4th A level or extended project (EPQ)?

Personally, I would recommend that if your results in Yr12 were all fairly consistent, it would be worth taking the 4th A-Level and dropping the EPQ. My logic is this: If you're heading off to uni next year, your offer is likely to be a three-grade offer, and by taking 4 subjects, you maximise your chances of meeting this offer. It is of course possible that, in this case, unis make a four-grade offer, but in all honesty, this is rather unlikely. So increase your chances of meeting your offer would be my honest advice, unless there are other factors that I have overlooked.

That's terrible advice. Seemingly forgetting that taking on more A levels means more work and could detract from what you could achieve in other subjects.

hey all! (hope this is in the right section?)
I'm about to start year 13 next week, I've taken As levels in Biology, Physics and art & design, I have a whole A level in maths an will take on another a level in further maths next year along with my other 3 subjects (couldn't decide what to drop on results day). I also do Duke of Edinburgh gold and EPQ as extra curricular activities (wont finish d of e by the time I've left school, but will have expeditions, skill and volunteering done, if not more).
So my question is should I drop EPQ or one of my a2 subjects (would be biology or art, art has been much harder, but more enjoyable so far) or should I keep on with all of them (wondering if I'll survive the year if I did this)?

Obviously unis like EPQ for the research skills and as extra curricular stuff, but it's equivalent to an AS, whereas I could have an A level in a subject that might not be particularly related to my course choice (art if doing a science course, or sciences if doing an art course), that might show I live outside my chosen course too?

thanks

unless you have low grades and need ucas pts go for a2, if 3 you only need 3 grades, go epq, all this stupid advice about taking 4 a-levels to improve chances in getting 3 ok is uninformed, some offers wont include a2s that are totally irrelevant, i.e. arts in medicine. so it depends on what you're going for.

It appears that once again I need to explain why my advice is sound (and it is very important that I do so, because those not crediting my advice are misleading the original poster).

Yes, in all likelihood, you will require three grades next year, not four. However, I will give you the case of a good friend of mine from Yr 13. She had an Oxford offer of AAA, and took an EPQ as well as three A2 subjects. She ultimately missed that offer, achieving AAB with an A* in the EPQ. The cause of this appeared to be a strange Politics paper in which the entire class had performed poorly. Such marking issues occur every single year (you only need to look in the remark section of TSR to discover this is true.) If you are choosing between an EPQ and a fourth subject ( and definitely want to do one or the other), it is clear, from my perspective, that given the universities cannot give offers based on EPQs given their lack of availability, the fourth subject is far more sensible. The vast majority of offers (yes, there are exceptions in certain fields but these are very very rare) with be of three grades across any of your subjects, and the fourth A-Level most definitely provides a better option than an EPQ in terms of meeting this offer. EPQs are great, I'm not denying that, but I must stress, getting into university is imperative, ultimately, and the 4th subject looks good on an application, and can be a massive help after that point.

i did both and it was no pressure, did the epq in by february from october, easy as piss, basically a free A but no use since you'll have applied on ucas by then, but so is a 4th a2.

so do it for yourself and no-one, unless your uni specifies a 4th AS, etc.

It appears that once again I need to explain why my advice is sound (and it is very important that I do so, because those not crediting my advice are misleading the original poster).

Yes, in all likelihood, you will require three grades next year, not four. However, I will give you the case of a good friend of mine from Yr 13. She had an Oxford offer of AAA, and took an EPQ as well as three A2 subjects. She ultimately missed that offer, achieving AAB with an A* in the EPQ. The cause of this appeared to be a strange Politics paper in which the entire class had performed poorly. Such marking issues occur every single year (you only need to look in the remark section of TSR to discover this is true.) If you are choosing between an EPQ and a fourth subject ( and definitely want to do one or the other), it is clear, from my perspective, that given the universities cannot give offers based on EPQs given their lack of availability, the fourth subject is far more sensible. The vast majority of offers (yes, there are exceptions in certain fields but these are very very rare) with be of three grades across any of your subjects, and the fourth A-Level ost definitely provides a better option than an EPQ in terms of meeting this offer. EPQs are great, I'm not denying that, but I must stress, getting into university is im perative, ultimately, and the 4th subject looks good on an application, a nd can be a massive help after that point.

Hey Out of interest what did you do it on? And what kind of stuff did you do for research?

EPQ may help you in your first year of university. You will already have experience of doing a large piece of written work, that was motivated by yourself rather than teachers, as well as how to reference.

It appears that once again I need to explain why my advice is sound (and it is very important that I do so, because those not crediting my advice are misleading the original poster).

Yes, in all likelihood, you will require three grades next year, not four. However, I will give you the case of a good friend of mine from Yr 13. She had an Oxford offer of AAA, and took an EPQ as well as three A2 subjects. She ultimately missed that offer, achieving AAB with an A* in the EPQ. The cause of this appeared to be a strange Politics paper in which the entire class had performed poorly. Such marking issues occur every single year (you only need to look in the remark section of TSR to discover this is true.) If you are choosing between an EPQ and a fourth subject ( and definitely want to do one or the other), it is clear, from my perspective, that given the universities cannot give offers based on EPQs given their lack of availability, the fourth subject is far more sensible. The vast majority of offers (yes, there are exceptions in certain fields but these are very very rare) with be of three grades across any of your subjects, and the fourth A-Level most definitely provides a better option than an EPQ in terms of meeting this offer. EPQs are great, I'm not denying that, but I must stress, getting into university is imperative, ultimately, and the 4th subject looks good on an application, and can be a massive help after that point.