Psychology AQA A PSYA1 23rd May 2012!

no it was the multistore model.. i read it over about 5 times

First question: identify two differences between STM AND LTM in the MSM of memory ...

Next question: Outline the working memory model.

Next question: identify a strength and weakness of the WMM


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I plan on taking Psychology next year as an AS, any tips on what to expect?

A year of pain and torture
I hated psychology so I'm quite biased but I found the whole course completely boring and pointless.
You are told to learn a lot of theories and case studies but I wouldn't bother learning them all in depth as I find it easier to learn the key facts for each one and talk about many ideas than learning them all in depth and only having time to write about two in detail.
Do a bit of work every week but don't overload yourself as psychology isn't the hardest subject.
Just make sure you keep up with your class and start revising a month before each exam and you should be fine! (I started revising two days before this exam as I had 7 other exams to do and psychology was my 4th subject and I still got a high C in this one (two marks off a B))
What else have you taken out of interest?

I've already taken my A-Levels, but I failed to get into University this year, so I'm going back to College to retake Chemistry and take up 2 AS's Psychology is going to be one of them, I'm unsure about the other.
But for my A-Levels I took Sociology, Human Biology and Chemsitry. Got B in sociology, C (2 ums off a B) in H.Bio and E in Chemistry thus why I'm resitting it.

I'll need to get a B in both AS's to get into University though!
I was expecting Psychology to be slightly like Sociology in the way of learning; with about 2-4 major theories to learn, remembering major names with the theories and some facts about them?

It's sorta like sociology... but worse.
I have friends who took sociology and psychology and all of them have now dropped psychology after the AS
It might just be the way we were taught at my school but apparently sociology is a lot better than psychology, and a lot easier.
Your knowledge of biology will come in handy when you get to Unit 2. You may really enjoy the subject though, who knows? It's all personal opinion
What are the options you have for the other AS?

Haha, sociology is actually really good! I was going to take Psychology to begin with, but I ended up dropping it and taking up Spanish, which I failed and dropped at AS.

Uhh- I don't know if this will work, I need to confirm with my teacher. But basically, because I did HUMAN Biology as a subject, I was thinking I could take Normal Biology?
I don't know if Universities would accept that though, I need to call them up and confirm with them if it's acceptable haha.
I'm only thinking about doing Biology because none of the other subjects my college offer really 'jump' out at me. And Human Biology was something I was good at, so maybe Biology will be the same?


Another question; What do you study at AS in psychology? I had a friend who did Psychology and in A2 she studied schizophrenia and insomnia, things like that. What do you study at AS? Is it things like Gender dysphoria?

You don't really study any cool sounding or interesting disorders at AS.
For unit 1 you study: Memory (how it works and its uses in eye witness testimony), Developmental Psychology (babies bonds to parents and others, how disruption in attachment can affect a child) and Research Methods (methods, data analysis etc).
For unit 2 you study: Stress (biological body stuffs, and stress in everyday life (like at work and daily stressors)), Social Psychology (majority/minority influence, obedience and independent behaviour (this may link to sociology but I'm not sure )) and Psychopathology (abnormality and it's treatments and therapies).
Memory in unit 1 is okay to learn but the rest of the unit is boring, especially research methods
Psychopathology is interesting in unit 2, definitely my fav part of the AS, stress was a bit dire and social influence wasn't too bad

I see what you mean! Some of it sounds interesting, some of it doesn't!
I'm so used to research methods! Sociology and Biology are full of them! That wouldn't be a problem.
Are the exams set out like a few small questions then 2 essays??
Hopefully I'll be able to pull off a B in it, I'll have to check out past grade boundaries to see what the average mark would be :

Thank you so much for your help on this! I was confused on what I would be learning and how to approach it! Hopefully learning it would be slightly like sociology in the methods of remembering it

There are 3 sections in each paper, one for every topic. They're split into 24marks each I think There is an essay worth 12 marks in one section, the rest of the questions can be from 1 mark simple knowledge questions to 6/8 mark mini essays that draw on facts and application of studies to situations. I think that's how it goes anyways (I only did 2 past papers before my exams so I'm not completely sure ).
I wish you the best of luck though! I really hope you enjoy it!

Sorry to be a pain guys, what was the 12 marker? I've gotta resit this unit :'(

Reviving a dead thread, feel so proud.

Anyways, hope you all did great on this exam , but now its my turn taking this exam on the 10th January, yes, in just over 3 months, I would have sat this exam, so I was wondering if any of you guys could provide me with any tips. I'm currently, a year 12, whoop, and I'm just nervous, because we went through an exam question for homework and despite thinking I'd get a great mark, I didn't is it true that examiners are picky when it comes to marking?

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Haha yes they are, though it's all about technique of writing the answers. To grasp this our teacher went through a paper and the questions based wrote the answers with us, telling us how the examiners want the answers to be like. Don't worry about it, you'll pick it up in no time


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I ended up getting 90/100 ums for this Psychology paper (87ums in the other one) and I had an unusual method of revision compared to most of my friends.

What I did was write a list of all the important studies which a 12 mark question could possibly be asked about, and just read each one for 5 mins, then attempted to recite it fully on paper. I did this continually for all the appropriate studies until I could recite any study that was asked. I did this all in the space of one day (roughly 6 hours of working), so it isn't too time consuming if you dedicate a set time to do it.

As for the theories and smaller studies, I didn't really find the theories too hard to remember i.e Bowlby's evolutionary theory, mainly because we had spent a lot of time in class discussing them. But I would recommend doing a similar thing and just trying to memorise them and recite it.

The content isn't hard at all, but the shear volume of studies that you have to know is what people struggle with I think and so that is what lets them down. If you can memorise one key study for each main part of the syllabus then you will do fine. For things like institutionalisation there is a study (Hodges and Tizard) I think which can be used for a 12 marker on that, or a 12 marker on privation. So try and use studies which you can use for more then one specific part of the syllabus, as then it cuts down the amount of content you need to remember.

This is my advice and it worked great for me, of course you may not find it so helpful. My main point would be to dedicate time to memorising the key 12 or so studies, once you have done this then the hard part of revision is over.

Thanks. And is it important at all to momorise the dates of the proposed theories or experiments?