A2 Appraising the impact of strategies, perspectives and feedback: SACE Activating Identities and Futures
“A2 Appraising the impact of strategies, perspectives and/or feedback to progress the learning towards the learning goal: evaluate the relative impact of what you used, and identify the most significant contributing factor or factors”
A2 is assessed in Progress Checks and the external Appraisal. Identify your strategies, perspectives and feedback, evidence their effects, compare their relative impact, show how they related to one another, and judge the most significant contributing factor(s) to your progress.
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What this criterion asks
A2, Appraising the impact of strategies, perspectives and/or feedback to progress the learning towards the learning goal, appears in two assessment types: Progress Checks (AT2) and the external Appraisal (AT3). In the Appraisal, the subject outline asks you to "evaluate the impact of strategies, perspectives, and feedback, identifying the most significant contributing factor/s".
The answer
What to appraise
- Strategies you used (E2): which helped, which did not, and why.
- Perspectives you drew on (E3): whose views changed your direction.
- Feedback you received (PA1): what you changed and the result.
From discussing to appraising
- Identify the factors you used.
- Evidence their effect (before and after, drafts, results, feedback).
- Compare their relative impact.
- Relate them: how did one factor lead to or strengthen another?
- Judge the most significant contributing factor(s), and explain why.
| Grade | A2 standard |
|---|---|
| A | Appraises the related impact of strategies, perspectives, and/or feedback to progress the learning towards the learning goal |
| B | Appraises the impact of strategies, perspectives, and/or feedback to progress the learning towards the learning goal |
| C | Discusses the impact of strategies, perspectives, and/or feedback to progress the learning |
| D | Describes strategies, perspectives, and/or feedback used in the learning |
| E | Identifies a strategy, perspective, and/or feedback used in the learning |
Learning Goal: to learn to cook for a family member with coeliac disease.
- Strategies: following gluten-free recipe books; practising one new recipe a week.
- Perspective: a dietitian explained cross-contamination, which the recipe books barely mentioned.
- Feedback: the family member said early meals were safe but bland.
- Related impact: the dietitian's perspective changed the strategy (separate utensils and a cleaning routine), and the feedback led to experimenting with herbs and spices.
- Judgement: the dietitian's perspective was the most significant factor, because safety was the purpose of the goal; without it, the recipes would have been gluten-free on paper but unsafe in practice.
- Listing everything you did
- Select and compare.
- Claiming impact without evidence
- Point to what changed.
- Ignoring what did not work
- Explaining low-impact choices shows judgement too.
Practice questions
Original practice questions graded from foundation to exam level, each with a full worked solution. Try them before revealing the solution.
foundation3 marksRank three factors by impact and justify the top choice: (a) watching tutorials, (b) weekly feedback from a mentor, (c) a detailed timeline.Show worked solution →
Example ranking for a Learning Goal about learning to weld: 1. mentor feedback, 2. tutorials, 3. timeline.
Justification: the mentor watched my welds each week and corrected my angle and speed. My practice welds (photos weeks 3 to 8) show the biggest improvement after the first two sessions with him, while tutorials helped me understand the steps but not fix my specific mistakes.
Marking guide: 1 mark for a ranking, 2 marks for justification with evidence.
core4 marksWrite a short Appraisal paragraph identifying the most significant contributing factor to your learning.Show worked solution →
Example:
"The most significant factor in reaching my goal of designing a bike-to-school campaign was the perspective of the Year 7 students I surveyed. I expected safety to be their main concern, but 62% said they did not ride because they had nowhere to lock bikes. This redirected my whole Output of Learning from safety posters to a proposal for bike racks, which the principal has now approved. Other factors, such as my research on campaign design, shaped how I presented the proposal, but without the students' perspective I would have solved the wrong problem."
Marking guide: 1 mark for naming the factor, 1 mark for evidence, 1 mark for its effect on the learning, 1 mark for comparison with other factors.
exam5 marksExplain how a student can show 'related impact' (A level) rather than simply discussing impact (C level) for A2.Show worked solution →
At C level, the student "discusses the impact of strategies, perspectives, and/or feedback to progress the learning", often one factor at a time.
At A level, the student "appraises the related impact": they show how factors interacted and compare their relative contributions. For example, feedback from a teacher led to a change in strategy, which made a new perspective accessible, which changed the Output of Learning. The student then judges which link in that chain mattered most, supported by Portfolio evidence, and explains what they would do differently.
Showing relationships, comparisons and judgements, rather than a list, demonstrates evaluative judgement.
Marking guide: 1 mark for the C standard, 1 mark for the A standard, 2 marks for explaining related impact with an example, 1 mark for evidence and judgement.