EPQ- anyone's dc done in year 10

[bombula]

Hi

Just wondering if anyone's dd/ds did an EPQ in year 10 and how they found it. DS has the option at the end of yr 9 of doing an EPQ instead of a GCSE option. Not sure that this is a good idea but he seems quite interested. Any thoughts/experience?

If it is in year 10 it will be an HPQ not an EPQ and yes my son did one as his 11th subject alongside 10 gcses.

It is a good way to encourage independent study and report writing.

DD did hpq in year 9 and EPQ in addition to first year of GCSE courses in year 10. She’s about to go into year 11 in September. In some respects it has been great. She did very well in the HPQ so was seen as capable and so far it’s looking like she’ll get an A (depending on grade boundaries staying the same this year as the last few years). On the other hand I rather wish she had done in alongside A levels when she had a better idea about long term interests. Also with maturity might have been a more secure A or above. She did both HPQ and EPQ on quite politics based topics but she’s not sure whether that is something she wants to pursue at A level or beyond. On the other hand - she’s developed excellent research skills and the stamina to go deep into a subject as well as the confidence of presentations.

She was one of about 8 year 10s doing the EPQ and about 30 year 12s. All the year 10s who did it had done the HPQ the year before.

I did an EPQ many moons ago in year 13 and found it’s main benefit being it gave me something to talk about in my personal statement and was the starting point of university interviews. Therefore unless your DS knows exactly what they want to do at university (if they intend to go) I would suggest holding off. The ucas points to me weren’t really worth it and the most benefit will come if it’s written on a topic in line with whatever university course he’s applying to

That’s exactly it snitches - while having it full stop is a plus point, it would have potentially been so much more useful as a jumping off point if it were relevant to her future degree. But then again, dd might switch back towards her EPQ broad topic by then. Goodness knows really!

Long and short - I’m not sure it’s worth doing it early. Too soon in our case to tell but other kids might have a better idea of which subjects they want to carry forward.

Oh and wrt how she found it - she was actually very disciplined and had good mentor who was readily on hand.

My DS did HLPQ in Yr 9. It involved not much help from school and a lot of cajoling from us. I hoped that the experience of having to organise a project would make him more organised about school work generally but it didn't.

He got a good mark and got to write at length about his hobby so not a bad experience.

Hi

It is the AQA EPQ. My dd did the HPQ in yr9 and was not that organised however ds is more organised and focused. He has a while to decide and would probably lean towards something computing or electronics based or maybe expand on his radio work. i think my main concern with him is that he would probably give up history leaving him very science, maths based as his school let them pick to their interests and strengths once they have selected required maths, englishx2, MFL and a science.

I think personally it should be in addition to rather than to replace a gcse. There’s time at a levels to do an EPQ And it would be a shame to lose history. With dd she did EPQ in addition to year 10 GCSEs. I don’t think it’s had an impact on the GCSEs.

There seems such a rush to do things early sometimes but it’s not always thought through. I can see they gain skills but surely can’t put together such a mature piece of work in year 10 as to be valuable in year 13.
Look at some of the best performing 6th forms - who don’t encourage any early entry and do EPQ in year 13 alongside 3 A levels, with stunning A/A* results and Oxbridge/Russell Group offers.
That’s what I’d be guided by in terms of best practice.

He is at a very high performing school which usually gets 30+ Oxbridge offers. I think to be honest, I'll wait and see if he is still as interested in doing it when he has to make the final decision and see at that point if history has replaced drama in his affections.