Psychology at St Andews: A review/overview of the course

Hi! Thank you so much for sharing this! I applied for the MA for 2013 entry, and it is definitely my first choice because I love it - there is not so terribly much evolutionary psychology around so St. A. would really be great for me. May I ask you what your math grade was when you applied, and whether you did the MA or BsC?


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Hey, sorry this is late - didn't see anyone had posted on this.

Sure, I got A at maths A level, and I did it as a BSc. Since you're going for an MA, i'm guessing you come from more of an arts rather than science background? Don't worry too much about maths - its really useful, but not a deal breaker. They start you off right back at basics, just with times, divide, and square roots. It will get harder, so if you're not terribly confident at maths, its worth finding a friend who is to help you in Honours when it gets a little mind bending

Best of luck! it is a great course, and if you like evo, you are really going to love it!

Its been 8 months since my final exam in St Andrews, and I've caught myself reminiscing a quite often about my time there. So, I decided to put these thoughts to some use and post a graduates review of the Psychology course. This is of course, only my opinion, and based on the course as it was from 2008-2012, but hopefully it might be of use to a few people.

First Year: If you have done Psychology at A level, or are really keen about psychology, the chances are first year won't seem particularly new or exciting. Don't get me wrong, it is worth going to lectures, and you will learn some new stuff, but it is not groundbreaking. Your four psych lectures a week (in addition to your additional non-psych subjects you take in 1st and 2nd year) are supplemented by a 3 hour Lab. I think they call it a "lab" to make you think you will be running experiments, in fact, its basically a long stats lecture/workshop. You should go to these. They seem ridiculously easy for the first semester or two, if you've done Maths at A level, or are maths minded. However, they will soon sneak in some new stats stuff, and if you don't get it, it's going to hold you back.

Assessment is a combination of a stats exam (Multiple choice answers), lab reports (very short mini experiment write ups - just a couple of pages), a mid term exam (Multiple choice again), and a final exam (multiple choice). As you will have noticed, there is a lot of multiple choice - they really are trying to make it easy for you. That said, you still need to revise for these - they do actually test you. Also, don't worry about fluctuating grades for your lab reports - they are a poor measure of your essay writing skill, and are actually quite different your dissertation. Subjects covered in lectures this year were: Intro to psychology, Perception, Neuropsych, Cognition, Social psych, and developmental

Second year: As first year, but those of you with an appetite for psychology, you will find you get your fill. Still 4 lectures a week with a lab, although you now also get a tutorial every four weeks, for which you have to read a set paper or two, and write a short (few hundred words) report on it. Assessment is the same too, except the final exams are now half multiple choice, half short essay. The short essays should excite you - you actually have a chance to show you can do more than just pick the right out of 4 answers, and that you can actually make an argument! That said, if that thought worries you, don't fret - they aren't expecting you to re-write psychology just yet, and if you just regurgitate what the lecturer has said in a way that shows you understand it, you will do fine. Subjects this year are: Abnormal psych, Evolutionary psych, Perception, Cognition, Neuropsych and Social.

Third Year: Welcome to Honours! Now it really counts! On the plus side, you are now doing full psychology! You will recieve an introductory lecture from Gerry Quinn who will call you the Creme de la Creme, and then you will begin!

Lectures are structured a bit differently. Every monday (for both semesters) you get a stats lecture from 9-11, followed by a stats workshop from 2-5. I know its early in the week for maths, but you NEED to go to these. Your other lectures are on Tuesdays and Thursdays, again a 9-11 lecture, followed by a 2-5 workshop (although these are usually only 1-1.5 hours - they split the class up). For the first half of each semester they will cover one subject, then in the second half, they will switch to another (ie, each semester is kinda divided into two mini semesters). This actually works out quite nicely - you spend 5 weeks going in depth into one part of psych. These really give you a proper working knowledge of the subjects - namely: Cognition, cognitive neuropsych, Perception, Conceptual issues and theoretical perspectives, Clinical Neuropsychology, Developmental psychology, Evolutionary psychology and Social psychology. Oh, and you also undertake your first piece of supervised work - a 5000 word review essay. This is a great piece of work to do, and i really enjoyed mine. You also get to choose your own topic, so you can investigate something that really interests you - you won't get this often, so enjoy it!

Assessment: varies. Half the subjects will be assessed by 100% coursework, others by 100% exam. If its coursework, you get either a set question/title, a choice of two, or to set your own, within some limits. All essays are 2000 words, or 2 1000 words ones. The exams will be two questions from a choice of 4, with 2 hour time limit

By third year, you need to be reading papers regularly. Lecturers will often give compulsory and recommended readings. If you want a shot at a 1st, they are all compulsory. Reading papers is something of a skill, so it really pays off if you have read a few psych papers in the first two years. Even just one a week would be amazingly useful.

Fourth year: For the first time (if you are a pure psychologist), you will have a choice in your psych modules, and there is a fair selection to choose from. If you're into clinical psych, there isn't that much for you i'm afraid (apart from one module on emotional disorders and cognition), but there are a lot of useful ones (like Emotion, working memory, and sex and gender differences). Lectures are 2 hours, and you take 5 lecture modules in the year. These arn't really taught - lecturers will give you reading, and you will often be asked to present the papers (even individually, or in a group) the the class. There will be a lot of discussion, and lecturers will be more facilitators, rather than teachers. You are really learning yourself here, and if you haven't read the papers, everyone will know. These modules take you right up to the latest research - to areas where there isn't agreement, but lots of debate, so you will be expected to take part in it! You will have to read around it, form an opinion, and back it up. Assessments for these varies. Those doing exams will be answer 2 of 4 questions in 2 hours. Coursework modules are more varied, but usually 6-8 pages, with some choice in the question you answer.

You will also have a 2nd review essay and your dissertation. The review essay this time is a meta-psychology question - why is psychology worth while, what does it do, etc. On the plus side, its only 4000 words.

Your dissertation is 6000 words, and is a whole year module. You will get assigned your supervisor and research question at the end of third year. Yup, you don't get much choice - you can put a preference for the field, but the researcher and the research question you don't get much choice over. However, if you have a good relationship with a lecturer, you can ask them to choose you, so you can get exactly what you want, if you've cultivated a few good relationships with staff.

Other comments:

Reading: As i've said, you don't have to do much (if any) in first year, and not much in second, but the more you do then, the easier it will be later. I STRONGLY recommend getting a little program called Mendeley. It is a PDF viewer, that lets you highlight and make notes on papers, file them, sort them, and even does your references for you - APA style (you wouldn't believe how many marks people loose for not doing this right). I wouldn't have passed without it. It is also worth getting your read round how to get papers online (google scholar, web of science, how to search for journals the uni has online subscriptions too, etc) well in advance.

Feedback: St Andrews psych department has a reputation for giving bad feedback. Well, i'm now a postgrad at another (well respected) psych department, and I long for the days when i was in st andrews. It may not be great, but its faster and better than what you will probably get elsewhere.

Study groups: Well worth the time in honours.

Clinical Psych: For those of you wanting to go into clinical psych, this is not a very clinical course. There is a module on abnormal psych in 2nd year, a module on clinical neuropsych in 3rd year, and one on emotional disorders in 4th year, but this is a fair bit less than some other unis - probably because St Andrews doesn't have a clinical doctorate program. That said, it gives you a VERY good experimental psychology education, brings you right up to date with psychology research, and several of us have found our way to assistant psych posts/Clinically related masters courses. You will have to fight hard to get a clinically relevant dissertation though - there were only three supervisors on offer who did anything clinically related.

Course content generally: One thing that has really struck me moving to another department is how little qualitative research happens at St Andrews. In my four years, we never had any information on it, let alone practice with it. This means that while my stats and experimental methodology is great, i'm having to play catch up when it comes to things like Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. The course also doesn't give much time over to psychodynamic psychology - only a brief mention in first year. This is partly because they are focused so much on modern research, which is REALLY useful, but you do wonder if you missed out a little on some of the less mainstream bits of psych.

The course also has very strong Evolutionary/developmental and Perception departments. You will get lectures by big names in the fields such as Dave Perritt (who you will recognise by his colourful clothing and tri colour hair), and Andy Whiten (who looks normal). If you are into this, your are interested in this area, you will love the course.

Recommend to a friend: Absolutely completely 100% yes. Give me a choice of doing my undergrad again anywhere in the world and I would go back to St Andrews every time. It is a great course, with great staff. It is also a lot smaller than most courses (at least, when you get to honours), so you get to know people, and the lecturers a lot better.

If you are thinking of applying for this course, DO IT! Even if you're not 100% sure you'll have the grades, or make the cut. Neither was I, but it was the best decision of my life. If you've already got your place, WELL DONE! You've got one of the best psych courses in the country ahead of you. Make the most of it - you only get it once

Thanks for sharing I was thinking about doing a clinical doctorate if I can manage it.. I'm not sure, just throwing ideas around! But I am slightly concerned about being disadvantaged compared to other psych graduates at other universities about getting into a masters/post-grad/clincial doctorate course because of the limitations of the course in clinical psych. Would I be at a disadvantage?

But thanks for your review, it's made me really excited to get started!