AS/A2 Level Psychology

anewman

ac24 wrote:

i hated it. There is a huge work load. its just all about memorising things. In my opinion it shouldnt even be a subject. 80% of it has nothing to do with applying your knowledge. its just memory. if you want a good grade you have to memorise millions of pages of stupidness.

When I took Psychology at A level our group went to a Lecture about A level Psychology by Phil Banyard, the head examiner for the exam board I took Psychology with. One of his suggestions was, if you could not remember something suitable in the exam, to simply make up a piece of research and apply it to the question. Not that I would recommend this but when it came from a head examiner you have to wonder

ac24

lpoolt wrote:

Near enough every A-level is about memorising things. It shouldn't be a subject, don't be so ridiculuous, it's a science, so in that case then biology, chemisty and physics shouldn't be subjects either :rolleyes: .

What a silly person you are. Psychology is not a science. It is a social science.. dont confuse the two.

I did 3 sciences along with psychology. i did maths biology and chemistry. Those required application of knowledge. That doesnt mean its all memory.

Psychology however was just writing down studies and research you have remembered and then evaluating it... also memorising the evaluation that is in the text book and the notes your teacher may give you.

lellie

ac24 wrote:

What a silly person you are. Psychology is not a science. It is a social science.. dont confuse the two.

I did 3 sciences along with psychology. i did maths biology and chemistry. Those required application of knowledge. That doesnt mean its all memory.

Psychology however was just writing down studies and research you have remembered and then evaluating it... also memorising the evaluation that is in the text book and the notes your teacher may give you.

This is true - Maths, Chem, Physics require you to remember things but then use them to answer problems - it's application..

Psych does seem to be just learn a billion case studies and regurgitate.

carlyh69

I did it for a level and have just completed a Bsc in it. As said above, it is not a "doss" course like some people think it is. there is lots of math/stats involved which can be quite difficult!

Gemmzie

Of course it's a science, thats why you get a BSc and can become a Doctor of it.

Psychology seems like regurgitation at A Level because it's 90% of peoples first introduction to the subject. Your own research comes later.

kittykate_2

lellie wrote:

This is true - Maths, Chem, Physics require you to remember things but then use them to answer problems - it's application..

and psychology doesn't? Have you even studied psychology. Do you even know what it is? I guess I just 'made up' the part of my degree where I had to learn things then apply them to 'answer problems' - which is exactly what my dissertation involved. I researched the subject, designed and conducted an experiment, analysed it and then theorised it. Aaaah I guess really all that I did was

learn a billion case studies and regurgitate

. God, some people!

lellie

I meant that's all you have to do to pass the A level, I understand that beyond that it is a lot different, but the A level is a lot of regugitation.

It is a social science, rather than a natural science.

kittykate_2

Yeah it's regurgitation if you wanna just 'pass' it, but to get a decent mark you have to show insight and understanding. You don't do very well just writing a load of studies down.

pboae

It also depends which syllabus you take, some are more weighted to qualitative psychology and some to quantitative psychology. Most Universities count it as a Science A-Level either way.

Remembering the studies in Psychology is only a tiny portion of it, if you don't understand the studies, it's meaningless. It's no different to learning the periodic table or equasions.

My Psychology PhD (in neuroscience and kinematics) was as much a 'real' science as any I've seen in a 'traditional' science.

Unfortunately practical scientific experimentation is being whittled out of GCSE, which only leaves regurgitation. So A-Level Science courses will have to be adapted to cope with the skill level of students coming through that system. Combine that with courses like Edexcel's science GCSE where the exams are solely multiple choice questions, and they won't even have to regurgitate stuff anymore. :-(

lpoolt

ac24 wrote:

What a silly person you are. Psychology is not a science. It is a social science.. dont confuse the two.

I did 3 sciences along with psychology. i did maths biology and chemistry. Those required application of knowledge. That doesnt mean its all memory.

Psychology however was just writing down studies and research you have remembered and then evaluating it... also memorising the evaluation that is in the text book and the notes your teacher may give you.

How patronising are you? I'm not a silly person actually.

Psychology IS a science. If you actually paid attention when you did psychology A-level this is one of the first things you are told and one of the first things I was told on my degree.

If it's not a science then how about you contact my university and tell them they're completely wrong by having it in the faculty of Science & Agriculture rather than the Social Sciences faculty? Then again maybe it's a silly persons university because according to you, the brainxbox, I'm a silly person :rolleyes:

And as someone else said, why is my psychology degree BSc Psychology if it's not a science. Enough said.