The OCR Practical Endorsement ,
Defining the Standard
CPAC 1: Following written instructions
The skills, apparatus and techniques, and aspects of CPAC to be assessed in any activity should be
chosen to ensure that the teacher is confident that the learners are able to demonstrate their
abilities. Whilst CPAC1 may be difficult to assess in group work, it should be possible with learners
working in pairs. Teachers should have an awareness of the input of individual learners in any
activity and be able to identify those who are not meeting any particular competence.
The range of learners within a group will be able to cope with different complexities of written
instructions. This statement covers the whole of the two year course and at the start of lower sixth it
is expected that there will be some scaffolding in the range of procedures, which could include
instructional diagrams.
In line with CPAC2, it is considered acceptable for learners to receive “minimal” assistance or
prompting when it’s an unfamiliar or novel piece of equipment or technique or a particular health
and safety issue. Generally this would be by the teacher eliciting the information rather than
instructing the learner. Teachers should not be talking the learners throughout the practical as the
learners do it. A learner seeking guidance with a frequently used or familiar technique is unlikely to
be independently working. This scenario taken from a video clip would not meet the requirements:
“A teacher gave the learners a worksheet and then demonstrated the experiment step by step. The
learners were stopped regularly during the experiment for the teacher to demonstrate or add extra
information that the learners hadn’t understood earlier…..”
Best practice would show a difference in the amount of detail / structure of worksheets between
year 12 and year 13. For example towards the end of the course, the amount of detail will be
reduced (e.g. “set up a distillation”, “use a microscope”).
By the end of the course, learners should be able to interpret continuous/bullet pointed written
prose, rather than a diagrammatic flow chart.
It may be possible to use the outcome of an experiment (e.g. the yield of a product, the resistivity
measured) as evidence that the learner has followed written instructions, but the failure to achieve
the right outcome may show a lack of manipulative ability instead of showing that the learner cannot
follow written instructions.
CPAC 2: Applying investigative approaches
The distinctive feature of investigative skill is that of choice. Learners should not be given full
methods for all aspects of the practical activity.
There should be a move away from the given method, as it tends to constrain, although in the
development of investigative skills these may be included as a part of an activity which initially
incorporates scaffold which is then removed later in the activity.
There is an overlap between CPAC1 and CPAC2 relating to experimental techniques and
procedures which should be considered in the context of the practical activity observed. For
example a learner could demonstrate investigative skills in problem solving, whilst still following
written instructions in the use of a new piece of equipment. As such we envisage a continuum
between focused method with written instructions and complete open ended investigation.
The OCR Practical Endorsement ,
Defining the Standard
It is in this CPAC that we would expect to see learners gaining in fluency in their practical work:
 problem solving and doing things without prompting.
 risk taking – not scared to try things and/or to get them wrong.
During their activity learners should expect to be able to answer “why”, with teachers (and monitors)
looking for the “thinking behind the doing”.
To demonstrate this competence there is no requirement to carry out a full investigation, although
some centres may still choose this to suit their teaching and learning.
It is important to note that having the word investigate in the title does not make an activity
investigative.
Examples given at OCR training identify the possibility for the two styles of activity which both
satisfy the criteria:
Physics A – A tray containing string, spring, masses, stopwatch, card, protractor, set-square and the
instruction to investigate factors affecting simple harmonic motion, with identical provisions for each
learner.
Physics B – An open choice of investigation
Chemistry A – Identify an unknown compound, with a given compound and range of tests
Chemistry B – Investigate rates of reaction, with no additional structure
CPAC 3: Safely uses a range of practical equipment and materials
There is a continuance of the overlap with CPAC1 and CPAC2 relating to experimental techniques
and procedures, alongside the safe use of apparatus.
This competence is not about writing a risk assessment, although teachers may incorporate this to
support experimental design and its refinement as examined in the written papers. The important
aspect of this criterion is that the learners are working safely in the classroom and are responding
safely to any prompts. Often evidence of this will be gathered by the monitor from the lesson
observation and discussions with learners and teacher.
Learners should be:
 Exhibiting good behaviour and following policies (e.g. lab coats).
 Demonstrating organisation of working space and self-management.
 Safety literate – responding appropriately to written or symbolic hazard warnings and
treating apparatus and chemicals with “respect”.
 Not endangering others / awareness of others.
 Dealing with things that go wrong.
Progression will be clear – learners will increase in their abilities as they become familiar with
techniques and the risks. They will make adjustments and demonstrate fluency in refining
equipment and procedures which may exceed the requirements for a Pass in the Practical
Endorsement.
There is no automatic fail for learners who break things – but the way of dealing with the breakage
(and why it happened) should inform the teacher’s judgement as to their competence.
The OCR Practical Endorsement ,
Defining the Standard
Whilst there is a perceived lack of comparability for the safety between experiments in different
sciences, such as physics using a spring and the more complex chemistry experiments, this is not
taken into consideration in deciding whether or not to credit a learner.
Safe working cannot be demonstrated by a learner in an experiment when the learner is only taking
one or two readings from apparatus which has already been set up by the teacher (e.g. some
radioactivity experiments in physics).
Safety in the classroom remains the responsibility of the teacher in accordance with their employer’s
guidelines. Learners are not expected to take responsibility for health and safety in the classroom.
Teachers are expected to prompt learners to maintain their classroom as a safe working
environment. Prior familiarity with equipment and techniques will define how much prompting or help
the learners will need to be given.
CPAC 4: Makes and records observations
It is important to look at what has been written down to ascertain that learners have consistently and
routinely recorded evidence. The actual judgement is made by the teacher whilst watching the
learners recording the data during the practical. Demonstrated, for example, by recording raw data
in a logical sequence in the practical (writing the mass down when at the balance) and being
methodical in their observations.
Section a) can be qualitative as well as quantitative (e.g. biological drawing, observing creep in
plastic) validating the use of written observations as well as measurements. Section b) is
quantitative.
Recorded data should reflect the resolution of the equipment and be suitably accurate for the type
of activity being carried out. The data tabulated must contain the raw data as measured prior to any
subsequent calculations.
Progression of learners over the two years will allow the development of trialling, repeating,
questioning outliers and anomalies, filling in intermediate values, which will meet and exceed the
requirements of the criteria.
By the end of the course tables should not constitute filling in the blanks. Exam board rules should
be followed where appropriate (e.g. headings and units in tables and the use of significant figures)
following the guidance given in the Practical Skills Handbook.
This competence is as much about learner behaviours as about the written evidence.
The opportunities the learners have will vary throughout the course and will depend on the
experiment.
There is no need for learners to choose equipment to meet CPAC 4, but they should demonstrate
an understanding of the equipment and its limitations.
Processing of data is not included in this – so, for example, provision of a column for ln(value) would
not be part of the assessment of CPAC 4.
Teacher assessments of each individual experiment should take into account a range of the
requirements, but learners should not be overly penalised for particular rules. For example, in one
particular activity a teacher may concentrate on the learners’ abilities to select which measurements
The OCR Practical Endorsement ,
Defining the Standard
to take, and in which order, but in this activity would not comment that a learner had too many
significant figures on a particular reading, as this was not the focus of assessment for that activity.
An alternative interpretation of this is to state that a learner is not penalised for individual errors in
making and recording observations, but is expected by the end of the two year course to
demonstrate competence in measurement and recording of data.
CPAC 5: Researches, references and reports
The OCR sciences are accredited on the basis that the skills detailed in the learning outcomes
detailed below are not assessed in the written examination but are assessed in the Practical
Endorsement:
1.2.2(f) present information and data in a scientific way
1.2.2(g) use appropriate software and tools to process data, carry out research and report findings
1.2.2(h) use online and offline research skills including websites, textbooks and other pronted
scientific sources of information
1.2.2(i) correctly cite sources of information
As such, the preparation of a written report or of a presentation to class using these skills is in itself
a practical activity which may be used as a means of assessing them.
The incorporation of these skills into other practical activities allows them to be demonstrated
throughout the duration of the A level course, in which case the context of practical work should
focus the research being done. Such research can be carried out in anticipation of an activity, linked
to planning, or following its conclusion in the evaluation of the outcome, for example by checking
values. Comparing more than one source of information with a consideration of the quality of the
sources would exceed the requirement for competence.
Teachers should check that information isn’t simply cut and pasted.
The source of information must be able to be retrieved (e.g. page in book or webpage).
Consistent use of a particular referencing system is beyond the CPAC standard, but is expected to
be seen from many learners.
Learners should understand what they’ve found and integrate it into their work, rather than leaving
the information in isolation.
“Report findings” does not require a full written report – it is perfectly acceptable to see a graph plot,
picture or further processing as part of a conclusion. It is considered more about getting to the
conclusion / result, which may be scaffolded to support the learner in gaining reporting skills.
Conclusions will often relate to the science behind an experiment, and learners may research this.
Sometimes a learner may simply write a statement of findings as a report, in which case they may
not be credited with competence in research and referencing.
Manipulation of raw data with calculators or spreadsheets to support planning and conclusions
related to a practical activity meets the requirement. Extensive use of spreadsheets and charts will
be demonstrated by many learners, but exceeds the requirements of the Practical Endorsement.
This document is based on the discussions and notes circulated following the cross board meeting on July 24th, 25th and 26th 2015.
The notes have been re-ordered and paraphrased to create a document for regular use in the monitoring of practical activity for the
Practical Endorsement.
Centres must provide sufficient opportunities for learners to demonstrate their competence in all skills, apparatus and techniques as
required by the Common Practical Assessment Criteria (CPAC).
The practical activities should be of A level standard which can be confirmed by cross referencing to learning outcomes in each
specification.