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Studying A level Psychology Independently

How feasible would studying A level Psychology independently be? I’m 19 and planning to go to uni next year. I already studied it in year 12 at sixth form a couple years back before I dropped out.

I’d love to hear from people, especially from someone with experience studying A levels independently. Thanks

Reply 1

MindMax2000

Universities Forum Helper

Original post by Lauren 28119

I haven't done the A Level myself (I've done maths so far and looking to at least do physics, but possibly 2 other subjects), but feasible in what sense? Also, why do you need to specifically do psychology if it's not a required subject?
If you don't have 3 full A Levels or the specific psychology degree requires psychology/biology (most don't), then I can understand doing the subject yourself.

None of the 5 UK A Level exam boards require you to do any coursework, so you're fine in terms of skipping the practical assessments. See:
https://www.eduqas.co.uk/media/t3xf3yae/eduqas-a-level-psychology-spec-from-2015-e-28-06-2022.pdf
https://www.wjec.co.uk/umbraco/surface/blobstorage/download?nodeId=8922 (yes, I know eduqas is practically the same as wjec, but I included them for being exahustive)
https://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/psychology/as-and-a-level/psychology-7181-7182/specification-at-a-glance
https://ocr.org.uk/qualifications/as-and-a-level/psychology-h167-h567-from-2015/specification-at-a-glance/
https://qualifications.pearson.com/content/dam/pdf/A%20Level/Psychology/2015/specification-and-sample-assessments/AL-Specification-Psychology.pdf
Having said that, if you intend to do the A Level privately, you're more likely to pick a course that goes by the EdExcel or AQA spec as opposed to the other ones.

Psychology isn't one of those subjects where you would need a lot of ongoing support, and you can very much read up on a lot of the material.

If you're referring to financial viability, then it depends on how you want to go about it. Irrespective of which route you take, you would ultimately need to take 2-3 exams (depending on the exam board you chose) at an approved proctor exam centre (exam and admin fees apply - typically around £350-500 depending on the centre). Possible ways of studying the A Level include:

•

Picking up the textbook specific to the exam board and reading up the material yourself - about £50, depending on the exam board and whether you want to buy the book second hand

•

Do an online course specific to the exam board that you want to do it under - costs vary from £395 to £800.

All in all, the max you would be spending would be £1300, with £400 being the min.

Do note, if you intend to take the exams, you would need to register your booking with an approved exam centre by February to avoid late fees (bookings are open from November), and up until April for the final cutoff.

If you're referring to time, then it depends on the amount of time that you have. A typical A Level takes 300 hours to go through the material (less time for you since you have already gone through a lot of the AS material), and another 300 hours on top for revision. If you want to go all out, you can cover all the material in a month (10 hours a day for 30 days straight - overkill in my opinion), or you can spread it out over the course of 7 months (assuming you intend to sit your exams this year) which can amount to roughly 11 hours a week i.e. the equivalent of a part time job (neither calculations involve the revision, so you would either need to double those figures or double the timespan). I don't recommend doing 20 hours of studying a day, so I would have at least 4 months' of prep time for material and revision.

If you mean whether you can do it, then I don't know. It depends on you and I know next to nothing about you.

If you can be more specifically about what you meant by feasible, then I might be able to point you in the right direction.