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AQA A Level Biology?

I'd quite like to study Psychology at university, and so far I think I'd like to take English Literature, Geography, Biology and Psychology at A Level. However, I have heard of many negatives of A Level Biology on the AQA spec, such as HEAVY content, tons of memorization and the mark scheme is way too specific for its own good.

With all of this in mind, I'm struggling to find any reason why I should pick Biology, apart from the fact that it's useful but not essential for a degree in Psychology. If anyone did or does the AQA A Level Biology (or any exam board really), I'd appreciate your opinions and input.

Reply 1

julia_hicksonn

Hey! I do biology, geography, and psychology a level- going to do Psychology at university in September.
If you are looking to do psychology at University I highly recommend you do biology- as although not all psychology uni courses require it- it is VERY useful.
This is especially prevalent in the biopsych and the biological approaches topics at both A level and University, as well as if you are going on to study clinical/ neuropsychology.
Overall, it depends on what you are looking to get out of a psych degree- for example, some careers may not require biology.
There is also a fair amount of overlap on the courses :smile:

Reply 2

Omnomcat

I do both psychology and AQA biology A level. I do suggest that if you wish to take psychology at university that you do biology also as some of the subjects like BioPsychology cross over and it's easier to get to grips with if you do both. It is true that there is a lot of content in biology, but it's not as hard as you think when you have a good teacher and revise. You do have to be quite specific in exams but you have to be with psychology too. The more revision you do the easier it is to remember key words. Not a lot of people in my psychology class also do biology so it's not essential. I think that at the end of the day you should learn something that you're interested in because if you don't it'll be torture for 2 years. Don't worry so much about it because for the first couple of weeks you are able to switch courses if you don't enjoy them. I hope you enjoy your classes.

Reply 3

ThePositivePanda

Original post by julia_hicksonn

Thank you so much! May I ask how you found A Level Psychology, what bits you enjoy/dislike and do you think it's worth taking English Literature A Level to help with essay writing, or is Geography enough?

Reply 4

ThePositivePanda

Original post by Omnomcat

Thank you so much! Can I ask how you found A Level Biology and how it helped you with the bits in Psychology?

Reply 5

julia_hicksonn

Original post by ThePositivePanda

ALevel psychology is great! Past papers and essay plans are really useful to revise it- I recommend websites such as tutor 2 u for psychology. My fave parts of the course are probably the subjects in year 2 (we did schizophrenia, relationships, and aggression) as they allow you to connect with the course better! One thing to note about doing both psychology and geography is that there are quite a few cases studies for both!
The essay writing is slightly different for both, with psychology focusing more on Ao3 and geography focusing more on Ao2. For geography, I recommend using the 'physics and maths tutor website'. Biology I struggled with slightly more than the rest (predicted a B), and I find snaprevise very useful for biology! The other two subjects are not so useful on there in my opinion.

The stats section from research methods is in all three subjects (complete overlap) and considering this a fair amount of each subject this is quite useful :smile:

Reply 6

ThePositivePanda

Original post by julia_hicksonn

Thank you so much! What exam board are you on for your A Levels?

Reply 7

julia_hicksonn

Original post by ThePositivePanda

Thank you so much! What exam board are you on for your A Levels?

Bio- OCR
Psych- AQA
Geography- Edexcel

Reply 8

Omnomcat

I'm finding biology very interesting it expands a lot on what you have learned at GCSEs. Some parts are challenging to understand at first but you normally get it the second time you look over it. In my psychology course we have to cover the biological approach and BioPsychology. It includes genes, biological structures of the brain and neurochemistry (neurotransmitters and hormones). We also cover genetics in biology too so it allows you to grasp a better understanding. The more biological terms you hear the more familiar you will be with both of the subjects. Understanding the human body also helps with learning the endocrine system in BioPsychology. I hope this helped you. :smile: