This qualification helps students develop and demonstrate their project management skills and provides opportunities for extended writing, both of which are highly valued for progression to higher education and employment.
Students can tailor their project to fit their individual needs, choices and aspirations with the agreement of their centre.
The outcome of the project can be a design, performance, report, dissertation or artefact.
A* – E
The extended project must be a single-unit, internally assessed qualification.
Students need to produce a production log, verified by the supervisor, a written report, supplementary evidence and a presentation.
Students will be assessed against four objectives:
AO1 Manage
Identify, design, plan and complete the individual project or task within a group project, applying organisation skills and strategies to meet stated objectives
AO2 Use resources
Obtain and select information from a range of sources, analyse data, apply relevantly and demonstrate understanding of any appropriate linkages, connections and complexities of their topic
AO3 Develop and realise
Select and use a range of skills, including new technologies, to solve problems, to take decisions critically, creatively and flexibly, and to achieve planned outcomes
AO4 Review
Evaluate outcomes including own learning and performance. Select and use a range of communication skills and media to convey and present outcomes and conclusions
Mark grids are provided for each unit to demonstrate student performance at three levels for each assessment outcome, and how marks may be allocated. In general terms, progression across the mark bands is characterised by increasing:
- breadth and depth of understanding,
- coherence, evaluation and analysis,
- independence and originality.
- Feedback from HEPs suggests that the skills that students develop as part of the EPQ are highly valued.
- Some HEPs signal this by adjusting their standard A level offer for certain courses to include the EPQ.
- Others use EPQ results in Confirmation and Clearing to distinguish between students who have the same A level results.
- A number of universities and colleges encourage applicants to refer to their project in the personal statement and interviews.
- EPQs are widely valued by universities and colleges making points-based offers.
- The EPQ is not as widely offered to students as e.g. A levels.
- Due to the unique structure and assessment method of the EPQ, teachers and advisers may not feel equipped to predict a grade. If a predicted grade is not supplied, we would encourage teachers to use the reference and/or school specific URL to provide information about the EPQ and any policy for predicting grades, to help inform admissions decision making.
Links to awarding organisation websites and specifications: