AQA A2 Psychology PSYA3/PSYA4 Revision Thread 2015

Guaranteed A/A*? I wish...

im not sure if it's just my teacher being a b*tch but I learn it all and write it in an essay format etc but she always marks me down for saying 'this theory' in my ao2 when I just DESCRIBED THE BLOODY THEORY FOR A PAGE!!!! OMGGGG

so I do a whole essay and get C/B for not linking back at the end of my ao2 points

what topics are you doing?

I'm doing:

Unit 3 - Biological Rhythms, Relationships, Eating Disorders
Unit 4 - OCD, Media, Research Methods

I like all of the topics. Managed to get an A at AS, with 92 UMS in both AS units. Iv finished being taught unit 4 and half way through the unit 3 topics.

Iv done all my notes for unit 4. How should I go about revising it again for the real exam? Shall I re-write my notes? Also, do you suggest writing out every essay for unit 3 and memorising?
Last year I did A4 colour coded notes, flash cards and mind maps which seemed to work well. Any suggestions on better techniques? I'm starting my revision for summer exams next week (not that I haven't been doing notes etc all year but this is proper revision) :-)


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Tbh memorising essays is the best thing to do for Unit 3, every teacher ive met recommends it lol. Cuz it's the same questions within the sub topics, nothing will change. I've got mine all written out just gotta memorise a few bits.

And in the exam you won't get marked down for it, dw. That's how i prefer it too

PSYA3 I think is easy because you just memorise essays, correct? lol

What I did is get the Loopa books. But I rewrote all of the essay questions, with different studies and took some parts out and added it in etc. So I've finished PSYA3 just need to memorise more topics and im done.

The same will be done for media and schizo but that'll take more effort im afraid... so hopefully it goes well, not liking psychology now because I used the loopa books to see how I would do in my mock for PSYA3 to see what grade I would get. I got a D+

I emailed loopa to find out why? He said because teachers love the PEEL method and don't prefer the AO1 first then AO2 as it should be ongoing evaluation, however examiners love it because it is easy to mark and it is structured out to see what is AO1/AO2 more clearly, which is understandable. So hopefully I don't get marked down in the exam lol

I'm doing:

Unit 3 - Biological Rhythms, Relationships, Eating Disorders
Unit 4 - OCD, Media, Research Methods

I like all of the topics. Managed to get an A at AS, with 92 UMS in both AS units. Iv finished being taught unit 4 and half way through the unit 3 topics.

Iv done all my notes for unit 4. How should I go about revising it again for the real exam? Shall I re-write my notes? Also, do you suggest writing out every essay for unit 3 and memorising?
Last year I did A4 colour coded notes, flash cards and mind maps which seemed to work well. Any suggestions on better techniques? I'm starting my revision for summer exams next week (not that I haven't been doing notes etc all year but this is proper revision) :-)


Posted from TSR Mobile

I prefer doing it the same way too! I'm glad I'm not the only one! All of my classmates do PEEL method...I'm the only one who do it AO1 first, then all AO2 next

Just make sure all your essays are worth 17/24 -> 24/24 and you should get an A/A* in PSYA3! If you're not sure, ask your teachers to mark it and ask what you'd need to improve.

You can't be marked down for that!!! That's really bad!!! Teachers should always be 'looking to give' marks, instead of marking you down! That's really unfair, and I'm glad my teacher isn't like that. Both of my psychology teachers are examiners, and they always say that they're meant to look for things to give you points, not mark you down! And even if you didn't link it back at the end of your AO2 points, they shouldn't mark you down. Your grades should depend on the overall quality of your essay, i.e. how much AO2 points and Issues, Debates, Approaches you included!

I'm doing Aggression, Gender, and Relationships (PSYA3) and Schizophrenia and Addictive Behavior, as well as Research Methods (PSYA4). What about you?

Me too I love doing it this way! though my teachers never agree so i always get a D+ for my essays but I know if it was in the exam, it'd be way higher!!

what grade do you normally get? Finally someone that does it the same way as me haha.

Yeah.... It's kinda unfair but I guess it's just helping me now making sure that I do link back. Also I got 17/24 in a practice essay and got a B? lol, I don't like my teacher.

im doing the same for psya3! But I think I'm doing depression in 4 but we haven't started it yet.

I vary from B's/A's (around 17/24+) I know right! I've read somewhere that having AO1 first -> then AO2 makes it easier for examiners. So they don't have to search for AO2's to put marks on, and sometimes, the studies which you write as AO2, if combined with AO1 will be classed as 'AO1 only'. So you won't get marks for AO2. That's why I really think it's better if AO1 and AO2 are completely separate!

Yeah that's true. If you get 17/24 in your three essays (PSYA3), that'll equal 52/72 = which is an A* (Well it was for June 2014 anyways). If you get 15/24 for each of the three essays = 45/72 = which is an A (June 2014 grade boundaries)!!! I think your teacher marks it as a percentage type of thing. 17/24 = around 71% which is a 'B'.

That's awesome! You've not started yet?!?!? We've started both Schizophrenia and Addiction and we've already done like 1 essay for Schizophrenia and 3 for Addiction! But I think my teachers are kind of rushing through it, in attempt to finish it before March ends...

Yeah that's true. If you get 17/24 in your three essays (PSYA3), that'll equal 52/72 = which is an A* (Well it was for June 2014 anyways). If you get 15/24 for each of the three essays = 45/72 = which is an A (June 2014 grade boundaries)!!! I think your teacher marks it as a percentage type of thing. 17/24 = around 71% which is a 'B'.

That's awesome! You've not started yet?!?!? We've started both Schizophrenia and Addiction and we've already done like 1 essay for Schizophrenia and 3 for Addiction! But I think my teachers are kind of rushing through it, in attempt to finish it before March ends...

Hi!!!! If A4 colour coded notes/flash cards/mind maps worked well for you, you should stick to it! For Unit 3, I have just written every essay possible for Gender and Aggression(still need to do Relationships ) and I'll start memorizing it as soon as I've finished the Relationships essays! I guess the only way to learn it properly, is to memorize it and keep re-writing it again and again and again!!! It'll take time and effort, but effective once you've memorized every essays! Some better techniques, are instead of doing re-writes, speak your essays out loud and keep re-doing it until you can say the whole essay without looking at your essay plans! You can then record you saying your essays and listen to it on the bus, or wherever and keep reminding yourself of the essays and even say it along in your head, whilst your listening to yourself reading out your essays

Hey!! Great thanks for the advise! OMG you've already written out almost every essay?! How?! I haven't even finished being taught unit 3!!


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Wait what?! We haven't started the ESSAYS for A4 yet but we have done research methods and anomalistic

thats an A*?? Are you sure?


Yeah well, it's probably best just to finish it asap so we have more time to revise and go over them, I just hope research methods is good because I don't particularly enjoy anomalistic

DUDE
you totally get my drift about the whole "easier for examiners" part lol! That's what I do!
The funny thing in my mock exam when i did it separately the AO2 studies i put she put next to it "AO1" im like dude are you kidding me??

I deffo prefer this method and well done dude!

Hahaha! And really?!?! That's annoying. Maybe you didn't evaluate it or something? Or you put the evaluation in a separate paragraph? Or maybe you didn't put "A research to support/contradict..."? If you did evaluate it in the same paragraph and put "A research to support/contradict"...then I don't know what your teacher thought, to make it an AO1

Same, one of my teacher even gave us essay plans format with the PEEL method thing for homework, but I just ignored it and used my other teacher's format, with AO1 and AO2 separate. And thanks! I've got mock week in 2 weeks, and I'm getting worried. hahaha. Learning around 20+ essays is going to be really hard!!!