The Student Room Group

Is psychology a difficult degree?

In your opinion
Original post by automobile
In your opinion

Hey, just giving this thread a little bump in the hopes someone will see it and reply :smile:

Have you found University Connect yet? It's super useful for finding other people on your course/at your university! :smile:
Original post by automobile
In your opinion


Probably depends more on where you study it. The content isn't necessarily hard to understand, however to do well you have to be able to write good essays and read alot and synthesise what you've read into a good response/
Reply 3
Original post by automobile
In your opinion


Not at all but it all depends if you find it interesting or not but you do have to memorise quite a lot for exams. I studied Psychology for my A-levels and I found it really interesting, maybe that's why I scored full marks for all my exams.
Reply 4
Original post by Love4All
Not at all but it all depends if you find it interesting or not but you do have to memorise quite a lot for exams. I studied Psychology for my A-levels and I found it really interesting, maybe that's why I scored full marks for all my exams.

Yeah it definitely interests me I'm kind of set on it just worried about the science/maths side of things because they aren't my strong points!
Reply 5
Original post by automobile
Yeah it definitely interests me I'm kind of set on it just worried about the science/maths side of things because they aren't my strong points!


It doesn't have a lot of maths as far as i know, you might have some modules like research methods but even then i know very well that it's mainly a theory based subject because I'm not great at maths and i did really well. Don't worry, if you like it then go for it and you will pass it with flying colours. :smile:
Original post by Love4All
It doesn't have a lot of maths as far as i know, you might have some modules like research methods but even then i know very well that it's mainly a theory based subject because I'm not great at maths and i did really well. Don't worry, if you like it then go for it and you will pass it with flying colours. :smile:


Degree level is very different to a level. There is a lot of statistics- and its generally recommended that you have grade B at GCSE. Places differ to what extent you have to know how to do that statistics with a pencil and paper- other places just require that your able to use a computer program to do the statistics for you....
Reply 7
Original post by iammichealjackson
Degree level is very different to a level. There is a lot of statistics- and its generally recommended that you have grade B at GCSE. Places differ to what extent you have to know how to do that statistics with a pencil and paper- other places just require that your able to use a computer program to do the statistics for you....

I didn't do A levels, I'm doing an access course hopefully that will help me out a bit more we've already carried out experiments and research reports I think i'll be ok!
Original post by automobile
I didn't do A levels, I'm doing an access course hopefully that will help me out a bit more we've already carried out experiments and research reports I think i'll be ok!


I didn't have a levels when I did my psychology degree and I'm rubbish with maths! They made us work out t-tests by hand for a few lectures and afterwards everything was using the computer to analyse statistics. I really enjoyed research methods and analysing data which turned out to be one of my strengths in the end. If you enjoy psychology then just do it. The statistics are just a small part


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Reply 9
Original post by funkymama
I didn't have a levels when I did my psychology degree and I'm rubbish with maths! They made us work out t-tests by hand for a few lectures and afterwards everything was using the computer to analyse statistics. I really enjoyed research methods and analysing data which turned out to be one of my strengths in the end. If you enjoy psychology then just do it. The statistics are just a small part


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That's great thanks for this reply what I needed I think a bit of reassurance! can I ask which uni you attended?
Goodness it was 12 years ago when I graduated! Goldsmiths


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Original post by iammichealjackson
Degree level is very different to a level. There is a lot of statistics- and its generally recommended that you have grade B at GCSE. Places differ to what extent you have to know how to do that statistics with a pencil and paper- other places just require that your able to use a computer program to do the statistics for you....


It really is not as difficult as people make it sound like tbh. some of my friends went on to do a degree in Psychology and they all passed it with very good grades. Its like when i was going to do my psychology A-level ,everyone said to me that it will be very difficult and my psychology teacher wouldn't even keep me on the course because she thought i will fail it as my GCSE grades were not very good but i surprised her by getting full marks from all the exams. Its a theory based subject as i said before and even if there are statistics involved it will still not be a big part of the course, its most likely to be a coursework where students have to carry out research and I'm sure the OP is more than capable of doing simple maths.
Original post by Love4All
It really is not as difficult as people make it sound like tbh. some of my friends went on to do a degree in Psychology and they all passed it with very good grades. Its like when i was going to do my psychology A-level ,everyone said to me that it will be very difficult and my psychology teacher wouldn't even keep me on the course because she thought i will fail it as my GCSE grades were not very good but i surprised her by getting full marks from all the exams. Its a theory based subject as i said before and even if there are statistics involved it will still not be a big part of the course, its most likely to be a coursework where students have to carry out research and I'm sure the OP is more than capable of doing simple maths.


Yes i agree, just it wasn't clear if you were drawing for a level of degree comparison, as they are totally different ...
Universities say that most students are surprised by how scientific it actually is and how much maths is involved in it, so that's probably what puts people off and why they find it quite tough
Reply 14
Original post by iammichealjackson
Degree level is very different to a level. There is a lot of statistics- and its generally recommended that you have grade B at GCSE. Places differ to what extent you have to know how to do that statistics with a pencil and paper- other places just require that your able to use a computer program to do the statistics for you....


i'm applying for psychology with counselling and i basically scraped a C in my Maths GCSE :/ where i'm applying they all are only looking for C's in maths and english. i'm not good at maths really, i'm fine when doing it in class but i forget it straight after (like how to work out percentages etc), will this really matter? like is there a lot of maths in the exams?
and is it really scientific? i know it is a bit at least, but none of the uni's i'm applying for want a science GCSE and science was my weakest subject, except biology i was kind of okay at when i really tried :s-smilie:
Depends on the person taking the degree. Some will find it easy, some won't.
Original post by liv__
i'm applying for psychology with counselling and i basically scraped a C in my Maths GCSE :/ where i'm applying they all are only looking for C's in maths and english. i'm not good at maths really, i'm fine when doing it in class but i forget it straight after (like how to work out percentages etc), will this really matter? like is there a lot of maths in the exams?
and is it really scientific? i know it is a bit at least, but none of the uni's i'm applying for want a science GCSE and science was my weakest subject, except biology i was kind of okay at when i really tried :s-smilie:


Hmnmnmn for lots of psychology degrees you'll be doing nearly all the statistics on a computer program, rather than by hand, and it only makes up a small percentage of your grade usually :P
It varies. I'm in my first year, I got a C at GCSE maths and so far so good. Some modules are harder than others, but just get the theory down.
Reply 18
Is The psychology degree a hige step up from the A level or is it similar i terms of difficulty
Original post by Love4All
Not at all but it all depends if you find it interesting or not but you do have to memorise quite a lot for exams. I studied Psychology for my A-levels and I found it really interesting, maybe that's why I scored full marks for all my exams.

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