Evaluating Your PEP: Comparing Pre and Post Data

You are not marked on getting fitter

Your Personal Exercise Programme is worth 20 marks, a tenth of the whole qualification. It would be reasonable to assume those marks are for improving. They are not. The programme is assessed only on the quality of your analysis and evaluation, not on whether your fitness actually improved. That one sentence changes what you do with a score that went down, and it is the difference between a folder that hides its data and one that examines it.

What the task actually is

The programme runs for six to eight weeks: you plan it, you carry it out, and you evaluate it. Fitness testing happens at the start and again at the end, and the evaluation is where those two sets of numbers meet.

Five things you might write

The score that went down

A student finishes their programme and one of their post-test scores is worse than the pre-test score. What should they do about it in the evaluation?

• Leave that test out, since it would drag the marks down
• Include it and work out what might explain it
• Repeat the test until it comes out higher
• Include it but say the test must have been wrong

What is marked, and what is not

Put the common belief next to what the specification actually assesses.

How an evaluation runs

Put the four stages of the evaluation into a workable order.

• Put each pre-test score next to its post-test score
• Say what changed, by how much, and in which direction
• Work out what might explain each change, including the ones that went the wrong way
• Recommend what you would train next, and justify it from those findings

What belongs in this section?

Which two of these belong in the evaluation rather than somewhere else in the programme?

• A comparison of pre and post test scores
• A justified recommendation for further training
• Your week by week training logs
• The readiness questionnaire you completed before starting
• The SMART targets you set at the beginning

Two ways to hand it in

You can submit the programme written, to a maximum of 1500 words, or as a verbal video of at most 15 minutes. Two details matter. Your training logs do not count towards the 1500 words, so the limit applies to your writing rather than to your evidence. And on the video route there is no teacher prompting during the recording, so whatever structure you are going to use has to be in your head before you press record.

Words left

A student is submitting in writing. They have written 1180 words, not counting their training logs. How many more words can they write before they reach the limit?

One comparison, written properly

A student compares two of their results. One test improved; one went slightly the wrong way. Here is the second one written up. What changed: the score fell a little between the pre-test and the post-test. What might explain it: that component was trained in only two of the eight weeks, and the post-test was taken at the end of a heavy week. What follows: that component is the one to build the next programme around, and to test in the middle as well as at the end. Three moves, and the disappointing result produced the strongest paragraph in the folder.

Which two actually analyse?

Four of these sentences describe. Two of them analyse. Tap the two that analyse.

• My pre-test score was lower than my post-test score
• The improvement was smallest in the component I trained least
• I completed all eighteen sessions
• I enjoyed the circuit sessions the most
• That result suggests the programme was not specific enough to that component
• My post-test was taken on a Friday afternoon

The rules in a paragraph

The programme runs for six to _____ weeks and is worth _____ marks. It is assessed on the quality of your _____, not on whether your fitness improved. A written submission is capped at _____ words, and the evaluation ends with a justified _____ for further training.

Build the recommendation

A recommendation earns marks when it comes out of your own data. Choose the option in each gap.

Analysis, or description?

Five sentences from a PEP evaluation. Is each one analysis, description, or neither?

A folder to fix

Somebody shows you their draft evaluation and asks what to change. Work through it with them.

• They have quietly left out the one test where their score got worse.
• Their write-up lists every score and then stops.
• They finish with a recommendation to train harder next time, and no reason attached.

Write the evaluation

Imagine you have finished a six week programme. One of your test scores improved and one got slightly worse. Write the part of the evaluation that deals with the score that got worse.

• Say what changed and in which direction
• Offer a reason it might have changed that way, drawn from how you trained
• Finish with what you would do next and why
• Do not apologise for the result or write about how hard you tried