OCR EPQ Guide
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Phase 5 of 6

Present it to a real audience

The presentation is compulsory, it is marked, and it is about the whole project, not just what you produced.

Earns marks in
AO4 Review, AO3 Develop and realise
Your route

AO4, Review, is 12 of the 60 marks, and it covers evaluating the project and your own learning and presenting it. The presentation is where a lot of that is judged. OCR expects it to review the project against your aims and objectives, and to cover the process as well as the outcome, in front of an audience that does not know your subject.

Do this now

  1. Know what the presentation has to do

    1. It must review your project against your aims and objectives. Have them in front of you when you plan it.
    2. It must cover the process as well as the outcome: how you planned, what you decided, what went wrong and what you learned.
    3. It must be understandable to a non-specialist audience. Assume nobody in the room has studied your topic.
    4. The format is up to you. A talk with slides, a demonstration, a film or a performance are all allowed.

  2. Plan the content before you make a single slide

    Work to this order. It keeps the process in, which is where the marks are.

    1. What I set out to do: the title, the aim and the objectives, in plain words.
    2. Why I chose it: your rationale, in one or two sentences.
    3. How I worked: planning, research, and the method you used.
    4. What I decided: two or three real decisions, with the reason for each.
    5. What went wrong: a genuine problem and what you did about it.
    6. The outcome: show it, do not just describe it.
    7. Against my objectives: take each objective and say whether you met it.
    8. What I learned: about the subject, and about yourself as a worker.

  3. Pitch it for people who do not know the subject

    1. Cut every term your audience would not know, or explain it the first time in one sentence.
    2. Use a concrete example early. It tells people why the topic matters.
    3. Say numbers in a way people can picture, and put the source on the slide.
    4. Get someone outside your subject to listen to it and tell you where they got lost.
  4. Dissertation route

    Choose a format that suits the outcome

    1. Do not read the dissertation aloud. Choose the two or three arguments that carry your conclusion.
    2. Show the evidence on both sides, then how you weighed it.
    3. Make the judgement clear. Your audience should be able to say what you concluded and why.
  5. Artefact route

    Choose a format that suits the outcome

    1. Show the outcome working. Demonstrate it, play a clip, or bring it into the room.
    2. Show the development: an early prototype next to the finished version says more than any slide.
    3. Report the testing honestly, including what did not work, and what you changed because of it.

  6. Prepare for questions

    1. Write down the six questions you least want to be asked, and prepare an answer for each.
    2. Prepare to justify one decision in detail. This is a common question and a direct chance at AO3 and AO4 marks.
    3. It is fine to say a limitation exists. Naming a weakness and explaining its effect is evaluation, and it scores.

  7. Arrange the audience and the evidence

    1. Agree a date with your supervisor, and invite an audience. Other students, teachers or family can all count.
    2. Arrange the room and anything you need to show the outcome.
    3. Plan how you will prove it happened before the day: a recording, photographs, an attendance list, or a form signed by your supervisor.
    4. Prepare a short feedback form or question sheet for the audience, so you leave with their comments in writing.

  8. Rehearse it properly

    1. Rehearse out loud, standing up, with the slides you will actually use.
    2. Time it, and cut the parts that do not serve the objectives.
    3. Check the technology in the room you will use, not at home.
    4. Rehearse the opening until you can do it without notes. It is the part nerves hit hardest.

  9. Present, then capture everything straight away

    1. Give the presentation to your supervisor and the audience.
    2. Collect the feedback forms and write down the questions you were asked, with your answers.
    3. Write a log entry the same day: what went well, what did not, and what you would change.
    4. Put the slides or notes, the evidence it took place, and the audience questions and feedback into your portfolio.

Record this for the marks

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

Presentation materials
your slides, script or notes, kept as submitted.
AO4
Evidence it took place
a recording, photographs, an attendance list or a signed record from your supervisor.
AO4
Audience questions
what you were asked and how you answered.
AO4
Audience feedback
written comments from the people who were there.
AO4
Review against objectives
the part of the presentation where you judged each objective.
AO4
Activity log
planning and rehearsal entries, and your own reflection written the same day.
AO3 AO4

Worked example

Two plans for the same ten minutes

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

Weak outline
  1. My title
  2. What plastic is
  3. Everything I found out about supermarket packaging
  4. Thank you, any questions?
Stronger outline
  1. My question, my aim and my four objectives (1 minute)
  2. Why I chose it, and why it matters (1 minute)
  3. How I researched it, and how I judged my sources (2 minutes)
  4. Two decisions that changed the project, and why I made them (2 minutes)
  5. What went wrong with my data, and what I did instead (1 minute)
  6. My conclusion and the evidence behind it (2 minutes)
  7. Objective by objective: met, partly met, not met (1 minute)
  8. What I would do differently, and what I learned (1 minute)

The weak outline describes a topic. The stronger one reviews a project: aims, process, decisions, problems, outcome and learning, which is what AO4 asks for.

Common mistakes

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

  • Presenting the topic instead of the project

    A talk that only explains the subject misses the process, which is most of what this is for.

    Instead plan around aims, decisions, problems and learning.

  • Assuming the audience knows the subject

    The presentation is meant for a non-specialist audience.

    Instead explain every term the first time, and test it on someone outside your subject.

  • No evidence it happened

    The portfolio has to show the presentation took place, and you cannot recreate that afterwards.

    Instead arrange the recording, photographs or signed record before the day.

  • Letting the audience leave without writing anything down

    Instead hand out a short feedback sheet, and write the questions down while you still remember them.

  • Only saying what went well

    Instead name a real problem and a real limitation, and say what you did about each.

  • Leaving no time for it

    The presentation is a separate piece of work that is marked.

    Instead put it in the time plan with rehearsal time before it.

  • Dissertation route

    Reading the dissertation out

    Instead choose the arguments that carry your conclusion and show how you weighed them.

  • Artefact route

    Talking about the outcome without showing it

    Instead demonstrate it, and show an early version next to the final one.

Sources: OCR H857 specification, version 2.1 (June 2026), OCR EPQ Guide 3: Presenting evidence, version 3.0 (March 2026), OCR H857 moderators' report, Summer 2024

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