A-Level Psychology & Sociology in a year?

Hey guys,

I wanted to ask opinions whether A-level psychology and sociology are do-able within a year (max 1 and a half) time period? I've been wanting to speed up my sixth form graduation and I've heard a few people say sociology and psychology are the easier lot of subjects to complete within a considerably short amount of time compared to other subjects.

I've also never done these subjects before, however am genuinely interested in doing them at A-levels. How difficult are these 2 subjects to do and are they do-able at a relaxed pace within a year? Are there any mathematical components?

Thanks in advance!

I don’t know about psych, but for sociology, it would be a pretty big challenge in a year. Everyone always assumes it’s “easy” but there is A LOT of content, and it takes time to develop your exam technique because it’s so specific. I’m not saying it’s impossible, but you‘d have to put a considerable amount of work in to do it in half the time.

Just so you know, there are 3 papers
Paper 1: Education, theories and methods in context
Paper 2: Two chosen topic, the most popular being Families and Households, and Beliefs in society
Paper 3: Crime and deviance, theories and methods

I did AQA A-Level sociology during this exam season. I'd say it's possible to do the entire course within one year but it will be quite tight learning the content and getting to speed nailing exam techniques to master the exams. It's quite content heavy but I've enjoyed doing the course to say the least. I can't speak for psychology but there's some mathematical and scientific components to it from what I've heard.

I'll be studying the subject myself. Is the subject do-able in the context of self study or do you think tutors or teachers are definitely needed to excel in the subject?
Are there any 'crash courses' to the subject either that you might know of? Or are most helpful resources just a quick search away on google?

I definitely would not advocate this. The amount of content you have to learn for Psychology and the amount of content there is for Sociology. It’s STAGGERING. If you want to put yourself under extreme stress but I don’t think you do. Why rush..enjoy the years of college enjoy every step of life. But definitely you can’t study them in a relaxed manner. People barely do over the 2 years!

Sociology can be self taught but I don’t advocate this approach as you need someone to teach you the exam techniques to answer the questions and it’s best to have someone regularly mark your essays and track your progress. I don’t know any crash courses etc though.

Thanks for the info. As someone who hasn't studied sociology before but still has a genuine interest to explore the subject, how hard is the subject at an A-level? Can it be tremendously difficult to grasp the concepts of or are most of the topics easy to brief through?

Education, Families and Households, Crime and Deviance and Beliefs in Society are the common options for sociology. The latter topic is a bit hard to grasp if you didn’t study RE/RS before but it’s mostly to do with sociological theory on religion. There’s also theories and methods which is basically research methods. I have knowledge organisers from Hectic Teacher which I can send via DM later as I’m currently out - they’re good for revision but shouldn’t be used solely to learn the content.

Sorry but what are 'knowledge organisers'? It'd be nice if you could send the link anyway please, that would be nice help to prepare me later on. Thank you.

I wouldn’t recommend taking both psychology and sociology in one year, the sheer volume of psychology and sociology is difficult to do in two years never mind one and as for those subjects being “easy” they are certainly not especially psychology. Like with sociology there is a specific way you must learn to input and analyse information to get the most marks. Not only that but Psychology requires you to do more than just learn facts you need to know a lot of mathematical skills to calculate certain data and probability.

I did Sociology full this year and got an A*. I did it alongside AS Further Maths, the final year of A2 Maths and French. I think it's pretty easy imo, it's just content, you don't need to understand much it's all pretty self-explanatory. It's also so interesting so it's not a huge chore to revise or study.

Make flashcards as you go along, I do think it's important to do a least 2 full practise papers, so I'd get a private tutor to mark them. MyTutor is an online site and you should be able to easily find someone to mark them and give detailed feedback.

Remember when you write essays to actually evaluate. You don't get many marks for just criticising a theory, you need to say whether the theory is useful/helpful and discuss if the critique undermines the theory. Use as many contemporary examples as possible - aim for 3 for a 30 marker, 2 for a 20 and 1 for a 10 marker.

PM me if you need help, but it is completely achievable.

I don't mean to be disrespectful or anything, but the fact that you did it along side subjects like further maths (that too in AS level) means you're probably pretty naturally talented at memorizing the details and such. I would never be able to sit my exams alongside those subject choices and neither have I been the best at maths.

Thanks for the advice anyway!