Understanding Your Assessment Brief
It is really important to ensure that you understand your assessment brief. It provides information about the criteria that you will be assessed against. It will tell you what you need to do to meet the assessment criteria. You can expect to find
The information on this page will help you to analyse the question and to plan your assessment. If you are not clear about what you are being asked to do, contact your tutor as early as possible for further guidance.
Here is an interactive resource to get you started, use the arrows at the bottom to navigate through the activity.
Assessment briefs at UCSD
UCSD assessment processes are informed by student feedback and follow the best practice within the higher education sector.
The assessment policy is principles-based and can be viewed on the Academic Regulations, Procedures, and Policies page.
To help you understand what the assessment policy and guidelines mean, we have populated an assessment brief with information and guidance*.
Staff guidance can be viewed here
Assessments typically used at UCSD
There are different types of demonstrating your learning depending on what is being assessed, the assessment brief will have this clearly stated in the left column near the top.
Using the assessment brief to plan
There are several advantages to using the assessment brief to plan your assignment including ensuring that you are answering the question and that you plan your argument
Break the question down by identifying:
The topic
The focus
The instruction(s) – use the UCSD guide to ‘command verbs’ (hyperlink) to ensure you understand exactly what you are being asked to do in each assessment.
Further support and guidance
For further guidance around planning and structuring, see the ‘Planning and Structuring Your Writing’ tile (hyperlink)
If you have any quick questions, contact us via Teams or email (hyperlinks) or phone
For more detailed support, book a tutorial! (hyperlink to booking form)