What is psychology, business, economics and politics like at A-level

Hi, I'm currently choosing my A-levels and these are some choices I have shortlisted. I need to know what they are like (what topics are covered, how hard they are) and which three are the best to take? Also are there any which I shouldn't (they look bad on Uni applications etc)

Reply 1

yeahthatonethere

Original post by its!Liam!1

I'm in year 13 and out of these I only took psychology.

You question about modules in psychology greatly depends on your exam board. They vary massively in Psychology A Level and even within the same exam board every school may choose different studies or key questions to cover. I do Edexcel and in AS we covered topics such as obedience, prejudice, memory, aggression, drug addiction and learning theories to name a few.

It is a very content heavy subject taking up a very big chunk of my revision time as you have to know very specific details and evaluation points of a large number of studies, theories, questions, practicals and research methods. You will have to be willing to dedicate a large amount of time to it if you want to do well.

How hard it is, is very subjective. I know a lot of people in my college who failed AS Level Psychology or barely passed and also a number of people who got A grades and top marks. Personally, I find the subject easy as the content just kind of sticks into my head and I can pull out evaluation points on the spot if I have a mind blank. However one of mates struggles to get her head around the content and can't quite get the essay structure right so she ends up dropping a lot of marks. So yeah, very subjective.

It is often seen by many universities as a science or science-related subject and is known to be an academic subject in which you gain many useful skills so it is seen well by universities I'd say. It hasn't hindered me in any way in my application and it was nice to talk about in my personal statement.

All in all I love the subject, I find the content interesting and it's a nice break from my other subjects which I find to be quite intense (especially chemistry). It's a different way of thinking and I thoroughly enjoy the subject.

Hope I've helped and anymore questions feel free to ask!