I don't think doing MBB1 or MBB2 is all that beneficial for 2nd year psych subjects but I guess it gives you a general idea of what psychology is about and the types of concepts you'll be learning. Off the top of my head there's not too much that builds from the first year subjects other than a bit of quantitative methods and learning how to write lab reports. It's fairly easy to catch up on though, especially if you're mathematically minded. Ballerina's right though, if you dislike academic writing then 2nd year psych subjects might not be for you as a good chunk of your grade is from a lab report (40%+ varying in different subjects). If you had to take a first year psych subject though, I'd take MBB2.
Oh wow, and developmental is already a bit challenging! For me, personally. It seems to depend on the individual, but more people I've asked find bio psych and cog psych the difficult ones, developmental psych in the middle, and personality/social considerably easier. I actually found developmental the most difficult in first year due to Judi's analysis-based approach (which is great).
From personal experience:
- In terms of difficulty: developmental > cognitive > biological > P&S
- In terms of my grades: biological > developmental > P&S > cognitive
- In terms of enjoyment: P&S > biological = cognitive > developmental
I actually have the grade distributions from Developmental and Biological psychology from last year if anyone is interested:
PSYC20008 Developmental PsychologyH1 -22.21%
H2A - 21.72%
H2B - 25.28%
H3 - 14.91%
P - 14.42%
(Fails were not included)
PSYC20006 Biological Psychology H1 - 22.53%
H2A - 18.62%
H2B - 18.78%
H3 - 18.15%
P - 21.28%
(Fails were not included)
I don't have the results for Cognitive or Personality & Social Psych, but I would imagine they would be similar.
I hope that's helped you! Psychology is terrific to study and I'd highly recommend taking a few of the subjects as breadth if you're interested.