Psychology As level...Is it a 'soft subjuect'...or is it really hard?

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It felt like a memory test!

oh n i forgot 2 say it may depend on what syllabus you do cause i know my yr was the last yr on our syllabus it all changed for the year bellow so i couldn't comment on whether hat made it easier or harder :s

Reply 22

Blatant Troll

A lot of it is inherently interesting, though there's a lot of dull theory/terminology to get to grips with.
At AS level, it was the subject I put the most hours in for - practice essays, memorising case studies, definitions & what not - with the least to show for my efforts.
For me, Psychology was all graft and no gain :lolwut:

Reply 23

Battenberg

antipesto93

hey guys, a am new to TSR, and am currently choosing my AS levels
so far have got
ICT
Geography
Maths
Psychology ( possibily physics if its easier thay psycholgoy)

i know that ict is a ' soft ' subject, but i really enojoy it, and its 100% coursework, so less pressure at exam time i think

geography and maths i am pretty good at
p.s in the furture..i dont think i am going to study anyting to do with psycholgoy or physics, but i have to pick one of the two

but i am not sure about psychology, is it easy/hard for an A*-B average gcse grade student. is it interesting? and is there alot of revision?
i would like to hear of some peoples experiencese and how hard it is compared to other subjects.
thanks :biggrin:

p.s: i am not really shure of what i am going to do at uni...but its not going really to be anything to do with physics/psychology.

( our sixthform college has four 'blocks' of subjects..and we need to pick one from each block.. in one of my blocks physics and psychology are the only ones i am willing to do)

Psychology is WAY easier than physics by a hell of a lot! Also IMO psychology was more interesting than physics, not by a huge amount though. It depends what you want to go on to do after college and what area interests you more at the moment.

Reply 24

jabed786

jelly1000

I've just finished the new spec AQA AS level. From my experience it wasn't that hard, as the questions are almost all short answer. In January I simply waffled through the unit 1 paper and got an A. Though I found it incredibly tedious, especially research methods and some of the biological stuff.

did you do AQA (A) or AQA (B)

Reply 25

jabed786

HighSkies

Its not soft. I've done AS and will be continuing it on next year. There is a lot to remember so revision takes a long time but its also very interesting which makes it easier to remember. I found its on the same easiness level as biology, easier than chemistry and only a little easier than latin.

i see you are doing aqa a psychology, is it 100% exams and no cswk? are you using any particular textbooks? if so which ones - its just that i think i might self teach the whole alevel in one year if I have to reapply for uni.

Reply 26

headunderwater

I did a past paper for psychology (I'm weird, yeah) and I don't even do the course, and I only lost 3 marks :/ judging by that, yes.

Reply 27

Stephaniieee24

After my experience of taking Psychology at A Level , i found that it was a very hard a level compared to others.
Theres alot of infomation you have to digest and store as the exam questions are really everything you have learnt about certain topics .
you look at lots of topics and have to learn an essay for like every mini topic
If your prepared to put in the workload, i would incourage you to take it as it is an interesting a level but not the easiest of them out there.

Reply 28

GodspeedGehenna

35mm_

I did a past paper for psychology (I'm weird, yeah) and I don't even do the course, and I only lost 3 marks :/ judging by that, yes.

Pics or gtfo.

Reply 29

headunderwater

GodspeedGehenna

Pics or gtfo.

I could do that, or... I could just not make the effort.

Reply 30

GodspeedGehenna

35mm_

I could do that, or... I could just not make the effort.

Can't support your ******** then? The second option is open to you, my friend.

Reply 31

ScillyRose

Physics isn't an easy subject even if you really want to take it btw so don'ttake it lightly!
(I'm on the IB not A levels but I'm sure it must be just ashard for you)

Reply 32

menaa-x

I don't think Psychology is easy :no:

Reply 33

kiss_me_now9

GodspeedGehenna

The new AQA spec is just retarded though. Psych is an essay subject, and you cannot answer the questions fully with those silly little 3 sentence answers. I think that has dented the respectability of the course unfortunately.

Make them do the 6 essays in 3 hours that we did :yep:

It'll be interesting to compare the two, I think I agree with you though - Much as I hated and failed because of the essays, there's no way you try and force Psychology to be like Biology or Chem which is what it seems they're trying to do.

Old spec, I'd say was hard, new spec, well, time will tell.

Reply 34

headunderwater

GodspeedGehenna

Can't support your ******** then? The second option is open to you, my friend.

I accept the challenge, sir. Although, I can't quite see why you're bothered. Once I find batteries for camera and indeed the paper itself.

Reply 35

GodspeedGehenna

35mm_

I accept the challenge, sir. Although, I can't quite see why you're bothered. Once I find batteries for camera and indeed the paper itself.

Please do so. What exam board was this from, out of curiosity?

Reply 36

headunderwater

GodspeedGehenna

Please do so. What exam board was this from, out of curiosity?

AQA, IIRC.

Reply 37

Sakura-Chan

Psychology AS on OCR is do-able, and very enjoyable :smile:

At A2 it's brutal, trying to learn the minimum of 64 studies that you need for your exam is torture. They've changed the specification now so it's probably not as hard as it was when I did the exams in June :cry:

Reply 38

ChristinaJ

I found Psychology to be the most BORING subject ever! Seriously.
If you like memory tests, then go for it.
Its not like other subjects where you have to learn certain information, but can then really put your own opinions into it (E.g. English/Philosophy type subjects). It feels more just learn the stuff off by heart and repeat it in the exam. This subject was the one I was most looking forward to studying, but I ended up dropping it because after awhile it was so dull just repeating information and it didn't challenge my brain like my other subjects.

Physics is considered 'harder' by the best uni's. (I think some, like Oxford, have a list how hard a subject is considered on their websites.)
Plus, physics would compliment maths more. What type of maths are you taking? Mechanics is the generally the best for Physics.
Cant really advise you that much on physics though...

Reply 39

inksplodge

Out of all of my subjects at A2 (english literature, english language & psychology - obviously) psychology was definitely the hardest... I was on AQA B spec.