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What is Psychology AS and A2 like?

I'm in year 10 and I was thinking of doing this for my A-Levels but I'm not sure on the content, if anyone could give me a little insight that'd be really helpful.

And, will it be useful for Medicine at university?
Thanks.
(edited 11 years ago)
Reply 1
Avatar for LouiseOrd
LouiseOrd
11
Entirely depends on the exam board.
I do OCR and I really got into it and have chosen to do it at uni in September.
In AS you do 15 core studies covering a wide range of topics that you have to know in specific detail. You also do different psychological approaches and perspectives as well as a basic psychological methods exam.
In A2 you do options applied, in which your teacher will teach you two of the following: forensic/crime psychology, health/clinical psychology, sport/exercise psychology or education psychology. There are LOTS of studies for each of those sections and you need to know all of them, and how to explain what the research actually means. Then you do another exam in which you have to make up your own psychological investigation from a list of research questions, then do a section on either approaches and perspectives or methods and issues (you get to pick between the two for that section).

It's a lot of work, people try and say psychology's so easy, but it's not. I know A LOT of people that got Es and Us at AS.
Reply 2
Avatar for Josh_Dey
Josh_Dey
OP
16
Original post by LouiseOrd
Entirely depends on the exam board.
I do OCR and I really got into it and have chosen to do it at uni in September.
In AS you do 15 core studies covering a wide range of topics that you have to know in specific detail. You also do different psychological approaches and perspectives as well as a basic psychological methods exam.
In A2 you do options applied, in which your teacher will teach you two of the following: forensic/crime psychology, health/clinical psychology, sport/exercise psychology or education psychology. There are LOTS of studies for each of those sections and you need to know all of them, and how to explain what the research actually means. Then you do another exam in which you have to make up your own psychological investigation from a list of research questions, then do a section on either approaches and perspectives or methods and issues (you get to pick between the two for that section).

It's a lot of work, people try and say psychology's so easy, but it's not. I know A LOT of people that got Es and Us at AS.


Thaanks! You make it sound so good but really hard at the same time :confused: I'm not really sure if I should do it, will it go well with my other (hopeful) A-level subjects? - Bio, Chem, History.

And will it be useful for Medicine? :smile:
Reply 3
Avatar for LouiseOrd
LouiseOrd
11
It would give you another area as a back up, it fits well enough with your subjects, but at the same time you can have a wide range of options. You need a good memory though, and honestly you need to be quite dedicated to it. It's not one of those A-Levels where you can cruise through it and still get ~B grade. Don't take it just as a space filler :smile:. I love it though, so interesting.


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Reply 4
Avatar for Mephestic
Mephestic
9
Original post by Josh_Dey
Thaanks! You make it sound so good but really hard at the same time :confused: I'm not really sure if I should do it, will it go well with my other (hopeful) A-level subjects? - Bio, Chem, History.

And will it be useful for Medicine? :smile:


as mentioned there is a lot to remember and you do need to dedicate time to remember it all.
its not that's its very hard, its just really heavy on the content which usually leaves you confused at times and frustrated.

it isn't something you can cruise through that's for sure-they have specifics they are looking for and you need to get your head around understanding many key terms and then explaining them, refering to them etc

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