EPQ Examples- how to go about it?

So I finished my EPQ earlier last year and here’s how I went about it. Small disclaimer, I didn’t do a scientific one, but the paperwork if you like is basically the same. I haven’t received a mark yet but was predicted an A*.

Time Management: One of the first things I did was to create a basic time plan for the year with a few months for research, a few for writing up my finished piece and then preparing for the presentation. Adding in deadlines and splitting up tasks really helped me to focus on what I needed to do. On average I spent about one to two hours on it a week, but to be honest it really depends on the nature of the project and what you feel like/have time to do.

Skills: I created a document to show progression of skills (time management, referencing etc) which I updated twice to show how my skills were developing. I also included how I developed them and why they would be useful.

Aims: My aims were very simple, basically to just do the task in order to develop skills that would be useful in the future

Progression log: Every decision you make should go on this (I decided to type my notes instead of write them by hand because...) but you need to make sure you justify your decision. I also used it to evaluate the progress of my project (looking back, I probably would have done... instead of...). To the markers, it doesn’t matter if you do something badly, just that you then evaluate why it went wrong and what you could do to change it in the future. I looked to update mine about twice a week.

Research: You need to split this into primary and secondary. For primary, something like a questionnaire would be good, but make sure to justify your choice of questions and evaluate the success of the questionnaire and how you would change it etc. You’d only need to give it to 20-30 people maximum, and a brilliant evaluation would be ‘I would have got more results from a more diverse range of people if I could have.’ For secondary research, do as much as possible. Use books, journal articles, research papers etc, google scholar is a great place to start. Try and split your research into groupings, such as legal connotations of euthanasia, history, religion etc, whatever you want. This will be made much easier if your question is very focused, weirdly enough it’s much easier if your question is quite narrow. You should record and evaluate your sources on a table, a great formula for this is the CRAAP method (how Current is the source, how Reliable is the source, who is the Author, how Accurate is the info and can it be linked, what is the Purpose of the source).

Dissertation: You can then use your groupings of research to form the bones of your essay, which should be about 5,000 words. In it, you’ll need to include the various arguments and then give a weighted opinion informed by your research. The introduction should define your terms and outline your argument, and the conclusion should bring the main body of your essay together to give an overall judgement.

Presentation: This should be a 50-50 split between your actual topic and the process of your project (skills etc.) Ideally you should evaluate how it went and the strengths and weaknesses etc.

Evaluation: You’ll then need to write a final judgement of your whole project, taking into account skill development, research process, strengths, weaknesses and how you can apply what you’ve learnt to the future. This is very much about the process of your EPQ rather than the final piece.

Broadly speaking, that’s the general feel of it. So much of it is about skill development and the process of your project, that’s where you pick up the marks. They particularly like evaluation. It looks like a lot I know, I thought that at the beginning of my project, but truth be told it’ll all be done over the course of a year so it really isn’t that bad. If you want any more specific information about anything, don’t hesitate to ask. I hope this helps! Xx