Please tell me about Psychology A Level

[Naem]

My DDs school is not running two of the A Levels she had hoped to take (Geography and French) and so she is struggling for a third A level on top of Biology and Maths. She is now considering Psychology (having never shown any interest in anything remotely psychology related previously) because she doesn't want to leave the school and leave her friends and she knows she doesn't want to do anything else on offer, whereas this is something she doesn't know much about. The alternative is to take the third A level online.

Please could those of you with DC who have taken/are taking Psychology A Level tell me as much as you can about it - and what sort of skills are required/involved.

I am worried that she will end up part way through an A Level bitterly regretting her choice and really struggling. Please help us get a feel for what is actually involved. Sorry, I am not sure what board the school takes, although most likely to be AQA given that most, but not all, of their subjects are AQA.

Psychology seems like quite a good fit with biology and maths! (There is some stats in psychology if it is the same as when I did it 15 years ago!)
Does she know what she wants to do after a levels? As that is probably the best place to start from and work back from there
Sorry I can't particularly help with the content of the subject but hopefully someone will come along who can

Sounds like a good fit to me too. My dd gave it up as it was too science based for her but she's doing English lit, English language and history.
She said that she could do it but found it too fact based for her. Learn a theory, apply the theory.

It works well with maths and biology. Quite a lot of facts to learn, it is a broad brush of lots of studies/ experiments. Some research methods, statistics, similar to Biology. Some essays, some short answer / multiple choice questions. Having a scientific approach helps. For some University courses it will fullfil a requirement to have an additional science subject. Like Biology there is quite a lot of content to learn. If she likes the human side of geography she might enjoy it.

Other than Chemistry I can't think of a subject more suited to someone who enjoys maths and Biology. Is there any reason why you are being cautious about it? Does she know what she wants to study at university?

I did psychology A level (albeit a while ago!) With biology and chemistry. It's a science so if she enjoys biology it's probably a good choice. There's some maths in there i.e. statistics, some critical thinking, research methods and essay questions. It's a good mixture of different things and very interesting - similar to geography in that way I would say.

I ended up studying psychology at degree level, rather than biology as I had planned!

Agree she may want to work backwards from university admissions. Even if she doesn’t love it, chemistry would be the other natural fit- some universities require it even for biology related courses. Even if not strictly required, it may be used as a screen so Important to properly kick the tyres because ‘preferred’ may as well say ‘required’ for very oversubscribed courses.

kind of depressing that they don’t have the numbers for two pretty standard a-levels. Out of interest, what are the v popular a levels at the school or is it just a small 6th form?

I am worried that she will end up part way through an A Level bitterly regretting her choice

This happened at DD's school. Loads of students dropped it because it was so dull and unchallenging. DD took it up to AS level then dropped it. The volume of work was greater than that of her other subjects (biology, chemistry and geography).

They had to memorise loads of case studies carried out by people with difficult to spell names and didn't cover any of the more interesting aspects of the subject in year 12. This was edexel board.

I'm surprised that the school isn't running geography. DD's 6th form wasn't a large one but geography was a popular subject.

My child did ALevel psychology, enjoyed it and found it her easiest subject, got an A and now second year of good uni. It seems a good subject to me.

What other choices are there ? My DS ended up enjoying Sociology more than Psychology.

I echo the surprise around geography not running (not French tho - two candidates in my dd’s 100+ sixth form). Is it a very small school op? Geography was only beaten by maths, Eng lit, biology and psych in dd’s year.

psych is v popular but as others say, is not always what students hope. Lots to remember and anecdotally, it is often dropped.

What other options are there? English? History? Chem? Psych is a good fit with maths tho.

This happened at DD's school. Loads of students dropped it because it was so dull and unchallenging. DD took it up to AS level then dropped it.

Exactly the same at our school (including my son). Our school starts the kids off on 4 A levels and they drop one at the end of the first term. Hardly anyone kept on with psychology as it wasn't nearly as interesting as they hoped. I think there was also a slight feeling that it was potentially a softer and less impressive A level than the usual sciences.

I can't believe they're not running geography though. It's the most popular subject at our school.

I agree with the post that says look at university and work backwards. What’s the entry criteria at the universities she may want to attend, or apprenticeships?

DD took one subject she knew she could boss even though it was not that interesting but because it pretty much guaranteed her the A grade she would need for her ABB university course.

Ds1 just finished it. Awaiting results. It's a great A'level, considered as a science. More technical than sociology. He enjoyed it alot. I enjoyed testing him as part of his revision. Would highly recommend it.

DD loves it and will probably do it at uni too.
There are quite a few essays though so be aware of that

She currently wants to do veterinary nursing. Obsessed with animals, but also ecology, environmental issues, loves the outdoors, hiking etc. One of the attractions of geography was field work (which she won't get if she does it online, she will have an extra exam instead).
Generally in the past has regarded animals as more interesting than humans (although has nice group of friends).

DD has always been stronger on the science side than the essay side. Does struggle quite a bit with essays.

I would have thought Chemistry is pretty essential for veterinary courses.

My eldest absolutely hated it as he found it very dry but he got an A. He found it hard but I think that’s because he wasn’t doing biology with it. With the other combinations your DD has chosen if sounds like a good choice. Really surprised they’re not running geography though!

There is a big piece of extended coursework for Geography - worth 20% of the final mark - which is a bit of a pain as it comes the at time when you're also dealing with UCAS applications, mock revision etc. just something to bear in mind.

Is there any possibility of travelling to another school for the third A-level? Obviously depends on timetabling and whether there ARE other local schools (more likely to work in a city than in the country, or a small town). I live in London and this happens a fair bit - your school negotiates and fixes it up for you.

Yes it is quite a small sixth form - and also there was not such a great geography teacher lower down that put a number of people off - the two classes ended up being very small at GCSE. The school is going to be offering three pools of biology, two pools of maths, I think at least two if not three pools of history. They were going to be offering sociology but then lost their teacher so have told those that opted for it that they have to choose something else (I asked the Headteacher if they could persuade some of those who wanted to do sociology to do geography, but she said the timetable is set so no).
DD adamantly does not want to to chemistry or physics as she doesn't find them interesting (although she might even do better in them than in biology at GCSE). I really would have encouraged chemistry as it would keep veterinary science open, but she flat out doesn't want to do it.
Enjoyed English but struggled with the essay writing (top set in science/maths, oscillated between second set and third set for English). Did much better in third set as she got a lot more personal attention. Took Geography instead of History.
Part of my hesitation I guess has to do with:
a) her responses at various points where counseling/support has been offered over the years. At various points she has complained about teachers or other adults "being nosy" when actually what they were trying to offer was counseling/support. At various points she has said to me "why would I go and tell somebody else my problems?" More recently she has said "why would I go and tell some adult my problems when I can talk to my friends?". Now the latter is a far more mature response than the former, but even so;

b) she is not neurotypical (as you might have even gathered from the above) - has a diagnosis of ADHD (inattentive) and slow non verbal processing (but very high verbal processing) - although the diagnosis was rather pushed on us in order to have a label we could waive - I am not quite sure it fully covers her particular quirkiness and abilities (which are very high in some ways and not in others).

Only for veterinary science. That is one of the reasons she is going for veterinary nursing - the nursing generally only requires biology, not chemistry. I agree she is cutting off her future options, but we have been over and over this and she really can't bear to do chemistry.

I'd be worried about the essay side of psychology (and it's my job to advise students on 6th form choices). Whilst essays aren't as tough in psych as some subjects as they're quite formulaic, but students do need to be able to write and write quickly; the time pressures in the exam are considerable.
What else do they offer?

Actually, she is quite keen on the (idea of) extended coursework. If she does it online she has to do the International Geography A level (which I gather is accepted by all the universities) but which involves four exams, rather than three and coursework. Of course the online schools can't offer the coursework as they need to take them on field trips.

The school have told me they explored doing Geography with a nearby school (it was one of my suggestions) and have told me it was not feasible. We are in London, and apparently they did explore - but it came to nothing.

Ignore the random 'but' in that sentence

Nothing that would work for DD. That is why I came up with the online option, which the school has reluctantly agreed to, because they haven't been able to meet her needs (also do note that her year is an abnormally small year for a host of complicated reasons, I reckon they will offer Geography for the current Year 10s and they did last year). But DD is understandably nervous about the online (as am I - although the one other girl who wanted to do Geography might do it with her, which would help, I think). Hence the suggestion of psychology, as it is something the school does offer. It has never been on her radar before - and just not the sort of thing in which she has ever expressed an interest. And I am worried about the essay side of things (although there are essays in Geography, but a fair number of those are on the kinds of topics that DD will spout on anyway - climate change and ecology change etc - she absolutely loved paper 3 in Geography).