Art and Design - Changes to the National 5 question paper
We’ve reduced the length of the National 5 Art and Design question paper, and the number of marks available in the question paper, for session 2024-25 onwards.
The updated question paper is worth 40 marks, which will be scaled to 50 marks to keep its current weighting of 20% in the course assessment. The exam will also have a reduced length of 1 hour and 20 minutes.
Mandatory questions
We've reduced the number of marks available for each of the mandatory questions (question 1 and question 7) from 15 to 10.
- There will be 6 marks available for part (a) of each mandatory question: In question 1(a), learners will comment on the work of one artist, referring to three given prompts.
- In question 7(a), learners will comment on the work of one designer, referring to three given prompts.
- There will be 4 marks available for part (b) of each mandatory question: In question 1(b), learners identify and describe influences on the work of their artist from part (a).
- In question 7(b), learners identify and describe influences on the work of their designer from part (a).
Optional image questions
There is no change to the number of marks available for the optional image questions, which will continue to be worth 10 marks each. However, we’re splitting each optional image question into part (a) and part (b) to better reflect how marks are awarded for these questions.
8 marks will be available for part (a), where learners will comment on three given prompts for their chosen image, and 2 marks will be available for part (b), where learners will give their opinion on their chosen image.
Updated documents
We’ve updated the National 5 Art and Design course specification and specimen question paper to reflect these changes. The updated course specification is dated May 2024, and the updated specimen question paper is dated June 2024. Both documents are valid from session 2024-25.
Why we’re making these changes
These changes are part of our ongoing review and maintenance of National Courses. We review National Courses every few years to ensure the courses remain valid and up to date, and to identify if any changes are needed. We postponed our scheduled review activity during the COVID-19 pandemic to focus on supporting centres and learners through the disruption to learning they were experiencing at that time.
Now that most National Courses have returned to full assessment requirements, we’ve resumed our routine review and maintenance activity where appropriate.
For more information, please view our online news article – update on National Courses for session 2024-25 onwards, which we published on 13 March 2024.