Ask an A-Level Student

Hello,

I have just finished my A-Levels.
I would be happy to answer any questions you have about a-levels, revision, tips, specific subject questions and sixth form/college life.

The AS subjects I took were: Biology, Geography, History, Psychology, Critical Thinking
The A2 subjects I took were: Geography (EDEXCEL) , History (EDEXCEL), Psychology (AQA A)

Is this a good topic for a EPQ? How can addictions change the way a person's brain works, and how can giving up affect them?
Im going to explore smoking addictions,coffee adictions and video game addictions.Not sure if I'm going to study the effects on adults or children or both.

Any good websites to give me a headstart for studying psychology AQA? Feel like im going to get left behind since ive relaxed alot this holiday and there's one potential classmate whose studied psychology at gcse and i want to get a headstart at least but the strange thing was that during the taster day i answered alot of questions...guess it helps to have a taster day two days in a row....

Did you go out for lunch or stay inside and get school lunch?
Would you suggest its best to sit next to a smarter person than you in class to boost your work ethic?
What did you do during free periods?

what is honestly the best way to revise?

Hey,

What exam board did you have for Biology? What did you enjoy the most about History and what didn't you enjoy? Also I heard Psychology is really difficult? Could you tell me about Psychology? Sorry there is so many questions! I would appreciate the help!

Did you go out for lunch or stay inside and get school lunch?
Would you suggest its best to sit next to a smarter person than you in class to boost your work ethic?
What did you do during free periods?

Also I heard Psychology is really difficult? Could you tell me about Psychology? Sorry there is so many questions! I would appreciate the help!

Hello,

I have just finished my A-Levels.
I would be happy to answer any questions you have about a-levels, revision, tips, specific subject questions and sixth form/college life.

The AS subjects I took were: Biology, Geography, History, Psychology, Critical Thinking
The A2 subjects I took were: Geography (EDEXCEL) , History (EDEXCEL), Psychology (AQA A)

I was on OCR for biology. In History, I really enjoyed the women topic at AS, and the coursework (surprisingly!) I didn't enjoy the Mao/Stalin unit and homework was always very long (but worth it as practicing essay writing is key for history).

I wouldn't say psychology is really difficult. It depends what your view on it is. There are lots and lots of researchers names to remember and the studies they did, but the AS paper is mostly short answer questions (max mark = 8) and at A2 the technique for answering the questions is fairly straightforward (max mark = 24). What would you like to know about psychology? Its quite hard to think of what to say about it

I'm in a town- not a lot of big chain food outlets, but a lovely coffee shop and many chip shops as well as a metro-type supermarket, so my perspective might be different from those who're in a bigger city area, but I stayed in for lunch. I took my own food most days, because it was cheaper and also healthier [paninis are great, but not the healthiest everyday!]. There was a variety, though- my group mainly stayed in and got food from the cafe or brought our own, other groups went out more.

Sit next to someone you'll enjoy sitting next to- your work ethic won't be significantly boosted by a smart person, though if you know you just can't work sitting next to a friend who you always talk with it might be wise to move away! I found I had more genuine subject-based discussions, and found some of my most interesting ideas, sitting with friends.

A balance of work and socialising! You'll get a lot of homework, which is overwhelming if you don't use your frees... so review notes and do set tasks, but it's okay to have a few hours a week where you play cards, or sit and talk or whatever- I found this helped me to be more productive in my working frees because I had the others to look forward to! Especially when I had last period Friday free with a large proportion of my friendship group, that was one I allocated as a socialising free so long as I was in a position where my work was manageable




Which exam board will you be? [sorry to jump in, but Psychology <3].

I found Psychology to be my easiest A Level in terms of understanding the content and how to approach exam questions [I also did French & Religious Studies] although it is quite content-heavy, with memorising studies, samples, results and so on... I ended up learning a ridiculous amount of research evidence!

The research evidence aside, the subject is really interesting- with edexcel I studied 5 approaches and key issues like anorexia, genocide and stuff at AS, and then at A2 we did child, criminological & clinical psychology. All of my A2 notes, and 2/3 of my AS notes are online, if you're interested I can link you

The exams for me involved essays of up to 12 marks at AS and 18 marks at A2, but also had multiple choice at AS, they were more like GCSE science exams than extended writing exams?

Is there anything specific you'd like to know?

Hi!
I have also just finished my A-levels
I did Biology, Chemistry and Maths (all AQA)

How did your exams go and where are you going/have you applied to uni?

Our exam board is AQA (A) and your exam board sounds increasingly interesting! AS level is memory in life and social something for our two topics and I planned on dropping my fourth option to AS. That's doesn't sound as appealing to yours and I seen that it compliments Chemistry but I feel now its not the right one to select! I just wanted to know some of the content and what it is all about! Thanks for the extra information!

From what I read on different threads everyone is saying not to take it because its complicated and to many sections to remember, I was going to take it but now from what I have read it has put me off a lot haha, thanks for the information it certainly helped!

Hello, they went alright (hopefully!) I already mentioned what my firm and insurance is in post 83 (I just don't see the point of writing it out again, sorry) You?

Ah ok, skipped it!

I'm hoping for Oxford, Biochemistry - Good luck to you!

Good Luck to you too, what grades do you need?

A*AA which is terrifying me a lot! I have no idea where the A* is going to come from/if its going to come at all!

We may only hope!

I did AQA A too! Don't be put off by what you read. Psychology is a great subject

For psychology could you explain it in more detail please because all the subject leaflet explains is the 4 topic units which is annoying because I would like to know the topics in more detail! Could you tell me more please if you don't mind?!

What topics are you doing? as there are many options that your school could have chosen from. Then I should be able to talk about them

Unit #1
Cognitive Psychology - models of memory and memory in real-life (Eyewitness testimonies)
Developmental Psychology Early Social Development (attachment)
Research Methods

Unit #2
Biological Psychology – Stress
Social Psychology - conformity and obedience
Individual differences - defining, explaining and treating abnormality

I am not very good with big words so all of this means a load of gibberish! I apologise for my lack of English skills!

Cognitive Psychology: I remember looking at short and long-term memory. Eyewitness testimony relates to the influence of different factors such as age, leading questions and the "weapon effect" on memory. For example, a key study for leading questions is that of Loftus and Palmer (which came up in the my exam - Jan 2013). The "weapon effect" is that if a criminal has a weapon, witnesses are likely to only focus on the weapon and so forget other details (eg: what the criminal looked like - I think this is what it is - although I may be slightly wrong).

Attachment A key study that stands out for me in this topic is the Strange Situation conducted by Ainsworth - very young children were left in a room with their parent, then the parent left and a stranger came in. The reactions shown by the children related directly to their attachment style (one of which is insecure-resistant).

Research Methods This is really the basis for A2 where research methods comes up again but in more depth. You will learn things such as ethical issues (eg: the right to withdraw, debriefing), validity and reliability, sampling, extraneous variables (i.e: factors that cannot be controlled) and more. You may even have the chance to conduct your own experiment! (more likely for A2). I found this a very interesting topic.

Stress I can't remember much on stress but a key study is Holmes and Rahe. You will learn how life events (eg: moving home) and daily hassles (eg: feeding a pet) affect stress. Stress in the workplace is also covered and how situational factors can affect this.

Conformity and Obedience A key study of obedience is Milgram's - it is very well-known so you might have heard of it. Participants were asked to give fake (but what they thought were real) electric shocks to a confederate (someone who knows about the experiment) in another room. To make it more realistic, the confederate would shout etc.The researcher in the room with the participant kept using prods to make the participant continue like "The experiment requires you to continue" even though they could withdraw if they wished. Obedience was shown through a number of figures, but one I remember what that all of the participants continued to shock to at least 300v.
Conformity: a key study of this is Asch's. The participant has to pick which of the lines is the same length to line A. However, all the other people in the room are confederates and purposely give the wrong answer, causing the participant to think they are wrong and so more likely to conform to the wrong answers.

Individual DifferencesSome definitions of abnormality include failure to function adequately and deviation from social norms (an example of a social norm is queuing when waiting to pay for something). There are psychological and biology approaches to abnormality. Treatments include ECT, drugs, CBT and psychoanalysis.

And the textbook I used for AS which I really recommend getting/having access to is The Complete Companions Student Book. It was brilliant!!

Hope this helps you. Let me know if anything is confusing and I will try to explain it a little further

Oh okay! Thanks for the extra detail it certainly helped!