Should ds do an epq he's struggling

[rughorror]

Just that really. It was introduced in the summer term and aimed at students who were perhaps at risk of missing grades. To me this is counter-productive as now ds has even more to do and, in all honesty, he's not doing a huge amount of any of it. As far as I can find out it is looked at favourably by some unis but not all and if he ends up missing his grades because he's spread too thinly what good will that do? I'm not even sure uni is for him anyway the way he is going. Would it be unreasonable to say he is withdrawing from it? It's a timetabled lesson twice a week now and he seems to think that's all it takes while at the same time saying it's the reason he can't revise more for his actual subjects.

If he is spreading himself thin then I would drop the EPQ and use the two timetabled sessions he would have free to revise/study.

Prioritise getting three grades of the best quality, nothing else is as important especially an epq.

drop it no question

At my kids school they are told they have to do the EPQ. Vast majority do not complete it. Funnily enough school have not mentioned the high drop out rate. My DD dropped it a few weeks into Y12 (she is now year 13). I didn’t realise that most kids were dropping it at the time she did, I thought she was an outlier. She was actually in the majority.

Some courses at some unis do offer a lower grade offer for students who take and achieve a specified grade in either the EPQ or core maths. You can look at the entry requirements for the courses you are interested in to see if this applies. However, even if it does it is not worth continuing with an EPQ if you are unlikely to achieve a good grade in it or if it having a detrimental impact on your a levels.

My DD has just started uni this September and at her Secondary school they had to do EPQ. Some students were allowed to drop it for various reasons but she completed hers and got a 9.

I think it depends a lot on what A Levels are being done along side it. My DD did Eng Lit, Psychology and Biology and managed ok but some of the tougher subjects might make balancing the work load tricky.

Former admissions tutor and I agree completely with the advice above: quality over quantity every time. This goes for the fourth A level, the EPQ, the grade 8 at piano, whatever.

If your DS does not have good A levels, only a degree programme truly desperate for bums on seats will pay the slightest bit of attention to his EPQ. If it is any good.

I hope he wakes up soon. Not that he needs to go to university to have a good life but he should stop fooling himself, or pretending too.

You can find out how many students actually complete an EPQ at an individual school or college by looking the the Gov's performance tables (link below). Go to 16-18/Subjects entered, then scroll towards the bottom of the list for the 'Study Skills' row. This will help separate the posturing from the reality.

My children's sixth form enrolled lots of non-Maths A level students onto Core Maths in Y12 and consistently got good results. They left EPQs until Y13 and those going down that route said it felt rushed and got in the way of the ramp up to A levels; there has a high drop out rate.

Sounds like your son's school, OP, is trying to squeeze EPQs into Y13 and on a blanket basis. On these threads, where EPQs are praised, it seems to be where they are more selectively targeted, well supported by teachers with a long term track record/familiarity with EPQs and the EPQs are more typically executed in Y12.

Also bear in mind that some A levels have an NEA component (eg Geog, History, Eng Lit) which needs to be completed in Y13 and that competes for time too.

www.gov.uk/school-performance-tables

Thanks all - seems it's as I suspected. Ds is going to speak to them about dropping it and if they won't allow it I'll make contact. The last thing he needs is more excuses, which is what it's turning into.

Coming at it from a different angle - my DC is neurodivergent and as such, has hyperfocus on subjects that they are interested in, and struggle with other less interesting (to them) topics. They got 100% in their EPQ, which was an A *, and won a national award - which mitigated against the slightly lower grades in the A level subjects.