When you're revising for your GCSE exams, you want to make the most of your study time.

So, we invited the experts at the AQA exam board to share their tips and advice on preparing for GCSE Psychology exams.

The article that follows has been written by an AQA curriculum expert, based on their years of experience in the assessment of their subject.  

You can find more articles in this series, covering a range of subjects at both GCSE and A-level, over on our revision section.

Also on The Student Room, you can find student discussion of 2024 GCSE exams.

Answers written in the margins, or in blank spaces below other questions, can result in complete answers not being scanned correctly. Use the additional pages and make sure you clearly identify the question number to which your response in the additional pages refers, for example, writing ‘21.4’ rather than just ‘21’.

This is important if you are to provide answers that directly address the requirements of the question.

If you don’t answer all the parts of the question, you will not be able to get full marks. Students often think that spending time writing long answers will get them more marks, but this isn’t always the case - there is a limit to how many marks you can get for each part of a question.

So, it is more important to make sure you answer all parts rather than spending valuable time writing a lot about the part you know the most about.

Plan your essays and think about how the points fit together to make a clear and coherent essay.

We sometimes see students simply referring to the names of people in the scenarios, which isn’t enough. Consider writing about the relevant theory or concept, then stating ‘this can be seen in the case of X when he/she…’ It’s important to make the links between the theory or concept and the specific content outlined in the scenario.

This can also be an extension of the previous idea. If it’s an extension of a previous idea, make sure the extension is clear and reads like a natural progression from the previous sentence.

You should include detail about the aims, method, results, and conclusions. You might consider labelling your margin with A, M, R, and C, to help you remember all the necessary detail to be included.

For example, for a 9-mark synoptic question, more than half the marks are for evaluation. It is important to remember to not spend too much time on description part of the question.

Marks are only awarded for the bullet points that follow a phrase such as “you need to include” or “in your answer.” You might find it helpful to tick off each bullet point as you answer it.

For example, if you are asked to define what a false memory is, do not say it’s a memory that is false. It would be better to say it is a memory of an event that has never happened but feels as if it did.