Personal Endeavour (external assessment)
Personal Endeavour: a self-directed project with evidence
The Personal Endeavour is externally assessed and asks you to design, undertake, and evaluate a self-directed project. The key concepts are proposal, capability development, project management, evidence, evaluation, and communication. Your folio should show the project's evolution: initial question, research, planning, milestones, decisions, setbacks, feedback, and a final evaluation against your own criteria. The presentation should communicate the learning, not just the product. Common traps include a vague or overly broad proposal; a folio that is a diary of activities rather than evidence of learning; a presentation that describes what you did without evaluating how you developed capabilities; and missing evidence of self-direction. Also beware of claiming capabilities such as collaboration without evidence. Use a plan-do-review cycle and keep artefacts that show your thinking at key points. Worked example: a student proposes to build and test a solar-powered phone charger. The folio includes a proposal with success criteria, a timeline, research notes, circuit trials, safety checks, mentor feedback, and a final report comparing actual performance with criteria. The presentation explains two critical decisions, one failure, and how the student's problem-solving and communication changed. Rule of thumb: an external assessor who was not in the room should be able to reconstruct your journey and judge your learning from the folio and presentation alone.