ATAR Notes: Forum

Archived Discussion => 2010 => Mid-year exams => Exam Discussion => Victoria => Psychology => Topic started by: nightblaze on July 17, 2010, 05:54:34 pm

Title: Is Psychology hard?
Post by: nightblaze on July 17, 2010, 05:54:34 pm
hi i'm im year 10
and i was wondering is psychology hard for those of you who've sat in the exam before. i enjoy science and and don't know what 3/4 i can choose to do for year 11 (because i want to do at least one 3/4 in year 11.) so do you suggest to do 3/4 psy in year 11?
Title: Re: Is Psychology hard?
Post by: Russ on July 17, 2010, 06:03:43 pm
I did Psych 3/4 in year 11 with no prior biology/science knowledge and didn't feel that I was disadvantaged. Most of the content is fairly logical, especially stuff like the structure of the brain and visual perception.

3/4 Psych is a pretty good choice for year 11 (it does get scaled down though, watch out for that :P)
Title: Re: Is Psychology hard?
Post by: iNerd on July 17, 2010, 06:04:56 pm
hi i'm im year 10
and i was wondering is psychology hard for those of you who've sat in the exam before. i enjoy science and and don't know what 3/4 i can choose to do for year 11 (because i want to do at least one 3/4 in year 11.) so do you suggest to do 3/4 psy in year 11?
Pyschology is changing next year so make sure you check that new study design. It isn't hard, infact it gets a -1 scaling if you get less than 40...its pure rote-memorisation
Title: Re: Is Psychology hard?
Post by: vexx on July 17, 2010, 06:08:46 pm
yeah.
psych i found it very interesting and it's certainly not a hard subject; everything we did contained fairly basic concepts.
and as iNerd has said- it is pure rote memorising. so it's quite a bit of work (like any other subject that requires rote learning although psych is more pedantic than most) to memorise everything perfectly.
Title: Re: Is Psychology hard?
Post by: Whatlol on July 17, 2010, 06:56:10 pm
Doing psych in year 11 is a very good idea, if you work hard and study well for your exams obtaining 40+ is not very hard compared to obtaining a 40+ in year 12. I would actually not do psychology in year 12 because to get a good mark in the exams you need to spend alot of time memorising a very large amount of definitions  ( as already mentioned by vexx and iNerd).
When i did psyc 3/4 in year 11, all the year 11 students beat the year twelves.
Title: Re: Is Psychology hard?
Post by: Visionz on July 17, 2010, 07:02:22 pm
Do it. Its easy. I didnt do 1/2 but im doing 3/4 this year and I think I did pretty well on the exam (85/90). Its a lot of memorising but the concepts are easy to grasp. The students who did do psych 1/2 really had no head start on me.
Title: Re: Is Psychology hard?
Post by: Glockmeister on July 17, 2010, 07:26:01 pm
The new Psych design is going to make Psychology harder though (a bigger emphasis on biology for one), but it's definitely not too difficult if you sit down and learn the concepts.
Title: Re: Is Psychology hard?
Post by: iNerd on July 17, 2010, 07:26:17 pm
Do it. Its easy. I didnt do 1/2 but im doing 3/4 this year and I think I did pretty well on the exam (85/90). Its a lot of memorising but the concepts are easy to grasp. The students who did do psych 1/2 really had no head start on me.
This is true also. Dont' feel disadvantaged if you didn't do 1/2. My school only let me do Unit 1 and the only thing that will help me out in 3/4 is research methods; the rest is irrelevant
Title: Re: Is Psychology hard?
Post by: iNerd on July 17, 2010, 07:27:46 pm
The new Psych design is going to make Psychology harder though (a bigger emphasis on biology for one), but it's definitely not too difficult if you sit down and learn the concepts.

Hmm harder? The exams will be relatively easy though yh? I've heard the first-year-of-study-design-exams are easier...
Title: Re: Is Psychology hard?
Post by: Glockmeister on July 17, 2010, 08:01:17 pm
The new Psych design is going to make Psychology harder though (a bigger emphasis on biology for one), but it's definitely not too difficult if you sit down and learn the concepts.

Hmm harder? The exams will be relatively easy though yh? I've heard the first-year-of-study-design-exams are easier...

The content is definitely harder, depending on how deep they want to go into the biological aspects in particular. Whether the exams are going to be harder - look they might make the exams easier, but I don't have a crystal ball.
Title: Re: Is Psychology hard?
Post by: akira88 on July 17, 2010, 08:35:44 pm
My psychology teacher had a conference about the new psychology study design, and she says it's going to be much harder than the study design we are doing at the moment. Apparently the exam is going to comprise of many extended answers worth a huge amount of marks each. Doesn't sound very good :S
Title: Re: Is Psychology hard?
Post by: The Detective on July 19, 2010, 09:11:26 pm
Psychology would be a good 3/4 to do in Year 11 because the concepts are easy to understand. You could probably learn the course material by yourself. 
Title: Re: Is Psychology hard?
Post by: mikee65 on August 02, 2010, 05:09:29 pm
Psychology would be a good 3/4 to do in Year 11 because the concepts are easy to understand. You could probably learn the course material by yourself. 
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