to EPQ or not to EPQ?

[BrendaBlackhead]

ds is in year 12

He is doing three humanities A Levels and Maths

Should he continue with four A Levels (he is good at all of them) or drop one for an EPQ?

He has no idea of his future plans, and nothing jumps out at him regarding what to do a project on. Being rather a chip off the old block, he likes knowing a little about a lot rather than a lot about a little...

If he applies to university he will probably be aiming high, so does the EPQ make any kind of difference? But, as I said, he hasn't the faintest clue what he might like to study so at this stage wouldn't be able to tailor an EPQ to suit a university application.

I also agree that the learning of grammar is not "asinine". At worst it might be described as a "necessary evil". Many people find grammar dull but recognise its worth.

OK, wrong word. The assignment that caused the ire was to translate a chunk of prose from one tense into another. When does anybody do that in normal life?

If you based all learning activities on what people do in real life you'd be left with very little.

There is a sure fire way of learning a language. Its called the immersion method. That is the long term plan.

For now she'll stick to what spins her wheels.
and the EPQ

Immersion is as grammar laden as language learning gets.

Yeah, but it involves nicer food and weather with her choice of language

DS has applied for Law & is doing an EPQ related to it.
He's really enjoyed it but none of his offers are based on the EPQ result.
He'd hoped to get an interview so he could talk about it but hasn't had any. Nevertheless he doesn't have any regrets, dispute the amount of time it's taken.

Is it usual to do the EPQ in Y13 now?
When DS1 did A levels the EPQ was done in Y12.
DS2 is going to explore the idea of doing the bulk of it over the summer. He is not committed until September whether to do a new AS or the EPQ.

I did French O level in 1974. It was very different to now, and the A level was predominantly French Literature. Don't they do literature now in the A level, it sounds like just more of the same?

I am not really convinced that either the EPQ or an extra AS make any difference to getting offers at university in most cases.

The EPQ was sold to us at the start of Y12 as a good basis for an effective interview - an alternative to the IB extended project, but as others have mentioned further up this thread, I think most universities are sensitive to the idea that some qualifications are not available to all and so should be ignored - or even worse that a candidate asserting extra qualifications should be required to perform well in those extra qualifications as an additional condition of entry.

I suspect that if anything, rather like the D of E, an extra AS or an EPQ would tend to mark you out as someone fortunate to be at a school that is not in some way disadvantaged, although this is already likely to be fairly obvious from the content of the rest of the PS!

I suspect it's better to look for more "self-starting" ways of enhancing your PS. Futurelearn courses seem to be good - especially if you take them fairly seriously and participate in the online forums. Essay competitions too. For my DD's subject, English, for example, there is the Tower Poetry Competition coming up - entries closing on 27 Feb.

I think it's probably a mistake to add extra qualifications if the motivation is "instrumental" , but if it is something that you are genuinely excited by and have a burning desire to research and write about, then fair enough....

I suspect that if anything, rather like the D of E, an extra AS or an EPQ would tend to mark you out as someone fortunate to be at a school that is not in some way disadvantaged, although this is already likely to be fairly obvious from the content of the rest of the PS!

That may be the case in some areas but round here where almost all of the state University applications come from a few mega colleges - all of which offer the same opportunities - its not a serious problem.