[Normandy114]

(Original post by Boom533)
Still trying to think of a topic Thinking about either doing one on whether people with lifestlye-related diseases be treated by the NHS or whether the NHS reforms should be approved...

ANyone got any other ideas relating to current issues or medical ethics etc.? Any help appreciated

The lifestyle-related disease sounds good, you'd be able to find a lot of material for obesity, smoking and alcohol treatment on the NHS. It can be a controversial topic too so there's plenty of scope for critical analysis, so you'll be able to get some of the higher marks available too.

[Boom533]

(Original post by Normandy114)
The lifestyle-related disease sounds good, you'd be able to find a lot of material for obesity, smoking and alcohol treatment on the NHS. It can be a controversial topic too so there's plenty of scope for critical analysis, so you'll be able to get some of the higher marks available too.

Yeah I got both of the ideas from my Work Exp. Was in A&E for a day, and the doctors there were telling me about how annoying it was that most of the patients came in due to drink/drug-related injuries...

[zeeshan007]

(Original post by lekky)
Lots of threads popping up at the moment, so here's a place to discuss your EPQ!

I did my EPQ on malaria and got an A* so if you have any questions you think I can help with please quote me

Hey, im planning on doing an epq around the cures of malaria and just wandered if you had any suggestions to make my hypothesis more specific :/
I'm also still considering doing an epq on euthanasia....im so lost

[Soouzums]

Just finished my first draft. Still need to include some stats and all the referencing
My title was " Where will embryo genetic screening take us and what are its ethical implications?"

[crimlex]

we have the same type of thing in Sweden, and all high school students have to conduct one before graduating (although some are more serious than others)

Did mine on the plasticity of stem cells and their potential clinical applications (focus on spinal cord injury), as well as designed an electronic educational tool on the subject for the medical school here in Stockholm.

11000 words... took some time, but all the same a very interesting and releveant topic - recommend it, especially if you can have the time to go to labs and perform some experiments.

[xholdmedown]

Stem cell research.
e.g How there maybe services avaliable in the future to find out if your child has a genetic disease and then have the oppotunities to alter their genes so they are born "normal."
Nhs Becoming private? Gp's getting more control of the money spent.
Funding.

[Gekoladie]

Today at school we had a talk about the Extended Project Qualification (EPQ), which is basically a research-based project on a topic of your choice to produce a dissertation.

I was wondering how useful it is to have this qualification if you're applying to study medicine at university.

The message my school seemed to give was that it was very arts and humanities based, with almost all the projects being on history, literature or law. The one exception was about veterinary medicine, which was done by a student applying to vet school. As the person who assesses the project has to understand the project (at least to some extent) in order to get any kind of reasonable mark, I got the impression that doing something scientific would be incredibly difficult because, given the word count guidelines (around 3K words for the research part, 1K for conclusion) it would be very difficult to explain more advanced concepts to an extent that a person with no scientific specialisation could understand.

How to universities view the EPQ for students applying to study medicine? Obviously, having the right grades and work experience is very important, but would having the EPQ give a student any advantage besides demonstrating that they are capable of independent work, since including a relevant concept would be difficult?

Any advice on this topic would be great, thanks!

[Kingbradley6]

It may well vary from university to university but I think what Cambridge have on their website is quite applicable to most cases:

"We welcome the introduction of the Extended Project and would encourage you to undertake one as it will help you develop independent study and research skills, which will ease the transition from school/college to higher education. However, completion of an Extended Project won't be a requirement of any offer made."

Moreover to this it can be a really good fun and fascinating. Most people just seem to do the cliche 'stem cells' from what I hear but I did mine on exon skipping in patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy. I managed to secure some time with clinical researchers at the University of Oxford and found the whole experience (including writing it!) really interesting. Oh and it gave me something to mention in my personal statement and at interview!

I would recommend it and of course it can be something scientifidc. You have a supervisor - just pick one of your biology/chemistry teachers. My teacher did not understand everything in mine but that made me work to improve this in my essay and presentation and he also did some research which - I think - he found fascinating.

I think mine was about 6,000 words and we were recommended 5,000. It's quite a lot but if you are interested in your subject you will manage fine. A warning that if you just do it to get that extra qualification it will take up a lot of time - or will feel like it is - and you won't benefit.

[Patchey1000]

It's 6K words

[Alexandra's Box]

I'd be interested to hear about this too...
I'll be watching you

[twelve]

It depends.

Its a lot of work, and since the most important thing is getting that AAA you need to think about whether you would be donating too much time from A levels to do it. I've heard it is interesting for some people (although most that I've heard of just wanted to get it finished) and if I'm honest, I wished I'd been able to find an interesting subject in time. Problem is, I couldn't think of anything that I would be able to do, and would be interested in doing.

You don't need it. I have an offer, and I didn't do it. But if you want to do it purely for the enjoyment of it then go for it. Otherwise I wouldn't recommend it - you won't have enough passion for it (as much as a previous poster seems to have had) to get it done.

[orange.bananna]

Hi,
I've applied for dentistry not medicine, but I found that the EPQ was beneficial. I did my EPQ related to dentistry, so it gave me something to talk about at interview and it was something I could speak about with confidence.

Just as a warning - my initial 'plan' was that I would complete it over the summer between year 12 and 13, but by the time I had done work exp, voluntary work, UKCAT and just relaxed, it didn't happen. So during September and October while studying A2's and applying to Uni, I had to fit in a 90 hour project! Lets just say there were a few late nights, but I definetly learnt my lesson and I did enjoy carrying out the project!

Key thing, do it on a topic that interests you - you will enjoy the whole process more!

[Besakt]

A couple of thousand words in something you are interested in and you've got a qualification. I'm doing EPQ but I'm thinking about dropping it (or changing it as my current subject topic has a massive scope).

[LisaBrocklesby]

I would definitely recommend doing it. I'm applying for dentistry at the moment and it has been extremely useful. I mentioned it in my personal statement and for my Newcastle interview the majority of the interview was based on my epq.

Just to add to this my friend who has applied for medicine this year also completed an epq and again her two interviews at Keele and Birmingham were again based on her epq.

So I would say yes do one if you get the chance, not only is it advantageous to your uni application but for me I gained a more indepth knowledge of a subject I wish to study further. Although it does seem a big task, when you're researching and writing about something interesting which fascinates you the time goes really quickly. And I gained a real satisfaction after completing my project as I had the teachers talking about my topic and whether they agree or not, so it was interesting to have the mini debates after

[John Locke]

in general i would say very little if any directly. if doing about something topical the reading of that might help but independently of the qualification which generally isn't very good IMO.

[purplefrog]

EPQ gives no credit to the knowledge gained etc... most of its marks are about the skills, research and studying and the process you take while accumulating whatever you do. It is not meant to be geared solely for arts/humanities and indeed lots of people I know studying sciences are doing/did one.
I wouldn't say it would advantage you unless you reflected upon it well in your PS/interview - and if asked about it, you better be prepared to discuss it meaningfully instead of regurgitate your EPQ.
Having that said, it will help a lot with any essays you do at university level as they will be several thousand words long and you are expected to reference them with (ideally) reliable sources - ESPECIALLY if you are writing about a scientific topic, reading through journals and other publications is essential.

[AkDo]

(Original post by Gekoladie)
Today at school we had a talk about the Extended Project Qualification (EPQ), which is basically a research-based project on a topic of your choice to produce a dissertation.

I was wondering how useful it is to have this qualification if you're applying to study medicine at university.

The message my school seemed to give was that it was very arts and humanities based, with almost all the projects being on history, literature or law. The one exception was about veterinary medicine, which was done by a student applying to vet school. As the person who assesses the project has to understand the project (at least to some extent) in order to get any kind of reasonable mark, I got the impression that doing something scientific would be incredibly difficult because, given the word count guidelines (around 3K words for the research part, 1K for conclusion) it would be very difficult to explain more advanced concepts to an extent that a person with no scientific specialisation could understand.

How to universities view the EPQ for students applying to study medicine? Obviously, having the right grades and work experience is very important, but would having the EPQ give a student any advantage besides demonstrating that they are capable of independent work, since including a relevant concept would be difficult?

Any advice on this topic would be great, thanks!

There's quite a few myths that people believe but read this to sort fact from fiction. Essentially you don't need the EPQ at all. Personally however I did one specifically on Lung Cancer. It was really good and I learnt a lot but I don't really think it was really important as a factor for me getting in. I would say go for it and do it because you'll definitely enjoy it and you can show it off in your personal statement as giving you skills like researching journals, referencing, time management, explaining at a basic level complex concepts - in that way it's definitely a good thing to have on your personal statement but again NOT essential.

[Wangers]

But I don't get how you could produce anything scientifically credible if you don't have access to journal material? Everytime you want to read a article you wouldn't have access to it?

[Mohil]

Don't you think that Medical related EPQ's could be advantageous in interviews and personal statements?

[digitalis]

(Original post by Mohil)
Don't you think that Medical related EPQ's could be advantageous in interviews and personal statements?

No.