Core technical principles
Design & Technology · GCSE · The School
What the paper covers
AQA’s GCSE D&T is 50% written exam and 50% non-exam assessment. The paper covers CORE technical principles (new technologies, energy, materials, systems, mechanical devices), SPECIALIST principles for your material area, and DESIGNING AND MAKING principles. The core section is compulsory whatever material area you work in.
Modern and smart materials
A SMART material changes property in response to a stimulus and changes back: thermochromic pigment shifts colour with temperature, shape memory alloy returns to a remembered form when heated, photochromic lenses darken in sunlight. A MODERN material is simply newly developed — graphene, fibre optics, corn starch polymers. The distinction gets tested.
Systems thinking
Questions frame products as INPUT → PROCESS → OUTPUT, with feedback where the output affects the input again. A thermostat measures temperature (input), compares it with a set point (process), switches heating (output) — and the heating changes the temperature, which is FEEDBACK. Being able to draw that block diagram answers a lot of marks.
THERMOCHROMIC pigment changes colour with heat and changes back — smart. SHAPE-MEMORY ALLOY returns to a remembered shape when warmed — smart. CARBON FIBRE is modern, advanced, and does not respond to anything — not smart. KEVLAR: same, modern and not smart. The test is whether the material RESPONDS to a stimulus and reverses, not whether it is recent or expensive.
Answering an unfamiliar-material question
The paper will name a material you have never met. This is deliberate and it is not unfair, because the question tests whether you can reason from properties rather than recall a list. The stem always gives you what you need: 'a polymer that becomes conductive when stretched'. Work from the words — it responds to a stimulus and the response reverses, so it is smart; it is a polymer, so it can be moulded and will creep under sustained load. Never leave one of these blank because the name is unfamiliar.
How the marks are actually written
Command words decide the length of your answer. STATE or NAME wants a few words and no explanation — writing a paragraph earns the same single mark and costs time you need later. EXPLAIN wants a because: a property, then the consequence for the product. EVALUATE or DISCUSS wants both sides and a judgement, and an answer with no judgement cannot reach the top band however good the individual points are. Read the command word first, then decide how much to write.