AMA I got an A* in A Level Psychology

Just screenshot and crop the page. Not prioritising practice questions is a big mistake.

thank you , yes i need to prioritise practise questions however I find it hard to do it before revising and putting the info into my head if that makes sense. do you do questions despite not having revised the topics ? it takes me a long time to remember little info so i guess thats why i end up not having time to do questions

You don't have to do questions from memory. Use the textbook to answer the questions - this way, you're going over the information (because you're applying it to the question) and you're learning how to structure your answers (give your teacher 16 markers).

Essentially, questions are a way of testing your knowledge, showing you where you need to improve (where you really struggle to answer questions), and revising (because you're going over the material)

sorry if you already answered this but how did you structure your essays? my teacher is useless when it comes to structuring the 16 markers so i just define the key topic in the question then drop a bunch of A01 points and fit A03 where relevant? have any tips?

My teachers had Exampro so that was helpful, see if yours have that. I used a lot of the questions in the AQA textbook and asked my teacher to mark them (as well as the ones on the page, the online textbook has tabs with letters and in the bottom right corner there's one with the letter P, click on it and they come up - can't screenshot it for some reason)

6 marks are for AO1 (definition and description) and 10 marks are for AO3 (discussion - evaluation), and there should be a clear difference between the two because the last thing you want is for the examiner to get confused and mark you down.

I won't write the whole thing, but an example structure for "Discuss biological explanations for OCD" would be:

AO1: One biological approach to explaining OCD is genetic explanation, this suggests certain genes can make people vulnerable to the development of OCD, these are called candidate genes. Research suggests that OCD is polygenic, meaning that more than one gene is involved in this vulnerability.

AO3: A strength of the genetic explanation is that it can explain the different types of OCD. It suggests that different candidate genes are responsible in the vulnerability, and that different variations can account for the different types. Taylor (2013)'s research [go into detail] found 230 variations. This explanatory power is a strength of the explanation because it increases its validity.

A limitation of the explanation is that it is deterministic, as it does not account for the environmental risk factors that are involved in the development of OCD. Cromer et al (2007) found that over 50% of OCD patients in their study had had a traumatic event occur in their life, they also found that the level of severity influenced how sever their OCD was. This is a limitation because it cannot account for other influences in its development, and is therefore not a full explanation for the development of OCD.

AO1: Another biological explanation of OCD is neural correlates. This suggests that abnormal brain functioning, such as brain structure and neurotransmitters, is associated with the development of OCD. [Explain role of serotonin and decision making systems].

AO3: A strength of neural explanations is supporting evidence. [Researchers, what they did (if stated) and what they found]. [More if any]. Supporting evidence is a strength because it increases the validity of the explanation. [But make that longer].

A limitation of [topic] is [_____]. [Elaborate on why, include research]. This is a limitation because [say why]. <--- That's the basic structure, just need to fill it out.

(I'm a bit rusty because it's been five months, but the evaluation structure is very systematic, just make sure the elaboration of the point in the first sentence is length but coherent)
_____________

I'd recommend planning them with brief structured spider diagrams, I can't add photos so I can't show them but basically, have the question in the middle (since it's on the paper and you have limited time maybe just draw a bubble with nothing) and to the left have brief points of AO1 and on the right have four brief evaluation points (very brief, so you have something to expand on when writing it out - names of studies/researchers, brief methodological issue, basis of conflicting research etc). Planning is super important, otherwise it's so easy to just go off topic, and examiners don't have the time and they don't care enough to sit and try to decipher what you mean.

It's quite late at night, so I hope that made sense.