AQA EPQ (7993): Specification, Production Log and Grades

By Michael Thompson · Education Specialist; 10 years teaching the IB at Bromsgrove School · Published 24 October 2026 · Updated 25 October 2026

The AQA Extended Project Qualification (EPQ), specification code 7993, is a standalone Level 3 qualification first assessed in November 2008 and worth half an A-level - 28 UCAS Tariff points at A* grade. Students complete 120 guided learning hours in total, culminating in a project product, a written report, and a live presentation assessed against a single mark scheme out of 50 marks. The qualification is graded A* to E, with grade boundaries that have been stable since at least June 2024. Whether you are choosing a topic, filling in your Production Log and Assessment Record, or trying to understand what the mark scheme rewards at each grade, this guide covers the AQA EPQ specification in full.

Key Takeaways

In This Article

  1. What Is the AQA EPQ (7993)?
  2. What Students Must Produce
  3. The AQA EPQ Production Log and Assessment Record
  4. The Presentation
  5. The AQA EPQ Mark Scheme: Four Assessment Objectives
  6. AQA EPQ Grade Boundaries and What They Mean
  7. What the Grade Descriptions Say: A*, C and E
  8. Common Pitfalls: What the June 2023 Examiner Report Found
  9. How AQA Differs from Other EPQ Boards
  10. What to Do Next

1. What Is the AQA EPQ (7993)?

The AQA EPQ is the AQA Level 3 Extended Project Qualification, specification code 7993, first assessed in November 2008. It sits alongside A-levels as a standalone qualification and carries half the UCAS Tariff points of a full A-level. The one non-obvious detail worth knowing upfront: holding a good EPQ grade does not automatically count towards a course's entry requirements. As UCAS notes, a qualification receiving Tariff points does not guarantee it will be accepted for a specific course, so you need to check each university's offer conditions individually.

According to the AQA specification, the qualification requires 120 guided learning hours in total, of which AQA recommends 30 for the taught skills element. The remaining hours cover research, production, and the presentation. It runs in both the June and November series, is not available to private candidates, and is assessed in English only.

UCAS Tariff points for EPQ 7993

GradePoints
A*28
A24
B20
C16
D12
E8

One mark scheme covers every project type, whether a research essay, a physical artefact, or a performance treated as an artefact product. There is no separate performance route under the AQA 7993 specification.

2. What Students Must Produce

The AQA EPQ follows a five-step process set out in the specification (7993):

  1. Choose an area of interest.
  2. Draft a title and aims for formal approval by the centre.
  3. Plan, research and carry out the project.
  4. Deliver a presentation to a non-specialist audience.
  5. Provide evidence of all stages of project development and production for assessment.

Every project, regardless of type, must include a written report. The word-count requirement depends on what you are submitting:

Project typeWritten report requirement
Research-only (essay, extended report, investigation)Approximately 5,000 words
Artefact project (including any performance, film or composition)Minimum 1,000 words

The non-obvious point on artefacts: AQA has no separate performance route. A film, musical composition or live performance is classified as an artefact product and follows the same rules as a physical artefact, including the 1,000-word minimum report requirement. Large artefacts do not need to be physically submitted. Photographs of each stage of development and the final product are acceptable evidence.

One practical trade-off worth noting: choosing an artefact route does not reduce the overall workload simply because the word-count floor is lower. The Production Log and Assessment Record, the presentation, and all five process stages are still required in full.

3. The AQA EPQ Production Log and Assessment Record

The Production Log and Assessment Record is the backbone of every AQA EPQ submission, not an afterthought to fill in at the end. According to the AQA 7993 specification, it must document seven distinct things:

One requirement catches students off guard: all substantive advice given to you must be recorded by you in the log and then confirmed by your supervisor. It is not enough to mention a conversation happened - the action you took as a result must also be there.

Three compulsory elements must be submitted: the log itself, the written report, and evidence of the live presentation. AQA's June 2023 examiner report reminds centres of the note on page 3 of the Production Log: "failure to complete or submit a compulsory element may result in a mark of zero being awarded."

The non-obvious risk is in how AO1 is marked. AQA's June 2023 examiner report found that some centres encouraged students to use the log mainly to plan an essay rather than to plan and manage a project. Logs completed that way do not attract high AO1 marks. The same report noted that "retrospective diaries were not an adequate replacement for the Log entries." Keep the log current throughout the project, not as a narrative written after the fact.

4. The Presentation

The presentation is one of three compulsory elements in the AQA EPQ. Miss it, and the Production Log's own note, quoted in AQA's June 2023 examiner report, warns that "failure to complete or submit a compulsory element may result in a mark of zero being awarded."

The audience must be non-specialist. According to the specification, permitted media include flipcharts, posters, Prezi, PowerPoint, or short video excerpts. There is no prescribed time limit anywhere in the specification, so your centre sets its own expectations.

One detail students often overlook: the presentation record in the Production Log and Assessment Record must include examples of questions from supervisors and the student's responses to those questions. The supervisor records the relevant questioning. This means the presentation is partly assessed through what you say in the Q&A, not just the slides or poster you prepare beforehand.

Practically, this has a counter-intuitive implication. A polished slide deck with a weak Q&A response leaves a thinner record than a straightforward poster backed by confident, documented answers. The record of questioning is what the log captures, and the log is what the moderator reads.

Treat the Q&A as part of your preparation, not an afterthought.

5. The AQA EPQ Mark Scheme: Four Assessment Objectives

The AQA EPQ uses a single mark scheme across every project type: essay, artefact, performance, film, and composition are all assessed against the same four Assessment Objectives, for a total of 50 marks.

Assessment ObjectiveFocusMarksWeighting
AO1 ManagePlanning and managing the project1020%
AO2 Use ResourcesFinding, selecting and using sources1020%
AO3 Develop and RealiseProducing the project product2040%
AO4 ReviewEvaluating the process and outcome1020%

AO3 carries double the marks of any other objective, which means the quality of the final product matters more than anything else. That said, a weak production log will drag down AO1 and AO2 scores regardless of how polished the essay or artefact looks.

The marking process works on holistic best-fit judgement: supervisors judge which mark best fits the student's work against the criteria, and AQA's moderator then re-marks a sample of each centre's work to check consistency.

One counter-intuitive point from AQA's own examiner findings: high marks in AO1 require evidence of detailed project planning, not just essay planning. Centres where students used the Production Log mainly to draft and refine an essay, rather than to plan and manage a project as a whole, saw lower AO1 scores. The AO rewards project management evidence, including changes to the plan and the reasons behind them, not writing craft alone.

6. AQA EPQ Grade Boundaries and What They Mean

The AQA EPQ uses a six-grade scale: A*, A, B, C, D and E. Any mark below the E threshold is recorded as U (unclassified). All marks are out of 50, which is also the maximum raw mark for the single-component qualification.

The boundaries for the June 2026 series, per the AQA Level 3 EPQ grade boundaries document, are:

GradeMinimum mark (out of 50)
A*45
A40
B35
C30
D25
E21

These boundaries have been unchanged since June 2024.

One practical point worth knowing: the gap between each grade is exactly 5 marks from D (25) up to A* (45), but the E boundary sits at 21, only 4 marks below D. A candidate scoring 20 receives a U.

If you do not achieve the grade you were aiming for, the AQA EPQ specification allows re-sits any number of times within the specification's shelf-life, provided each attempt uses a new title and goes through the full project process from the start. You cannot simply resubmit the same work.

For the current series boundary PDF, check the AQA grade boundaries page directly, as boundaries are published each results day and the document is updated per series.

7. What the Grade Descriptions Say: A*, C and E

The AQA EPQ specification includes grade descriptions for A*, C and E. These are not precise mark-scheme criteria but indicative profiles of what work at each level looks like; the specification says the award depends on how far the student has met the assessment objectives overall, and that "Shortcomings in some aspects of the project may be balanced by a better performance in other aspects".

At A*, the specification describes students who demonstrate "highly organised" working, use a "wide range of resources critically", and produce "full, in-depth evaluations" showing "a high level of insight." Notice that all four AOs are implicated: planning (AO1), sources (AO2), the product (AO3), and evaluation (AO4).

At C, students show "some higher level organisational skills" and reflect "effectively on the final outcome and on their strengths and weaknesses." The reflection is there, but it is not probing or self-critical in the way the A* descriptor demands.

At E, students use a "limited range of resources" and only "partially realise the intended outcomes." The project exists, but the gap between ambition and execution is visible throughout.

The non-obvious implication sits in AO4. The June 2023 examiner report noted that some students "did not clarify what they meant" by a key term in their title, meaning they were "not establishing the criteria by which they could judge their conclusions." Without those criteria, a full evaluation is impossible, and the A* descriptor's requirement for "in-depth evaluations" with "a high level of insight" is out of reach before the project is even finished.

The practical point: settle your title's key term before your proposal is approved, not in the conclusion.

8. Common Pitfalls: What the June 2023 Examiner Report Found

AQA's June 2023 examiner report for the EPQ 7993 identified the same problems appearing across multiple centres. These are not edge cases.

The word count misunderstanding is widespread. The report noted that "many students seemed to think that 1000 words is a maximum number of words for their written report. It is in fact a minimum." For artefact-based projects, 1,000 words is the floor, not the target. The report adds that where the report did relate to the artefact, "the research component was often superficial", so treating 1,000 words as a ceiling leaves marks on the table.

The Production Log and Assessment Record is not an essay plan. Moderators found centres where students were encouraged to use the log to plan an essay rather than to plan and manage a project. This is a recurring concern at moderation, not an occasional slip. The log must capture the research journey and the decision-making that shaped the eventual product. A log that reads like a tidy essay outline, with no sign of how ideas changed or why sources were rejected, will not support high AO3 marks.

Retrospective entries do not substitute for contemporaneous ones. The report was explicit: "Retrospective diaries were not an adequate replacement for the Log entries." Writing up six months of project development in one sitting at the end is identifiable and inadequate. Entries need to be made at each stage, as decisions happen.

The practical implication: treat each supervisor meeting as a prompt to update the log the same day.

9. How AQA Differs from Other EPQ Boards

If you come across an EPQ log or form with an unfamiliar name, it almost certainly belongs to a different awarding body. Each board uses its own paperwork, but the underlying qualification is the same structure.

BoardLog or record document
AQAProduction Log and Assessment Record
Pearson (Edexcel)Activity log and project proposal form
Cambridge OCRProject Progression Record (PPR)
WJECCandidate Production Record and Candidate Assessment Record

One AQA-specific point worth knowing: AQA has no separate performance route. Pearson Edexcel has a separate Performance unit (P303) and OCR lists "a performance or event" as an outcome in its own right. On AQA, a film, composition, or live performance is simply classified as an artefact product, and the same specification rules apply, including the minimum 1,000-word written report.

Beyond the paperwork differences, the four assessment objectives and the UCAS Tariff points ladder (A* 28 down to E 8) are shared across all boards, but the marking grids are not: AQA marks out of 50 (AO1 10, AO2 10, AO3 20, AO4 10), Pearson Edexcel out of 54, OCR out of 60 and WJEC out of 100. If you transfer to a centre on a different board mid-project, expect a different grid, log and set of grade boundaries, not just a different template.

10. What to Do Next

Your most useful move this week is a practical one: download the AQA 7993 specification PDF and read sections 2.5.1 and 2.5.2. Those two sections contain the exact evidence requirements your supervisor will use when marking your Production Log and Assessment Record, and the assessment objectives the moderator checks against. Most students read a summary of these rules rather than the source, which is where misunderstandings about the 1,000-word minimum and what counts as adequate log evidence tend to start.

Once you have read those sections, check the AQA grade boundaries page for the current series to see where the A* and A thresholds sit against the 50-mark total.

Read sections 2.5.1 and 2.5.2 before your next supervisor meeting. Bring any questions about evidence requirements to that conversation.

FAQ

What is the AQA EPQ marked out of?

The AQA EPQ (7993) is marked out of 50 raw marks, with AO3 worth 20, and AO1, AO2 and AO4 worth 10 each; the same 50-mark grid applies to all project types.

What are the AQA EPQ grade boundaries?

Per the June 2026 AQA grade boundaries document, the 7993 EPQ boundaries out of 50 are: A* 45, A 40, B 35, C 30, D 25, E 21 - boundaries unchanged since June 2024.

How many words is the AQA EPQ?

A project product consisting solely of a research-based written report should be approximately 5,000 words; where the product is an artefact, the written report must be a minimum of 1,000 words - the AQA specification is explicit that 1,000 words is a floor, not a ceiling.

How long should the AQA EPQ presentation be?

AQA's specification sets no time limit for the live presentation; it must be delivered to a non-specialist audience and the supervisor must record the questions asked and the student's responses in the Production Log.

Is the EPQ AQA or Edexcel?

The EPQ is offered by multiple awarding bodies including AQA (code 7993), Pearson (Edexcel), OCR, and WJEC; the qualification carries the same UCAS Tariff points and shares the same four assessment objectives regardless of board, but each board has its own log name and procedures.

Do AQA EPQ grade boundaries change each year?

The AQA EPQ grade boundaries for 7993 have remained the same across June 2024, November 2024, June 2025, November 2025, and June 2026, though AQA publishes a new boundary set for each series and students should check the current document on AQA's grade boundaries page.

References