Does anyone need help with EPQ?

I've been helping those in my year who did different topics so decided I may as well help anyone here because I'm nosy and like to know what people will also write 5000 words about.

I did the EPQ last year and scored full marks, I believe the A* boundary was 45 or 46/50 for last year

Logs are quite important for the EPQ, it's probably the main reason I got full marks. Just BS the whole thing and you'll be fine.

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 1

whether

Original post by Nurani61105

I guess you did AQA. If so, how much did you write for your log and how detailed was it?

Reply 2

Nurani61105

Original post by whether

I guess you did AQA. If so, how much did you write for your log and how detailed was it?

Yeah, AQA. I wrote over 7000 words for my log, EPQ can be that thing where it's quantity over quality no matter what they say. I went into quite a lot of detail, if I had even the slightest problem or made the even the tiniest of changes, I'd record it in my log to get the AO1 and AO3 marks.
To be honest though, the log is literally the most BS you'll ever write, as long as you put in detail what you have done so far, any changes you made to your essay or plan (maybe you did more research and decided to incorporate another paragraph or go down a different route, you should log it with the date you have done so). In the plans, it's useful to lay out a week by week timetable of what you are aiming to do.
What topic are you doing yours on?

Reply 3

Jordan_Kettell

I've just had the first lesson on my EPQ and im planning on doing it about fuels and different types of fuels for vehicles or traditional fuels vs hybrid / electric as im thinking that there will be quite a lot to write about and compare considering the current politics that are going on around the fuel for cars. I havent made a final decision as to what I will be writing my EPQ on so far but im reslly interested in motorsport so I thought that'd be a good topic. Let me know what you think, and any help would be great. Thanks.

Reply 4

whether

Original post by Nurani61105

Nuclear power and whether we should use it (since it may limit climate change but could be dangerous etc.). I only have a few hundred words of the actual thing left to write, and I think its alright (thought it's hard to tell) - it's just the log and planning documentation I'm worried about since it seems 30/50 marks are really for that and the mark scheme is hardly very specific about it.

Reply 5

Jordan_Kettell

Original post by whether

That seems like a good topic, I could do some research around it and see if I'd be interested in writing about it because I'd need to know more than I already know. It seems quite interesting, thanks for the idea

Reply 6

Traore

Hi, if you could help me then I've made a thread here >
https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=4949654&p=73766896#post73766896

Reply 7

Nurani61105

Original post by Jordan_Kettell

That seems like a great topic and does link to a variety of topics such as mechanical engineering, ethics and crude oil debate and obviously politics. It's great if after some preliminary research you come up with a rough outline of what you want to do because you might find that you have too much to write about in this topic, I.e traditional (petrol and diesel) as well as hybrid and electric, but you can always write it and cut down if necessary. Remember to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each type and compare.

Try and use a variety of different types of sources and reference them. There's a great documentary on the future of electric cars by TESLA which you can find on YouTube and use as a source.

One of the biggest challenge you may find is actually starting the essay, this is usually the reason people don't start writing it until they're forced to because you might not know where to start. Just do thorough research and start with a body paragraph explaining a type of fuel and do the intro later. I actually did my intro last, even after my conclusion, because it gave me a good idea of what to summarise the essay with, especially if I made changes along the way.

Reply 8

Light.Y

do you get marks for the stuff you write on your project Q or only your Log of evidence an research and of course your dissertation???

Reply 9

Nurani61105

Original post by whether

Another great topic especially with everything going on with North Korea right now. The log is worth a lot of marks, in order to improve the quality of it, I would go through your log again from the beginning and check where you wrote about any changes you made and why or any dilemmas you came across and what you did to resolve it (do this constantly throughout your log). If you find that you didn't really have problems or changes anything, just make some stuff up, maybe you did more research and found out you wanted to add or take away something. Examiners love that stuff.

Make sure to also explain in your log about any key or special sources you came across that may have really helped you (abd maybe that could be another issue because when I was doing my EPQ one of the dilemmas I came across that I wrote about in my log was the fact that the books in my topic of interest were very expensive, they started at £40 and how I resolved it by maybe using books I had or different types of sources ither than books).

I would also have a copy of the mark scheme available online and check off everything you have down. E.g Have you reviewed and made changes? What were your strengths and weaknesses? What would you do differently next time? Have you planned effectively? Have you used and analysed your sources effectively? And give evidence of these stuff in your log, perhaps include how you analysed your sources.

For eacg of the planning section, I literally wrote what I planned to do in the weeks in come, so I numbered week 1-7 on each planning section and weote what I planned to get done in each week until in got to the next review stage. This shows effective time management skills and organisation.

Good luck!

Reply 10

Nurani61105

Original post by Light.Y

do you get marks for the stuff you write on your project Q or only your Log of evidence an research and of course your dissertation???

It's marked with AO1-AO4 (the mark scheme is available online and it's useful to use this and it's what they'll use to mark you so check if you used all the AOs). It's used mainly from your log, but some aspects are used from your actual essay, e.g how you analysed your sources and what types of sources you used, quality of your writing a etc. Also, some of your marks come from your presentation (a lot of AO4 because you're reviewing your process and talking about your findings).

Reply 11

Jordan_Kettell

Original post by Nurani61105

Great, thanks for all of the help, I'll be sure to keep those things in mind.

Reply 12

Franasaurus

Hi, how did you structure your research review? I'm really confused as to what it actually is. Thanks!

Reply 13

Gmazz

I dont get the planning review bit can you explain what i have to do? i know i need to make deadlines but deadlines for what?

Reply 14

ojablitt

I want to do my EPQ on "Should boys be allowed to wear earrings?" because I've got earrings and my school has got a rule in place that doesn't allow boys to wear earrings...I was wondering is this a good question or will I struggle to write enough?

Reply 15

Nurani61105

Original post by ojablitt

I think you probably will run out of words for sure, it is roughly about 10 pages. If that's something of interest to you then you could focus on gender equality and expression. Or perhaps how far tradition should play a part in such a modern society, linking it with uniform dress codes (I.e boys can't wear earrings but girls can). Or you could go deeper and do your essay on how far the rise of equality for women (which was very important) bring about inequality for men. For example, in the 1700s woman barely had any rights, even over custody whereas today, now that we have more rights, particularly in this area, that people argue that men now have unfair bias over custody cases. It's a very interesting topic.

Anyway, it would be good to do a survey (you can make one really quick on the survey monkey website) once you have your EPQ title and send it around your year and get data, just asking them what they think of these issues to see how relevant the issue is today. Analysing primary data like this looks really good and you can catch those AO2 marks.

Reply 16

Nurani61105

Original post by Franasaurus

Hi, how did you structure your research review? I'm really confused as to what it actually is. Thanks!

Gmazz

I dont get the planning review bit can you explain what i have to do? i know i need to make deadlines but deadlines for what?

I will put up my log and planning stuff on soon but I'm really busy this week (two med inteviews). If I don't put it up by next Saturday feel free to just leave a message or something so I remember.