Ultimate EPQ thread

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iansynott, I'm not sure how much help I'd be because I've not yet finished the research for mine and I've not formulated a question yet because I've not been able to decide!

We didn't get much help either, my supervisor literally spent about half an hour reading the mark scheme from the board and showing us a couple of past projects and then told us to get on with it. I've been looking at the Edexcel website to look for word counts and what I've got to put in it e.g abstract etc.

In terms of research though, I did start one last year but unfortunately my supervisor's daughter got cancer and she spend the most of the year off understandably, so I didn't get further. I basically found websites (not wikipedia!) that were about my topic, saved them and picked out quotes from them that I found helpful. Then I analysed the reliability of the sources etc. You need about 15 sources and try to make sure they're not too heavily weighted to one side - you need enough information on each side to be able to have a discussion after all.

I'd try to get a variety of sources e.g perhaps news articles (if you can find anything!), scientific journals, books perhaps (I'm sure there'll be something on google books you could look at).

I'd basically clear your head - start with a new word document - and divide it up into "for" and "against" and make sure you know what's in each source you used, which side it's used as evidence for, and pick out any useful information you think you might use/quote/whatever.

That's what I'm planning to do anyway. You could also order them in terms of how useful they are/what they are exactly (e.g I divided mine up into politics/morals and the one I'm currently doing I'm dividing it up into case studies/ethics/law).

Sorry I can't be much use, I've not had a lot of help myself. Seem to have a lot of bad luck when it comes to EPQs (this is my third start!) :frown:

Reply 3181

swahmad

My EPQ topic is how a doctor's career affects their lifestyle and the main things I'm talking about are stress and family/social life etc. Anyone have any ideas on stuff I can talk about. I've done 2100 words and need to do another 2900 by next week =/

Reply 3182

phaseshift

Original post by swahmad

What have you covered already?

Reply 3183

Jazzeh

Is there a deadline for EPQs? Seen September 10th in a few previous posts, but was just wondering if this is across the board. I have only just thought about doing an EPQ so was wondering if there was a later deadline, too.

Reply 3184

m rowe29

What kind of aspects separate a good extended project and a bad one? Is it to do with careful planning, quality of writing..

Reply 3185

m rowe29

Original post by Jazzeh

From what I know the official deadline is sometime in November (November the 10th I think). My school for example has asked us to complete the first draft for the project by the time we get back to school. I assume this is so we can get advice, have it informally marked, get feedback ect. before the deadline. I believe it varies between each school so you will have to ask them.

Reply 3186

Crimmy

I've been asked to do a book report on a book that would be useful to my epq, but I cant even decide on a title. I was going to do an obscure area of farming, but there are no books for it, I've searched for hours. So I've decided to do a different subject, but not sure what. considering doing a photography one, but not sure how that would work out... anyone with any experience in this, it'd be really great if you could message me :smile:

Reply 3187

Jazzeh

Original post by m rowe29

Ah thankyou for the information you've provided. Not long till the deadline then considering the amount of work that seemingly needs to be done. Starting now would be cutting it fine. Don't think my school has ever done it before either, which would make it extremely complicated no doubt.

But thankyou. :smile:

Reply 3188

swahmad

Original post by HarryMWilliams

What have you covered already?

Some of the stuff I've covered and have yet to cover include stress, affects on family and social life, drug/alcohol abuse, the EWTD. I did work experience at a couple of hospitals and got some of the doctors to take part in a survey, so I've included information from that as well, like how the doctors deal with stress and then making graphs of this information.

Original post by m rowe29

Is the deadline the same for all schools because my teacher wants me to have everything basically completed by the time I go back on the 4th D:

Edit: Ah right just read that bit :tongue:

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 3189

doomsdayheather

Original post by king101

is 3500 words too little for an EPQ??

Depends if you're doing it in a Diploma in school or in college? At college level it's meant to be around 6000 words long. But in a Diploma in school it is commonly around 3000 words :smile:

Reply 3190

Hamzi

My EPQ is on the ethical dilemma surrounding human embryonic stem cell research and I am thinking of including religious views, law and ethical arguments for and against the research. First of all, is this enough for 5000 words? And secondly if I got in contact with somebody who advised me and directed me to new sources on the internet such as 'PubMed' for finding more papers, can I mention that in the production log?

Reply 3191

king101

doomsday im doing it at college level and are you joking me really 6000 words????????

Reply 3192

pinkdaisiesx

How good does the actual project have to be? I've done good evaluation and made lots of justified changes but my actual project itself isn't too great..

Reply 3193

phaseshift

Original post by pinkdaisiesx

How good does the actual project have to be? I've done good evaluation and made lots of justified changes but my actual project itself isn't too great..

It's not necessarily the quality of the report, its more the processes and evaluative skills you develop through writing the report. No one expects you to go out and complete studies to support/disprove an hypothesis which is why EPQs inevitably turn into giant meta-analysis' but we do have to build on essential essay writing and self-evaluation skills to rake in the marks.

Reply 3194

nugstick

Original post by Hamzi

It should be enough, the ethical dilemma over stem cell research has been done a number of times as far as I'm aware. You should also explore how it works etc, it'll make it look more complete/ put some more words in. You should ask your teacher about the second one, I don't have a clue

Reply 3195

ktlaurenroe

My EPQ has to be english language/linguistics themed, and I just cannot think of anything at all, even though there is probably a massive amount of choice. :moon:

Reply 3196

shaminn

Arghhh! I'm having to restructure my entire EPQ. Major overhaul in process! I started without splitting the question into sections of debate and now my argument isn't as in depth as it should have been. Saying that, I got half way and realised that, so at least it's not too bad...

For anyone who is starting out, make sure you structure it well first time round, and don't do what I have just done.

Onwards and upwards, 4,000 words to go!

Good luck to everyone who is writing one at present.

Reply 3197

attenboroughfan

Does anyone know how much the examiner reads extra documents that you produce? For example I have created a research log where I assess the usefulness and relevance of a source to my project and evaluate its credibility. Do you think that the examiner would read every entry (considering there will be way over 20)?
Thanks :smile:

Reply 3198

nugstick

Original post by attenboroughfan