Getting good psychology A-level results is a simple as making sure you understand all of the basic subjects covered and can remember details of the studies relevant to those fields. The psychology A-level covers all of the vital subject areas in psychology, such as attachment, stress, memory, biological rhythms, social influence, social conformity and psychological abnormality. To get the best results, you need to study hard, use mnemonics to aid memory and be able to demonstrate your understanding of the major subject areas.
A-levels are studied in the United Kingdom mainly by students who are 16-18 years old and who have just left secondary school. Your A-level results are used to determine whether you are eligible for university courses. Therefore, if you want to study psychology at a degree level, you need to do well on your psychology A-level.
To get the best psychology A-level results, it is vital to have a clear and well-informed understanding of the key topics of study. For example, in the abnormal psychology module, it is not sufficient to just have a basic understanding of the definition of “abnormal” in psychological terms. You also have to know about the different theories regarding the causes of psychological abnormality and the different manifestations of it.
Psychology A-level tests require you to remember a large amount of information about different studies, their aims, methodology, results and the implications of the results for the field of study. As well as this, you need to remember the dates that different studies were completed and the names of the people who completed them. This is a lot to remember, but it is equally important to have an understanding of the study itself.
Make use of mnemonics where possible. Mnemonics take the first letter of words that comprise a relevant list, and then replace the words with alternative words that are easier to remember as a whole. For example, you could remember Piaget’s stages of cognitive development, which are sensorimotor, pre-operational, concrete-operational and formal-operational, by simply remembering “smart people cook fish.” This doesn’t help you remember the stages of cognitive development fully, but is a good way to recall the correct words, because it gives you all of the initial letters.
As well as using mnemonics, you also can use the information that you have gained regarding memory as part of your psychology A-level course to help. For example, short-term memory lasts only about 18 seconds, and things are committed to long-term memory through repetition or simply because of their significance. After something is in your long-term memory, the only problems you have will be as a result of your ability to recall it.
Before your psychology A-level test, it might be worth taking some mock tests on the different subject areas. There are many places online where you can find detailed revision help and practice tests, and there are questions to check your understanding of different sections in psychology textbooks. The more questions you can answer off the top of your head, the better you will do on your psychology A-level.