QCE Design exam 2026Exam: Fri 6 Nov · QCAA timetable
Your QCE Design exam:
When and how long
- DesignAfternoon session2 h plus 15 min perusal or planning time
QCAA's timetable sets the day and the morning (AM) or afternoon (PM) session, not a start time: your school tells you when to arrive. Durations are working time plus perusal or planning time.
Source: QCAA external assessment timetable 2026 (QCAA), checked Wednesday 23 September 2026. Where a start time, reading time or duration isn't shown, the timetable doesn't publish it: check your personal timetable and the front of your paper.
What the exam covers
We don't have past-paper frequency data for this exam, so here is the course, module by module. Make sure every module is covered.
Night-before and exam-morning checklists
The night before
- QCAA's timetable fixes the day and the AM or PM session only: confirm the start time and venue with your school.[2]
- Check your calculator is on QCAA's approved list for the subject.[1]
- Pack a clear plastic container or zip-lock bag: black or blue pens, pencils, eraser, sharpener, a highlighter.[1]
- An ordinary watch only if you want one (no smart watch or fitness tracker); it goes on the desk.[1]
- Pack a water bottle (it stays on the floor).[1]
Exam morning
- Arrive at least 30 minutes before the start.[1]
- Switch your phone off and leave it in your bag outside the room.[1]
- More than 40 minutes late needs permission, and you lose perusal and planning time.[1]
- During perusal and planning time, don't write in the response book or touch your calculator.[1]
- You can't leave in the first 40 minutes or the last 10 minutes.[1]
Exam-week survival kit: The last 7 days · The night before and exam morning · What to bring, and what's banned · How to use reading time · If you're sick or something goes wrong · Handling exam-week stress.
Last-week revision
QCE Design cram sheet
Key formulas, definitions and facts copied from our Design syllabus pages. One page when printed.
Unit 3: Designing with empathy
The QCE Design process is explore (understand the need and write criteria), develop (generate and test many ideas) and resolve (refine, evaluate against criteria, justify). It is iterative and non-linear - you loop back whenever new evidence demands it - and every decision should trace to an identified user need.
Unit 4: Sustainable design
A redesigning approach improves an existing design by critiquing its life cycle to find sustainability shortcomings, framing a focused redesign opportunity, running explore-develop-resolve with sustainability built into the criteria, and evaluating the redesign against the original to show a measurable improvement.