7 in HL Psychology anyone?

[Hearts]

So, i was wondering - is there anyone out there who's managed to pull a 7 for either HL psych, or an A for a psych EE?
If so, what did you find set you apart from most students? Was there anything particularly notable that you did?

Cause in my school there has yet to be a HL student to score a 7 or an A in EE - why and how does this happen!?

[Sandwich]

Obviously I don't know your school, but what I would say is there wherever you have a school with a history of zero 7s ever then unless it's the first ever year with a very small class of people who are not that great... it really says a lot more about the teaching than about the subject. It suggests that your teachers aren't really teaching you the right techniques for writing the essays and nailing the style which wins the top marks.

That was definitely true in my school and I think true for a lot of people I've seen on the forum. For instance I've seen it written a lot that nobody's ever got a 7 in English Lit in their school whereas my tiny school was getting easily 1/2 of the class with 7s every year - not because there was a high incidence of english talents in the school but just that the teachers were really very good at teaching the technique to people of all sorts of different abilities and levels of interest. Really good versus not so great (or just not so targeted at the syllabus and IB's 'style'!) teaching actually can make that much of a difference, especially in essay subjects.

[priyanka.lakhiani]

Psychology is a relatively easier subject to get a 7 in. My school's only had 1 previous batch with psychology and 3 or 4 out of 9 students got a 7, and most were HL. I've gotten a 7 in my terms and finals for IB-1. I'm SL, but my teacher says the IA and options are pretty important for HL, especially since they have one more than SL. After 2 years you should know the 3 core chapters inside out, and I think around 32 on 46 in Paper 1 is a 7, not too sure about paper 2 or 3.

[Hearts]

oh gosh...
do you have any tips as to how i could independently work my way up? Given that I have no experienced IB psychology teacher at my school. The teacher is new to IB psych.

However, psych's definitely super easy for me generally, i love it. And, i'm already a 7 student in terms of tests and mock internals, but in terms of the IB standard, and as you've mentioned the 'IB style' of things- do you guys have any pointers for me, as to what i should do?

[sameera95]

our teacher says the 22 mark essay should go in this format:

INTRO: definition of main word in the question, brief explanation (could still be detailed and brief), and simply state what will be discussed in the essay - which 2 or 3 studies you will look at

PARAGRAPH 1: your first main study, make sure you show your knowledge of what you're talking about by discussing the aim, method, findings, and conclusion of the researchers, at least 3 points of critical thinking and state why it is so, eg "This study is not ecologically valid because it was a lab based experiment and not in a natural setting, however a cause-and-effect relationship can be established because the variables were highly controlled". Oh and always refer the study back to the question to show that you understand why you have chosen this certain study to discuss - "this study therefore provides evidence that...." (never "proves")

PARAGRAPH 2&3: your second and third studies, same format as before

CONCLUSION: in the conclusion you should evaluate the topic(s) as a whole and give critical thinking

you could also include small paragraphs in between, linking 2 similar studies by saying how the technique used was ..... and then saying the following study uses a different technique .....

oh and another thing, my teacher says never use I, you, we or us - its always "this essay will discuss..." "this study shows that..." and anything along those lines

finally, never forget what the command term is asking you, have a look here it will help: http://blogs.4j.lane.edu/yamada/files/2009/09/IB-pshch-guide.pdf

good luck to you and to other fellow psychology students