EPQ, Arts Award, Greek? All?
Hi everyone! 
I’m taking 4 A-Levels at the minute (English Lit., French, Latin and Music) and am hopefully going to stick with 4 until the end of college. I don’t really know what I want to do in the future yet - I’m inclining towards English at uni but that could definitely change. However, my college has decided that 4 A-Levels isn’t enough and is offering us ‘Enrichment’ courses too. We have to take 1, that’s compulsory, but they recommend we do more to ‘take advantage of the great opportunities.’
As part of the Enrichment programme, I’ve signed up to do Musicianship, a philosophy course (which are both only 5 weeks), EPQ and Gold Arts Award. Outside of school, I’m also doing a GCSE in Classical Greek.
However, I’m beginning to wonder whether this is way too much to take on (it definitely is), as well as my various extracurriculars. The problem is there are quite solid reasons for me to take all of these courses and I’d be really interested in all of them - I’m struggling to decide which one to give up!! Or to decide to just keep going with all of them and see how I cope…
Does anyone have any advice? Either to help me with making the decision, or for the decision itself? Thank you
I’m taking 4 A-Levels at the minute (English Lit., French, Latin and Music) and am hopefully going to stick with 4 until the end of college. I don’t really know what I want to do in the future yet - I’m inclining towards English at uni but that could definitely change. However, my college has decided that 4 A-Levels isn’t enough and is offering us ‘Enrichment’ courses too. We have to take 1, that’s compulsory, but they recommend we do more to ‘take advantage of the great opportunities.’
As part of the Enrichment programme, I’ve signed up to do Musicianship, a philosophy course (which are both only 5 weeks), EPQ and Gold Arts Award. Outside of school, I’m also doing a GCSE in Classical Greek.
However, I’m beginning to wonder whether this is way too much to take on (it definitely is), as well as my various extracurriculars. The problem is there are quite solid reasons for me to take all of these courses and I’d be really interested in all of them - I’m struggling to decide which one to give up!! Or to decide to just keep going with all of them and see how I cope…
Does anyone have any advice? Either to help me with making the decision, or for the decision itself? Thank you
Original post by sasha201
Hi everyone!
I’m taking 4 A-Levels at the minute (English Lit., French, Latin and Music) and am hopefully going to stick with 4 until the end of college. I don’t really know what I want to do in the future yet - I’m inclining towards English at uni but that could definitely change. However, my college has decided that 4 A-Levels isn’t enough and is offering us ‘Enrichment’ courses too. We have to take 1, that’s compulsory, but they recommend we do more to ‘take advantage of the great opportunities.’
As part of the Enrichment programme, I’ve signed up to do Musicianship, a philosophy course (which are both only 5 weeks), EPQ and Gold Arts Award. Outside of school, I’m also doing a GCSE in Classical Greek.
However, I’m beginning to wonder whether this is way too much to take on (it definitely is), as well as my various extracurriculars. The problem is there are quite solid reasons for me to take all of these courses and I’d be really interested in all of them - I’m struggling to decide which one to give up!! Or to decide to just keep going with all of them and see how I cope…
Does anyone have any advice? Either to help me with making the decision, or for the decision itself? Thank you
I’m taking 4 A-Levels at the minute (English Lit., French, Latin and Music) and am hopefully going to stick with 4 until the end of college. I don’t really know what I want to do in the future yet - I’m inclining towards English at uni but that could definitely change. However, my college has decided that 4 A-Levels isn’t enough and is offering us ‘Enrichment’ courses too. We have to take 1, that’s compulsory, but they recommend we do more to ‘take advantage of the great opportunities.’
As part of the Enrichment programme, I’ve signed up to do Musicianship, a philosophy course (which are both only 5 weeks), EPQ and Gold Arts Award. Outside of school, I’m also doing a GCSE in Classical Greek.
However, I’m beginning to wonder whether this is way too much to take on (it definitely is), as well as my various extracurriculars. The problem is there are quite solid reasons for me to take all of these courses and I’d be really interested in all of them - I’m struggling to decide which one to give up!! Or to decide to just keep going with all of them and see how I cope…
Does anyone have any advice? Either to help me with making the decision, or for the decision itself? Thank you
honestly that seems like waaay too much work, especially if you’re in Year 13. I do 46 hours of lesson work every week, which pretty much takes up all of my school week. In Year 12, we had to do a similar enrichment program, but it was only half an hour every week for six weeks, and it was only one course. I’d recommend seeing if you can drop one or two of the enrichment courses. The EPQ is probably the most amount of work, but it’s also useful for uni. The arts award is probably a lot of work as well, coming from somebody who is doing A-level art. At the end of the day, it’s up to do what you want to drop though
(edited 7 months ago)
As above - that a nuts amount of work and you are risking all of your grades by doing 4 A levels without adding in 'other stuff' as well.
An EPQ is possibly worth doing as its a 1-year commitment that will give you an obvious topic to discuss in your UCAS PS. The others sound a total waste of time and effort. Remember AAA is always going to look better than 'ABBB plus a weird GCSE' that you never needed to take in the first place.
An EPQ is possibly worth doing as its a 1-year commitment that will give you an obvious topic to discuss in your UCAS PS. The others sound a total waste of time and effort. Remember AAA is always going to look better than 'ABBB plus a weird GCSE' that you never needed to take in the first place.
Original post by McGinger
As above - that a nuts amount of work and you are risking all of your grades by doing 4 A levels without adding in 'other stuff' as well.
An EPQ is possibly worth doing as its a 1-year commitment that will give you an obvious topic to discuss in your UCAS PS. The others sound a total waste of time and effort. Remember AAA is always going to look better than 'ABBB plus a weird GCSE' that you never needed to take in the first place.
An EPQ is possibly worth doing as its a 1-year commitment that will give you an obvious topic to discuss in your UCAS PS. The others sound a total waste of time and effort. Remember AAA is always going to look better than 'ABBB plus a weird GCSE' that you never needed to take in the first place.
I completely agree about the 4 A-levels! But unfortunately that’s not my choice, it’s something my college mandates for at least a year
. Thanks for your advice about everything else though, I think you’re definitely right on the grades front. I did very well in my GCSEs and go to a grammar school where everyone is always doing ‘extra qualifications’ to prove intelligence, so sometimes I find it hard to face up to the fact that it’s simply not possible to do it all! Based on what you’re saying I think I’ll keep the EPQ, and the Arts Award for fun, but drop everything else. I don’t particularly want to do them anyway and like you said I’d rather work on doing well in my exams. 
Thanks a lot, you’ve been really helpful.
Original post by sasha201
Hi everyone!
I’m taking 4 A-Levels at the minute (English Lit., French, Latin and Music) and am hopefully going to stick with 4 until the end of college. I don’t really know what I want to do in the future yet - I’m inclining towards English at uni but that could definitely change. However, my college has decided that 4 A-Levels isn’t enough and is offering us ‘Enrichment’ courses too. We have to take 1, that’s compulsory, but they recommend we do more to ‘take advantage of the great opportunities.’
As part of the Enrichment programme, I’ve signed up to do Musicianship, a philosophy course (which are both only 5 weeks), EPQ and Gold Arts Award. Outside of school, I’m also doing a GCSE in Classical Greek.
However, I’m beginning to wonder whether this is way too much to take on (it definitely is), as well as my various extracurriculars. The problem is there are quite solid reasons for me to take all of these courses and I’d be really interested in all of them - I’m struggling to decide which one to give up!! Or to decide to just keep going with all of them and see how I cope…
Does anyone have any advice? Either to help me with making the decision, or for the decision itself? Thank you
I’m taking 4 A-Levels at the minute (English Lit., French, Latin and Music) and am hopefully going to stick with 4 until the end of college. I don’t really know what I want to do in the future yet - I’m inclining towards English at uni but that could definitely change. However, my college has decided that 4 A-Levels isn’t enough and is offering us ‘Enrichment’ courses too. We have to take 1, that’s compulsory, but they recommend we do more to ‘take advantage of the great opportunities.’
As part of the Enrichment programme, I’ve signed up to do Musicianship, a philosophy course (which are both only 5 weeks), EPQ and Gold Arts Award. Outside of school, I’m also doing a GCSE in Classical Greek.
However, I’m beginning to wonder whether this is way too much to take on (it definitely is), as well as my various extracurriculars. The problem is there are quite solid reasons for me to take all of these courses and I’d be really interested in all of them - I’m struggling to decide which one to give up!! Or to decide to just keep going with all of them and see how I cope…
Does anyone have any advice? Either to help me with making the decision, or for the decision itself? Thank you
Yes, it's far too much.
On the academic front would recommend dropping one A-level and just doing 3 in the first place (you don't get bonus points for doing 4 A-levels and there are no degrees requiring all 4 of those subjects, although they may each be required for a different degree course but sooner or later you need to make these decisions to focus in one fewer things), then aiming to do just either an EPQ or the GCSE Greek alongside. That will be more than enough academic workload I think. If you have to do 4 A-levels to start with aim to drop one ASAP and I would really seriously recommend reconsidering the EPQ and GCSE - it might be unrealistic to do either.
Somewhere between the academics and extracurriculars are the GCSE and EPQ matters. If you're interested in continuing to a classics or other ancient language degree then GCSE Greek is certainly useful to have. Outside of that the value is what you take away from it really. EPQs can sometimes get you a lower offer at some unis, but this usually requires you get a top result in the EPQ anyway. Beyond that and at many other unis where the EPQ will not form part of an offer (including, notably, Oxford and Cambridge), it's more or less just a formalised extracurricular activity anyway.
The other extracurricular things I'd suggest continue with them but be mindful of your time and make sure to prioritise your academics, and think about if you do need to drop one or more of those things which it might be (of course this might evolve as you participate in those activities and your interests develop, or don't, in them).
Remember also depending on the options dropped from the above, you can certainly continue with much the same activities in an extracurricular fashion but allowing yourself more flexibility as to when and how much time you spend on them. E.g. if you dropped A-level Music you can still continue playing music; if you dropped A-level French or Latin or the GCSE Greek you could still continue self studying the language(s) as an extracurricular activity. If you drop the EPQ you can still explore whatever area you were planning to do the EPQ on with just wider reading. In many cases this still gets you the end benefit for you personally.
Original post by waffelton
honestly that seems like waaay too much work, especially if you’re in Year 13. I do 46 hours of lesson work every week, which pretty much takes up all of my school week. In Year 12, we had to do a similar enrichment program, but it was only half an hour every week for six weeks, and it was only one course. I’d recommend seeing if you can drop one or two of the enrichment courses. The EPQ is probably the most amount of work, but it’s also useful for uni. The arts award is probably a lot of work as well, coming from somebody who is doing A-level art. At the end of the day, it’s up to do what you want to drop though
Thank you so much for your advice! Wow, 46 hours is a lot! I go to a college that has full days
so I get about 20 hours of teaching a week, and then it’s recommended we do that same amount outside of school in homework and revision, so I get how you feel. I’m probably going to see if I can drop Musicianship and Greek, because these aren’t really essential to any of my future plans. I think you’re right in that an EPQ will be a lot of work, but I did a HPQ (small EPQ) when I was younger so hopefully it’ll be manageable! Plus passion for my topic should carry me through it Arts Award will probably be a lot of work but I’m really looking forward to it, and of course I can drop it if it becomes too much. Thank you for your help!!! <3Original post by artful_lounger
Yes, it's far too much.
On the academic front would recommend dropping one A-level and just doing 3 in the first place (you don't get bonus points for doing 4 A-levels and there are no degrees requiring all 4 of those subjects, although they may each be required for a different degree course but sooner or later you need to make these decisions to focus in one fewer things), then aiming to do just either an EPQ or the GCSE Greek alongside. That will be more than enough academic workload I think. If you have to do 4 A-levels to start with aim to drop one ASAP and I would really seriously recommend reconsidering the EPQ and GCSE - it might be unrealistic to do either.
Somewhere between the academics and extracurriculars are the GCSE and EPQ matters. If you're interested in continuing to a classics or other ancient language degree then GCSE Greek is certainly useful to have. Outside of that the value is what you take away from it really. EPQs can sometimes get you a lower offer at some unis, but this usually requires you get a top result in the EPQ anyway. Beyond that and at many other unis where the EPQ will not form part of an offer (including, notably, Oxford and Cambridge), it's more or less just a formalised extracurricular activity anyway.
The other extracurricular things I'd suggest continue with them but be mindful of your time and make sure to prioritise your academics, and think about if you do need to drop one or more of those things which it might be (of course this might evolve as you participate in those activities and your interests develop, or don't, in them).
Remember also depending on the options dropped from the above, you can certainly continue with much the same activities in an extracurricular fashion but allowing yourself more flexibility as to when and how much time you spend on them. E.g. if you dropped A-level Music you can still continue playing music; if you dropped A-level French or Latin or the GCSE Greek you could still continue self studying the language(s) as an extracurricular activity. If you drop the EPQ you can still explore whatever area you were planning to do the EPQ on with just wider reading. In many cases this still gets you the end benefit for you personally.
On the academic front would recommend dropping one A-level and just doing 3 in the first place (you don't get bonus points for doing 4 A-levels and there are no degrees requiring all 4 of those subjects, although they may each be required for a different degree course but sooner or later you need to make these decisions to focus in one fewer things), then aiming to do just either an EPQ or the GCSE Greek alongside. That will be more than enough academic workload I think. If you have to do 4 A-levels to start with aim to drop one ASAP and I would really seriously recommend reconsidering the EPQ and GCSE - it might be unrealistic to do either.
Somewhere between the academics and extracurriculars are the GCSE and EPQ matters. If you're interested in continuing to a classics or other ancient language degree then GCSE Greek is certainly useful to have. Outside of that the value is what you take away from it really. EPQs can sometimes get you a lower offer at some unis, but this usually requires you get a top result in the EPQ anyway. Beyond that and at many other unis where the EPQ will not form part of an offer (including, notably, Oxford and Cambridge), it's more or less just a formalised extracurricular activity anyway.
The other extracurricular things I'd suggest continue with them but be mindful of your time and make sure to prioritise your academics, and think about if you do need to drop one or more of those things which it might be (of course this might evolve as you participate in those activities and your interests develop, or don't, in them).
Remember also depending on the options dropped from the above, you can certainly continue with much the same activities in an extracurricular fashion but allowing yourself more flexibility as to when and how much time you spend on them. E.g. if you dropped A-level Music you can still continue playing music; if you dropped A-level French or Latin or the GCSE Greek you could still continue self studying the language(s) as an extracurricular activity. If you drop the EPQ you can still explore whatever area you were planning to do the EPQ on with just wider reading. In many cases this still gets you the end benefit for you personally.
Thank you, this is a goldmine of a reply
unfortunately 4 A-levels are compulsory at my school for at least a year, so dropping one is not an option in the foreseeable future.I was previously (up until a few months ago) considering a Classics degree but I think it’s heavily unlikely that I’ll go into that now. I have actually already done a qualification in Greek (the Intermediate Greek Certificate) and did very very well, which is really the only reason I would keep it going. However, it is a lot of work (particularly as there are Literature and Civilisation components, as well as just Language) and seeing as I already have that qualification, and I’m doing Latin already, I’m starting to wonder whether the full GCSE is really necessary. Also, seeing as it’s external, my only formal teaching in the GCSE would be half an hour with a teacher a week, which isn’t ideal
And, like you said, I can always continue it informally alone!It’s interesting what you said about the EPQ. I’ve done quite well academically so am looking at Oxbridge, but I have heard that the EPQ doesn’t really put you at an advantage for them. However, my main motivations behind the EPQ would really be because I’m genuinely fascinated by the subject I’m thinking of doing, and because it will give me the opportunity to read a wider variety of literature than I might otherwise naturally gravitate towards. In that sense, I suppose it might help me in my application - but that’s not really the reason I’m thinking of taking it. Purely for personal enjoyment and satisfaction!
Thank you as well for your advice on extracurriculars. I have already been having a think about them, but I might start trying to actively clear some space in my timetable!
You’ve been really really helpful, I really appreciate all of your help!
(edited 7 months ago)
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