they were expected to try and shoot images of birds or whether they could use images from the internet? I guess you could have, but who would have known that they'd put that much effort into to the work, it's just as easy to source images off of the internet and use these in conjunction with the work? 

The brief had an upper limit suggested with regards the number of slides in the power-point and again they were concerned about whether they would fail if the went under the figure or over it. Looking back at the grades, there's no indication that they may have been penalized for producing less slides and no-one went over the number indicated, so, I'm not clear on that all, so I'd stick to the number indicated. If you can convey what's required in 13 slides when the maximum is suggested at 15, I don't think that's a major issue.

There was also a word count, I seem to recall 600 words? (see notes at top highlighted in yellow) Across 15 slides that works out at 33.3 words. They were perplexed by this as well - was it the words in the 'Speakers notes' which I felt were an essential part and would have suggested that these 33 words per slide were those allocated to the speakers notes. But lots of students had additional words included in the images, one of the higher grades during the Frog Bikes year, had lots of text in with the images plus the speakers notes. 

 I guess one way you could look at it is, this is a presentation designed to be shown to a group of people from the RSPB who might use your idea. Power-point presentations need to be visual primarily, supported by some words and or descriptions that may appear in the slide itself, but remember if this was to happen for real, you'd have your speakers notes as prompts and you'd speak to the audience about the content in the slide. The RSPB people would be listening and looking at the slide, so if there was additional info in the slide it might make sense if it was to the point and concise? I personally would not have whole paragraphs of additional text, but it may be beneficial to have some additional text as long as it was relevant and not exhaustive? It might be useful to look at how it's done in conjunction with Ted Talks on Youtube, I know there is a Ted Talk that is about power-point presentations that is useful to watch. 

*How would I have done it? (RSPB example 2020). I'd have thought about what I would have included in my slides and would have gone in with a plan for each of the slides with images in mind that I'd have used. I'd have practiced cutting out and layer techniques in Photoshop as well as using the free-transform tool in order to change the perspectives. If I'd have gone to the RSPB reserve I'd have shot from the same height throughout and bracketed any shots where there were windows to reduce the effect of subject failure, by merging images, albeit a bit tricky without a tripod. I'd have reduced all my images to small sizes in order to merge with any found images from the internet... 75ppi 30cm width to whatever it falls to. I'd have tested out any techniques beforehand and I may have even done a rough mock up of what I was going to have to do before the exam in order to get a sense of how long it would take and how difficult it might be. 

I'd have also done some surveys asking about people's knowledge of the RSPB (see below). If you look around you can find useful info that might have been useful such as this https://www.rspb.org.uk/globalassets/downloads/documents/positions/education/the-impact-of-childrens-connection-to-nature.pdf

I'd have planned my slides for the RSPB presentation along these lines...

Slide 1. Introduction to who you are what you do, what your skills are, what you've done before.

Slide 2. My proposal concerns - explain what they're about to see, what the age demographic is, the venue you've chosen and the type of approach you're using (2D, 3D, fashion, models, design etc).

Slide 3. All about the demographic group - who they are, how many of them are in the area of the venue you've chosen, economic factors, class factors and data, survey results regarding existing knowledge relating to the RSPB. Survey results about how they respond to different forms of communication (Point of sale/display methods). Graphs images of the types of people ethnicity/inclusivity, maps of big conurbations. 

Slide 4. The venue, images of it, road links, transport, maps

Slide 5. Interior of the venue - images that show the decor, feel, size, scale, floor plans, flow of how people walk through the venue.

Slide 6. Images of existing and potential point of sale/display methods and materials - size, scale costs.

Slide 7. ideas about the kind of images that might be suitable for your proposal - evidence that may have been found based on surveys or existing use of images aimed at your demographic group. 

Slide 8. Text and logo use including particular use of branding and colours used - discussing things like colour schemes and colour psychology, dominance of logo on point of sale/display 

Slide 9. Surrounding lighting, ambiance, decor and whether that needs to be adjusted/changed brought up todate.

Slide 10.Your final choice regarding what display method you've gone for, with all the colours, logos and the type of art/work images that you're proposing will appear on the display - you might have 2 or 3 different approaches that are simialr, that use the same colours, feel, aesthetics, so that they are all seen as part of the same package.

Slide 11. Floor plan - showing where the displays will be in the space that you've identified. Done in the way architects and interior designers do it. 

Slide 12. Diagram/drawing of how it might look done in a way that interior designers do it (Trace your final image (Stage 13) on a light box)

Slide 13. Mock up - Photoshopped displays, with the logos and images in place on your chosen display/point of sale materials photoshopped in situ - how it might look.

*None of this is for certain, these are only observations made after the exams have passed, other lecturers might have a completely different take on the exams and how they themselves might have done it. Who knows this years exams might be completely different, we'll have to wait and see? 

Have a look at this video here, as there are some good ideas. (Click on it to watch the video). 

*Note about the images. The most efficient way of adding these images  to your 6 sides is to save them all immediately into your Image folder as JPEG files. Then when you've finished collecting them; screen grab all of the images when they're in Windows and paste the screen grab into your final page - no mistakes - all sorted. Or make a proper contact sheet in Photoshop.