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I have some questions as a year 12...

Hi, so i am currently in year 12 and im doing bio, chem and psych a level. i have a few questions and concerns, my main concern being the ucat revision and prep. Im worried that my summer is going to be so boring and long with no holidays or fun (summer is usually my motivation for the academic year) and my other concern being how much revision i need to do for my subjects. constantly i feel like i neglect one subject and pay attention to the other two, im doing ocr psych and theres hardly any resources out there to help me. does anyone know how to revise psych? ive heard ppl say do flashcards but do i need to do flashcards on everything everything, like what do i need to do flashcards on? im also doing an epq which im stressing alot for too, i havent rlly done much research or spent much time on it.. anyways any advice will be much appreciated.

Reply 1

Original post
by caramelwaffles
Hi, so i am currently in year 12 and im doing bio, chem and psych a level. i have a few questions and concerns, my main concern being the ucat revision and prep, and my other concern being how much revision i need to do for my subjects. constantly i feel like i neglect one subject and pay attention to the other two, im doing ocr psych and theres hardly any resources out there to help me. does anyone know how to revise psych? ive heard ppl say do flashcards but do i need to do flashcards on everything everything, like what do i need to do flashcards on? im also doing an epq which im stressing alot for too, i havent rlly done much research or spent much time on it.. anyways any advice will be much appreciated.

Sadly I cannot help much w the psych revision, so I consulted my friend who is in Y13 doing it!
She suggests cycling through flashcards for the content, definitely! She did her flashcards on different tests/data collection techniques and got me to test her on them. Self-testing works as well!
Something I suggest you to do for if you do decide to make flashcards is to form three piles. One pile is for the flashcards you answered confidently and correctly on, another is for ones where you hesitated/made a small error on, and the third is for any flashcards where your mind outright went blank. Cycle through the second and third pile as much as you are able to handle, until you can recite all content confidently!
Mind-maps also help, but what is very useful is past paper questions!
She does AQA so there is a lot of content for her already, though I am pretty sure Physics and maths tutor have a lot of exam-board specific past paper questions per topic for psych! It is a free resource and very lovely to use! They also get you accustomed to the mark schemes relatively fast

I can help with the EPQ however!
I am unsure how supportive your EPQ coordinator is in terms of suggesting research methods or such! So let me try to enlighten you!
Please, please form a source analysis. It is a word document (or powerpoint!) where you simply list your source, write crucial notes from it, and write about potential bias or relevancy to your EPQ. It seems tedious but it will be so rewarding when it comes to marking
I do not know how willing you are to go very specific! But for some sources (I did my EPQ on the moderator materials of a reactor in context) I performed background checks on the authors and the websites I pulled my research from. I do not think you have to do this for every single one necessarily, but it is a thing examiners do love to see!
Another miscellaneous tip I have is to write your citations/references that you will put in your bibliography as soon as possible. From personal experience, it is so excruciating to hunt down each source, date and author!
If you have any EPQ-specific questions I am happy to help!

And for your UCAT, absolutely begin past papers under timed conditions this week. Let yourself have 1 or 2 untimed, so that you will become used to the format. Try to go for 1-2 a week depending on your workload and schedule. After that, begin timing yourself! Consistency will help you the most
Most importantly, do not feel dishonoured if you do not do well on your first tries / slip up occasionally. Do not go hard on yourself! You still have time, and I wish you the best of luck!

If you have any questions I am happy to answer them for you!

Reply 2

Original post
by 13343213
Sadly I cannot help much w the psych revision, so I consulted my friend who is in Y13 doing it!
She suggests cycling through flashcards for the content, definitely! She did her flashcards on different tests/data collection techniques and got me to test her on them. Self-testing works as well!
Something I suggest you to do for if you do decide to make flashcards is to form three piles. One pile is for the flashcards you answered confidently and correctly on, another is for ones where you hesitated/made a small error on, and the third is for any flashcards where your mind outright went blank. Cycle through the second and third pile as much as you are able to handle, until you can recite all content confidently!
Mind-maps also help, but what is very useful is past paper questions!
She does AQA so there is a lot of content for her already, though I am pretty sure Physics and maths tutor have a lot of exam-board specific past paper questions per topic for psych! It is a free resource and very lovely to use! They also get you accustomed to the mark schemes relatively fast
I can help with the EPQ however!
I am unsure how supportive your EPQ coordinator is in terms of suggesting research methods or such! So let me try to enlighten you!
Please, please form a source analysis. It is a word document (or powerpoint!) where you simply list your source, write crucial notes from it, and write about potential bias or relevancy to your EPQ. It seems tedious but it will be so rewarding when it comes to marking
I do not know how willing you are to go very specific! But for some sources (I did my EPQ on the moderator materials of a reactor in context) I performed background checks on the authors and the websites I pulled my research from. I do not think you have to do this for every single one necessarily, but it is a thing examiners do love to see!
Another miscellaneous tip I have is to write your citations/references that you will put in your bibliography as soon as possible. From personal experience, it is so excruciating to hunt down each source, date and author!
If you have any EPQ-specific questions I am happy to help!
And for your UCAT, absolutely begin past papers under timed conditions this week. Let yourself have 1 or 2 untimed, so that you will become used to the format. Try to go for 1-2 a week depending on your workload and schedule. After that, begin timing yourself! Consistency will help you the most
Most importantly, do not feel dishonoured if you do not do well on your first tries / slip up occasionally. Do not go hard on yourself! You still have time, and I wish you the best of luck!
If you have any questions I am happy to answer them for you!

Thank you so much for your advice and (say thanks to your friend doing psych from me!), I really appreciate it!!

Can you please also ask your friend how she memorised content and evaluation points for the core studies etc? did they use flashcards or bang out past paper questions? what structure do use for the essays?

Regarding the EPQ I haven't really done much in terms of research, some people say they are actually starting to write the essay.. right now I feel confused and left behind but im trying to fix that by planning to spend more time on it. What's your thoughts on when to actually start writing the actual thing and how much time i need to spend on research? Also when you mentioned source analysis so all I do is basically take notes on the sources I find and critically analyse some of the sources? and finally how did you know how to structure your essay? (my epq is about the different factors that play a role in anxiety in adolescents)

So sorry with bombarding you with questions and thank you so much for listening and helping a fellow student out
(edited 2 months ago)

Reply 3

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Reply 4

Original post
by caramelwaffles
Hi, so i am currently in year 12 and im doing bio, chem and psych a level. i have a few questions and concerns, my main concern being the ucat revision and prep. Im worried that my summer is going to be so boring and long with no holidays or fun (summer is usually my motivation for the academic year) and my other concern being how much revision i need to do for my subjects. constantly i feel like i neglect one subject and pay attention to the other two, im doing ocr psych and theres hardly any resources out there to help me. does anyone know how to revise psych? ive heard ppl say do flashcards but do i need to do flashcards on everything everything, like what do i need to do flashcards on? im also doing an epq which im stressing alot for too, i havent rlly done much research or spent much time on it.. anyways any advice will be much appreciated.


Hey, I did both chem and bio plus say my ucat twice so I believe I have some advice to share. One thing for sure since you’re still in yr12 please make sure you’re not wasting your time. Make the most out of it and make sure you actually understand the content you’re studying so you’re not left confused in year13. Start with watching a video about the topic, make some notes and do pmt topic question papers!!! It’ll make everything flow smoothly I promise

For your ucat, I say start early, I believe booking starts in June and I personally sat mine in August and started revising in June so about two months of daily revision and mocks. It might seem like a big burnout and the ucat honestly had been a hit or miss situation but with summer I say start your ucat revision early, so you either do a mock or a few questions, review them and then you’re free for the rest of the day. I believe this is the most helpful and sustainable routine in my opinion.

Best of luck with everything and lmk if you’re interested in getting biology tuition as I achieved and A and can certainly help with that :smile:

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