Personal Interest Project: Where you should be

[beatroot]

Hello Class of 2018’s SAC students! Hope everyone is going well with their PIPs. As you may know the PIP consists of 5000 words and is due around trials. Confused on where you should be right now? Here are my suggestions on how to manage your PIP throughout the next three terms.

Term 1: October - December

During this time, your PIP proposals should be made. In your proposals, the following should be included:

- Proposed hypothesis/title/question
- Your aim
- Your goals
- Relevance to MMM levels
- Concepts you want to use (fundamental + additional)
- How the PIP will make you a socially and culturally literate person
- Statement of your cross cultural comparison
- Primary research methods you wish to use (min. three) and why you think they are the most appropriate for your PIP
- Ethical considerations of your primary research methodologies
- Where you will have your log book. If it’s an online logbook, include its link in the proposal.
- Possible resources you want to use

(*Please note this is how my teacher structured our PIP proposals. Your teacher may have more dot points or less.)

This term is so crucial. Don’t rush your PIP proposal or anything. Make sure you do some extra reading on your topic before choosing it. You can check out more information on how to plan your PIP in this guide.

Hopefully by the end of the term, your teacher would have given you feedback for your proposal. If not, do not worry! You can use this extra time during the summer holidays to do secondary research.

NOTE: UPDATE YOUR LOGBOOK AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE.

Summer holidays:

I would suggest either getting 30% to 70% of your secondary research done. Use this time to visit the State Library, read online articles and observe the latest trends in the news. Do whatever secondary research that is most appropriate for your PIP. Just remember that your PIP is due around trials. You really don’t want to be doing your PIP last minute when your trials are just around the corner. By doing secondary research, you’re able to explore the information given to you and give you an idea what you want to do for your primary research. Ideally you would want to get one primary research method done during the summer holidays. Most people do questionnaire as their first method because this is the easiest to make the easiest to send out. The most primary research you do for your PIP, the more you will feel motivated and feel a sense of achievement.

NOTE: RESOURCE ANNOTATIONS MUST BE DONE EVERY TIME YOU USE A SOURCE. DO NOT DO THIS AT THE LAST MINUTE!

Term 2: February - March/April
I would recommend submitting TWO chapters to your teacher to get marked. Take advantage of this time whilst other people in your class are still working on their chapters. Your SAC teacher is more likely to give you extra feedback because they aren’t under pressure to accommodate for the other students. In this term I would also suggest getting 50%-70% of your primary research done. It is ridiculously time consuming especially if you’re doing an interview and/or a focus group. Transcripts take a long time to do! Secondary research is essential too and like your primary research, 50%-70% of it should be done. The more research you do, the more of your chapters get done! Term two is the most essential term for your PIP journey because this is the longest term out of the four. Your PIP will not interfere with your other subjects because nothing much happens in this term (besides half yearlies). At the end of this term around 50%-75% of your PIP should be done.

NOTE: DO YOUR TRANSCRIPTS SLOWLY INSTEAD OF DOING IT ALL IN ONE GO. SET YOURSELF FIVE MINUTES PER DAY TO WRITE YOUR TRANSCRIPTS.

Term 3: April - July
This should be the term where you’re doing the last of your primary and secondary research, as well as submitting your third and (if possible) fourth chapter/s to your teachers. This term is the lead up to trials so you really don’t want to be doing your PIP the weekend before your trial exams. Once you’ve got your central material done and dusted, you can proceed on doing your introduction, log and conclusion. Already done your introduction earlier on the year? No problem. In my opinion, the introduction should always be done last because what’s the point in writing an introduction if you don’t even know what’s in your central material? Plus by doing your introduction last, you’re not elaborating too much and reserving the elaborating for your central material. Once you have finished your introduction, log, central material and conclusion, get them checked again by your teacher. Their feedback and their approval is crucial to getting top marks. Whenever possible, start doing your appendix. Screenshot all your questionnaire responses. Add in all your transcripts. Include all parts of your content analysis.

Term 4: July
This is the term where you should just be doing last minute touch ups. Ensure that the font you use is either Arial or Times New Roman (size 12). All your primary research results should be in your appendix. Double check your resource annotations if you haven’t missed one! Avoid doing your introduction, log, central material and conclusion during this time. You just don’t have enough time. Your trial exams should be the main priority during this term. 

Good luck everyone

[melodamn]

GOD BLESS