Got an A* in EPQ today, ask me any questions you want about EPQ.

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Really need help ASAP, I just about nearly finished my EPQ just the evaluation left. My mentor just told me do your evaluation, I asked what should be included, he replied evaluate your project - he seemed clueless as to how to do it. Any ideas, need an urgent response :frown:

Reply 41

girlinthechair

Original post by danniegee

Well done Alex347_! :smile:

I got an A* today too for my EPQ on Shakespeare and Film, so feel free to ask questions if you're interested in a Literature-based project/want general advice :wink:

Hi! Congratulations, that's amazing! I'm hoping to do my EPQ on the confessional poets - I'm going to research them first and then I'm hoping going to write a short poetry anthology/collection inspired by them as an artifact. How did you find it? What was the presentation like? Any general advice? Thanks so much I really appreciate it :smile:

Reply 42

username877577

Original post by Virolite

I got a D in my EPQ, feel free to ask me any questions in how to fail.

Omg y ru boasting gosh #troll

Reply 43

danniegee

Original post by girlinthechair

Thanks!

Sounds like a great plan!

I thought that the EPQ was great fun - you get to explore a subject area you love without many boundaries :smile:

The presentation is nothing to worry about; in fact, it's lovely to be able to share your enthusiasm and your newfound knowledge with other people - mine was quite small scale, with just a teacher, my EPQ supervisor, my family and another EPQ candidate watching. I had a short Powerpoint (full of pictures!) which I explained in detail. My presentation summarised my findings during the EPQ, but I had to cut back a lot because there are only 15 minutes in which to present (plus 15 minutes of questions, which goes really quickly)!

I'd recommend that you keep a folder to record any kind of research you do - note down any changes you make (even small ones) and justify them, as this will get you extra marks. Make sure you keep a clear record of your sources used, and try your best to use a range (e.g books, journals, webpages, DVDs, etc.).

I think the thing which helped me most of all was my analysis of the specification: read through the spec and then do everything it says in a way in which what you are doing is unmistakeable. For example, I had a page entitled 'analysis and evaluation of sources', as this was mentioned in the spec - if you make it as clear as this they have to give you the marks!

Best of luck - send me a message if you need any more help! :smile:

Reply 44

bumble1

I'm starting an EPQ but struggling on an essa title, I want it to be based around social work as that's what I want to do at university, does anyone have any ideas?

Reply 45

Mozziemoo

well done everybody on here :smile:

all im really stuck on is the title. does it have to be a question or can you do a ' to investigate the link between or the evidence for' type thing ????

a quick response would be much appreciated

Reply 46

danniegee

Original post by Mozziemoo

well done everybody on here :smile:

all im really stuck on is the title. does it have to be a question or can you do a ' to investigate the link between or the evidence for' type thing ????

a quick response would be much appreciated

Hi there!

You can have a question or a title - as long as you give yourself a starting point for an argument-type project. What I mean by that is, it can't be something like "To increase my knowledge about different types of tree", but must be more like "Which type of tree is best at adapting to new environments?"; you have to be able to give evidence for and against and come to a conclusion. Therefore, a question might be better than a title in the fact that it forces you to be a bit more argumentative.

Hope this helps :smile:

Good luck!

P.S. The tree example was just a random one I came up with - you do NOT have to research plants if you do not want to!

Reply 47

username1530463

How can you get an A* in EPQ? It's an AS-Level. Isn't the highest grade an A? Unless you mean you got 90+/100 UMS?

Reply 48

danniegee

Original post by asmuse123

How can you get an A* in EPQ? It's an AS-Level. Isn't the highest grade an A? Unless you mean you got 90+/100 UMS?

It's not exactly an AS level - it's the equivalent of one, but it's an exception in that you can get an A* if you have 90% UMS or more :smile:

Reply 49

TeaAndTextbooks

This may sound like a basic question but I was just wondering do you get ucas points from an EPQ and how many?

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Reply 50

danniegee

Original post by TeaAndTextbooks

This may sound like a basic question but I was just wondering do you get ucas points from an EPQ and how many?

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I think it's up to 70 UCAS points if you get an A* - then it's ten less UCAS points for every grade lower than that :smile:

Reply 51

TeaAndTextbooks

Original post by danniegee

I think it's up to 70 UCAS points if you get an A* - then it's ten less UCAS points for every grade lower than that :smile:

Thanks

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Reply 52

Lola1244

Original post by Alex347_

Hi, I got my EPQ result today and I got an A*. I'm not here to boast; I thought many of you might like to ask some questions about the qualification, since it is very different to most other high school qualifications and ultimately, it requires a lot of independence and is quite difficult, and so I'm sure there's a lot of you that may want advice. You can ask them here or PM me about it, I don't mind either way.

Thanks.

That's amazing! I really want to do the EPQ and I start college in September. I was just wondering when do you submit the EPQ and when do you get the results back? Do you do the EPQ in year 12? I was under the impression that you did but my college says the EPQ is only available to year 13 students?
Thanks a lot :smile:

Reply 53

Magnus Taylor

I got 49/50 A* on my EPQ it was easyyy

Reply 54

missytwinpeaks

Did you do a presentation....if so how was it? How many peoplee in front of??

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Reply 55

georgialouise-98

I'm doing an EPQ and really struggling on a title I want to do it on either international relations/development or something to do with anthropology any ideas??

Reply 56

patrokluz

Hi! First of all, a massive congratulations to everyone on here!

Secondly, I was discussing EPQ with a friend that goes to a different school than I do, and she said that in order to get an A* the essay must be about 12000 words. She also mentioned that 5 field trips, 3 political sources, 2 interactive sources, and at least one internet source and one textbook source, are also required to get an A*. Is this true? My school never mentioned any of this in their EPQ sessions.

Thank you so much for the help! I really appreciate it.

Reply 57

danniegee

Original post by patrokluz

No! I don't think I had half of the things on this list!

Firstly, if you write a 12,000 word essay, you'll probably be marked down for failure to stay within the target of 5,000. Keeping within this limit is actually seen as a skill!

I went on one trip to Southampton Uni library to use their books as sources, but this was organised by my Sixth Form so I doubt I took credit for it in my work.

As for political and interactive sources, I didn't have any - the closest I got to this was a DVD (as I was studying Branagh's version of 'Much Ado About Nothing' and comparing it to Shakespeare's play). However, I would defintely recommend that you use as wide a range of sources as possible (books, journals, websites, etc.), as it is true that this does get you extra marks.

I reckon that the reason your friend thinks that you need to do all these things to get an A* is because whoever produced the project that she is referring to probably did get an A*, as their research sounds pretty extensive. Despite this, it is not a requirement for you to include all of these things on your EPQ 'to do' list in order to succeed.

Best of luck :smile:

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 58

Yooooiiiiiiiiii

How do you start the epq. I'm in yr8 and my question is " how and why has stereotypes defined people of different cultures."

Reply 59

danniegee

Original post by Yooooiiiiiiiiii

How do you start the epq. I'm in yr8 and my question is " how and why has stereotypes defined people of different cultures."

Wow! I've never heard of a Yr 8 doing an EPQ before!

From what I've managed to work out, EPQ questions work best when you can have a bit of an argument going on during your project. It's important to give lots of different points of view, explaining why each point of view is valid, why it is a strong point and why it is a weak point. A good question might be "To what extent have stereotypes defined the worldview of citizens of (e.g.) the United Kingdom", because not only does it almost force you (in a good way) to ARGUE (because the 'what extent' bit makes you say what you think is good and bad rather than letting you describe all the time), but it also keeps your project FOCUSED - although 5000 words sounds like a lot, it's not very much if you're planning on writing about loads of different cultures, even though that does sound really interesting :smile:

So, in order to start, make sure that your question is both focused and argument based. Then, start researching - use books, webpages, and even DVDs or interviews with different people if you can, but make sure you keep a clear record of when you carry out interviews/access webpages/which books gave you which bit of information as this will be extremely important for referencing. Have you been told how to reference? :smile: