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Anyone doing the Psychology AEA on Monday?

Ha just wondering... in a way I wish I hadn't bothered now. I was entered as I'm doing Psychology for university and my teacher said it would be a good extra thing to have. 3 hours sounds killer though.

Anyone else here doing it? Have you had much/any preparation work done for it?

Grr my last exam is Biology on Friday so in a way wish I didn't have this. Ah well it's costing the school £35 for my entry... might as well milk them for all they've got! :wink:

Reply 1

Ywiss

15

I'm supposed to be doing it too...not sure I want do after that disaster of PYA5 in which I messed up the timing completely :s-smilie:

Reply 2

Notebooksecrets

11

Not doing it, but interested to know what the content it?

Reply 3

88dr11

OP

Notebooksecrets

Not doing it, but interested to know what the content it?

• The AEA in psychology is a 3 hour written examination, which includes sufficient reading time.
You will be required to answer 3 questions, each worth 30 marks. It is suggested that you spend
about 60 minutes on each question.

• Different question types will be used, including structured questions and essays. Where necessary, information will be provided to allow you to access these questions.

• There are 3 sections to the paper.

Section A 1 compulsory structured question Interpretation, analytical and evaluation skills.
Section B 1 compulsory structured question Understanding psychological methodology.
Section C 1 essay question from a choice of 3 The application of psychological knowledge.

• Questions in each section will be drawn from across the specification content and may be answered in any order.

• Further details of the format are provided below.

Section A - Theoretical Issues and Debates
One compulsory structured question based on stimulus material, for example, a text extract or a newspaper report. You will be required to demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of psychological perspectives, approaches, issues and debates and your skills of interpretation, analysis and evaluation.

Section B - Methodology
One compulsory question, designed principally to assess your understanding of psychological methodology including ethical considerations. You will be required to consider issues of research design, data analysis and interpretation, in relation to a given situation orcontext in psychology.

Section C - Approaches and Application
One essay question to be selected from a choice of three. You will be required to draw upon principles, theories, concepts and methods from across the subject content and apply them in a specified context. You will be required to demonstrate skills of developing an argument, and organising and presenting material coherently.

---------

Basically it draws from the specifications of all a level exam boards so anyone can take it (its written by AQA) and its pretty much your standard stuff but essays can be less structured. You can't really revise for it as such you're just meant to show you can apply your knowledge. I'm not expecting to get a pass in it but you never know.

Reply 4

Notebooksecrets

11

Sounds like... fun? Lol. Good luck :smile:

Reply 5

Dark and Lovely

15

I'm doing this...even though its not actually on my exam entry form.

I'm only revising for it this weekend tho.

Reply 6

bertarina219

I'm taking it, but really not bothered whether I pass it or not (I only took it because we got a AEA class trip.) Apparently you only need 40% for a Merit though, but I suppose the marks are probably a lot harder to get in order to make sure it's the top 10% of students.

Reply 7

LaurenFah

14

Wasn't given the option to take it - would have liked to though.

Reply 8

polka_dott

14

I was going to take it.. but decided not to so I could focus on my other subjects as I needed to do well in English to get a B...wish I had bothered now cos I feel like I didn't do very well in English anyway! Especially WAR.

Reply 9

happyandjolly

yeh im doing it as well...unfortunately! i finished all my actual alevels today and cant be bothered to revise for this 3 hour exam! argh!
what is anyone actually doing to revise / is revision for it possible?!
i read a question paper and the questions are pretty much impossible and you really have to THINK! i think i might just revise some of the major principles such as developmental psycho, conformity, clinical etc and then some major studies like skinner, zimbardo, milgram, bandura etc.
what du reckon? thankies

Reply 10

happyandjolly

oh yeah, and i found the specification which is actually pretty useful and tells you what you need to know ... so maybe forget my last post about what im guna focus on. hmmm

http://www.qca.org.uk/10508.html

Reply 11

Schott

11

I have five exams next week, including this one. Monday is a killer. Have a normal module followed by 2 AEAs so in school for 7.5 hrs!

Reply 12

belovedfool

I'm doing it!
***!
Its not my last exam (second to last) but god its my longest... besides 4hour philosophy anyway.

Hows everyone revising for it? I'm just trying to get my hands on some past papers and reading over the studies from the past two years... might make some notes on some good ones I'm not sure.
Anyone else have lessons for it then? We were supposed to but only 2 of us were taking it, so we had 'lessons' in lunchtime every friday which, when I was actually there (ill for two months, then a string of family events seemed to occur on fridays) and the lesson was actually ON all we ended up doing was chatting about the question and how little we knew!

Anyone got any practise questions? I'm looking for some myself whilst typing this, but thought i'd ask in case I can't find them! Thanks.

Oh and whats the grading system - pass, merit, distinction? What do you need to get a pass if you need 40% for a merit - 10 marks?? :P

Reply 13

happyandjolly

hey, in case you didnt find any, there are some past papers and mark schemes here http://www.aqa.org.uk/qual/aea/psych_assess.php

iv gone through most of the questions and its fair to say i really dont know enough to answer any of them! oh well!

im just learning the debates at the mo because i didnt do them for pya5 and it looks like they come up quite often in the questions

yeh we had 'lessons' at lunch time for this but my psycho teacher is so pathetic and i somehow managed to have something on whenever the lessons were on that i hardly went to any and when i did, i didnt learn anything!

Reply 14

belovedfool

Oh god... kill me now 0_o I've just looked at the questions and they are HORRIBLE. Discuss one psychologists contribution to the nature nurture debate?! I know that ok, but ONE psychologist? Not a chance! I'd have either said one of the behaviourists (but what studies could you bring in that they did?) or ... i dont know!

Gah. Its a good job you only need 40% isnt it (though I read something that said a merit was 50 out of 90...?). How's everyone going about answering them then?! Structure-wise I mean

Reply 15

Dark and Lovely

15

Hey you guys who studied issues...do you think its gonna be important to know about ethics and animals?-I'm learning issues today.

Reply 16

Dark and Lovely

15

Also we'll be allowed to leave the exam early right? Cause we may finish before the 3hours is up or just lose all hope lol

Reply 17

88dr11

OP

I just keep reminding myself that it doesn't matter how I do... I just have a feeling that out of the 7 people from my school taking it, they'll all get merits/distinction and I won't get anything and I'll be all like "yeah.... >_<"

Basically my plan for revision is: debates, issues (which we never did), learn approaches again and look at key studies from AS (Loftus, Milgram, Zimbardo etc) and key areas from A2. Yeah I'm screwed and we are not allowed to leave early at my school... so it's THREE hours of sitting there... fun. Can't wait until approximately 12pm tomorrow! :wink:

Reply 18

88dr11

OP

Semi-random quetion here. Do we get told our actual marks (out of 90) on results day? Or does it just say "u/merit/distinction"? Anyone know?