Study Skills

Course summary

The EPQ is your opportunity to devise a project of your own choice, on a topic of your choice. It can be linked to a subject you study, or it could be completely separate from your A Levels, allowing you to pursue extracurricular interests and hobbies. The course is assessed through the final ‘product’, a short presentation, and the completion of a logbook detailing your EPQ ‘journey’. Most students produce a 5000-word written product though it is also possible to produce an artefact which could be a piece of music, dance, art or design accompanied by a shorter written component. The taught lessons will help students develop a range of skills including: devising your project, research methods, planning techniques and evaluating your own progress. Such skills should help students in all their subjects and in their future study and employment. To give an idea of the range of possible topics, these are studies which have worked successfully in the past: • How could the NHS promote e-cigarettes? • Can dance communicate the plight of homelessness? • GM food: is Golden Rice the solution to health issues on the Indian subcontinent? • Brexit: was it inevitable? • What was the primary factor in the decline of Native American culture? • Are biological and psychological treatments for OCD applicable to contemporary society? • Should the responsibility for reducing plastic usage be directed towards the public consumer?