The Student Room Group

C grade GCSE in Maths necessary for Psychology degree?

Hi all :smile:
I was wondering if someone could please explain to me the importance of Maths while studying for a degree in Psychology. I'm 17 years old, I unfortunately missed school for 4 years and was not able to take my GCSEs. I've been looking into the courses offered by the National Extension College for long distance learning. I was originally planning to take Sociology, English, Spanish and Psychology until I found out that a Maths GCSE is also required. I would have to replace Maths for one of the choosen subjects as I cannot afford to take all five subjects. This is very bad news for me as I am terrible at maths and it doesn't help that I do not enjoy it in the slightest. I'm willing to try my best and learn as much as possible to try and achieve a reasonable grade but I'm very worried about it, having missed so much. I'm hoping to do my GCSEs, then go on to college for A Levels and then to University for a degree in Psychology or Sociology. Will this be possible without a GCSE in Maths? Are Universities willing to over look this if an A or B grade was given in all over GCSE subjects (such as English and Psychology)?

Thanks in advance for all infomation and help given.
Reply 1
I think you do kinda need maths "/ Well,at Birmingham Uni, you have a whole module related to statistics.

Furthermoooorrreee, I found it vital when I was doing my coursework at A level, for statistical techniques such as Mann Whitney. Mind you, this is just from personal point of view.

Honestly, I didnt think colleges allowed you to study if you didnt pass maths, or made you resit it. All the ones round me make you redo it at least. So I'm not too sure whether universities would be as keen to overlook it as well..

Good luck though!
Reply 2
thanks for the reply :smile:
I guess I should probably take Maths instead of Spanish, I just I hope I can get to grips with everything...
Would you say that without maths, you would struggle with some of the aspects of Psychology?
Reply 3
Mehhhh, only for parts of it. I dont think its imperative to take maths for the whole A level course, but it certainly helps when doing coursework.

For a degree, Im not too sure, i'm only 18, but if there's a whole module on stats, i'd say its pretty important "/
It depends what area of psychology you want to specialise in when you take your degree, for the a-level, and from looking at my Psych teacher's thesis when she did her degree, maths is important, as you do a lot of statistical analysis of results: The BPS and scientific community require that your findings from any psychological studies (and you will be required to do your own studies as part of your thesis in most courses - again it depends on what area you specialise in) to be statistically significant to a <5% probability that the results were not due to chance. In the A level we used a lot of the Mann Whitney U test of statistical significance for multivariate analysis - which isn't too hard - just punching digits into forumulas.

You don't have to be a mathematical genius - I was terrible at maths! But I'd suggest you ring up the psych departments at the unis you want to apply for and hear their verdict on it.
Reply 5
EstrellaDeMar
thanks for the reply :smile:
I guess I should probably take Maths instead of Spanish, I just I hope I can get to grips with everything...
Would you say that without maths, you would struggle with some of the aspects of Psychology?


I can not do maths at all, and i do physics! But for research methods, you get taught what you need to know. And like maths, once you get taught it, it kind of just becomes easy to follow. I did maths up to GCSE, scraped a B, and am now going on to doing Psychology at degree level.

The research methods part of the paper does not have hard maths at all, it's more like methodology of experiments, i.e.. what type of experiment was this (observational, natural, laboratory).. calculate the range of the data? what does independent variable mean? what is a correlation? And if you have a good memory, that will get you the marks.

For A2 coursework, it's just like any scientific experiment really, which yeah may involve one part statistic (which you can get your teacher to help you with, books etc to make it easier) but the rest just basic analysis of graphs. It's your psychological interpretation of the data which is most important, and that is the bit that needs to shine through, not really the maths. Plus you can always check with your teacher whether you have worked out your statistics right. So you do not need to take a-level maths! Trust me, I do physics, biology and psychology and still don't do maths :-)
Reply 6
Thank you so much everyone for the info! I'm going to be getting in touch with a few universities, I think its better to make sure 100% before I make any decisions, part of me is hoping that they'll say that I could get away with not doing a maths GCSE but from what you've all said, it looks like it wouldn't be all that difficult if I do have to take it, and if its mostly statistics in Psychology then I don't think I'll have too many problems catching up and learning. As well as Psychology I also love Sociology, and am considering a degree in that instead. Does anybody know if maths is also necessary for Sociology? Thanks again to all :smile:
Reply 7
Yes, you need a good grade in GCSE maths- it's a core building block for any remotely scientific subject. The inherent logic and mathematics involved in any scientific subject would surely have raised awareness earlier...
EstrellaDeMar
Thank you so much everyone for the info! I'm going to be getting in touch with a few universities, I think its better to make sure 100% before I make any decisions, part of me is hoping that they'll say that I could get away with not doing a maths GCSE but from what you've all said, it looks like it wouldn't be all that difficult if I do have to take it, and if its mostly statistics in Psychology then I don't think I'll have too many problems catching up and learning. As well as Psychology I also love Sociology, and am considering a degree in that instead. Does anybody know if maths is also necessary for Sociology? Thanks again to all :smile:



Sociology is pretty similar in that respect - It can be either research-based or theory-based, but most probably a tasty mixture of both, like some kind of sociology trifle. You'll have to see what your particular course likes to focus on.

If you go into a course that involves a lot of sociological research it depends on the methodology you use - more objective, quantitative studies will require a bit of pretty basic statistical analysis - again, mostly punching your findings into a formula.
But you can opt to do more intimate research that involves case studies, covert participant observation (now I'd love that, it's essentially like being a secret agent, I think it's genius!) and informal interviews that are more looking at the meanings and motivations behind indivdiuals' actions - that has nothing to do with large statistical trends because it's very small-scale and more indepth, that wouldn't involve much maths at all obviously!
For many universities, you only need a grade C in Maths and English. The University of Birmingham is a very good uni but requires just a grade C in Maths.
Reply 10
Sam Rawlings
For many universities, you only need a grade C in Maths and English. The University of Birmingham is a very good uni but requires just a grade C in Maths.


You do realise how old the thread is, right..?
Reply 11
Most places are still just C at maths and English, some higher places ask for a B though in maths, it just depends, but there is always room to squiggle. Especially, if you show an appropriate level at higher levels in the areas they want.
Luby
Most places are still just C at maths and English, some higher places ask for a B though in maths, it just depends, but there is always room to squiggle. Especially, if you show an appropriate level at higher levels in the areas they want.


This thread is from 2008.
Reply 13
I know, it still applies now.