A-LEVEL EXTENDED PROJECT QUALIFICATION: THE QUESTION IS...: THINKING BEHIND SUBJECT

The Extended Project Qualification asks something that no other part of the sixth form curriculum quite demands, that students choose their own question and then find their own way toward an answer, with far less guidance than they have ever been given before. There is no fixed syllabus here, only a topic, a deadline, and the slow, often uncomfortable process of discovering what genuine independent research actually requires. Across twenty five carefully clustered questions, this guide explores how to judge a source's reliability without an examiner there to check the answer, how to frame a research question ambitious enough to be worthwhile yet narrow enough to actually answer, and how to stay honest about a project's limitations rather than presenting a tidier conclusion than the evidence really supports. Each question is designed to provoke genuine reflection and to build the kind of independent, evaluative thinking the EPQ itself is ultimately designed to reward. Written for students standing at the beginning of their own research and unsure where to start, this book is equally valuable for teachers and supervisors looking for ways to provoke deeper reflection, and for any reader curious what real, self-directed inquiry actually feels like from the inside. No background beyond curiosity is required.