Crest award

I was thinking of doing a crest award but I thought the gold looked like it would be a lot of work, especially because my school dont offer it. Should I just do silver instead or is gold worth the hassle?

Hello! I did a CREST award last year with a few of my friends and I originally started out aiming for silver but we were awarded Gold in the end.
I just wonder what you mean by your school doesn't offer it? CREST is marked on a flexible scale, so the markers will look at your project and award it what they think fits best.
The main difference between gold and silver is just the amount of hours put in, I think it's 60 v 30 or something but you can check on the website, this is more just a rough guide and it is an impression from the final project (ours was a 50 page research report on the uses of AI in medicine) and then most of the other marks and awarded based on the quality of the project and then the planning section, so if you are a bit more detailed with your methods and aims and everything, you can get a Gold instead of silver.
Let me know if you have any other questions, best of luck with your project. I think it's a great thing to do xx

Hey thanks so much for your advice! By my school not offering it I mean that it’s not like Duke of Edinburgh with a designated teacher or like how we r given specified periods for EPQ work. That’s a big reason why I’m a little bit doubtful about it because it is so much work but it’s JUST on me like there isn’t rlly anything to lean back on. Ofc there’s the mentor area but the lady who I was considering (is happy to do it but) rlly has no idea bc SHES never done anything like this b4 either yk

Yeah, I understand then. It is a lot of work and doing it all yourself can be challenging. I would say, that all a mentor needs to know is an understanding of scientific report writing and most teachers should know about this if they have been to uni in their areas.
I would personally go for it and start researching and writing. If it something you are passionate about and you are learning about something that interests you then there is no harm in getting started and seeing what you come up with. On the other hand, if you are just doing it for something to put on UCAS and you wouldn't actually enjoy the process it might not be worth it, because you won't be as dedicated or learn as much.
I think I got a lot out of doing one and most of the work was independent for me as well and that really develops a useful skill in itself of self directed learning which will be important at uni.
Best of luck deciding x

Thanks so much for all your advice! I think im gonna do it x