CIE AS Psychology 9990

Hey guys, I was just wanted to start a thread for us guinea pigs who are the first ones studying the new 9990 spec for CIE Psychology.

How are you guys revising for this exam btw, personally I find this my hardest subject to revise for as there are no past papers and it is very unclear on how much exactly we need to know, especially considering how vague the textbook is and how overly detailed the journal articles are there is no in-between!
My other subjects, Bio Chem and Math are much easier to revise for because I'm just doing all the past papers available.
What other subs do you guys take?

Exams in 10 days, the countdown has begun,
Good luck everyone!
(also let's keep this thread alive to discuss whatever Cambridge decides to spew at us in 10 days time)

Sameeeee , im finding it really difficult to grasp the concepts and remember them , as there is not much to practice in , and I don’t really have a clear structure for evaluation questions

Hey guys, I was just wanted to start a thread for us guinea pigs who are the first ones studying the new 9990 spec for CIE Psychology.

How are you guys revising for this exam btw, personally I find this my hardest subject to revise for as there are no past papers and it is very unclear on how much exactly we need to know, especially considering how vague the textbook is and how overly detailed the journal articles are there is no in-between!
My other subjects, Bio Chem and Math are much easier to revise for because I'm just doing all the past papers available.
What other subs do you guys take?

Exams in 10 days, the countdown has begun,
Good luck everyone!
(also let's keep this thread alive to discuss whatever Cambridge decides to spew at us in 10 days time)

Sameeeee , im finding it really difficult to grasp the concepts and remember them , as there is not much to practice in , and I don’t really have a clear structure for evaluation questions

Can u tell me how u structure them ? And any tips would be great : ( im a private student

Hey! I'm doing Psych 9990 too and I think it's going alright for me, but I hate that there's a lot of figures present which are probably important to remember and yes, lack of resources too...

I take English Language and IT as my other subs.

Yes I agree the concepts are quite hard to grasp and the book doesn't do a great job at explaining them either, in fact, we've actually found that the book even makes a few mistakes with some details of some studies, for example in the Bandura study the book gets the order in which the children go through the rooms wrong, The correct order is Room 1: Observation Room 2: Aggression Arousal and Room 3: Test for delayed imitation in case any of you were wondering. The book got the first 2 rooms the wrong way around. This is why I'd recommend to always refer back to the original journal articles for accurate details of the study.
A couple days ago I also found this youtube channel which currently also has videos on most of the core studies! I found them very useful and they're only 20-30 minutes long so I'd recommend you guys go watch those too. I think the name of the channel is CIE Psychology, just search for CIE psychology 9990 and it should pop up!

As for structuring essays, my teachers have given me 2 different structures; for 8 markers they recommend that we have a 4 paragraph essay with 2 strengths and 2 weaknesses with each paragraph structured as follows

Point: for example, A strength of Milgram's study is the high levels of control

Example: information from the study to support the point you have made —> The behavior of the experimenter was across all trials for all 40 participants, i.e. his use of the 4 verbal prods: "please continue/please go on, The experiment requires that you continue, It is absolutely essential that you continue, You have no choice, you MUST go on” The Behavior of the stooge, the learner was also identical for all participants as the sound made at 300V was a recording and the same recording was played for all participants.

Comment: this is an overall almost-conclusion to your paragraph. —> Highly controlled procedures minimize the effect of any confounding variables on the DV (level of voltage each pp went up to) and therefore increase the internal validity of the study

Your essay doesn’t have to be 4 paragraphs long, especially if you are a slow writer or don’t have enough time, just make sure you mention at least one strength and one weakness of the study, only mentioning one side of the argument will not get you very many marks.


For 10 markers we were told to do a structure of

Point:

Example:

Comment (optional)

Counterpoint:

Example:

Comment:

Here you are essentially combining your paragraphs 2 paragraphs (from your 8 markers) into one so there is a strength and a counter for that strength.

Remember, you don’t have to follow this structure but it is a good guide for planning your essays.


Good luck! Remember not to stress as stress doesn’t help with anything in any way, you will be okay!

I hope this helps

A

Yes I agree the concepts are quite hard to grasp and the book doesn't do a great job at explaining them either, in fact, we've actually found that the book even makes a few mistakes with some details of some studies, for example in the Bandura study the book gets the order in which the children go through the rooms wrong, The correct order is Room 1: Observation Room 2: Aggression Arousal and Room 3: Test for delayed imitation in case any of you were wondering. The book got the first 2 rooms the wrong way around. This is why I'd recommend to always refer back to the original journal articles for accurate details of the study.
A couple days ago I also found this youtube channel which currently also has videos on most of the core studies! I found them very useful and they're only 20-30 minutes long so I'd recommend you guys go watch those too. I think the name of the channel is CIE Psychology, just search for CIE psychology 9990 and it should pop up!

As for structuring essays, my teachers have given me 2 different structures; for 8 markers they recommend that we have a 4 paragraph essay with 2 strengths and 2 weaknesses with each paragraph structured as follows

Point: for example, A strength of Milgram's study is the high levels of control

Example: information from the study to support the point you have made —> The behavior of the experimenter was across all trials for all 40 participants, i.e. his use of the 4 verbal prods: "please continue/please go on, The experiment requires that you continue, It is absolutely essential that you continue, You have no choice, you MUST go on” The Behavior of the stooge, the learner was also identical for all participants as the sound made at 300V was a recording and the same recording was played for all participants.

Comment: this is an overall almost-conclusion to your paragraph. —> Highly controlled procedures minimize the effect of any confounding variables on the DV (level of voltage each pp went up to) and therefore increase the internal validity of the study

Your essay doesn’t have to be 4 paragraphs long, especially if you are a slow writer or don’t have enough time, just make sure you mention at least one strength and one weakness of the study, only mentioning one side of the argument will not get you very many marks.


For 10 markers we were told to do a structure of

Point:

Example:

Comment (optional)

Counterpoint:

Example:

Comment:

Here you are essentially combining your paragraphs 2 paragraphs (from your 8 markers) into one so there is a strength and a counter for that strength.

Remember, you don’t have to follow this structure but it is a good guide for planning your essays.


Good luck! Remember not to stress as stress doesn’t help with anything in any way, you will be okay!

I hope this helps

A

Yes I have also noticed those mistakes , I don’t know why there are so many mistakes in that book , as with procedures they must be precise so I don’t know why they are not . Thank u very much for the structure adivice part , u also have the specimens paper to practice on right ?

Btw do u have a sample answer , where I can see the structure fully , please if u have any , can u send it , that would be really helpful as it would give me an overall idea of the structure

I do have a sample answer that a friend provided. I can email you that if you'd like.

I do have a sample answer that a friend provided. I can email you that if you'd like.

Hello! It would be absolutely wonderful if you could email it to me as well? I'd be obliged. (:

Also, how's revision going for everyone? I've been reviewing the journal articles again while going through the textbook to reinforce the concepts, while also practising evaluation questions. Although I still feel kinda nervous...

I am trying to write a plan for all the essays never written so much in such a small space of time, got 7 done 5 to go, and im trying get my teacher to mark them all but shes not responding to the 7th aaa, i think I made her mad.
I'm rly scared too because i have Unit 3 Bio tomorrow and Unit 3 Chem the day after but all i find myself doing is Psychology!!

I am trying to write a plan for all the essays never written so much in such a small space of time, got 7 done 5 to go, and im trying get my teacher to mark them all but shes not responding to the 7th aaa, i think I made her mad.
I'm rly scared too because i have Unit 3 Bio tomorrow and Unit 3 Chem the day after but all i find myself doing is Psychology!!

Can u pleaseeee send me those essay plans : ( I’m really struggling in evaluations

Hey! I also did psychology 9990, and wanted to ask you guys how you felt about the exam? Which paper did you find more difficult? I want to see how other people found the exam, because I, for one, found some of the questions rather dull or not really relevant to the course/not really testing our understanding (I was 01, so it may have been different for you, but one of my question in paper 2 asked about "why it's less ethical to cage parrots alone than to cage cats alone" like I knew the answer, but it was more my own knowledge then applied Pepperberg study knowledge, so I found that stupid). Just want to see other opinions and maybe to check answers (I'm gonna stop here because I've waffled for way too long already) )