Why your teen will ask you to fill in a school or EPQ survey (and why no expertise is needed)
Last Tuesday, I was scraping congealed pasta off dinner plates into the bin when my 17-year-old Lila leaned against the kitchen door, phone twisted in her hand, that half-hesitant look teens get when they need a favor that’s slightly inconvenient for you. “Got a sec?” she said. “I need 40 more responses for my EPQ survey. Can you send the link to your book club and your old work chat? I put a big note on it: no prior knowledge needed, just answer what you think.”
I remembered immediately, back when I taught Year 12 before I had kids, I’d sit in on EPQ clinics and watch half the students stressing out because they couldn’t get enough survey responses. Most of the time, it wasn’t because people didn’t want to help. It was because people would message them back saying “Sorry, I don’t know anything about your topic, I’d be useless.”
I sent Lila’s link out, added the one line she asked me to include: “It takes 2 minutes, no expertise needed, all responses anonymous.” I got 18 responses back in 24 hours, and a dozen DMs asking “Wait, really, I don’t need to look anything up first? I’m not qualified to weigh in on teen social media.” That’s when it hit me how many adults, parents and teachers included, don’t actually get what these student surveys are for.
Lila’s EPQ looks at how different age groups perceive rules around teen social media use before bed. She doesn’t need a room full of child psychologists to fill it in. She needs regular people, from 18 to 80, to say what they actually think. That’s her data. The “no knowledge needed” line isn’t a lazy loophole for her project—it’s the whole point of the survey.
Over the years, between my old teaching role and now going through this with my own kid, I’ve picked up small, concrete things that make this process easier for everyone, no extra work required. First, if someone asks you to fill in a school or EPQ survey, don’t overthink it. If it says no knowledge needed, it means it. You don’t need to google the topic to find the “correct” opinion to put down. The student doesn’t want correct, they want your real response. Last year I filled in a survey for a 16-year-old at our local school about dog walking habits in the area. I’m not a vet or an urban planner, I just walk my cocker spaniel three times a week. I answered 8 questions in 90 seconds, hit send, and that was that. That’s exactly what they needed.
Second, if your teen asks you to share their survey for them, don’t just drop the link in a group chat and leave it. Add one short sentence that repeats the no knowledge, short completion time line. When I first shared Lila’s link, I forgot the extra line, and only got 2 responses in the first 8 hours. When I edited my message to add the 2 minute, no expertise line, I got 16 more by the end of the day. People are busy, and they automatically assume any survey is going to take 15 minutes and require them to remember stuff they don’t know. Removing that fear up front doubles your response rate, easily.
Third, if you’re a teacher supporting students with EPQs or school research projects, tell them to put the “no prior knowledge needed” line in big text right at the top of the survey, not buried in the small print at the end. I’ve seen so many student surveys that hide this information, and most people exit before they get that far. Moving that line to the header takes 10 seconds and can make the difference between hitting their sample size target or coming up 20 responses short a week before the deadline.
A couple of years ago, a former student emailed me after results day, upset that her EPQ grade was a B instead of an A, because she only got half the number of responses she needed. She told me most people she asked didn’t fill it in because they said they weren’t experts on her topic of youth sports participation. She’d put the no knowledge needed line at the end, and no one read it. That small mistake cost her a whole grade, which was a bummer because the rest of her project was really strong.
Most people look at these student surveys as annoying busywork, something to tick off a list for a kid’s grade. But they’re actually one of the first times most teens do real, independent research. They’re learning how to design a study, recruit participants, analyze data, and adjust when things don’t go the way they planned. That’s the stuff that doesn’t make it into the exam board syllabus overview, but it’s the stuff that sticks with them when they go to university or get a job.
This week, Lila’s still 11 responses short of her 50-response target. I’m going to tape a QR code for the survey to the notice board at our local library and the coffee shop down the high street this weekend. I’ll add a handwritten note at the bottom: 2 minutes, no knowledge needed, all help appreciated. I don’t know if we’ll hit the target in time for her deadline next Wednesday. If we don’t, she’ll have to adjust her analysis and work with what she has, which is another good lesson anyway. Either way, the hardest part is already done, and it didn’t require any of us to be experts. We just had to show up, tick a few boxes, and hit send.
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