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Psychology A Unit 3 AQA - 17th June 2011

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Loved the neural and hormonal question but I had no idea how to evaluate androgyny or cultural differences so I've probably lost a few marks there :frown:
Original post by doubletalkinjive
Yeah, basically, PSYA3 is pretty stupid. Its practically impossible to get full marks, or even close to it- hence the low grade boundaries time after time. Three topics, and the extent that you have to learn them and know about them, is just too much which limits your ability to write good strong answers come the exam. AQA imo need to rethink this unit and either become more lenient with criteria when marking, or just reduce the section to two units that you have more questions to answer about (i.e. a few short answers questions totally 10-15 marks, then an essay question totalling 20-25 marks- for the two units).

Annagxd- yeah it was just outline. It wouldn't lose you any marks though, just none to be gained by evaluating. Hope you didn't spend too long on it.


I think a good idea is to have say two questions per topic and you can chose which to answer. They can still be in two or three parts so say Q3a and Q3b or Q4. That would be a good idea! We get that in PE on AQA - theres one compulsary essay question per topic then you chose two more shorter ones from three for each.
Reply 1522
That exam, was why I love the student room
EVERYTHING YOU PREDICTED CAME UP!

I can't remember who predicted what, so I thank you as a collective group :wink:
I did 4 pages for the Aggression question within the 30 mins :biggrin:
The psychological explanation for eating behaviour threw me, I wrote about Night Eating Syndrome? but its only five marks, so I'm not too bothered.
I also didn't have enough Evaluation for the Evolution of Intelligence, and I forgot a lot of detail about Social Theory, but meh.
Overall, think I got a B
(But if everyone found it easy, could raise Grade Boundaries. Curses!)
(edited 12 years ago)
Original post by LRainbow~
Loved the neural and hormonal question but I had no idea how to evaluate androgyny or cultural differences so I've probably lost a few marks there :frown:


Evaluating cross cultural: langauge barrier / measuring outward behaviour not internal beliefs / samples differ in each culture so may be different each time! / self report / and more but i cant remember right now! :P
Reply 1524
Original post by liamcol123
How did everyone structure the 16 marker on disrupting bio rhythms? It was a bit daunting, as I have a lot of AO1 on that... I jus' kinda, said a few studies, evaluated them, said about implications and individual difference blah blah, but I just feel I didn't get enough AO2 marks :/


Hi again :tongue: Yeah I agree. And it was only 4 marks for AO1! I talked about Czeisler/Armstrong for shift work and Schwartz for jet lag which I evaluated with gender bias, longitutinal etc etc and went into how you could combat Jet lag. Still feel not much A02/3 though :/
Original post by Stephhcharlene
Evaluating cross cultural: langauge barrier / measuring outward behaviour not internal beliefs / samples differ in each culture so may be different each time! / self report / and more but i cant remember right now! :P


Yess I think it's safe to say I'll be getting very few marks for the evaluation then. :'D Hoping for lower grade boundaries again like they had in January <3
Original post by Stephhcharlene
I think a good idea is to have say two questions per topic and you can chose which to answer. They can still be in two or three parts so say Q3a and Q3b or Q4. That would be a good idea! We get that in PE on AQA - theres one compulsary essay question per topic then you chose two more shorter ones from three for each.

Yup they do that wth sociology pretty much. Few short answers, which shows your knowledge. Then you have to pick one essay question. Not great, but works slightly better I think (although their essays are worth 33 marks :| )

Either way- if the boundary for an A is persistently in the 40s out of 75 marks, a figure of around 60-65% it shows that clearly there are problems with this unit.
Thought the sleep and relationships question went well thanks to those who predicted it would be in that direction. Don think i did that well on the aggression one, talked about dopamine and testosterone with hamsters etc.. and put in the phinius gage study was that meant to go there or not anyone?
Original post by OpenHorizons
Thought the sleep and relationships question went well thanks to those who predicted it would be in that direction. Don think i did that well on the aggression one, talked about dopamine and testosterone with hamsters etc.. and put in the phinius gage study was that meant to go there or not anyone?


:five:

I put in Phineas Gage too, his case study is useful for explaining that brain structure can affect aggression as well as neural and hormonal mechanisms.
Original post by doubletalkinjive
Yup they do that wth sociology pretty much. Few short answers, which shows your knowledge. Then you have to pick one essay question. Not great, but works slightly better I think (although their essays are worth 33 marks :| )

Either way- if the boundary for an A is persistently in the 40s out of 75 marks, a figure of around 60-65% it shows that clearly there are problems with this unit.


Definately. Then again are they not redoing the spec for next year anyway? :P Might be why!
Aggression - great :biggrin:
Relationships - alright :smile:
Gender - not great - only had time to answer cross cultural studies question ¦\

Elaborated all evaluation though so mark shouldn't be too shabby
Original post by LRainbow~
Loved the neural and hormonal question but I had no idea how to evaluate androgyny or cultural differences so I've probably lost a few marks there :frown:


Exactly the same as me, i thought i did well on the eating and aggression but gender has let me down immensely :frown: i nearly ended up crying in the exam because my mind went blank and all i could write was about Mead to which i quoted she was Bem so got that wrong :frown:
Original post by Stephhcharlene
Definately. Then again are they not redoing the spec for next year anyway? :P Might be why!

Are they? Grrr, that's annoying.

Oh well, best move on and prepare for the PSYA4 exam. I got 67 for this PSYA3 in Jan, which at the time meant I needed 76 or less on PSYA4 to get an A. So any improvement on 67 would be very much welcomed.
Reply 1533
brain structure allowed for neural mechanisms???
(edited 12 years ago)
Original post by doubletalkinjive
Are they? Grrr, that's annoying.

Oh well, best move on and prepare for the PSYA4 exam. I got 67 for this PSYA3 in Jan, which at the time meant I needed 76 or less on PSYA4 to get an A. So any improvement on 67 would be very much welcomed.

Yeah I think thats what someone else said :/
Sleeping went well, aggression was awesome, eating on the other hand.... :frown:
Eating Behaviour: great
Sleep: good
Relationships: good, only missed one evaluation point of Hazan and Shaver

wrote 7 and a bit pages, no time worries at all.
What a relief that group displays of aggression did not come out! :biggrin:
I ran out of timeee! (again). I doubt I got more than 7 for Eating.
Uh it's so annoying because I could have written so much more.

But overall, the best questions to possibly get. Good predictions guys! I think I did so much better than January.
:smile: :smile:

Relationships - good
Aggression - great
Eating - uuuuuh :frown:
(edited 12 years ago)
Does sleep deprivation count as a disruption of a biological rhythm? Spent so much time writing about it that I didn't have time to mention jet lag, so I'm hoping it's relevant.

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