Appendices are sections placed at the end of your assessment response that contain supplementary material. Understanding what belongs in an appendix, and what the rules are around them, is essential for managing your response correctly.
Purpose of appendices¶
An appendix holds material that supports your response but is not itself assessable evidence. This means your teacher and markers cannot use content in an appendix when making a judgement about your work. If important evidence ends up in an appendix, it will not contribute to your mark — regardless of its quality.
The QCAA explicitly states that appendices do not contribute to response length and cannot be used to make judgements. If a student places significant evidence in an appendix, the school must annotate the ISMG to confirm that the appendix was not used when marking. This can trigger intervention during confirmation, so it is worth getting right.
What goes in an appendix for IA2 and IA3¶
For IA2 and IA3, the QCAA specifically recommends using appendices for test results and user feedback survey data. Both of these are standard components of your response, and placing them in an appendix is the expected approach.
Your testing tables and survey responses provide the raw evidence that supports your evaluation — but the evaluation itself must appear in the body of your response. The pattern is:
raw test results → appendix
raw survey feedback → appendix
your analysis and evaluation of that data → body of the response
Your evaluation in the body of the response should reference the appendix directly, for example by citing specific test cases or survey responses that support your conclusions.
What counts toward your response limits¶
Your assessments have two types of limits: a word count and a page count. These apply to your main response, not your appendices.
Page count¶
Appendices are excluded from the page count. Your reference list is also excluded.
For IA2 and IA3, the response limit is up to 10 A4 pages (written and visual component) plus up to 2 minutes of video. Pages in your appendix do not count toward this limit. This is the main practical benefit of placing test results and survey data in an appendix — they can be as long as they need to be without consuming your page allowance.
Word count¶
The word count limit for IA2 and IA3 is 1500 words within the 10 A4 pages.
The following are included in the word count:
all written text in the body of your response
annotations on screenshots, diagrams, and user interface elements where the text describes, explains, or justifies decisions
text in tables, figures, maps, and diagrams that contains information beyond raw or processed data
The following are excluded from the word count:
pseudocode
SQL
code (Python or otherwise)
numbers, symbols, equations, and calculations
raw or processed data in tables, figures, and diagrams
data dictionaries
entity relationship diagrams (ERDs)
data flow diagrams (DFDs)
wireframes and user interface mock-ups
test results and survey feedback, whether in the body of the response or in an appendix
What does not belong in an appendix¶
Avoid moving substantive evidence into an appendix to try to stay within your page or word limit. Markers are not permitted to assess appendix content, so any evidence placed there is wasted. Material such as the following must appear in the body of your response:
evaluation of your solution against success criteria
analysis of user experience
refinements and recommendations
justification of design decisions