EPQ

[Meeem]

My daughter has just got her school assessed mark for her EPQ. She was given a mark of 27/50 for the AQA exam board. We’re all devastated. She’s a bright girl who is predicted high grades for her other subjects and she worked hard on the project. We have had no feed back at all from the teachers throughout last year with regards her EPQ so it came as a bolt out of the blue.
Her EPQ teacher was off sick for an extended period last year but the school reassured us that this would not have any long term implications for my daughter as EPQ was largely self directed. I have of course spoken to her EPQ teacher and she has promised to look at my daughters work and get back to me. What could possibly have gone so very wrong? Should my daughter and I have been alerted before now as to the possibility of a low grade? It’s too late to change anything now and I feel quite angry about the whole thing and the time that my daughter has wasted on this project.

From experience of my son's EPQ, the log is as important, if not more so, than the finished product. If that's vaguely helpful.

It is a shame your daughter’s school did not delay entry until November of Y13 to allow her more time to get it to a higher standard, if they felt it had the potential to be better.

pp is correct - the log book is important. It is hard for EPQ students (and their supervisors, who want to help and support progress) because there are strict controls about what sort of guidance is acceptable.

She completed a log book but again I have no idea if it as satisfactory or not.

I should add that it has not yet been submitted for external evaluation so does she have any chance of improving it still?

Sorry about the situation OP. You might want to report this thread so it can be moved to the secondary school board. This is a backwater populated by career academics (university lecturers).

I have some knowledge of this. At my school numerical NEA (coursework) marks have to be released to students before they are submitted to the exam board. This is so that if the student believes the mark to be incorrect they have the opportunity to contest it. Obviously that is very difficult and the grounds to contest a centre’s mark are very stringent but I think this is a required policy of examination boards. This does not prevent the centre from submitting the work but it should mean that students have a good idea, based on previous years’ grade boundaries, how they have fared, especially for the EPQ which is, of course, 100% coursework. It is possible your dd has received her numerical mark in this context.

Now that it has been marked exam board regulations mean she cannot make changes to her project but if she is doing UCAS she might be able to ask to be withdrawn so her grade is not visible to universities, if she is going to get her result in January. 27 / 50 is a decent result though - it would be a C based on historic grade boundaries (pre-CAGs). Some unis would consider that an encouraging outcome, especially for an EPQ completed in Y12 with an absent supervisor. Her UCAS referee could explain that in her reference.

Thanks very much. That’s actually really helpful.

Hi. I teach the EPQ, and in my 6th form we send predicted marks home before final marks are assigned, as part of our regular progress checks.
However, depending on how it's taught, it can sometimes be difficult to gauge what the mark will be before final hand in.

The production log, presentation and associated paperwork is worth 60% of the grade while the dissertation/artefact is worth 40.

In my experience students, unless they are well guided, spend more time on the essay and less on the paperwork which is not productive. Again depending on the student, I might not see the completed paperwork until hand in (although I do give earlier deadlines, it is up to the students to manage their time) and the attention given to the paperwork could change the grade even if the dissertation is of a good standard.

The marks out of 50 are given to students in advance of moderation. However moderation can alter them and we don't know the grade boundaries in a given year.

I always monitor and feedback to my students regularly, and offer sessions at parents evening. She should have been aware of what mark she was heading for - as part of their reflection I get mine to self-mark using the assessment objectives so they can see what they have to do to improve.
I would certainly have a conversation with the school about this, but it may be too late.
Moderation may raise the mark but you will have to wait to see if it does.

Based on the cohort that just went through in summer, a 27 would have been a D

45+=A*
40-44=A
35-39=B
30-34=C
25-29=D
20-24=E
Under 20 is ungraded.

If you want to PM me I'm happy to give you more info. I'm in my 5th year of teaching the EPQ

Thanks. I have sent you a pm just to see if there is anything else I can do to rescue this mess.
thanks.

Hello. I've seen that I've got a message but I can't read it on my phone. I'll log in on the pc to see if I can get it there!

Maybe it’s something I did wrong. Please let me know if you still can’t get it up?

Hi

I hope you don’t mind me messaging you but I can see you have commented on a post regarding an EPQ and I am desperately looking for someone with some knowledge who might be able to advise with my daughters recent low grade on her epq. I have a meeting with her 6th form on Thursday and want to know facts before I go into battle with them!

@DHL36 I'd start your own thread - your message won't be seen in an old thread.

Although my advice would be not to go into a meeting with the mindset that you are going into battle!

@DHL36 I coordinate the EPQ in my school - this year and last we put >80 students through it. You are welcome to PM me.

My son has just had his EPQ results through, his teacher said it was marked as A* it was the best project she had seen, been teaching it for 4 years and that it was unlikely to change. Came through as a C. I don't understand how it can be such a difference! He is gutted.

@Theviewer which exam board? Have other projects also been downgraded from the school?

Not sure need to check, my son has been emailed results through and I have contacted the school but I doubt I will hear back until next term. Should I contact the exam board myself when I know. Its just bizarre that it has dropped 2 grades. Is this normal for the internal marking to be way out? He put his heart into this after not getting what he wanted in others.

@Theviewer the board won't speak to you. It all has to be done through the centre by the candidate.

@Theviewer it depends on the board, hence my earlier question. I use WJEC which is marked out of 100. The marks between grades are roughly in 10s - c90% for an A star, 80% for an A and so on. If an external moderator disagrees with our marking, there would need to be a difference of 10+ marks for it to make a 2 grade difference. To differ by 10 marks is quite a big deal; in my team we often differ by a couple of marks, but that is what is deemed "within tolerance" and makes no material difference. As the lead, I tend to submit the lower mark and give that mark to the student as there is less chance of being moderated downwards.

I now AQA is marked out of 50. I haven't personally used them - my school did a few years ago and had a nightmare moderation around 10 years ago, but that's before I taught or led EPQ. However, everything is likely to be much more condensed in terms of wriggle-room. If for example the assessor marks a project as 37/50 which using WJEC's grade boundaries would be a B and a moderator thinks they have been generous by one mark in all 4 of WJEC's Assessment Objectives, the mark becomes 33 which is then a C. If it's 2 marks in each AO, you are in the D mark band.

The marking process is one which takes time to get your head around. The scheme I use has bands then within those you have descriptors to help you work out where in the band a student is. The difference between the bands is the adjectives in the mark scheme eg simple, competent, excellent.

I understand your frustration. However, as @MrsHamlet says, the board will not speak to you. The correct process is to speak to the school, specifically the EPQ lead teacher. Your student should have been given their raw score before they were submitted to the board, which it sounds like they did. The teacher should NEVER tell the students what that score translates to, for the simple reason that grade boundaries can change every year. I always tell mine that had they submitted last year, their grade would have been X but it could change this year... The mark your student received should have been internally moderated within the school. The colleague who led EPQ prior to me moderated every project but I don't have the time. I do as many as I can, but always the highest and lowest for each assessor plus any they are unsure about.

Ask whether the score your student received was internally moderated. Was the whole cohort moderated downwards? Have they read the external moderator's report? Is the school challenging it if they don't agree with it? What are they putting in place to ensure this doesn't happen again?