OCR EPQ Guide
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Phase 1 of 6

Find and lock your title

Choose a topic you care about, narrow it until it is a question you can answer or a brief you can build, then plan it and get it approved.

Assigned as
Task 1: Record of initial ideas
Task 3: Create a Time Plan
Task 4: Verification of Topic and Title
Task 6: Aims and Objectives
Earns marks in
AO1 Manage, AO4 Review
Your route

OCR's Summer 2023 moderators' report says the choice of topic "informs the whole project". The first strand of AO1 marks how well your topic was selected, and the top band needs a topic that is "targeted and focused and provides extensive scope for project development". Your aims and objectives are also what you evaluate against at the end, so vague aims cost you in AO4 as well.

Do this now

  1. Record your initial ideas

    1. Write down at least ten possible topics. For each one, note why it interests you: a subject you study, a hobby, a career plan, or something new you want to learn.
    2. Use a mind map if it helps. OCR suggests mind maps and skills audits as ways to choose.
    3. Do not ask your supervisor to choose for you. They are not allowed to suggest topics or research questions, but they can help you refine your own.
    4. Keep the whole list, including the ideas you reject. It is evidence that you explored a range of ideas.

  2. Cut the list down

    Test each idea against these questions. When you reject one, write a line in your log saying which test it failed.

    1. Interest: will you still want to work on it in six months?
    2. Scope: is it too big for about 90 hours of your own work, or too small to fill them?
    3. Overlap: does it repeat content from a course you are taking? The EPQ must go beyond your other qualifications, not reuse their material.
    4. Resources: can you find credible sources on it? For something you make, can you get the materials, tools and guidance you would need?
    5. Safety and ethics: would it put you or anyone else at risk, or need research you cannot do ethically?

    If you already have one area you really want to study, test that idea properly rather than inventing alternatives to reject.

  3. Choose your route

    Your outcome decides which route you follow for the rest of this guide.

    • Dissertation route: a dissertation of about 5,000 words. It deals with arguments, ideas and evidence about your question. Your decisions and reflections go in your PPR and log, not in the dissertation.
    • Artefact route: an artefact, a performance or event, or a report of an investigation or study. Each of these also needs a written piece of about 1,000 words. For an artefact, performance or event, the written piece works best as a report on how you managed and developed the project.

    Choose the outcome that best achieves what you want the project to do, and write the reason in your log. An artefact is not the easier option: moderators say artefacts "need to be planned for from the beginning of the project". Then set Your route at the top of this page to hide the steps that do not apply to you.

  4. Dissertation route

    Turn your topic into a question

    1. Write your title as a question that needs a judgement, not a description. Openings such as "To what extent", "How far" and "Should" make you argue a case.
    2. Narrow in stages: topic, then one aspect of it, then a specific question with limits such as a place, a time period or a group of people.
    3. Test it: could two sensible people reach different answers? If not, it is a description, not a question.
    4. Check that credible sources exist on both sides of the question before you commit to it.
  5. Artefact route

    Turn your idea into a brief

    1. Write a brief, not a research question. Moderators say artefacts "need a clear brief rather than a research question".
    2. Say what you will make or run, who it is for, and what it must achieve.
    3. Add the conditions it must meet, such as time, cost, size or materials, so you can test the finished outcome against them.
    4. If your outcome is a report of an investigation or study, write a focused question for the investigation instead of a brief.

  6. Set your aims and objectives

    1. Write one main aim: what the project will achieve.
    2. Break the aim into objectives: the specific steps needed to reach it. The PPR has space for four.
    3. Make most objectives steps towards your outcome. Moderators say aims need to "link more fully to planned outcomes".
      • Dissertation routeFor a dissertation these are steps such as finding and evaluating sources, comparing arguments and reaching a judgement.
      • Artefact routeFor an artefact these are steps such as research, design, building prototypes, testing and writing the report.
    4. You can add one objective about a skill from your skills audit, such as learning a referencing style.
    5. Make every objective checkable. At the end you must be able to say whether you met it, because that is what you evaluate in Phase 6. There are more pairs of weak and stronger aims in the toolkit.

  7. Make a time plan

    1. Start from your submission deadline and your five supervisor meetings, and work backwards.
    2. Break each objective into small tasks, each with its own deadline, instead of one deadline a month.
    3. Leave spare time before the deadline and around your exams.
      • Dissertation routePlan drafts that change the argument, not just the spelling. Moderators find drafts that only correct typos less useful.
      • Artefact routePlan time to make, test and change the outcome, and to write the report as you go rather than at the end.
    4. Use a tool you will keep updating: a Gantt chart, a to-do list or a project app. OCR does not require a Gantt chart.
    5. When the plan changes, save the new version and write in your log what changed and why.

  8. Get your topic and title verified

    1. Complete OCR's Verification of Topic and Title (VTT) form, or your centre's own version. It asks for your project title, aim and outcome.
    2. Check your title against the form's questions before you hand it in: is it a question, a task or a brief; does it have an aim and an outcome; and if it builds on a course you take, does it take your skills beyond that course?
    3. Take it to your topic proposal meeting. Your centre approves your title; OCR does not.
    4. Write up the meeting in your log, including any changes you decide to make. Your title can still change later; if it does, record what changed and why.

Record this for the marks

What a moderator needs to see from this phase, where it goes, and the assessment objective it counts towards.

Activity log
your list of initial ideas, and a line for each rejected idea saying why you rejected it.
AO1
Activity log
the route you chose and the reason for it.
AO1
PPR, Project Topic
your chosen topic.
AO1
PPR, Rationale
why you chose it and how it links to your future plans, current courses or interests. If it is close to a subject you study, explain how it goes beyond that course.
AO1
PPR, Aims and Objectives
your aim and up to four checkable objectives.
AO1
Dissertation routeTitle question
the final question, with each earlier version kept and the reason it changed.
AO1
Artefact routeBrief
what you will make or run, who it is for and what it must achieve, with earlier versions kept.
AO1
Time plan
the first version saved with its date, and each later version kept, so the changes can be seen.
AO1
VTT form
kept with your records. It is not sent to OCR.
AO1
Activity log
notes from your topic proposal meeting, and every change to your title or objectives with the reason for it.
AO1 AO3
Dissertation route

Worked example

Narrowing a broad topic into a question

Invented for this guide to show the technique. It is not real student work.

Too broad

Plastic pollution

A topic, not a question. It could fill a book, and there is nothing to argue about.

Narrower, still a description

How do UK supermarkets use plastic packaging?

Smaller, but it only asks you to describe. Most people researching it would give the same answer.

Focused question

To what extent have UK supermarkets' own plastic reduction targets changed the amount of plastic packaging they sell?

It has a place, a group and a judgement to make, and there will be evidence on more than one side.

Dissertation route

Worked example

Aims and objectives for a dissertation

Invented for this guide to show the technique. It is not real student work.

Weak aims

Aim: find out about supermarket plastic.

  1. Research plastic.
  2. Write 5,000 words.
  3. Get better at writing.
Stronger aims

Aim: reach a supported judgement on how far UK supermarkets' own plastic reduction targets have changed the amount of plastic packaging they sell.

  1. Find and evaluate sources of at least three types: supermarket reports, government or charity reports, and academic studies.
  2. Compare the targets at least three supermarkets set with what they later reported.
  3. Weigh the evidence that any change came from the targets against other possible causes.
  4. Learn one referencing style and use it for every source.

Objectives 1 to 3 are steps towards the final judgement. Objective 4 is a skill from a skills audit. Each one can be checked at the end.

Artefact route

Worked example

Narrowing an idea into a brief

Invented for this guide to show the technique. It is not real student work.

Too broad

A game about health

No audience, no purpose, and nothing to test the finished game against.

Narrower, still vague

A board game about first aid

There is a product, but not who it is for or what it must achieve.

Focused brief

A board game for Year 7 students that teaches the recovery position. It must be playable in 20 minutes without a teacher, and players should be able to describe the recovery position correctly afterwards.

It names the audience, the purpose and conditions you can test the finished game against.

Artefact route

Worked example

Aims and objectives for an artefact

Invented for this guide to show the technique. It is not real student work.

Weak aims

Aim: make a board game about first aid.

  1. Research first aid.
  2. Improve my skills.
  3. Make the game.
Stronger aims

Aim: design and test a board game that teaches Year 7 students how to put someone in the recovery position.

  1. Review at least three first aid teaching resources and two educational board games, and record what makes each one work.
  2. Build two prototypes and playtest them with Year 7 students, with school permission, recording the mistakes players make.
  3. Change the design after each playtest, and record every change and the reason for it.
  4. Check whether players can describe the recovery position correctly before and after one game.

Every stronger objective is a step towards the finished game and can be checked at the end. Objective 4 gives a result to evaluate in Phase 6. The project still needs a written piece of about 1,000 words on how it developed.

Common mistakes

What OCR's moderators report going wrong at this stage, and what to do instead.

  • A generic, broad or descriptive topic

    In 2024 this was one of the most common weaknesses in submissions.

    Instead narrow until your title needs a judgement, or your brief has clear limits.

  • Spending weeks weighing up topics you never meant to do

    Work on choosing a topic "should not outweigh planning and management of the project".

    Instead if you already know your area, narrow that one idea properly.

  • Objectives that do not lead to the outcome

    If they are only about skills, the project is hard to plan and hard to evaluate.

    Instead make most objectives the steps to your outcome.

  • A time plan made for show

    Moderators describe timelines with research "assigned to October, planning assigned to November", and Gantt charts "coloured in with little thought to its usefulness".

    Instead small tasks with their own deadlines, updated as you go.

  • Sticking to a plan that is not working

    Candidates who did less well "stuck to topics and plans even when they weren't on track".

    Instead change it, and record what changed and why.

  • Dissertation route

    Treating the dissertation as the story of your project

    Moderators list "A dissertation is a report on the EPQ journey" as a misconception.

    Instead keep the dissertation about arguments, ideas and evidence, and put your decisions and reflections in your log and PPR.

  • Artefact route

    Choosing an artefact because it looks easier

    "Artefacts are of great value", but they "cannot be substituted at the last minute without proper planning".

    Instead choose it for a reason you record, and plan the making from the start.

  • Artefact route

    Writing a research question instead of a brief

    Moderators say artefacts "need a clear brief rather than a research question".

    Instead say what you will make, who it is for and what it must achieve.

Sources: OCR H857 moderators' report, Summer 2023, OCR H857 moderators' report, Summer 2024, OCR H857 moderators' report, Summer 2025

Checklist before you move on