ICT GCSE coursework

Pupils must complete four pieces of coursework, each of which will contribute up to 15% towards their final GCSE mark. So 60% of the GCSE marks for this subject are accounted for by coursework.  The advantages of this are that you won't be judged just on how well you do on one day in the exam and it reduces the pressure around exam time.  It does, however, mean that it is particularly important that you keep up to date with your work throughout the two years of the course.

For each piece of coursework pupils should be identifying a client's requirements and then designing and implementing a system to meet these requirements.  It is advantageous to try and find a real life scenario - for example, is there something you could do that would help parents or family friends business?  This will not only make it more interesting for you, but will also make it easier to get useful feedback and so gain more marks.  Ideally you should stick to the same client for each project as you can then copy and paste certain sections and save yourself time.

Database coursework
Can you think of a family friend who would benefit from having an organised database of all of their customers and products?  An obvious example would be a rental business, where they need to keep track of all of their customers, all of their products, and who has rented what and when it is due back.


Spreadsheet coursework
Can you help your client by designing a spreadsheet for them that will help them keep track of how much money they are making; or perhaps a spreadsheet template that will produce invoices for them to send to customers?


Word processing coursework
Every business spends a lot of time writing letters.  It is always important to maintain a professional image, and a well presented letter can help them to advertise themselves.  You could design a letter template to save the business time, with a smart letter header to help improve their image, and you could then extend your marks by setting up a mail merge system linked to your previously created database.

Multimedia coursework
How could a PowerPoint presentation be helpful to your client?  Could they use one to teach new employees, or to advertise their products/services to customers, or to try and recruit new employees?  To access the higher marks you should be sure to discuss reasons for inserting sound, editing pictures and using hyperlinks, and include evidence that you have done all of these.


Remember, for each of your projects it is absolutely vital that you pay close attention to the marking criteria tick list.  Your teacher will probably have given you a copy of this, but you can also find copies on the hyperlink below.

Lots of useful information, including marking criteria and exemplars, can be found on the Edexcel exam board website.  Click here to hyperlink to the relevant menu page.