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AQA A2 PSYA4 exam

Thought I'd make a thread on this exam. I know it's quite late this year, but has everyone started revision? How much have you done?

And what topics are everyone doing in this unit?

Thought a bit of discussion would be good! I'm trying to get lots of revision in but psychology really takes over my whole revision period!

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Depression
and Media Psychology!
I hope the research methods bit is alright... counting on that to keep my grade up.

What topics are you doing?
Reply 2
sugarfairy02
Depression
and Media Psychology!
I hope the research methods bit is alright... counting on that to keep my grade up.

What topics are you doing?


Depression also, and then addiction. Depression only has the 5 areas to revise which is quite good.. the PSYA3 topic areas had about 8/9 sections each I think!

I hope research methods is alright too. I'm quite glad we've got it though.. nice to have a change with some 'smaller' questions as opposed to all essays.

I got 100% on PSYA3 so I'm feeling a lot of pressure, trying to get anywhere close to that! I wasn't even expecting an A let alone that high, but it's made me more panicky about revision this time round!
I did psychology last year, (the version before A levels changed :p:)

Our teacher made us do the year below us' exam last January before our A2s (to pee us off that we hadn't been born a year later, basically) and every one had done it in 10 mins. Seriously. Do not worry about research methods. It's the easiest part of the course :smile: You have nothing to fear on that front. Just learn the key pors/cons of each method and a couple of examples of each. :smile:

It's absolutely fine. :smile:

Hope this helps.
Reply 4
Billinge1991
I did psychology last year, (the version before A levels changed :p:)

Our teacher made us do the year below us' exam last January before our A2s (to pee us off that we hadn't been born a year later, basically) and every one had done it in 10 mins. Seriously. Do not worry about research methods. It's the easiest part of the course :smile: You have nothing to fear on that front. Just learn the key pors/cons of each method and a couple of examples of each. :smile:

It's absolutely fine. :smile:

Hope this helps.


If you did the year below when you were A2 it would've been the AS exam though..?

The A2 exam on the new course is much harder. Unit 3 is 3 25 mark essays in 90 mins, and unit 4 is 2 25 mark essays and then a research methods section with slightly smaller questions.

There is research methods in the AS which is what I think you would've done..? And that's a lot easier than A2!
haithere
If you did the year below when you were A2 it would've been the AS exam though..?

The A2 exam on the new course is much harder. Unit 3 is 3 25 mark essays in 90 mins, and unit 4 is 2 25 mark essays and then a research methods section with slightly smaller questions.

There is research methods in the AS which is what I think you would've done..? And that's a lot easier than A2!

I think AQA A did a few example questions for teachers to use as a guide to what they would be teaching?

We had PYA4 which was 3 essay questions, PYA5 which was 3 essay questions and 4 reasearch method mini-essay questions at the end, then PYA6 we did as coursework.

No, I'm definate it was the A2 one, like I said it was some example resources AQA published :smile: so I still stand by saying not to worry :smile: It probs is harder than the example ones we did, but research methods is always the easiest part of psychology :p:

For some reason I think they changed AS a lot ore than A2...?
Reply 6
Billinge1991
I think AQA A did a few example questions for teachers to use as a guide to what they would be teaching?

We had PYA4 which was 3 essay questions, PYA5 which was 3 essay questions and 4 reasearch method mini-essay questions at the end, then PYA6 we did as coursework.

No, I'm definate it was the A2 one, like I said it was some example resources AQA published :smile: so I still stand by saying not to worry :smile: It probs is harder than the example ones we did, but research methods is always the easiest part of psychology :p:

For some reason I think they changed AS a lot ore than A2...?


Ahh the specimen papers? There really aren't enough of those available for the new courses! :frown:

Oh, I was under the impression the new spec was very different to the old one. Seems like the only major difference with the A2 is that we don't have coursework!

The research methods probably is a bit easier, although the statistics we've been doing recently are quite tough considering I've done no maths in 2 years! But I think our teacher has gone in to far more detail than is neccessary for the A2.. she said it was degree level.

Thanks for the reassurance :smile:
haithere
Ahh the specimen papers? There really aren't enough of those available for the new courses! :frown:

Oh, I was under the impression the new spec was very different to the old one. Seems like the only major difference with the A2 is that we don't have coursework!

The research methods probably is a bit easier, although the statistics we've been doing recently are quite tough considering I've done no maths in 2 years! But I think our teacher has gone in to far more detail than is neccessary for the A2.. she said it was degree level.

Thanks for the reassurance :smile:

I think the coursework was one my particular school chose to do (it meant our workload was tiny!)

Oh God, do you have to do Chi squared and all of that jazz? :s-smilie:

Yeah, my teacher kept saying "in your degree this will..." but then that's assuming we're all doing psychology. :p:

Glad I could reassure you! :biggrin:

If you want me to help with anything revision wise, I wouldn't mind :smile: x
Reply 8
Billinge1991
I think the coursework was one my particular school chose to do (it meant our workload was tiny!)

Oh God, do you have to do Chi squared and all of that jazz? :s-smilie:

Yeah, my teacher kept saying "in your degree this will..." but then that's assuming we're all doing psychology. :p:

Glad I could reassure you! :biggrin:

If you want me to help with anything revision wise, I wouldn't mind :smile: x

Yeah, Chi squared, Spearman's rank, Mann Whitney and Wilcoxon. Our teacher said we don't have to know how to work them out, but we do have to know which test is used in which circumstances, and we need to be able to find critical values/whether it's significant etc. It's quite mind boggling trying to learn them all at once!
haithere
Yeah, Chi squared, Spearman's rank, Mann Whitney and Wilcoxon. Our teacher said we don't have to know how to work them out, but we do have to know which test is used in which circumstances, and we need to be able to find critical values/whether it's significant etc. It's quite mind boggling trying to learn them all at once!

Ouch, that's a pain and a half (yes half of a pain, that's psychologically possible...)

Have you got the Collins revision guide? I found that really useful! Although I guess it might be a bit late to be suggesting books... :s-smilie:

I always got confused with Chi and Spearman's rho in which on should be used when :p: it is a lot of figures for a relatively low-figure subject :frown:
Reply 10
Billinge1991
Ouch, that's a pain and a half (yes half of a pain, that's psychologically possible...)

Have you got the Collins revision guide? I found that really useful! Although I guess it might be a bit late to be suggesting books... :s-smilie:

I always got confused with Chi and Spearman's rho in which on should be used when :p: it is a lot of figures for a relatively low-figure subject :frown:

No I have a CGP revision guide but to be honest I don't use it. Our text book is really good, so I just make revision cards from the info in there and revise from my own stuff!

I haven't even attempted to learn what is used when though!
haithere
No I have a CGP revision guide but to be honest I don't use it. Our text book is really good, so I just make revision cards from the info in there and revise from my own stuff!

I haven't even attempted to learn what is used when though!


Hmm...well, this is the site I've always used to choose which test to use for coursework:

http://www.whichtest.info/

Failing that there's always wiki:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_statistics
Reply 12
I was getting quite scared about the research methods section. Mainly because i have no idea how it's going to be set out/ what the questions are going to be like?!

Weve just started learning all the stats, argggh it sucks! Even though we wont need to calculate the answers in the exam. Im doing psy at uni though so i better get used to it!

Im also doing schizophrenia and anomalous psychology :smile:.

Going to rely on revision packs with added notes from the textbook :smile:.

Plus i have 13 days inbetween my second last exam and psy, so that makes it slightly less daunting!
Reply 13
Jessique14
I was getting quite scared about the research methods section. Mainly because i have no idea how it's going to be set out/ what the questions are going to be like?!

Weve just started learning all the stats, argggh it sucks! Even though we wont need to calculate the answers in the exam. Im doing psy at uni though so i better get used to it!

Im also doing schizophrenia and anomalous psychology :smile:.

Going to rely on revision packs with added notes from the textbook :smile:.

Plus i have 13 days inbetween my second last exam and psy, so that makes it slightly less daunting!


I'm not entirely sure how it's set out but I know it ranges from smaller mark questions (2-3 marks) up to sort of 8/10/12 mark questions. I think, anyways!

I'm doing Psychology at uni too so also have lots of stats to look forward to!
Reply 14
haithere
I'm not entirely sure how it's set out but I know it ranges from smaller mark questions (2-3 marks) up to sort of 8/10/12 mark questions. I think, anyways!

I'm doing Psychology at uni too so also have lots of stats to look forward to!


Thank you :smile:

Im guessing the shorter questions may be advantages/disadvantages of experimental designs/ asking which stats test should be used and why etc

Any idea what the longer questions would be like? Maybe writing a mini report on an experiment theyve made up?!
Reply 15
Jessique14
Thank you :smile:

Im guessing the shorter questions may be advantages/disadvantages of experimental designs/ asking which stats test should be used and why etc

Any idea what the longer questions would be like? Maybe writing a mini report on an experiment theyve made up?!


Yeah possibly- outlining what areas you need to cover in reports, or even writing a mini one as you say. Also possibly a mini essay on psychology as a science- reasons for and reasons against, something like that?
Reply 16
haithere
Yeah possibly- outlining what areas you need to cover in reports, or even writing a mini one as you say. Also possibly a mini essay on psychology as a science- reasons for and reasons against, something like that?


Yeah, i guess it doesnt sounds too bad!! Gonna learn that section of the textbook I think, haha
I'm doing Schizophrenia and Media, and I absolutely hate it and can't wait to finish sodding psychology for life, but first I need a B. Sad times. Sorry, rant over, I'm just majorely stressing out about the whole thing, and I'm supposed to be resitting PSYA3 too. Gulp.
Reply 18
MarmiteOnToast
I'm doing Schizophrenia and Media, and I absolutely hate it and can't wait to finish sodding psychology for life, but first I need a B. Sad times. Sorry, rant over, I'm just majorely stressing out about the whole thing, and I'm supposed to be resitting PSYA3 too. Gulp.

I don't do either of those but I'm sure my teacher said they intentionally didn't choose schizophrenia because there's not much solid research or something..?

I know the feeling! I need an A. I got 100% in PSYA3 so technically I should manage an A easily, but my PSYA2 is holding me back. I don't know why I can't seem to do well on that sodding exam.. it'll be the third time I've sat it this summer!
Reply 19
haithere
I don't do either of those but I'm sure my teacher said they intentionally didn't choose schizophrenia because there's not much solid research or something..?

I know the feeling! I need an A. I got 100% in PSYA3 so technically I should manage an A easily, but my PSYA2 is holding me back. I don't know why I can't seem to do well on that sodding exam.. it'll be the third time I've sat it this summer!


Aw, im on an A at AS and got a B in Jan. Really didnt want to resit. So i need 78 for an A overall which is two marks off an A. SHOULD be alright.

Schizphrenia's okkk i guess. Just a lot to learn :frown:

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