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Epq supervisor

To those who have done the epq, what were your meetings with your supervisor like? What do they do and help you with exactly?

Thank you
Original post by Bobblybubbly
To those who have done the epq, what were your meetings with your supervisor like? What do they do and help you with exactly?

Thank you


Hi there

@aliaa03 could help you :smile:
Reply 2
Hi

My friend is a teacher who supervises EPQ students and my daughter did one a while ago.

If I recall from discussions with her your supervisor is not supposed to guide you too much but can certainly discuss ideas, tell you if ideas are too broad or too narrow or suitable or unsuitable, advise on changes to the title etc. They should meet with you a number of times and make suggestions. The meetings should be recorded by you in your log and also record what your supervisor advises and changes you made and action you took following this. There are key stages during the EPQ process when your supervisor meets with you.

I think the quality of the support you get depends on the supervisor. I would advise staying on top of the stages of the EPQ process and being proactive in terms of going to your supervisor for support.

They can look through your draft.
(edited 1 year ago)
they'll advise you on alterations you can make, things to write about, areas of research, etc.

in terms of your actual project, at least for my exam board, they were only allowed to 'mark' two drafts of your actual dissertation (i only ended up getting mine marked once before i handed it in -woops...)

make good use of them - they can be really helpful, but equally can't give you too much direction (:
(edited 1 year ago)
Original post by Bobblybubbly
To those who have done the epq, what were your meetings with your supervisor like? What do they do and help you with exactly?

Thank you

hey! (thanks for the tag @TriplexA )

the first few meetings with my supervisor were quite boring as it’s mainly brainstorming ideas for your EPQ and picking different titles for the project, they’re not allowed to choose the title for you so they can only subtly suggest the one they think would be better to do !!

once you’ve picked your title, it gets much more interesting !! you need to do some research into your chosen topic, and remember to evaluate all the different sources that you chose, e.g was a it a reliable source of information, how many years ago was that written, could it use updating, has it been peer checked, etc.

You would then bring that research // whatever you’ve been up to, to your supervisor in your next meeting where they would give you suggestions on how you could improve it and then help you plan your next steps. You need to have a log, which you should be given by your supervisor anyway, where you write down your progress during your meetings. Remember to place an emphasis on the “I” though, don’t keep saying “my supervisor suggested” or “my supervisor had the idea to”, etc otherwise it’ll sound like you didn’t do much work !!! You can try phrase it like “At our meeting, my supervisor said i could try to improve my sources of information, and this led me to the idea of conducting a primary research survey with my peers”.

so basically your supervisor is there to lightly guide you through the project, give suggestions and point out areas of improvement (which you need to record without making it sound as if they came up with all the ideas !!).

hope this helps and good luck with your EPQ ! :h:
(edited 1 year ago)
Reply 5
https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/epq-success

This is free and worth doing. You can also record doing it in your log and how it helped you in your EPQ journey. Remember your log is very important too. Students often forget this. Do it regularly each week and in relevant detail including what your supervisor says and what you do following this.

Keep a record of when you access sources as, if you Harvard reference sources you use, you will need to say when you accessed online websites and journals etc (I think).

All good advice above.

There is an EPQ book, a guide, which is helpful, which my daughter bought... but you don't have to buy books. She wanted the extra help from the book as she was doing a distance EPQ so it was not with her college though she had online meetings with her supervisor. Due to the nature of her online course the meetings were limited in number but you should have more.

Try and show some original thinking, higher level analysis and a change to your title with reasons why you changed it.
(edited 1 year ago)
Thank you!
(edited 1 year ago)
Original post by aliaa03
hey! (thanks for the tag @TriplexA )

the first few meetings with my supervisor were quite boring as it’s mainly brainstorming ideas for your EPQ and picking different titles for the project, they’re not allowed to choose the title for you so they can only subtly suggest the one they think would be better to do !!

once you’ve picked your title, it gets much more interesting !! you need to do some research into your chosen topic, and remember to evaluate all the different sources that you chose, e.g was a it a reliable source of information, how many years ago was that written, could it use updating, has it been peer checked, etc.

You would then bring that research // whatever you’ve been up to, to your supervisor in your next meeting where they would give you suggestions on how you could improve it and then help you plan your next steps. You need to have a log, which you should be given by your supervisor anyway, where you write down your progress during your meetings. Remember to place an emphasis on the “I” though, don’t keep saying “my supervisor suggested” or “my supervisor had the idea to”, etc otherwise it’ll sound like you didn’t do much work !!! You can try phrase it like “At our meeting, my supervisor said i could try to improve my sources of information, and this led me to the idea of conducting a primary research survey with my peers”.

so basically your supervisor is there to lightly guide you through the project, give suggestions and point out areas of improvement (which you need to record without making it sound as if they came up with all the ideas !!).

hope this helps and good luck with your EPQ ! :h:

Thanks! Do you think it matters whether or not the supervisor has specialist knowledge in the area that the epq is based on? e.g. my epq is scientific but my epq supervisor specialises in humanities.
Reply 8
Original post by Bobblybubbly
Thanks! Do you think it matters whether or not the supervisor has specialist knowledge in the area that the epq is based on? e.g. my epq is scientific but my epq supervisor specialises in humanities.

It may be more helpful to you if your supervisor specialises in your topic area. However, it doesn't really matter as they can still help you with the process etc. An EPQ title could be on pretty much anything so it is just lucky if your supervisor knows your topic area well. They are not supposed to help you much with the actual essay anyway.
Reply 9
Original post by Cote1
https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/epq-success

This is free and worth doing. You can also record doing it in your log and how it helped you in your EPQ journey. Remember your log is very important too. Students often forget this. Do it regularly each week and in relevant detail including what your supervisor says and what you do following this.

Keep a record of when you access sources as, if you Harvard reference sources you use, you will need to say when you accessed online websites and journals etc (I think).

All good advice above.

There is an EPQ book, a guide, which is helpful, which my daughter bought... but you don't have to buy books. She wanted the extra help from the book as she was doing a distance EPQ so it was not with her college though she had online meetings with her supervisor. Due to the nature of her online course the meetings were limited in number but you should have more.

Try and show some original thinking, higher level analysis and a change to your title with reasons why you changed it.

Hello,
I know this is late but how do I get an online supervisor?
Reply 10
Apologies, afraid I don't know. You normally do an EPQ at school or college.

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