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Phase 6 of 6

Evaluate it and hand it in

Judge the project honestly against what you set out to do, then make sure every required piece is in the folder with your name on it.

Earns marks in
AO4 Review, AO1 Manage
Your route

AO4, Review, is 12 of the 60 marks, and this is where most of it is earned. Evaluation is not a summary of what you did. It is a judgement: what you set out to do, what you achieved, how good it is, and what you would change. The other thing that happens here is assembly, and OCR's moderators report projects losing marks simply because required pieces were missing.

Do this now

  1. Evaluate each objective in turn

    1. Write out your aim and objectives from the PPR exactly as you wrote them at the start.
    2. Take one objective at a time and answer three questions: did I meet it, how do I know, and how well?
    3. Use the evidence: the test results, the sources, the outcome itself. Point to it.
    4. Be honest about the ones you only partly met, or did not meet. Explaining why an objective was not met, and what you did instead, earns more than pretending it was. The toolkit shows an objective evaluated both ways.
    5. If an objective changed during the project, say when, why, and what it became.

  2. Evaluate the outcome itself

    1. Judge the outcome against what it was supposed to do, not against how much work it was.
    2. Name its strongest part and say what makes it strong.
    3. Name its weakest part and say what you would change with another month.
      • Dissertation routeJudge whether your conclusion is actually supported by your evidence, and where it is weakest. Say what a critic would attack first.
      • Artefact routeJudge it against the brief you wrote in Phase 1: audience, purpose and conditions. Use your test results as evidence.

  3. Re-run your skills audit

    1. Find the dated skills audit you made in Phase 0.
    2. Rate yourself again on the same skills, today.
    3. For every skill that moved, write one sentence of evidence: what you can now do that you could not do in September, and where in the project it shows.
    4. For every skill that did not move, say so. That is an honest review, and it is still evaluation.
    5. Name one skill you will take into your next course or job, and say how.

  4. Evaluate how you worked

    1. Compare your first time plan with what actually happened. Where did it slip, and why?
    2. Pick the best decision you made and say what made it good.
    3. Pick the worst decision you made and say what you would do instead.
    4. Say what you would tell someone starting this project tomorrow. Make it specific enough to act on.

  5. Complete the PPR and hold the end of project review

    1. Complete the End of Project section of the PPR, including the evidence map, which points a moderator to where each piece of evidence is. The PPR and activity log lists every section to check.
    2. Take the completed project to your end of project review meeting. It is the fourth of the five required meetings.
    3. Your presentation comes after this, so keep the PPR to hand and add anything the presentation changes.
    4. Check the whole PPR from the first page. Moderators report the qualifications box on page one being left empty.
    5. Sign it, and get your supervisor to sign it.

  6. Assemble the portfolio

    Check you have every one of these, and that each is clearly labelled with your name and candidate number. To check the whole project at once, use all the checklists on one page.

    1. The unit recording sheet, completed by your centre.
    2. The Project Progression Record, complete and signed.
    3. Your activity log or diary, in full.
    4. The outcome itself, plus the written piece of about 1,000 words if your outcome is not a dissertation.
    5. Your presentation materials.
    6. Evidence that the presentation took place, plus audience questions or feedback.
    7. Your portfolio of evidence covering the assessment objectives: research, source evaluations, reference list, planning documents, decision log, drafts or making evidence, and your final evaluation.

  7. Check it the way a moderator will

    1. Open the folder as if you had never seen it. Can you find the evidence for each AO in under a minute?
    2. Check every file is named so it says what it is, and that nothing is a draft you meant to replace.
    3. Check the reference list is complete and in one consistent style, and that nothing in the outcome is uncited.
    4. Check the word counts: about 5,000 for a dissertation, about 1,000 for the written piece with any other outcome.
    5. Ask your supervisor to confirm the submission date and how your centre wants the work handed in.

  8. Hand it in

    1. Submit by your centre's deadline, not OCR's. Your centre marks the work first.
    2. Keep a copy of everything you hand in.
    3. Your centre marks it and OCR moderates it. Grade boundaries are set for each exam series, so nobody can tell you in advance what a grade needs.

Record this for the marks

What a moderator needs to see from this phase, where it goes, and the assessment objective it counts towards.

Final evaluation
objective by objective, with evidence, including the ones you did not meet.
AO4
Outcome evaluation
its strongest and weakest parts, judged against what it was meant to do.
AO4
Skills audit, second version
dated, next to the Phase 0 one, with evidence for every change.
AO4
Process review
the first time plan against what happened, and your best and worst decisions.
AO4
PPR, End of Project
completed, including the evidence map, and signed by you and your supervisor.
AO1
Portfolio
every required piece, labelled with your name and candidate number.
AO1
Activity log
a final entry covering the review meeting and the submission.
AO1

Worked example

Evaluating one objective

Invented for this guide to show the technique. It is not real student work.

Weak evaluation

I completed all my objectives. I am happy with my project. I learned a lot about time management and I would manage my time better next time.

Stronger evaluation

Objective 2: compare the targets at least three supermarkets set with what they later reported.

Partly met. I compared three retailers, but only two published figures using the same measure, so the third comparison is weaker and I have said so in section 3. The evidence is in my source log, Sources 5, 7 and 11.

If I did it again I would check that the data was comparable before choosing the retailers, which cost me about two weeks in January. That is also the clearest example of the time management point above: I lost the time to re-searching, not to poor scheduling.

The weak version is a feeling. The stronger version judges the objective, admits a limitation, points to the evidence and turns "manage my time better" into something specific.

Common mistakes

What OCR's moderators report going wrong at this stage, and what to do instead.

  • An evaluation that describes the project

    Retelling what you did is not judging it.

    Instead answer whether each objective was met, how you know, and how well.

  • Only writing about what went well

    Instead name the limitations and what you would change, with reasons.

  • Evaluating against nothing

    Without your original aims, there is nothing to evaluate against.

    Instead quote your objectives as you wrote them and take them one at a time.

  • Claiming your skills improved with no baseline

    Instead use the dated Phase 0 skills audit and show the change with evidence.

  • Vague promises about time management

    "I would manage my time better" appears in almost every weak evaluation.

    Instead say which week slipped, why, and what you would do instead.

  • An incomplete PPR

    Moderators report PPRs that are incomplete, and some that are not submitted at all.

    Instead check it from page one, including the qualifications box, and sign it.

  • Missing pieces in the portfolio

    The diary, the presentation evidence and the written piece are the ones most often left out.

    Instead work through the required list and tick each one off.

  • Leaving evaluation until the last night

    It is 12 marks and it needs evidence gathered across the whole project.

    Instead give it its own slot in the time plan.

Sources: OCR H857 moderators' report, Summer 2023, OCR H857 moderators' report, Summer 2024, OCR H857 moderators' report, Summer 2025

Checklist before you move on