Introduction
You may have heard complaints from your seniors about dealing with group conflicts, or about their proposals getting rejected multiple times, or even struggling to find a suitable topic. And you have probably been inundated by emails and WhatsApp messages from your seniors to help them with the PW surveys. As much as people like to complain about it, more often than not, it’s not as bad as what your seniors might make it to be. There are of course mechanisms that can be put in place to make your PW journey easier - such as deciding as a group that everyone will be committed and not slack (e.g. through a signed “contract” to guilt-trip people who start to be lazy later during the year).
Something that I think is especially useful is for each member to have the mindset that they may end up doing more work than others. This will prevent members from being overly calculative / nitpicking about why one member is doing less work than the rest of the members etc. Of course, you should obviously speak up if a member is completely slacking and not doing anything at all, but don’t expect work to be fairly distributed 100% of the time.
The worst case scenario: let’s say your tutor doesn’t provide feedback and input, and half your group refuses to contribute in any way. Technically, if you really want to get that A, it is still possible to single-handedly tank the whole thing by yourself (I know multiple people have successfully done this, albeit with a lot of hard work on their part). Hopefully this doesn’t happen to you but if it does, be encouraged by the fact that many before you have also experienced this, and overcame it to get their A.
The PW Rough Timeline
You will first be assigned your PW group (most if not all schools do not allow you to choose your group; usually it is randomised) at the start of the year. You get your 2 topics for the year some time in March, from which you must choose 1. Depending on your school and tutor, you may be required to adhere to the given topic closely, though some tutors give you a very wide leeway in broadening the scope of the topic.
It’s hard to give a comprehensive overview of what exactly PW constitutes because it varies (drastically) from school to school. From March to September / October, the writing of the 3000-word Written Report (WR) will form the bulk of the time spent in PW lessons - this is where all your proposals, research, and ideas culminate into to form a long document. You’ll submit the WR some time in October, after your Promotional exams.
After your Promotional exams you’ll also start to focus intensively on your Oral Presentation (OP). Most students memorise their script, but some use flashcards if they really have trouble memorising. During the OP, there will be a Q&A session where the examiners ask you to explain your proposals to them. You will also be spending some time doing your Insights and Reflections (I&R), an individual task where you critically evaluate and reflect on your PW journey.
Assessment Breakdown
Source: SEAB Syllabus Document
As you can tell, approximately half of your marks come from individual tasks.
Before Promos: The Written Report (WR)
Assessed and completed as a group, constituting 40% of your total grade
Involves a 3000-word (or less) report where your group coherently and clearly elucidates a streamlined solution to address the problem that you have identified based on the topic given
Tips for the WR:
Ensure that your WR is streamlined rather than fragmented. It’s a very common problem amongst PW groups - since each member does his own section, the final WR tends to look like a series of separate ideas and solutions that do not follow a unified theme / clear flow of arguments. You should not reason that “because I wasn’t allocated a certain part, I therefore don’t have to work on that part and just focus on improving my own section”. Remember that PW is a group project; everyone should be responsible for all parts! I would recommend coming up with a summary mind-map or flowchart that allows all members to see exactly how their allocated section can fit into the unified theme and overall goal of their project.
Instead of starting a whole new campaign / startup / organization etc from scratch, it’s a good idea to research existing organisations that need help in terms of increasing their sales and reach (e.g. Unpackt.sg or Eco.le), and build from that. This way you don’t have to deal with the hassle of figuring out how to start something from scratch, rather just improve existing ones.
Come out with creative means of catching the attention of the examiners (e.g. use of a unified theme and drawings / diagrams throughout the WR that follow this theme; e.g. a palindrome to be used for advertising)
Here’s an example of a palindromic poem for my group’s WR in 2019:
Plastic. Over. Planet. We are a lost generation. We refuse to accept that There is hope for the future and we can demand change. If we work together, Toxic plastic waste, water contamination, deforestation - they trump our efforts to save the earth. It’s a lie that Our individual efforts make a difference. We have confidence in how Our personal convenience Is always more important than The environment And we want you to know this: We as a society put profit above people; greed above need. No longer will we believe that Our earth can be saved. And all this will come true unless we choose to reverse our actions. (Now read the poem in reverse) |
After Promos: The Oral Presentation (OP) | Insights and Reflection (I&R)
Oral Presentation
Basically for your OP, each group member takes turns speaking about their proposal in the WR - about 5 minutes per person. You will then answer a question from the examiners about what you have spoken about, and this will last for another 3-5 minutes each. So the order is:
Presenter 1 (5 minutes) + Q&A for Presenter 1 (3-5 minutes)
Presenter 2 (5 minutes) + Q&A for Presenter 2 (3-5 minutes)
Presenter 3 (5 minutes) + Q&A for Presenter 3 (3-5 minutes)
Presenter 4 (5 minutes) + Q&A for Presenter 4 (3-5 minutes)
[if applicable] Presenter 5 (5 minutes) + Q&A for Presenter 5 (3-5 minutes)
Don’t introduce completely new ideas in your OP since most content should be taken from your WR. You're just supposed to present what you wrote in the WR.
The OP is a component where you can easily score if you appear confident and knowledgeable - you don’t actually need to be confident, just appear confident. Pretend that you are 100% correct even if you don’t feel correct.
Your OP should take within 5 minutes individually, so time yourself and ensure that you speak within the time limit (once you practice enough, your speech timings should vary by no more than 5-10 seconds from one another). Memorise your script, but you can carry flashcards as a backup in the event that you forget your lines - you should NOT be reading from the flashcards; they are only to be used as a backup!
Tips for the OP and Q&A segment:
Practice creative and smooth transitioning between members e.g. pass on an object of interest / object that is relevant to your proposal to the next presenter - such as a glass jar that gets progressively filled, for groups doing environmental topics.
For the Q&A segment of the OP, you can spot questions that the examiners would likely ask you, and prepare intensively for them. I’m quite out of touch with examples of questions asked since it’s been 3 years since my OP but ask your PW tutor for advice. Usually, the PW tutors can come out with a rough list of questions that are likely to come out (especially if they are nice and willing to help you).
Insights and Reflection
I&R is a component where you critically reflect on your whole project, including how it can be expanded on in the future. This component is relatively straightforward - just evaluate your WR and your proposals, point out their limitations, and point out areas for further study. I can’t give much helpful tips because the I&R is highly specific and contextualised to your own WR. Your PW tutor should be able to guide you more for this component.
Final Advice
In summary, PW is a subject that is arguably easier to get an A for compared to the other A level subjects. It is important to put in consistent effort all through the year, and be willing to take the initiative to go the extra mile for your groupmates, rather than being overly obsessed about equal allocation of work (because it rarely happens). PW really isn’t that bad a subject (going in dreading it won’t help!), so it’s helpful to maintain a positive mindset towards it - this will make the subject a lot more enjoyable for yourself and your groupmates. All the best for PW :)
Contributed by Judith Ko (HCI’20)