Assessment has long been an area of contention, controversy and discomfort in art education. How do educators define, regulate and assess that which is so often indefinable, idiosyncratic and subjective? Through a qualitative, small-scale case study focusing on a Year 11 GCSE Art and Design class at a mixed, comprehensive secondary school in Cambridgeshire, England, this paper seeks to examine how students and teachers themselves experience assessment in art and design. Undertaken during the Covid-19 pandemic in the spring of 2021, my research focuses on how art assessment interacts with students’ motivation and creative process, teachers’ professional and pedagogical practice, and the wider context of the pandemic