Issie
MA International Relations Student
My EPQ and me
It is fair to say I had a bit of a love/hate relationship with my EPQ! At the start of Year 13, A Level stress was beginning to creep up on me and my friends and the prospect of only having one year of school left was starting to settle in as a reality. The final year of sixth form is a daunting time for sure! On top of this, teachers recommended we all took on an extra project – the EPQ. If I’m being honest, my initial reaction was to write the EPQ off completely. Why load up extra work when trying to keep on top of A Levels was already stressful enough? Surely this wouldn’t work in any students’ favour? If you’re currently in a similar position – don’t worry! I’m here and I got out the other side of it! Certainly not without the inevitable ups and downs of completing any extended project, but hopefully me imparting my honest experience of the EPQ will help dispel some of the anxieties and reservations I felt at the beginning of my research assignment!
The EPQ is all about independent work and learning some of those key skills to becoming a proactive and independent worker. This was something I found particularly daunting when starting the project – how do I even choose my topic? Where do I find resources? How will I know if I’m on the right track? However, looking back on my experience I realise what a great opportunity it was to practice being an independent worker, whilst also having the guidance and support of my teachers. Something that really helped me was my teacher describing the EPQ as a journey – it is designed to be a learning experience where you progress. I found this such a reassuring way to look at things – no one was expecting me to become an expert, but showing how I could successfully manage and lead an independent project was just as important as my final essay. This took the pressure off immediately. Seeing the EPQ in this way definitely made it an exciting opportunity (instead of something I was constantly worrying about!) And I actually ended up loving the project as I had the freedom to research something of my own interest.
At this point I was starting to apply for English Literature at university, and can remember thinking that it might be an opportunity to have a practice at what it was like to study at university (minus the stress of actually going yet) and it was! It’s also worth noting how much the EPQ actually helped me with my university application. Having dyslexia and studying two essay-based subjects for A Level (English and History), I’d be lying If I said I wasn’t nervous about my grades being good enough to get into my dream university. The EPQ was something I was able to talk about in my personal statement and could show my commitment to the subject and also my ability to organise myself as a student well.