Psychology Exam tips

[Afterglow]

Okay so I have just realized how unprepared I actually am for the psychology exams. You see, for the first whole year our teacher never used past exams or introduced us to how exam questions are set up. Instead our tests were really simple such as 'define imprinting', 'give an example of positive and negative reinforcement' and etc. Then when in our second year, we started with the real questions and it's a huge difference, especially the 20 points one.

I have been having a real hard time to actually do well on those. I am predicted a 6 but I'm aiming for a 7 yet the past tests that I've done, I've only been given a 5. I just find it so hard to know what the examiner are looking for. I checked mark schemes and they are just useless. I don't get how to approach the questions because we were never taught that much with how to express evaluations and comparsions in psychology which most questions are based on. I mean, you can write 3 pages on a 20 point question (these are the ones I find hardest) yet still only get 8 marks on it.

Any advice? We are currently doing the psychodynamic options and writing answers to a bunch of exam questions and I find it so hard

Edited November 18, 2007 by Afterglow

[Graeme]

Have a look at the psychology notes topic. I posted some pdfs with questions that have been answered. They should give you a rough idea.

Also, have another look at Cranepsych. He has some example 20 point questions on there that have been answered by some of his students. That's how I learnt.

The trick to the psychology exam is to learn things that are relevent to all perspectives. For example, I studied neurotransmitters and they allowed me to answer questions everywhere. The trick is to learn the bare minimum, but learn it well.

[icecoldstar]

i used your notes Deus!!! although i only got 5 on it, most people in my class got 4 or less. our teacher is a piece of ****, and without your notes, i could very possibly have gotten a 3...

[Guest Alvar]

I have to agree with Deus. What my Psych teacher/ History teacher is teaching me is pretty much not enough to get through the class itself. He is taught us a great deal on, in the case of pysch, depression and disorders so that we would write on that in one of our paper 1 questions and on our paper 2. He is doing the same with single party states. He is teaching us a lot about Hitler and Nazi Germany and Mao and Communist Russia and not so much about anything else. Past that only your teacher can provide you with help.

[kc4293]

The hardest part of Psychology exams is understanding what they're asking for. Ask your teacher for past exams and the marking schemes or try to find some on the internet, I'm sure there are some you can use to get a better idea of what to study.

[Frei]

iTunes -> iTunes store -> iTunes U -> UC Berkeley -> Social Science -> Psych 1: General Psychology - Fall 2006 by Johan Kihlstrom

That's what I'm using at the moment;

read the chapter in the book

Go for a walk listening to a track that fits the chapter

read the chapter summary

kaching!

Edited January 20, 2008 by Frei

[Afterglow]

Thank you. I am not that worried content wise because I know a lot in psychology. I know the most. I am doing well on that. It's just the matter of approaching the question that I find difficult. English and structure-wise, I'm all fine as well. It's a bit hard to explain exactly what I am having trouble but ah well.

Practise makes perfect. I am currently using your notes Deus. Thank you so much for writing those. You're amazing.

[chileanbob]

I'm somewhat worried too. My teacher hasn't been teaching us most but she's been focusing in on the IA this first semester. Also, I heard from previous students that they didn't even study for the exam and got 4s. I'm shocked at these results...

[Chuck10112]

I heard from previous students that they didn't even study for the exam and got 4s. I'm shocked at these results...

That shouldn't be a surprise the pysch test isn't difficult. From what I've heard it seems like the preparation you guys are getting is all wrong. You're doing definition and multiple choice tests rather than essay tests. To be ready for this test you're going to have to know a minimum of 7 theories and 10 experiments pretty much inside out. If you can do this the test will be a cakewalk.

[Delione]

i didnt study for my mocks for the psychology last year and i got a 4.

If u want to do well for the IB exam, at least understand/ know 2 studies of every perspective!

[JeffTLPA]

I am also pretty woried about the Exam since I'm in standard level and all my teacher keeps telling my class when we express concern about our grades and our preparedness level for the exam is that our priorities are wrong.

[red_ember14]

I know this is the first year my school is going through IB and our psychology teacher doesn't exactly know what she's doing. But from the research my friends and I did ourselves it seems like for the eight mark questions its all about getting the basics and the IB psychology book says it should be around 250 words. For the twenty-two marks it's all about gender bias, ethics, methodology and culture and should be around 800 words.

Also, just make sure you're hitting the command terms. For the eight mark exams, hitting the command term is 70% of your marks and 60% for the twenty two marks.

I know that exams start this coming week and my friends and I just found out that the "eight mark" questions that our teacher has been given us she's been grading as twenty-two marks and that we've been writing more then time allocates for eight mark questions. It's going to be an interesting endeavor for us all.

Edited May 2, 2011 by red_ember14

[Frogz]

I just took Papers 1 and 2 for Psych SL and I destroyed them! I think that the most important thing was to connect any studies that could be linked and really talk about the interaction of biological, cognitive, and sociocultural factor in EVERYTHING.