Psychology A-Level

[Poseidensgrumpyneighbour]

My DD is in year 11 and has recently decided she'd really like to do Psychology as one of four A-levels. Would appreciate your honest views on the value of it as an A-level subject.

I liked the emphasis on critical thinking and understanding research methods in the blurb I read about it. DD is good at maths, which sounds as if it will be important. But I suppose I've put it in the same category as A-levels like Law i.e. subjects that should be studied later / at degree level rather than during sixth form. I imagine that's a quite outdated view now though so any thoughts from someone more in-the-know than me would be very welcome. Thanks in advance

My sons go to a selective private school. The usual split of results by subject is probably 30-50% A star, 30% A and so on.

They have specialist psychology teachers but the highest grade is nearly always a B, which looks an anomaly amongst the other subjects. Not sure whether it's the teaching or that it attracts the less studious students but it tends to put off students who need 3 As for their university places and possibly becomes self-fulfilling.

It's an excellent a level. A lot of it is statistical analysis and related to maths, and has quite a lot re biology in it too.

It's a proper science IMHO.

My son did it, loved it and is now reading it at Uni.

@sep135 I’m really surprised to hear what you say about grade profiles. My DD is currently applying for selective London sixth forms to do A levels including psychology. Their A*-A profiles for the subject are as follows:

School 1: A*-A 81% in 2022, 63% in 2023
School 2: A*-A 68% in 2022, 51% in 2023
College: A*-A 42% 2017-2021 (later subject stats not on website)

I’m really surprised to hear what you say about grade profiles.

It was a surprise and stood out like a sore thumb. Not one year either, over a good three or four year period. And without wishing to sound crass, pupils tend to be academic as the entrance exams are quite onerous so there's no obvious reason for it.

However it requires a doctorate to become a psychologist and very very few do. So does she have any career reason to choose psychology?

I did psychology and the people on my course have done a wide variety of things.

A few have gone on to PhDs in research - I don't think any work in practice though.
Some went on to further studying to become mental health nurses, social workers.
I'm an accountant at a big 4, and psychology isn't an uncommon degree for people where I work.

It's a useful degree even if you don't necessarily use the actual content in a future job. The maths, the research, the essay writing, it's a lot of independent learning which is also a skill, and critical evaluation of research.

Of course anyone doing any degree needs to think about the reasons for doing it, and shouldn't do one for the sake of it. But if they're interested in it, it's a good degree for people who want to be able to apply for graduate jobs (whether all those jobs that ask for one actually require a degree to do it well is a separate conversation).

I think it might be hard to do well because there's such a range of skills required. So you need to be good at biology and maths, and good at writing, there's a lot of content to learn, names, dates and details to memorise, you need to understand historical/social context, plus research methods and ethics and apply that knowledge to new situations, and you need to be able to use the concepts and studies you've learned as evidence to back up an argument.

I think most A level subjects have fewer layers than this but might be wrong. Maybe sociology is similar but without the biology bits. DD has also found that while the concepts are interesting and fairly easy to understand, it's not a given that this will translate into marks. So exam technique is another skill that needs to be tip top.

If you’re interested in the national grade distributions then the overview of 2023 results from AQA is interesting:

https://filestore.aqa.org.uk/over/stat_pdf/AQA-A-LEVEL-STATS-JUN-2023.PDF

In terms of numbers it is AQA’s most popular subject by a long way (but don’t be tempted to compare too closely with AQA’s other subjects as other boards have cornered the market there, eg Maths and Edexcel).

I suspect @sep135 is correct that the relatively low outcomes at her DCs’ school is a combination of self-selecting intake to the course and, possibly, mediocre teaching.

psychology is a very popular A level - prob one of the most popular ones as its can be combined with many other subjects and it also ticks the science box if a child wants to keep their options open but does want to do traditional sciences.

Similar here from WJEC - interesting because there's no choice of board in Wales, and fewer private schools doing their own thing.

www.wjec.co.uk/media/stglwbfv/wjec-gce-a-level-provisional-results.pdf

I did A level psychology and A level sociology in a year and I achieved an A in both subjects. I much preferred psychology as a subject. I found sociology to be too historically biased and you are tasked with learning about endless dead sociologists.

Maths is probably my weakest area but the statistics you study are nothing like every day maths. I coped with it easily.

I went into nursing and both subjects were useful but psychology more so. I learned so much about research methods and how to critique literature. These skills are transferable to many professions.

Here’s a good national overview based on 2022 entries.

https://ffteducationdatalab.org.uk/2022/08/which-a-level-subjects-are-the-most-popular/

Psychology is the second most popular A level in the country, and the most popular with female students. Overall it is second only to Maths.

The blog is a depressing read as an English specialist 🤦🏻‍♀️

I did it decades ago. It was fascinating and useful. Paper 2 was statistical analysis of data, which was pretty challenging for a maths dunce like me!

Blimey, French and German 😱

Yes, MFL is in absolute crisis and English will follow if the trend continues. There are huge implications for teacher numbers long-term.

We are worried.

@stoneysongs Yes. You can see the truly hard subjects Brits shy away from!

The push for stem is obliterating other subjects that we don’t value.

The first thing you learn in psychology at uni is how the A level is unhelpful.

@Autumnalvibesofmellowness that's not true... depends on the university and shame on university lecturers peddling that lie.

Doing psychology at A level doesn’t mean you do a degree in it. I think, with maths, it’s great for management courses and these, from the best unis, produce highly employable graduates. Especially if they have done work experience. Psychology degrees might have a clinical placement but that’s fairly narrow. I think keeping options wider makes sense.

That’s interesting thank you for sharing that. My DS did A levels this year and got an A star for Psychology (he got a review of marking as had paper checked and 2 marks hadn’t been added on). He had an excellent teacher for Y12 but she left so basically had to teach himself Y13 and had a tutor for a few months. I was proud before but to see that only 5.7% got an A star is quite impressive (well it is to me anyway!)

It really isn't. It's a good intro. As is a ug degree in psychology because when you do your masters they also say that you have to unlearn a lot of 'truths' of the ug content.

You also don't need a doctorate to become a chartered psychologist. In some fields of psychology, yes, but not all.

I teach in an academic independent day school and we offer Psychology. It’s very popular and is taken by a range of students. We’ve had kids go to Cambridge to read Psychology that have done it. I think it is more accessible than some other subjects- it feels a bit bite sized and obviously lots of Psychology courses at University need hard sciences. As one of four it would be fine.

Bath, for example, ask for science and essay subjects. No just science. Psychology counts in their science list.

Slightly worrying though, in my view, is that their undergrad course suggests relevant work experience can enhance an application. I’m struggling to see how DC can acquire this unless parents pull strings. If you were parents with no strings to pull, how many ordinary DC can realistically get this? It rather follows the pattern that doctors are Dc of doctors, vets are Dc of vets etc. I see you are encouraged to read widely on the subject but relevant work experience is difficult for many with no useful connections or parents who can help. I’m wondering what they consider relevant? I can see why it’s a sought after course but seems to require far more than grades and background comes into play. Surrey, for example. mentions just grades as selection criteria.

Hi @Poseidensgrumpyneighbour ! You raise some interesting questions. I come to this as a parent but also as someone who has worked in schools and who still works in the education sector.

Officially, universities don't undervalue Psychology. They are content to count it as one of three A Levels if that is what the applicant studies, providing the other two offer mandatory or desirable subjects. But unofficially they might prefer Biology, for example. Cambridge for one does not require Psychology for its Psychology degree course; but it does like Biology and Maths. My daughter's school stopped offering Psychology A Level because Universities did not demand it.

As for workload, Psychology does need a bit of work. More importantly, Music A Level and music making are very time consuming. A friend of my daughter's found her three A Levels demanding enough as a musician. (She got a first at Cambridge eventually.) So whilst I, too, encouraged my daughter to study what she wanted, I did talk her down to do one fewer A Level in the end. Four full A Levels and music making might be a bit too much; the demands may eventually dilute grades and may also take the fun out of the experience overall.

Cambridge likes it’s preferred subjects. That’s why it still lists them. Maths, Biology, Physics or Chemistry are listed for Psychology at Cambridge. You need to take at least one which appears to suggest two is what’s expected!