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Why is psychology so popular?

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Original post by madders94
Because it's interesting, and it really is an easy A. :smile:

EDIT: Neg rep? Does someone find it hard? :confused: This is just my personal opinion, I find Psychology really easy and enjoyable.


psychology is a great subject. but i'd not recommend doing it at A level. the russel group universities made it clear that they value the traditional school subjects at A level more.
having said that psychology at A level is pretty respectable, it is not ridiculous nonsense like say media studies.
Original post by Redreynard
psychology is a great subject. but i'd not recommend doing it at A level. the russel group universities made it clear that they value the traditional school subjects at A level more.
having said that psychology at A level is pretty respectable, it is not ridiculous nonsense like say media studies.


It's one of the main reasons why I had no doubt that I was going to take it :smile: none of the Russel Group universities that I know of interest me, so it's no massive problem for me.
Original post by madders94
It's one of the main reasons why I had no doubt that I was going to take it :smile: none of the Russel Group universities that I know of interest me, so it's no massive problem for me.


???

they are massive universities, covering pretty much every subject under the sun. what does interest you if not accountancy, aeronautics, agriculture, anthropology, art, artificial intelligence, astronomy ... and that's just the letter "a"!
I've chosen to do Psychology IB next year :smile: I did not pick it because it's supposedly 'easy', I just think that it sounds like an interesting subject and I want to do something I haven't studied at GCSE level to switch it up a bit. Plus I'm still unsure of what I want to do in the future and Psychology leaves many doors open :yep:
Original post by Redreynard
???

they are massive universities, covering pretty much every subject under the sun. what does interest you if not accountancy, aeronautics, agriculture, anthropology, art, artificial intelligence, astronomy ... and that's just the letter "a"!


The course isn't really the biggest thing; although I want to do Acting which I don't think any of those, other than possibly Cardiff at the CBCDC, or Creative Studies which, as far as I know, is only offered at Bangor. I know the three Universities I'm considering - Bangor, Aberystwyth and Camarthen, as they are all relatively close to where I live - not close enough for me to live at home, but close enough for me to be able to continue speaking Welsh on a daily basis - and afaik, none of those are Russell Group universities. Plus I'm not really a prestige kind of girl - any old University or ex-poly will do me fine, as long as they offer my course :tongue:
Original post by madders94
The course isn't really the biggest thing; although I want to do Acting which I don't think any of those, other than possibly Cardiff at the CBCDC, or Creative Studies which, as far as I know, is only offered at Bangor. I know the three Universities I'm considering - Bangor, Aberystwyth and Camarthen, as they are all relatively close to where I live - not close enough for me to live at home, but close enough for me to be able to continue speaking Welsh on a daily basis - and afaik, none of those are Russell Group universities. Plus I'm not really a prestige kind of girl - any old University or ex-poly will do me fine, as long as they offer my course :tongue:


don't be daft!
you deserve the best that you're capable of.
never sell yourself short.
Original post by vedderfan94
All the people who scraped Cs and Ds at GCSE at my school take it, so that says it all really...


Exactly the same thing here. Everyone who's doing it are the lazy ones.
Reply 47
Just curious, seeing as I'm thinking of maybe taking this next year... how much science content is in the course? In Biology this year we studied a module on 'Brain and Mind', which is like how the brain works (neurons etc.). Is Psychology like that?? I haven't really been told that much about it, because I've only just started considering it (since I did that Bio topic), and so didn't look at it or speak to the teachers when I went to the sixth form open day.
i currently do english lit, history, geography and psychology

note how i said psychology last. anyway, psychology is my 2nd hardest subject, history is harder. psychology is such a gay subject at A level because i learn no transferrable knowledge or skills it basically is learn about 60 case studies of experiments and the game is how many can you regurgitate for the exam. it sucks. just think of mastermind and you have your exam.

like one question was like "evaluate research into age on eye witness testimony" I learn no transferrable skills, other than what this guy did and evaluating his experiment which i will definitely forget in the summer.

seriously stupid exam, traditional subjects are the way. i had to take it because the school insisted i take 4 AS', despite doing an AS in year 11 and got a C in it (so my 4th subject was kk) so the plan was to focus properly on 3 subjects at AS but noooooo so i picked psychology because it is interesting, obviously not.
Original post by Kimiechi
Just curious, seeing as I'm thinking of maybe taking this next year... how much science content is in the course? In Biology this year we studied a module on 'Brain and Mind', which is like how the brain works (neurons etc.). Is Psychology like that?? I haven't really been told that much about it, because I've only just started considering it (since I did that Bio topic), and so didn't look at it or speak to the teachers when I went to the sixth form open day.


If you're on AQA then the stress topic is pretty science-orientated (we learn about the different pathways, glands, effects of stress on the body, immune system etc) and then there's a few other Biology-related bits scattered around the syllabus. It's not really difficult Biology though, I don't take any sciences at A-level and I've coped fine with it :smile:
People in my college chose psychology as they thought it would be easy to get a good grade, but most ended up getting D/E/U at AS because they either didn't understand it or didn't bother revising.

If you're willing to dedicate your time to writing the essays and learning the studies you should do really well - it's more time-consuming than difficult (in my experience). It really helps if you actually enjoy it though - people who hate the subject tend to do badly, but you could argue the same thing for any subject.

In terms of science content there really isn't that much - abnormal psychology discusses chemotherapy, and there are studies into the effects of stress, that's about it really but it depends on your specification.

If people are concerned about psychology being considered soft in university applications you should be fine as long as your other subjects are more traditional e.g. a science subject, English, Maths, languages, humanities etc.
(edited 12 years ago)
Maybe if people haven't done well at GCSE subjects, they think that by doing a new subject like psychology they may be good at it? It is also very interesting, people tend to be interested in questions such as is criminality/gender genetic or environmental? However A Level does tend to suck the complexity/interest out of psych.
Original post by georgeflynn
i currently do english lit, history, geography and psychology

note how i said psychology last. anyway, psychology is my 2nd hardest subject, history is harder. psychology is such a gay subject at A level because i learn no transferrable knowledge or skills it basically is learn about 60 case studies of experiments and the game is how many can you regurgitate for the exam. it sucks. just think of mastermind and you have your exam.

like one question was like "evaluate research into age on eye witness testimony" I learn no transferrable skills, other than what this guy did and evaluating his experiment which i will definitely forget in the summer.

seriously stupid exam, traditional subjects are the way. i had to take it because the school insisted i take 4 AS', despite doing an AS in year 11 and got a C in it (so my 4th subject was kk) so the plan was to focus properly on 3 subjects at AS but noooooo so i picked psychology because it is interesting, obviously not.


Depends really, you learn quite alot of analytic skills when looking at studies and philosophy of science in AQA spec B. But i agree the skills you learn in English Lit are alot more usefull... however for me English Lit is the A level i name last because its so boring (to me) and useless (in terms of content not skills).
(edited 12 years ago)

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