{"id":7645,"date":"2022-09-15T14:37:06","date_gmt":"2022-09-15T13:37:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/students\/?p=7645"},"modified":"2023-11-01T14:46:24","modified_gmt":"2023-11-01T14:46:24","slug":"why-i-loved-taking-my-epq","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/students\/2022\/09\/15\/why-i-loved-taking-my-epq\/","title":{"rendered":"Why I loved taking my EPQ"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-6196 alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/students\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/81\/2021\/03\/maya-maceka-yW-Qgw_IJXg-unsplash-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"A picture of the bottom of a laptop and some pens \" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/students\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/81\/2021\/03\/maya-maceka-yW-Qgw_IJXg-unsplash-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/students\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/81\/2021\/03\/maya-maceka-yW-Qgw_IJXg-unsplash-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/students\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/81\/2021\/03\/maya-maceka-yW-Qgw_IJXg-unsplash-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/students\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/81\/2021\/03\/maya-maceka-yW-Qgw_IJXg-unsplash-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/students\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/81\/2021\/03\/maya-maceka-yW-Qgw_IJXg-unsplash-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/students\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/81\/2021\/03\/maya-maceka-yW-Qgw_IJXg-unsplash-323x215.jpg 323w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>An EPQ: a (very) long independent research project which is worth 50% of an A-Level (up to 28 UCAS points) which, upon completion, gives you another qualification under your belt. But, is it worth it?<\/p>\n<p>To put it simply: there is no right or wrong answer to that question. Personally, I loved my EPQ and it is one of the things I am most proud of myself for completing (after all, I did spend the better half of a year writing it!).\u00a0 However, it was a lot of work. In this blog, I will go through why I did an EPQ and what my project was about to help inform your decision.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>You can watch this video for a summary or continue reading for more details!\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"What I enjoyed about doing an EPQ\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/RboX73rmjXw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Why an EPQ?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>An EPQ is a qualification you take in conjunction with your Post-16 studies. My teachers sold it to me as a way to develop time management and independent research skills which would be beneficial when I went to study at university. Whilst I wasn't 100% convinced by this, I thought I would give it a shot and see if I was able to juggle writing my EPQ with my A-Levels.<\/p>\n<p>An EPQ can be helpful in many ways. As well as helping to prepare me for university work, it also lowered the grade requirements of a few of my university offers. For example, at the time I applied at Bath for Psychology the standard offer was A*AA in three A-Levels. However, an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bath.ac.uk\/guides\/alternative-offers-for-undergraduate-applicants\/\">alternative offer<\/a> of AAA was on offer if you got an A in your EPQ. I found this reduced some of the pressure of getting A*s in my A-Levels and was a tangible goal I could work towards. For these reasons, I decided to sign up and complete an EPQ.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_7648\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7648\" style=\"width: 225px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-7648 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/students\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/81\/2022\/03\/IMG_8206-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"An image of my finished EPQ project printed out before it was handed in\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/students\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/81\/2022\/03\/IMG_8206-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/students\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/81\/2022\/03\/IMG_8206-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/students\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/81\/2022\/03\/IMG_8206-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/students\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/81\/2022\/03\/IMG_8206-161x215.jpg 161w, https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/students\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/81\/2022\/03\/IMG_8206.jpg 1206w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-7648\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">My completed EPQ on the day I handed in the finished product!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><em><strong>What was my topic?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>I decided to do my project in the form of a 5000-word research-based essay. I wanted to do my EPQ on a topic that was relevant to my Psychology course but was also centred on something interesting that I wouldn't get the opportunity to research in school.<\/p>\n<p>Therefore, I decided to do my EPQ on the causes and impacts of unconscious racial bias in the UK. \u00a0Doing a topic that was close to my heart, socially relevant and also applicable to my chosen course at university meant that I really enjoyed completing my EPQ, even when it was a lot of work.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Is it manageable?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>An EPQ is undoubtedly a lot of work. The guidelines say that from start to finish the project will take about 120 hours of work. However, I found that it took longer than that.<\/p>\n<p>With an EPQ, you not only have to research and write your essay, but you also have to jot down your work, ideas and reflections throughout in a 'log book'. You write your initial ideas, how your project is coming along mid-way through completion, reflect on your research\/writing process and also comment on your presentation. This, on top of your other qualifications, can be a lot to manage at times.<\/p>\n<p>I found, however, that this was one of the best parts of the EPQ. Whilst at times it was a struggle, it helped me to improve my time management skills and I increased my self-discipline and motivation by completing independent work, a skill that is integral to work at university.\u00a0 Once I was able to improve these skills, I was able to fit EPQ-related work into my schedule more easily.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Overall verdict...<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>I loved my EPQ. Whilst it was a lot of work at times, I really enjoyed research and writing on a really interesting topic. The best feeling was opening my A-Level results, seeing that A*\u00a0 and knowing that all of my hard work paid off.\u00a0 Whilst it wasn't easy, I was incredibly proud of this project that was solely the product of my own hard work and determination, which is a feeling that doesn't come around too often.<\/p>\n<p>If you really enjoy your studies and think you could manage the workload, then I couldn't recommend an EPQ more!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/students\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/81\/2021\/09\/University_of_Bath_logo.svg_.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-6756\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/students\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/81\/2021\/09\/University_of_Bath_logo.svg_-300x107.png\" alt=\"Bath Logo\" width=\"300\" height=\"107\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/students\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/81\/2021\/09\/University_of_Bath_logo.svg_-300x107.png 300w, https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/students\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/81\/2021\/09\/University_of_Bath_logo.svg_-601x215.png 601w, https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/students\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/81\/2021\/09\/University_of_Bath_logo.svg_.png 640w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Ayana \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An EPQ: a (very) long independent research project which is worth 50% of an A-Level (up to 28 UCAS points) which, upon completion, gives you another qualification under your belt. But, is it worth it? To put it simply: there...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1677,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[557],"tags":[913,559],"class_list":["post-7645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-extended-project-qualification","tag-choosing-bath","tag-epq"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/students\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/students\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/students\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/students\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1677"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/students\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/students\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7645\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/students\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/students\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/students\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}