struggling wiv revision badly

i know a few threads must exist similar to this ive been tryin to revise like a book full of writing. its like an booklet wiv 70 pges in. its for psychology aqa and how can i possibly revise it all without just reading.

also is any1 else doing psychology aqa spec B as im not exactly sure wot i need to revise for the synoptic frm the first year. also ive missed a few classes this year so dont have all the notes. i have a revision guide but dont know wot exactly to revise.
thanx in advance

I revise by getting the syllabus for each module, writing down the areas of each then doing brief notes on each section as possible (I try to make sure that each 'heading' gets 1 A4 side MAX)

Heres my philosophy one to give you an idea

thanks, does that work for u. which is the best syllabus for psychology from the aqa site (if u do psy)

I'm doing AQA A2 Psychology and got 268/300 in my AS. First of all, I sorted out my notes according to the syllabus (6 parts in total) so that it makes revision easier. After that, it helps to draw spider-diagrams for each part. I think in each part, there are 3 topics to revise. So for example, your spider-diagram might follow this:

Cognitive Psychology:
- Memory - types of memory (STM, LTM)
- encoding
- models of memory (MS, WM and LoP)
- 1 or 2 studies into each of the points above

- Forgetting - forgetting in STM, LTM
- emotional factors (ie.repression, flashbulb)
- Hebb (1949) might be useful

- Eyewitness testimony - schemas
- face recognition
- Bartlett & Loftus essential

Basically, if you have an image of what your spider-diagram is like, then you can retrive information much more easily. It's better than reading pages and pages full of text because you'll get confused.

Then back all that up by PRACTISING exam questions. You don't even have to write it proper. Just do bullet points. Do one on each topic (ie. models of memory, biological/behavioural factors into eating disorders, ethical issues into Milgram/Zimbardo, classical/operant conditioning). Of course, you won't know which questions will come up but by doing this, if one you know does come up, you will know how to answer it straight away. I did this and I knew how to answer every single exam question and got full marks on PYA1 and PYA2. The only thing I didn't like was that my hand hurt so much after the exam!

Final tip, time management is essential. So when you are practising exam questions, only include what is essential. Some good textbooks such as Flanagan provide tips on answering specific questions.

Anyways, good luck with your exams!

thanks a lot how many past papers shud i do and are they actually effective as the questions r gonna be different frm the exam

Do as much as you can. If you are faced with a question which you knew you could have got full marks on, then you'd have no-one to blame but yourself.

And of course they are effective! If you get a couple of past exam questions, you'll notice that they ask the same questions over and over again. Maybe they will word it differently but it's still the same. They can't just invent a new question which isn't related to the syllabus.

Know your syllabus well, practise exam questions and you'll do well. And yea, don't be lazy!