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EPQ question ideas

Hello ! I’m in year 12 and pursuing medicine . Initially I thought EPQs were not beneficial for medicine ,veterinarian science and dentistry however I learnt through more research that it can be.
So I just needed a question relating to medical surgery .
So I came up with this idea:
Artefact: a 3D medical model of anatomical representation of internal organs in the medical world. (Which can be removed and studied)
Question(+ 1000 word ) : “How do these models aid in medical education, surgical training, and patient understanding, and what advancements can be made in refining these models for enhanced accuracy and educational efficacy?"

I’m not sure if this is a good idea so it would be great if anyone has any other ideas or suggestions. :smile:

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Reply 1

Hey there, thanks for posting a question in the Medicine forum. :biggrin:

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Reply 2

Original post by thedyslexickid
Hello ! I’m in year 12 and pursuing medicine . Initially I thought EPQs were not beneficial for medicine ,veterinarian science and dentistry however I learnt through more research that it can be.
So I just needed a question relating to medical surgery .
So I came up with this idea:
Artefact: a 3D medical model of anatomical representation of internal organs in the medical world. (Which can be removed and studied)
Question(+ 1000 word ) : “How do these models aid in medical education, surgical training, and patient understanding, and what advancements can be made in refining these models for enhanced accuracy and educational efficacy?"

I’m not sure if this is a good idea so it would be great if anyone has any other ideas or suggestions. :smile:

Hi
I wanted to ask what you find beneficial about doing an EPQ as i am under the impression they aren't that useful.

Reply 3

Hi,
Can I ask what medical schools those are?
I only know one that does that and if you dont mind me asking are you a medical student.

Reply 4

Original post by ricky joe
Hi
I wanted to ask what you find beneficial about doing an EPQ as i am under the impression they aren't that useful.

Very few university for medicine might offer a lower a-level grades if you have an A in your EPQ eg. Keele university school of medicine offer A**AA or AAA + EPQ with an A* /A . Another reason to do an EPQ is that it’s great for interviews and your personal statement as it shows you passion, dedication and interest in medicine however it does take up a lot of time and effort and is not the most recognised/important thing for your application . It acts more as a supercurricular in that point of view.
(edited 1 year ago)

Reply 5

Original post by thedyslexickid
Original post by ricky joe
Hi
I wanted to ask what you find beneficial about doing an EPQ as i am under the impression they aren't that useful.

Very few university for medicine might offer a lower a-level grades if you have an A in your EPQ eg. Keele university school of medicine offer A**AA or AAA + EPQ with an A
* /A . Another reason to do an EPQ is that it’s great for interviews and your personal statement as it shows you passion, dedication and interest in medicine however it does take up a lot of time and effort and is not the most recognised/important thing for your application . It acts more as a supercurricular in that point of view.

Yeah I did an epq for computer science and loved it a lot more than my actual a levels so it served to be a really good supercurricular for my personal statement. Achieved an a* so I got the reduced offer for 2 of my unis

Reply 6

Original post by shadowblades
Very few university for medicine might offer a lower a-level grades if you have an A in your EPQ eg. Keele university school of medicine offer A**AA or AAA + EPQ with an A
* /A . Another reason to do an EPQ is that it’s great for interviews and your personal statement as it shows you passion, dedication and interest in medicine however it does take up a lot of time and effort and is not the most recognised/important thing for your application . It acts more as a supercurricular in that point of view.

Yeah I did an epq for computer science and loved it a lot more than my actual a levels so it served to be a really good supercurricular for my personal statement. Achieved an a* so I got the reduced offer for 2 of my unis
Congrats! 🥳 What are you doing now ?I did computer science for GCSE and it was my favourite subject at the time :smile: I kinda regret not taking it for a 4th A-level.

Reply 7

Original post by thedyslexickid


Yeah I did an epq for computer science and loved it a lot more than my actual a levels so it served to be a really good supercurricular for my personal statement. Achieved an a* so I got the reduced offer for 2 of my unis

Congrats! 🥳 What are you doing now ?I did computer science for GCSE and it was my favourite subject at the time :smile: I kinda regret not taking it for a 4th A-level.

Thanks! I'm doing physics maths and comp sci but yeah I mean it's only useful if you're doing comp sci at uni otherwise no point. For medicine the combo is maths bio and chem I think so yeah you will be fine anyway

Reply 8

Original post by shadowblades
Congrats! 🥳 What are you doing now ?I did computer science for GCSE and it was my favourite subject at the time :smile: I kinda regret not taking it for a 4th A-level.


Thanks! I'm doing physics maths and comp sci but yeah I mean it's only useful if you're doing comp sci at uni otherwise no point. For medicine the combo is maths bio and chem I think so yeah you will be fine anyway
Nice, my initial idea in yr 11 was phy, maths and computer science (for engineering) but after my GCSEs I changed my mind as I got a 6,8and 6 although I was predicted 8,8,8 and my school requires a 7 or above for you to take physics for alevel.Also the computer science OCR paper was horrid so I changed my mind to Bio,chem and maths as my options were limited.
(edited 1 year ago)

Reply 9

Original post by thedyslexickid


Thanks! I'm doing physics maths and comp sci but yeah I mean it's only useful if you're doing comp sci at uni otherwise no point. For medicine the combo is maths bio and chem I think so yeah you will be fine anyway

Nice, my initial idea in yr 11 was phy, maths and computer science (for engineering) but after my GCSEs I changed my mind as I got a 6,8and 6 although I was predicted 8,8,8 and my school requires a 7 or above for you to take physics for alevel.Also the computer science OCR paper was horrid so I changed my mind to Bio,chem and maths as my options were limited.

😭 probably shouldnt have based your opinion of comp sci on one paper but oh well. Yeah that's tough your school requires a 7. Tbf mh school requires 8s but yeah I reckon if you like begged them they would let you. Honestly especially with medicine asw cuz unless your really and I mean really passionate about it then your gonna struggle through uni and thorough work cuz it's tough for not a lot of pay until you become old or go private. So yesh hopefully you do have a passion and you didn't just pick it because of GCSE results as trust me some people just don't do well in their GCSEs but smash a levels

Reply 10

Original post by shadowblades
Very few university for medicine might offer a lower a-level grades if you have an A in your EPQ eg. Keele university school of medicine offer A**AA or AAA + EPQ with an A
* /A . Another reason to do an EPQ is that it’s great for interviews and your personal statement as it shows you passion, dedication and interest in medicine however it does take up a lot of time and effort and is not the most recognised/important thing for your application . It acts more as a supercurricular in that point of view.

Yeah I did an epq for computer science and loved it a lot more than my actual a levels so it served to be a really good supercurricular for my personal statement. Achieved an a* so I got the reduced offer for 2 of my unis
What universities gave you reduced offers?? I applied for Computer Science for 2024 entry to Cambridge(rejection), Imperial (offer), Durham (waiting still), Edinburgh (Offer) and Manchester (Offer).

Even though the likelihood is low, I hope to get a reduced offer from Durham (My GCSEs: 9999999988 with the 8s in English Lit and RS and my A level grades (predicted): 5 A*s in Maths, Further Maths, Computer Science and Chemistry and EPQ as it will then mean that I have an actual insurance choice rather than having to pick from 3 universities with higher conditions.

The Imperial offer is A*AAA, which isn't bad, but also comes with a STEP condition which is the worrying part.

The Durham standard offer is A*AA which I'm hoping will be reduced given that I am well above the requirements...

Reply 11

Original post by vnayak


Yeah I did an epq for computer science and loved it a lot more than my actual a levels so it served to be a really good supercurricular for my personal statement. Achieved an a* so I got the reduced offer for 2 of my unis

What universities gave you reduced offers?? I applied for Computer Science for 2024 entry to Cambridge(rejection), Imperial (offer), Durham (waiting still), Edinburgh (Offer) and Manchester (Offer).

Even though the likelihood is low, I hope to get a reduced offer from Durham (My GCSEs: 9999999988 with the 8s in English Lit and RS and my A level grades (predicted): 5 A*s in Maths, Further Maths, Computer Science and Chemistry and EPQ as it will then mean that I have an actual insurance choice rather than having to pick from 3 universities with higher conditions.

The Imperial offer is A*AAA, which isn't bad, but also comes with a STEP condition which is the worrying part.

The Durham standard offer is A*AA which I'm hoping will be reduced given that I am well above the requirements...

I got a reduced offer from Sheffield and Cardiff but Durham doesn't give reduced offers based on the epq so It is unlikely they will give you a reduced offer on that front. Maybe if your contextual they might lower it. It's tough because your imperial offer is great apart from step which is always a gamble but I know a mate who flopped his step 2 but still got in. Realistically tho if your predictions are accurate, you can defo get the standard Durham offer of a*aa but afaik they don't really reduce offers and they do mention that they do not make offers based on epq so unfortunately I don't think they will make a difference for your application. Good luck however and some great offers. Well done!

Reply 12

Original post by shadowblades
What universities gave you reduced offers?? I applied for Computer Science for 2024 entry to Cambridge(rejection), Imperial (offer), Durham (waiting still), Edinburgh (Offer) and Manchester (Offer).

Even though the likelihood is low, I hope to get a reduced offer from Durham (My GCSEs: 9999999988 with the 8s in English Lit and RS and my A level grades (predicted): 5 A*s in Maths, Further Maths, Computer Science and Chemistry and EPQ as it will then mean that I have an actual insurance choice rather than having to pick from 3 universities with higher conditions.

The Imperial offer is A*AAA, which isn't bad, but also comes with a STEP condition which is the worrying part.

The Durham standard offer is A*AA which I'm hoping will be reduced given that I am well above the requirements...


I got a reduced offer from Sheffield and Cardiff but Durham doesn't give reduced offers based on the epq so It is unlikely they will give you a reduced offer on that front. Maybe if your contextual they might lower it. It's tough because your imperial offer is great apart from step which is always a gamble but I know a mate who flopped his step 2 but still got in. Realistically tho if your predictions are accurate, you can defo get the standard Durham offer of a*aa but afaik they don't really reduce offers and they do mention that they do not make offers based on epq so unfortunately I don't think they will make a difference for your application. Good luck however and some great offers. Well done!
Ah ok...thank you for letting me know! Yes it's astonishing how many people get into Imperial without meeting the STEP requirement. I believe the figures for last year were somewhere in the region of 60% of people getting in not meeting the requirements for STEP.

Having to do two admissions tests and an interview for one institution is rather annoying because just when I think I am done with admissions tests altogether and I can focus on A levels (I did the TMUA and the Imperial test for Computing applicants, which applicants call the "MAT" but then it just gets confusing with the admissions test for Maths), I have to do another one, but if it means that it will benefit me for the future, I gotta do it...

At our interview, they test our problem solving and Maths skills in addition to some of the stuff we mentioned in our personal statement. I am envious of all of those individuals who are free from having to do any admissions tests.

Thank you for your kind words! Which university are you studying at currently?

Reply 13

Original post by vnayak
I got a reduced offer from Sheffield and Cardiff but Durham doesn't give reduced offers based on the epq so It is unlikely they will give you a reduced offer on that front. Maybe if your contextual they might lower it. It's tough because your imperial offer is great apart from step which is always a gamble but I know a mate who flopped his step 2 but still got in. Realistically tho if your predictions are accurate, you can defo get the standard Durham offer of a*aa but afaik they don't really reduce offers and they do mention that they do not make offers based on epq so unfortunately I don't think they will make a difference for your application. Good luck however and some great offers. Well done!

Ah ok...thank you for letting me know! Yes it's astonishing how many people get into Imperial without meeting the STEP requirement. I believe the figures for last year were somewhere in the region of 60% of people getting in not meeting the requirements for STEP.

Having to do two admissions tests and an interview for one institution is rather annoying because just when I think I am done with admissions tests altogether and I can focus on A levels (I did the TMUA and the Imperial test for Computing applicants, which applicants call the "MAT" but then it just gets confusing with the admissions test for Maths), I have to do another one, but if it means that it will benefit me for the future, I gotta do it...

At our interview, they test our problem solving and Maths skills in addition to some of the stuff we mentioned in our personal statement. I am envious of all of those individuals who are free from having to do any admissions tests.

Thank you for your kind words! Which university are you studying at currently?
yeah the admissions tests scare me as well and exactly, suffer now to reap the rewards later. interviews are tough fs, a couple of my mates had their cambridge interviews and the questions they got asked broke my brain lol. and nw man these times are tough and we're in it together.

oh im not at uni yet, i did my epq last year which is why i already got my grade. however, im most likely going to firm sheffield, as its decently high ranking, and it has the placement year which i wanted a lot and overall, i just like the vibe of the uni and accomodation etc. i want uni to feel like home and for me although i live in the south and go to a private school in surrey, sheffield just felt so nice when i visited and although there looked to be some rough areas, they were not close by to the uni so it should be fine.

im currently procrastinating my revision as well rn by making some sort of web scraper application, but anything to escape the horrors of a level physics lmao.

Reply 14

Original post by shadowblades
Ah ok...thank you for letting me know! Yes it's astonishing how many people get into Imperial without meeting the STEP requirement. I believe the figures for last year were somewhere in the region of 60% of people getting in not meeting the requirements for STEP.

Having to do two admissions tests and an interview for one institution is rather annoying because just when I think I am done with admissions tests altogether and I can focus on A levels (I did the TMUA and the Imperial test for Computing applicants, which applicants call the "MAT" but then it just gets confusing with the admissions test for Maths), I have to do another one, but if it means that it will benefit me for the future, I gotta do it...

At our interview, they test our problem solving and Maths skills in addition to some of the stuff we mentioned in our personal statement. I am envious of all of those individuals who are free from having to do any admissions tests.

Thank you for your kind words! Which university are you studying at currently?

yeah the admissions tests scare me as well and exactly, suffer now to reap the rewards later. interviews are tough fs, a couple of my mates had their cambridge interviews and the questions they got asked broke my brain lol. and nw man these times are tough and we're in it together.

oh im not at uni yet, i did my epq last year which is why i already got my grade. however, im most likely going to firm sheffield, as its decently high ranking, and it has the placement year which i wanted a lot and overall, i just like the vibe of the uni and accomodation etc. i want uni to feel like home and for me although i live in the south and go to a private school in surrey, sheffield just felt so nice when i visited and although there looked to be some rough areas, they were not close by to the uni so it should be fine.

im currently procrastinating my revision as well rn by making some sort of web scraper application, but anything to escape the horrors of a level physics lmao.
Yeah, it feels like I dodged a bullet with avoiding A level Physics even though it would have made more sense with my A levels but at the same time, I took a hit myself with A level Chemistry. In fact, I would go so far as to say that it's my hardest A level.

On top of that, I got my Computing NEA and my EPQ, which I am trying to finish ASAP so I can focus completely on A levels and STEP prep. I need to start A level revision. I did an A level Maths paper and found it really easy but we still got loads of stuff to cover in school which is making me worry....

Reply 15

Original post by vnayak
yeah the admissions tests scare me as well and exactly, suffer now to reap the rewards later. interviews are tough fs, a couple of my mates had their cambridge interviews and the questions they got asked broke my brain lol. and nw man these times are tough and we're in it together.

oh im not at uni yet, i did my epq last year which is why i already got my grade. however, im most likely going to firm sheffield, as its decently high ranking, and it has the placement year which i wanted a lot and overall, i just like the vibe of the uni and accomodation etc. i want uni to feel like home and for me although i live in the south and go to a private school in surrey, sheffield just felt so nice when i visited and although there looked to be some rough areas, they were not close by to the uni so it should be fine.

im currently procrastinating my revision as well rn by making some sort of web scraper application, but anything to escape the horrors of a level physics lmao.

Yeah, it feels like I dodged a bullet with avoiding A level Physics even though it would have made more sense with my A levels but at the same time, I took a hit myself with A level Chemistry. In fact, I would go so far as to say that it's my hardest A level.

On top of that, I got my Computing NEA and my EPQ, which I am trying to finish ASAP so I can focus completely on A levels and STEP prep. I need to start A level revision. I did an A level Maths paper and found it really easy but we still got loads of stuff to cover in school which is making me worry....
yeah trust, although i know a guy who does physics and chem and applied for computer science and he finds both of them equally horrible.

yeah the computing nea makes me wanna kms and i am spending wayyy too much time for not a lot of extra marks and hopefully i can get the main development part and documentation done by february. good luck on the epq tho, i found it fun and did it quite quickly but its different for everyone. and yeah content wise, my school is not that bad. weve done all of the computing course, and have year 2 stats and mech left of maths and 3 more topics left of edexcel physics. but i totally understand you man. it seems like were always revising or learning but its all gonna end in june and we can relax and have fun until uni. although uni isnt as stressful as a levels so it shouldnt be too bad.

Reply 16

Original post by shadowblades
Yeah, it feels like I dodged a bullet with avoiding A level Physics even though it would have made more sense with my A levels but at the same time, I took a hit myself with A level Chemistry. In fact, I would go so far as to say that it's my hardest A level.

On top of that, I got my Computing NEA and my EPQ, which I am trying to finish ASAP so I can focus completely on A levels and STEP prep. I need to start A level revision. I did an A level Maths paper and found it really easy but we still got loads of stuff to cover in school which is making me worry....

yeah trust, although i know a guy who does physics and chem and applied for computer science and he finds both of them equally horrible.

yeah the computing nea makes me wanna kms and i am spending wayyy too much time for not a lot of extra marks and hopefully i can get the main development part and documentation done by february. good luck on the epq tho, i found it fun and did it quite quickly but its different for everyone. and yeah content wise, my school is not that bad. weve done all of the computing course, and have year 2 stats and mech left of maths and 3 more topics left of edexcel physics. but i totally understand you man. it seems like were always revising or learning but its all gonna end in june and we can relax and have fun until uni. although uni isnt as stressful as a levels so it shouldnt be too bad.
🤞🤞....Im really worried about my NEA and there is also the skeleton code to worry about. We've finished the A level Computing course. We've finished A level Maths. We have almost finished the optional modules in Further maths and there is the main pure module which we have had a few lessons on. Chemistry, we are a bit behind but we will finish quickly and I am going to put a shift in for it..

EPQ, I've almost finished. Everything is perfect barring my literature review, which I am editing and I need to deliver my presentation so I should get more free time after that.

Reply 17

Original post by vnayak
Original post by shadowblades
Yeah, it feels like I dodged a bullet with avoiding A level Physics even though it would have made more sense with my A levels but at the same time, I took a hit myself with A level Chemistry. In fact, I would go so far as to say that it's my hardest A level.

On top of that, I got my Computing NEA and my EPQ, which I am trying to finish ASAP so I can focus completely on A levels and STEP prep. I need to start A level revision. I did an A level Maths paper and found it really easy but we still got loads of stuff to cover in school which is making me worry....

yeah trust, although i know a guy who does physics and chem and applied for computer science and he finds both of them equally horrible.

yeah the computing nea makes me wanna kms and i am spending wayyy too much time for not a lot of extra marks and hopefully i can get the main development part and documentation done by february. good luck on the epq tho, i found it fun and did it quite quickly but its different for everyone. and yeah content wise, my school is not that bad. weve done all of the computing course, and have year 2 stats and mech left of maths and 3 more topics left of edexcel physics. but i totally understand you man. it seems like were always revising or learning but its all gonna end in june and we can relax and have fun until uni. although uni isnt as stressful as a levels so it shouldnt be too bad.

🤞🤞....Im really worried about my NEA and there is also the skeleton code to worry about. We've finished the A level Computing course. We've finished A level Maths. We have almost finished the optional modules in Further maths and there is the main pure module which we have had a few lessons on. Chemistry, we are a bit behind but we will finish quickly and I am going to put a shift in for it..

EPQ, I've almost finished. Everything is perfect barring my literature review, which I am editing and I need to deliver my presentation so I should get more free time after that.

Yeah that means we're both pretty much there now which is good. Just that final push.

Yeah that's great to hear asw with your EPQ and the presentation is fun too as long as your doing an interesting topic and then you will have a lot more free time fs. Good luck!

Reply 18

Original post by shadowblades
yeah trust, although i know a guy who does physics and chem and applied for computer science and he finds both of them equally horrible.

yeah the computing nea makes me wanna kms and i am spending wayyy too much time for not a lot of extra marks and hopefully i can get the main development part and documentation done by february. good luck on the epq tho, i found it fun and did it quite quickly but its different for everyone. and yeah content wise, my school is not that bad. weve done all of the computing course, and have year 2 stats and mech left of maths and 3 more topics left of edexcel physics. but i totally understand you man. it seems like were always revising or learning but its all gonna end in june and we can relax and have fun until uni. although uni isnt as stressful as a levels so it shouldnt be too bad.

🤞🤞....Im really worried about my NEA and there is also the skeleton code to worry about. We've finished the A level Computing course. We've finished A level Maths. We have almost finished the optional modules in Further maths and there is the main pure module which we have had a few lessons on. Chemistry, we are a bit behind but we will finish quickly and I am going to put a shift in for it..

EPQ, I've almost finished. Everything is perfect barring my literature review, which I am editing and I need to deliver my presentation so I should get more free time after that.

Yeah that means we're both pretty much there now which is good. Just that final push.

Yeah that's great to hear asw with your EPQ and the presentation is fun too as long as your doing an interesting topic and then you will have a lot more free time fs. Good luck!
Good luck to you too! My topic is to do with AI and ML so I find it interesting but it's a matter of making the information understandable to an audience. It's easy enough to mention phrases like natural language processing or deep learning without explaining what it means but that's the tricky part as well as keeping the presentation ~15 minutes long.

Any tips??

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