WHAT SIZE IS YOUR INVESTIGATION WORKBOOK?

Last week (June 15^th) I posted about how many investigation pages you might ask your students to create, and in that post I also mentioned the usual Investigation Workbook sizes that students work in –

A4 (29.7 x 21 cm or 11,7 x 16.5 inches) and

A3 (42 x 29.7cm or 16.5 x 11.7 inches).

I received a prompt comment suggesting that A3 is the best size. I agree with this, and I have my students work with A3 workbooks.

The larger size allows for more visual and written information per page, and since only a selected number of pages is assessed, it makes sense to have as much useful information (image and text) on the pages as possible.

In my experience, and in general, my students have achieved better marks when submitting work on A3 than on A4.

And as Greg pointed out in his comment, “a final sample of 30 A3 pages is likely to be able to convey far more depth and detail than 30 A4 (unless of course the students just write and draw everything a lot larger to fill up the space!)”

However, as an examiner I still see many good A4 workbooks, and working in the smaller format does have the advantage of portability: its generally easier to carry the A4 workbook around.

A4 size workbooks are  not – and never have been – a requirement for the DP visual arts course; my preference is for A3 (for the above reasons); however, the size of the workbook is entirely up to you and your students.

Thanks,

Andrew