A Level Design and Technology Tutoring, for Every Board
Design and Technology asks for two kinds of competence at once: a long design-and-make project judged on how well the thinking is documented, and written papers that test materials, manufacturing processes and applied maths without a workshop in sight. Strong makers often lose marks on paper, and fluent writers lose them in a portfolio that records decisions after they were made.
Short answer
A Level Design and Technology is offered online, one-to-one.
A private lesson runs 90 minutes and starts at USD 95 per lesson; lessons are booked singly or in packages.
No group class runs for this exam.
From USD 95 per lesson
- Structure shown for AQA, OCR, Cambridge International
- Live online lessons of 90 minutes
- From USD 95 per lesson
How A Level Design and Technology is assessed, board by board
3 awarding bodies examine this subject, and they do not examine it the same way: different papers, different weightings, different practical arrangements. Find your board — it is printed on your school's timetable and on past papers — and read that block. Nothing on this page describes one board's paper as though it applied to all of them.
AQA
AQA A-level Design and Technology: Product Design (7552)
| Component | Share of grade | Length | Marks | Format |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paper 1: Technical principles | 30% | 2 hours 30 min | 120 marks | multiple choice, short answer and extended response |
| Paper 2: Designing and making principles | 20% | 1 hour 30 min | 80 marks | short answer, extended response and drawing |
| Non-exam assessment: practical application of technical principles — A substantial design-and-make project | 50% | Assessed in school | 100 marks | project and coursework |
- Half the A Level is a project marked in school and moderated. Tutoring can support the written papers and the documentation discipline; the making is the student’s own work and has to stay that way.
Checked on 22 September 2026
OCR
OCR A Level Design and Technology (H404, H405, H406)
| Component | Share of grade | Length | Marks | Format |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Principles of… (01) | 26.7% | 1 hour 30 min | 80 marks | short answer, extended response and calculations |
| Problem solving (02) | 23.3% | 1 hour 45 min | 70 marks | problem solving and drawing |
| Iterative design project (03/04) — Roughly 65 hours of work | 50% | Assessed in school | — | project and coursework |
- OCR runs three endorsed titles — Design Engineering (H404), Fashion and Textiles (H405) and Product Design (H406). They share the structure above but not the content, so the endorsement matters as much as the board.
Checked on 22 September 2026
Cambridge International
Cambridge International AS & A Level Design & Technology (9705)
| Component | Share of grade | Length | Marks | Format |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paper 1: AS Level Written Paper | 25% | 2 hours 15 min | 100 marks | structured questions and drawing |
| Component 2: Product analysis and improvement project | 25% | Assessed in school | 50 marks | project and coursework |
| Paper 3: A Level Written Paper | 25% | 2 hours 30 min | 100 marks | structured questions and drawing |
| Component 4: Design, realisation and manufacturing project | 25% | Assessed in school | — | project and coursework |
- Cambridge splits the coursework into two separate projects, one at AS and one at A Level, rather than one large project at the end. That changes the deadline pattern across the two years completely.
Checked on 22 September 2026
Specifications are revised periodically. Each block links to the specification it was read from and gives the date it was checked; if your school has moved to a newer specification, that document takes precedence.
What A Level Design and Technology covers
The syllabus areas most boards share. Which ones appear, in what order and on which paper differs by board and by specification code — your own specification is the final word. Topic names are left in English, as they appear on the paper.
Materials and Manufacturing
Wood, metal, polymer and composite materials · CAD/CAM technology · Batch and mass production
Design Principles
Human factors and ergonomics · Sustainable design · Aesthetic and functional balance
Project Development
User research and brief development · Prototyping and iterative design · Testing, evaluation and presentation
Where A Level Design and Technology marks are usually lost
Sketches with no reasons attached
The written papers ask for design ideas, modifications and manufacturing details to be shown as annotated sketches, and Cambridge requires hand-drawn methods in its written papers. Marks go when a drawing looks good but says nothing: no material, no dimension, no joining method, no reason. An annotation earns credit when it explains a decision, not when it labels a part.
Being surprised by the maths
AQA requires students to demonstrate maths and science skills in this subject, and OCR’s principles paper explicitly tests applied mathematical skills. Students who expect a paper of drawings and opinions meet percentages, ratios, areas and volumes, scaling, trigonometry and charts of user data, often inside a question about a product. Arithmetic slips and missing working cost marks a designer should not lose.
A portfolio written backwards
Project marking rewards evidence of iteration: research that shaped the brief, models and prototypes that were tested, changes made because of what the tests and the users showed. OCR expects the portfolio to be built in real time. Students who make first and write up afterwards produce a tidy story with no visible decisions in it, and the evaluation has nothing honest to measure against.
A Level Design and Technology coursework
AQA and OCR each assess one substantial design-and-make project as non-exam assessment. Cambridge International splits its coursework into two projects: a product analysis and improvement project at AS Level, and a design, realisation and manufacturing project at A Level. All are marked in school and moderated by the board. The student identifies a problem, researches users, writes a specification, develops and tests prototypes and evaluates the outcome. A tutor can explain the assessment criteria, question a draft portfolio and point out where the evidence of testing or iteration is thin.
A tutor can explain the criteria, question a draft and point to what is weak. The research, the writing and every decision in it stay the student’s own, as the awarding body’s rules require.
How we teach A Level Design and Technology
A tutor treats the written papers and the project as two subjects that share one vocabulary. For the papers, lessons work through materials and processes product by product: why a chair frame is steel tube rather than solid timber, how a casing is injection moulded, what changes when production moves from one-off to batch. Each topic ends with past-paper questions answered with labelled sketches and full working for the calculations, then marked against the board’s mark scheme. For the project, the tutor acts as a critical reader of the portfolio, asking what a test showed, whether the specification can actually be checked and what a user said that changed the design. The board and, at OCR, the endorsed title are confirmed first, because content and deadlines differ.
Your starting point is reviewed before the study plan is finalised. The exact method depends on the programme and is agreed on the intro call — for some students that means a timed section, for others it means reading a recent score report or a piece of marked work. We will tell you which applies to you before you book anything, rather than describing a process here that may not be the one you get.
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A Level prices
A Level tutoring from USD 95 per 90-minute lesson. Compare lesson packages and included materials.
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