EPQ artefact or essay?

Original post by schoolgirll

I know you can choose between an artefact or doing an essay but what would someone recommend? I´m not bad at writing and i am creative (going to do A-level art) but i just dont know if they are going to be harsh if i do the artefact compared to the essay.

I got 49/50 in my EPQ, but the essay was worth very little. It’s all about the process of time planning, developing ideas etc. If you feel you can do that with an artefact then great, but my school recommended doing the essay, as it’s easier to record these skills and show these skills this way- for instance, showing a debate and analysis, which may be harder with an artefact. Besides, with the artefact, you have to write a short essay anyway I think (if you are doing aqa).

We were also told it was easier to do well with the essay, and it would take less time in comparison to making an artefact. Remember you either have 3/4 other a levels to do as well, and generally (in my case) EPQ didn’t take priority, so the essay would probably be easier.

Hope this helps :smile:

Reply 2

OP

Thanks that really did help :smile:

Wow 49/50 thats great!!!

If you dont mind sharing I would love to know what your EPQ project was about and how you organised it. My school is also doing aqa and i know that with the artefact you can do a 1000 word essay instead of the 5000. 5000 seems a lot to me but i think debating and analysing will probably make it better.
Thank youu

Reply 3

Original post by schoolgirll

Thanks that really did help :smile:

Wow 49/50 thats great!!!

If you dont mind sharing I would love to know what your EPQ project was about and how you organised it. My school is also doing aqa and i know that with the artefact you can do a 1000 word essay instead of the 5000. 5000 seems a lot to me but i think debating and analysing will probably make it better.
Thank youu

My EPQ was on whether western religion has a positive or negative impact on mental health (Simply, is religion good or bad for mental health?). To be completely honest with you, I didn’t really enjoy a large proportion of it because there weren’t many resources out there for my chosen topic, so make sure you choose a topic with a large volume of resources (I was also doing my history coursework at the same time :frown:

) But this is how I planned it- your teacher will obvs give you tips though:

Planning the project:

1)make sure your title offers debate, it has to be a “how far do you agree?” or a question, like mine was - this makes it a bit harder - in other words not a statement or word such as “religion and mental health”
This doesn’t offer debate.

2) fill in the booklet when you are meant to, you will be given deadlines for eg the “mid project review”, don’t get behind with this or you will end up pretending to write from the past!

3) Create a Gantt chart for the whole project with the specified deadlines your teachers give you, AND one for the essay writing and the dates you will do each section.

4) Create a weekly planner with dates: objectives, what has been achieved in that session, problems and how they’ve been resolved (this is REALLY important)

5) Evaluate your sources as you go along using the CRAAP test (google it). Write these evaluations on a separate document. Preferably don’t do this at the very end, and don’t make the evaluations too big.

6) Write your bibliography as you go on and not right at the very end, if you do it’s very boring and time consuming.

Most importantly don’t bin or delete any evidence of planning even post it notes. AQA love to see the development of the project, no matter how small. Showing that you have faced issues and have resolved them is so important, no matter how messy the evidence becomes. For instance, a mindmap of title ideas, scribbling out. They want to see this!

Writing the essay:

Probably best to write the intro at the end as well as the conclusion and do the main body paragraphs as you go. Make sure you aren’t just writing descriptively. For instance a good method is, write something based off your evidence and then write “this could be interpreted to mean” - add your own input, but don’t write as if you are certain about anything. It’s a debate, and your view shouldn’t come in until the conclusion. Offering debate would be immensely hard with an artefact.

I did 5 paragraphs on agreeing and 5 paragraphs disagreeing with my statement. I split it into 5 mental health problems for each section. Some paragraphs were longer than others. Experiment with how you could split your title up. You don’t have to write the essay all at once, which will lessen the view that there’s loads to write. You can also add photos or diagrams to your essay!

What were you planning on doing it on?
If you need any extra help, I have finished year 13 and am waiting on my results so I’m free to answer any more questions!

Hope this helps :smile:

(edited 8 months ago)

Reply 4

OP

Original post by Lightningparrot

My EPQ was on whether western religion has a positive or negative impact on mental health (Simply, is religion good or bad for mental health?). To be completely honest with you, I didn’t really enjoy a large proportion of it because there weren’t many resources out there for my chosen topic, so make sure you choose a topic with a large volume of resources (I was also doing my history coursework at the same time :frown:

) But this is how I planned it- your teacher will obvs give you tips though:

Planning the project:

1)make sure your title offers debate, it has to be a “how far do you agree?” or a question, like mine was - this makes it a bit harder - in other words not a statement or word such as “religion and mental health”
This doesn’t offer debate.

2) fill in the booklet when you are meant to, you will be given deadlines for eg the “mid project review”, don’t get behind with this or you will end up pretending to write from the past!

3) Create a Gantt chart for the whole project with the specified deadlines your teachers give you, AND one for the essay writing and the dates you will do each section.

4) Create a weekly planner with dates: objectives, what has been achieved in that session, problems and how they’ve been resolved (this is REALLY important)

5) Evaluate your sources as you go along using the CRAAP test (google it). Write these evaluations on a separate document. Preferably don’t do this at the very end, and don’t make the evaluations too big.

6) Write your bibliography as you go on and not right at the very end, if you do it’s very boring and time consuming.

Most importantly don’t bin or delete any evidence of planning even post it notes. AQA love to see the development of the project, no matter how small. Showing that you have faced issues and have resolved them is so important, no matter how messy the evidence becomes. For instance, a mindmap of title ideas, scribbling out. They want to see this!

Writing the essay:

Probably best to write the intro at the end as well as the conclusion and do the main body paragraphs as you go. Make sure you aren’t just writing descriptively. For instance a good method is, write something based off your evidence and then write “this could be interpreted to mean” - add your own input, but don’t write as if you are certain about anything. It’s a debate, and your view shouldn’t come in until the conclusion. Offering debate would be immensely hard with an artefact.

I did 5 paragraphs on agreeing and 5 paragraphs disagreeing with my statement. I split it into 5 mental health problems for each section. Some paragraphs were longer than others. Experiment with how you could split your title up. You don’t have to write the essay all at once, which will lessen the view that there’s loads to write. You can also add photos or diagrams to your essay!

What were you planning on doing it on?
If you need any extra help, I have finished year 13 and am waiting on my results so I’m free to answer any more questions!

Hope this helps :smile:

Thank you soo much :smile:

, the tips helped a lot. I think im mainly going to struggle with not writing my own opinion because its so easy to do :frown:

My initial idea was to do a topic related to buisness and psychology (since my school doesnt offer psychology). I wanted the questing to be something like : are buisnesses using psychology as a manipulating weapon in adverts. I googled it a bit and did find information on it. At first i was thinking on doing an advert illustrating the tactics etc. But after reading your relpy i realised that it is going to be harder to develope the prodject. So now im still deciding if that topic is worth doing or if i should move onto another.

For the layout of the essay i should do like a section that agrees and one that doesnt. Do they have to be equally balanced? Around how many pages did you do?

Thats great, im waiting for my GCSE results and personally im really nerous. What A-levels did you choose ? Good luck for results day, im sure you did great :smile:

Reply 5

I think that question is a really good one, as it certainly offers debate. You don’t have to completely balance both sides, but obviously only writing 3 paragraphs for one side and 7 for the other wouldn’t work. Try and balance as much as you can. I did around 4,800 words in the end I think, and that’s around 8/9 pages ( i think 5,000 is 10?!). I did do a section agreeing and then a section disagreeing and split both into 5 paras.

I took History, Psychology and Biology A level and EPQ - I also took AS German but then dropped it to do EPQ ( we did EPQ in Year 13). What are you planning to do for a level? I’m sure you’ve done well too! Haven’t got long now until we find out. :frown:

Reply 6

OP

Oh then its not that much i though it would be 15-20 pages. Its still quite a lot since you`ll probably need to research a great deal. What resources did you use to find the information ?

I´m doing Buisness ,Spanish ,Art and History plus EPQ. Our school told us to do 4 just incase we have to drop a subject. How did you find History? I wish our school would offer Psychology it just seems like a really cool subject. Thanks i hope so too! What are you planning on studying later on?

Reply 7

Original post by schoolgirll

Oh then its not that much i though it would be 15-20 pages. Its still quite a lot since you`ll probably need to research a great deal. What resources did you use to find the information ?

I´m doing Buisness ,Spanish ,Art and History plus EPQ. Our school told us to do 4 just incase we have to drop a subject. How did you find History? I wish our school would offer Psychology it just seems like a really cool subject. Thanks i hope so too! What are you planning on studying later on?

I loved history- mostly because my teachers were so good! But a level was hard due to the huge amount of content ( we did Germany and West Germany 1918-45, Liberal and fascist Italy 1900-1945 and British Experience of Warfare 1793-1918, and Vietnam War Coursework).

I did Psychology GCSE too and to be honest it’s very repetitive and sometimes a bit weird. I’m not actually sure it’s worth taking psychology apart from the skills you get from taking it, because you can take it at uni without even studying it beforehand!

I’m taking a gap year this year, and in the mean time hopefully another a level in politics or philosophy. If I get the grades I’ll apply to Cambridge for psychology or History - not sure which one yet though :confused:

Reply 8

OP

Thats great, same thing happened to me i got history a level because i really liked my teacher but im not sure if im gonna get them this year. Any tips for History a-level?

oh, i would of thought that psychology would of been more intresting. Hah well you`ll have time to figure it out, they both seem like really good options. Thats really cool! What are you going to do in the gap year?

Reply 9

Original post by schoolgirll

Thats great, same thing happened to me i got history a level because i really liked my teacher but im not sure if im gonna get them this year. Any tips for History a-level?

oh, i would of thought that psychology would of been more intresting. Hah well you`ll have time to figure it out, they both seem like really good options. Thats really cool! What are you going to do in the gap year?

I obvs don’t know what I got in history yet, but I’d say mix up your revision techniques, don’t just use one method of revision such as flash cards, but other stuff too. Our teacher would do timed refresher questions on history stats at the beginning of each lesson on year 12 topics when we were in year 13 which were really useful. Maybe make some yourself that you attempt to answer every revision session? Also expand your interest in the subject by doing wider reading, at a level you don’t just have to follow the textbook!

As for my gap year, I’m going to wait for results day and then decide, but I defo want to travel, work and volunteer abroad :smile:

Reply 10

OP