Achieved an A* in my EPQ - AMA (2020/21) edition

How much time did you spend on it roughly per week/per month

Hello
Can I please have a fe of your top tips on the EPQ?
Structure wise and what u think got u ur A*

i did the bulk of mine from april since i changed topics in march. in april and may i focused on planning, and in june/july/august i wrote it (1st draft). it's tricky to put numbers on it, but i would say at least two revision sessions a week dedicated to it alongside my alevels. i was so immersed in the topic and loved researching and writing it so i might have spent longer on it than usual!! okay cutting to the chase lol, i probably spent 5-10h most weeks on it, all done in evenings. i did take a few weeks off so i wasn't solid for months on end and i had that scheduled into my gantt chart. hope that helps!

Thanks that’s really helpful! What was the question you did it on?

happy to help! my EPQ was international politics based - "is China the next superpower?". it's a simple question but i looked at different factors affecting a superpower (political, economic, and military) and to what extent China dominated them, as well as making comparisons to the US. really inspired me to look into international relations more!

When and how did you get the result?Are you current year13?

Wow that’s a really awesome subject! What did you conclude?

bit of background - i did my qualification from September 2019 until October 2020, with the bulk of my work done in the UK lockdown from April-September. threads like these really helped me when i was doing it so i hope it might help some of you to know what goes into it!

thank you! what is your project on?? are you y12 or y13 btw?? and i concluded that yeh ofc they are - especially with the whole situation in the US right now!!! it may take a few decades but china defo is, and to some people they already are

i am current y13 yeh! i got my result today via email from the school - the results are sent there and then sent out to us. our projects are still at school though so i want to have a look at the breakdown of marks when i can

Yes I think I would agree, whether that’s a positive thing or not idk. It’s interesting. Haha I’m actually year 11 but my school are really keen on EPQ like we start from the first week of year 12. I was actually having a discussion about this yesterday on here, I want to do dentistry at Uni and one dental school requires you EPQ to be dental related if you want it to lower your offer grade. I’m not adverse to doing it dental related but I kind of want to explore something completely different because I guess it’s there to show your interests in other areas making you a more well rounded person. However people on there told be, apart from that one uni it generally for dentistry it doesn’t really embellish your application if it takes away from your A-Level grades. So yeh I’m just speculating at the moment

What exam board
I did edexcel

what exam board did you use? Also, I've heard that those who received top marks did some sort of planning journal ? or do you think the planning section in the logbook and evaluation of sources will be enough?

damnn that’s really interesting!! if you want to go to that school i would do it on dentistry, but i know people that have done it on stuff completely different to their aspiring degree which also works. the main way to do well is doing a topic you’re passionate about, so make sure it’s on that. surprising that the school is making y’all think about it this early !! i know for us the first few weeks weren’t helpful, and it took my until november to get my original idea and then i changed it in march/april. tbf it will get you higher marks if you change it a bit i think bc it shows development of ideas!