Four Plymouth College Sixth Formers are the school’s first pupils to complete an independent study qualification that will give them a head start at university. Dominic Day, Lucy Palmer, Maisie Boyers and Tsengel Enkhbat have undertaken the AS-Level, Extended Project, in addition to their A Levels.
The qualification, which offers up to an A* grade, consists of a 5,000 word essay based on an area of interest outside of the A Level syllabus. The students have to do everything on their own including choosing a topic and undertaking research, which is why the qualification is popular with universities.
Dominic, who wants to read veterinary medicine at Bristol, researched the effect of badger culling on TB, while Lucy wrote about diagnosing and treating autism – she hopes to study Speech and Language Therapy at university. English scholar, Maisie, delved into her favourite book ‘On the Road’ by Jack Kerouac. Tsengel, who wants to be a Barrister, investigated GDP as a standard of living.
“Doing the Extended Project has given me a good grounding for university with the added bonus of being able to write about a subject that I am really interested in,” said Dominic. “I liked the challenge of being responsible for progressing the project and I felt a real sense of achievement when I finished it.”