How hard is A level Psychology?

How hard is A level Psychology? The board that the school does it AQA. I've already chosen my A levels (see sig), but was considering changing Law for Psychology. How hard is Psyc in comparison to English Lit, and how much science is involved?

Scroll to see replies

Reply 1

Kick

I studied Pysch for a month or so, and then dropped it for Drama. It's not hard or anything, but i had personal reasons for not continuing it. Psych isn't that tricky at first, just really boring for your first unit, I studied ethical codes of conduct that pyschologists have to adhere to, but you might crack off with a different unit. A lot of it takes the ability to do surveys, and reading through your textbook, both of which aren't hard at all unless you're against that sort of thing. It gets really interesting later on when you learn about neuroscience, cognitive thinking, the study of dreams and stuff (that might be A2 though) but look up Sigmund Freud and you'll spark an interest with the subject right off the bat!

I dunno if it's harder than Eng.Lit, i'm pretty much a natural at Eng.Lit so I find it more manageable than Pysch.

Reply 2

frosty92

Lewis :D

AS Psychology is pretty sweet, however, A2 is a nightmare.

The questions are limited. The workload is bigger.

It may be a lot better at other schools. It just happens that my teacher is terrible and I am self-teaching. He is also stuck in the USA due to the ash cloud. May he stay there forever.

I would stick with Law as it is a strong subject unless you really don't like it/want to pursue it!
Good luck xx

Reply 3

Da_hopeful_1

Not very hard at all. Im dojng the edexcel spec. There's the biological psychology which is mostly science, but that's not even difficult science, just common sense. There's a lot to remember like the research methods and some studies. Apart from that, it's a breeze .

Reply 4

Da_hopeful_1

frosty92

what's ur exam board for psychology ?

Reply 5

Noodlzzz

Psych is way easier than law.

Only a small sciece is involved, 1/6th of the course to be exact and even that is just remembering long words, not really science. Not as much written work as english lit as no coursework.

Reply 6

crowsoverhead

Psychology is pretty easy going in my opinion. Way easier than english lit which i'm finding particularly hellish at the moment.
It does get noticably harder at A2 (but then again so does everything) because the style of questions changes but I haven't done Law to compare it to.

Reply 7

favouriteworstnightmare

I'm doing AS Psychology now, and I wouldn't say it's particularly hard, but in the exam you have to go in to detail about everything. Plus, there's a lot of stuff to remember, like researcher's names, ethical problems etc. Other than that, it's pretty straightforward.

Reply 8

nicola92

psychology is pretty easy :smile:

there's just a lot of content to learn.

Reply 9

letsdothetimewarpagain

It's not particularity hard, there's a fair bit to remember though. However I think it's the most enjoyable A level that I study, which possibly makes it seem a lot easier than it is. I'm on AQA A for it.

Reply 10

GodspeedGehenna

Since they change the spec? Not very.

Reply 11

Mej

I did AS Psychology last year, on the AQA board. I can tell you compared to science and maths that I'm studying, it is so much easier. In terms, of how much science is involved in AS, its not much, well not too scientific. As you might be doing AQA there is some biological psychology in terms of responding to the environment, which are linked to fight or flight, oh and some memory stuff which i found quite useful.

But, as some have said there's a heck load of researchers names and dates to remember, which I didnt like (I thought it would be more scientific, like actual science subjects!) so I dropped it even though I got an A.

Reply 12

draikzer

Doing AQA - Just a lot to remember theories and stuff. It's nothing unmanageable. Plus with AQA you get loads of choice with what you study or even if you dont choose yourself theres a wide variety of topics. Not much science or maths, just research methods - which once you get the hang of it'll be good.

Reply 13

Rawr.ox

Put it this way.

OCR, first year is 15 studies, which is alright.
Second year, you have 72 studies (yes, 72! D; ) and in the exam you have 8 questions (from two units) and have to answer two each, so, four. And the questions are related to specific studies.
So you learn 72 studies, and have to write about four in detail, plus another like, 8, in less detail in the part B of the questions.

Fun.

At times it can be boring. But I've managed to do it, and hopefully get an A out of it -- haven't done that much work out of school either.

Edit: I'm doing OCR, not AQA. Just correcting my mistake.
Therefore, you're lucky. OCR's probably the hardest I think.

Reply 14

Kaariul

For AQA A, at least, it is simply a test of memory at AS level so it does not require a great deal of knowledge. The science that you needed for this specification was only relevant in the second part of the AS course where we learnt about stress' effect on the immune system. However, it is simplified and you wouldn't be expected to recall that much biology in the exam (hell, i was struggling to fit psychologist's names into PSYA2 exam, bar of course the major studies we needed to learn).

For A2, as said above, it does get harder but it also gets alot more interesting and i think that compensates for any extra skills you have to pick up. At A2 it is essentially just essay based, with it's own style of course, but if your taking English lit (like I am), the amount of essays should not seem so scary.

Here a few of the options available to study at A2: Relationships; The nature and function of sleep; Eating behaviour; Aggression; Psychopathology (Schizophrenia, OCD, Depression); Media psychology and quite a few more.

Reply 15

Peachesishere

I'm doing AQA and it's fine (:
I think it's better suited to certain people though, and I wouldn't suggest going into it without having much interest in the subject, it would be quite boring and you'd be less likely to remember the content.
If you work hard at it, then you'll succeed (:

Reply 16

ByronicHero

Easy. The science is minimal and very basic.

Law is much easier though.

The workload on both is quite large at AS for most people, who will need ti revise the information a lot.

TBH they are both easy so take the one you like most.

Reply 17

haithere

It's not hard as in hard to understand, but it's challenging. The workload is massive and for AQA, in A2, the exams are essay based.

If you're interested by it and enjoy it it shouldn't be a problem. The majority of the work I do at home is psychology, but that may just be because my teacher sets loads of practise essays. There's no coursework so it's more your teacher's decision.

There isn't much actual science or maths in the course.. that always seems to be what people worry about. It's a science in itself so it's not really using other sciences a lot, although you will touch on the brain and its processes a little bit.

If you're interested by the exam spec then I'd replace law for it. It's a science, so having that under your belt will be a great help, and if you want to actually do law they prefer you not to have law A level so that's something to think about.

I'd do it.

Reply 18

StarryEyed91

There is a high volume of information you have to learn for the exam because the questions involve writing long essays.
I found that you have to dedicate a lot of time to revision and make sure you actually understand the material. If you are genuinely interested in the subject (not just taking it because it seems an easy option), you should be fine :smile:

Reply 19