Guidance on preparing for your G325 exam.

1. G325
SECTION A
Past Questions and Focus

2. January 2010
a)
b)
Describe how you developed research and
planning skills for media production and
evaluate how these skills contributed to
creative decision making. Refer to a range of
examples in your answer to show how these
skills developed over time.
Analyse media representation in one of your
coursework productions.

3. June 2010
a)
b)
Describe the ways in which you production
work was informed by research into real
media texts and how your ability to use such
research for production developed over time.
Analyse one of your coursework productions
in relation to genre.

4. January 2011
a)
b)
Describe how you developed your skills in the
use of digital technology for media production
and evaluate how these skills contributed to
your creative decision making. Refer to a
range of examples in your answer to show
how these skills developed over time.
Apply theories of narrative to one of your
coursework productions.

5. June 2011
a)
b)
Explain how far your understanding of the
conventions of existing media influenced the
way you created your own media products.
Refer to a range of examples in your answer
to show how this understanding developed
over time.
Analyse one of your coursework productions
in relation to the concept of audience.

6. January 2012
a)
b)
Describe how your analysis of the
conventions of real media texts informed your
own creative media practice. Refer to a range
of examples in your answer to show how
these skills developed over time.
Analyse media representation in one of your
coursework productions.

7. June 2012
a)
b)
Describe a range of creative decisions that
you made in post-production and how these
decisions made a difference to your final
outcomes. Refer to a range of examples in
your answer to show how these skills
developed over time.
Explain how meaning is created by the use of
media language in one of your coursework
productions.

8. Specimen Paper
a)
b)
“Digital technology turns media consumers
into media producers.” In your
experience, how has your creativity
developed through using digital technology to
complete your coursework productions?
“Media texts rely on cultural experiences in
order for audiences to easily make sense of
narratives.” Explain how you used
conventional and/or experimental narrative
approaches in one of your production pieces.

9. Skill Areas covered in (a)
Digital Technology
 Creativity
 Research and planning
 Post-production
 Using conventions from real
media texts


10. Post-production



Post production is a more ambiguous term for
some media areas and thus examiners will credit
candidates‟ ability to demonstrate their
understanding of the term in relation to their own
work.
For example, a candidate may treat all
manipulation of copy and images as post
production in print. For film a candidate may
consider post production to include editing, sound
and effects.
The definitions of the term are at the discretion of
candidates, but candidates are encouraged to
explain their use of the term in their answers in

11. Concepts covered in (b)
Genre
Narrative
Representation
Audience
Media language


12. Media Language


Media language refers to the ways in which
media producers make meaning in ways that
are specific to the medium in which they are
working and how audiences come to be literate
in „reading‟ such meaning within the
medium, for example, the „language of film‟ and
print layout conventions.
These medium-specific languages will often be
closely connected to other media concepts
such as genre or narrative and candidates are
at liberty to make such connections to a

13. Looking at the concepts





Digital Technology
(Jan 2011)
Creativity (Specimen)
Research and
planning (Jan 2010)
Post-production (June
2012)
Using conventions
from real media texts
(June 2010, June
2011, Jan 2012)





Genre (June 2010)
Narrative (Jan
2011, Specimen)
Representation (Jan
2010, Jan 2012)
Audience (June 2011)
Media language
(June 2012)

14. Preparing for Section A
question (a)

Mind map, annotate, or somehow express the way in
which you have developed skills in:
 Digital
Technology
 Creativity
 Research and planning
 Post-production
 Using conventions from real media texts

…from your Foundation Portfolio through to your
Advanced Portfolio.
 What
are the skills?
 Where, how and why did you use them?
 How have you improved and developed them?

15. Preparing for Section A
question (b)

Mind map, annotate, or somehow express your
understanding of the concepts of:
 Genre
 Narrative
 Representation
 Audience
 Media



language
What does the concept mean?
What theories are connected to that concept?
Analyse one of your coursework productions in
relation to each of those concepts.