How to win at Psychology/life

[Eriny]

Well, given that there are so many people around FSN who've gotten 40+ scores for Psych, I thought the 08ers could benefit from our wealth of knowledge.

I'll start.

- Get yourself a copy of the study design. (Available here: http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/vce/studies/psychology/psychoindex.html). This will pretty much be your Psych bible.
- Everytime we covered a dot point of the study design in class, I would write up notes about it in another excercise book at home. It doesn't take long and it will mean that you're constantly revising, which is really good if you want to remember things.
- Everytime we covered an area of study, I made a list of all the things I would need to know and put them in question form, then I collated my notes to write up a word document with the answers. I knew that I had everything perfect if I was able to answer all the questions very thoughoughly without looking at the answers.
- In unit 3 I actually recorded my notes. I don't really reccommend that (unless you're the kind of person who doesn't get distracted by your own voice) but it doesn't hurt to read your notes out loud, or even better, talk to a parent about what you've been learning in Psych. Psych is a really good subject for this, because it's pretty interesting. Even research methods can be interesting if you talk to them about how Psychologists actually perform their studies. Also, explaining to people why Psychology IS a science is good too.
- Participate in class discussion, pay attention to your teacher, and answer the questions you're set. If you're in class anyway, you may as well make the best possible use of that time. Even if you do know something inside and out, it doesn't hurt to listen and discuss your answers with others. Ask lots of questions too, as you'll learn in "Memory", asking questions can be defined as Elaboration which is a memory enhancement technique.
- If Psychology is your only subject with a mid-year exam, I reccommend that you start studying 7 weeks before the exam. If you have other exams, start earlier. I used the first 3 of the 7 weeks to revise what we had learned and to teach myself what we hadn't learned in class yet until I was confident that I knew everything. The remaining 4 weeks can be used for practise questions/exams. It's really vital that you have enough time to do as many (marked) questions as possible, without stressing yourself out with time limits. 1 exam a day (taking a total of 1.5 hours) should be ample. For end of year exams, start studying even earlier. 10 weeks is good, because then your study can be even more spread out, with ample time for your other subjects as well.

Good luck!

[Aye Bay Bay]

I'll make sure I do those things.
Thanks for the unit 3 notes you posted on BoS, they're really helpful^^
I've now finished the first area of study and half way through visual perception.

[Nick]

Fantastic advice Eriny! We basically had the same study routine LOL

Excellent idea about turning dot points in the study design into questions. It gives you a reliable indication of what you know, what you don't know and areas in which you can improve. It's kind of like a safety net really because it allows you to determine whether you have everything covered.

With practice exams, try and get your teacher to mark them if possible. It is possible to mark your own when you are given sample solutions, but your teacher is able to pick up small errors which could cost you marks in the exam.

Make sure your study notes are thorough and comprehensive. It's better to know too much than too little!

Concept maps are an awesome idea for psych! They allow you set out the information visually and it ensures more effective retention because it's stored semantically (through meaning, you'll learn this in unit 4 memory), as opposed to learning it in a rote fashion. Concept maps are especially helpful for Brain and Nervous System and Visual Perception. It's good to colour code certain elements of the concept map too- this can trigger memories in the exam

Another thing that is useful is to keep in mind that certain information can interfere with information you are trying to learn (we learnt this in memory unit 4). If you are studying psych, ensure that you study something completely different afterwards. If you study something similar, you may find that you can't remember the psych information that you stored previously. For example it would be advisable to study Maths Methods after studying psych. A bad combination would be psych and biology, as they are quite similar to one another. This may seem crazy, but it's an actual psychological concept which you learn in unit 4.

Slash psych is an awesome subject. I would do it again if I could. You can apply so much of the information to everyday situations and the concepts you learn are so interesting and valuable.

If anyone needs any assistance at any time, I'd be more than happy to help

[cootcoot]

yeah, i would say to self reference EVERYTHING. it helped me a lot, plus, it becomes a lot more interesting when you actually think about psychology in your own life.

[misskaraleah]

Thanks for the advice, much appreciated

[jess3254]

Well, given that there are so many people around FSN who've gotten 40+ scores for Psych, I thought the 08ers could benefit from our wealth of knowledge.

I'll start.

- Get yourself a copy of the study design. (Available here: http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/vce/studies/psychology/psychoindex.html). This will pretty much be your Psych bible.
- Everytime we covered a dot point of the study design in class, I would write up notes about it in another excercise book at home. It doesn't take long and it will mean that you're constantly revising, which is really good if you want to remember things.
- Everytime we covered an area of study, I made a list of all the things I would need to know and put them in question form, then I collated my notes to write up a word document with the answers. I knew that I had everything perfect if I was able to answer all the questions very thoughoughly without looking at the answers.
- In unit 3 I actually recorded my notes. I don't really reccommend that (unless you're the kind of person who doesn't get distracted by your own voice) but it doesn't hurt to read your notes out loud, or even better, talk to a parent about what you've been learning in Psych. Psych is a really good subject for this, because it's pretty interesting. Even research methods can be interesting if you talk to them about how Psychologists actually perform their studies. Also, explaining to people why Psychology IS a science is good too.
- Participate in class discussion, pay attention to your teacher, and answer the questions you're set. If you're in class anyway, you may as well make the best possible use of that time. Even if you do know something inside and out, it doesn't hurt to listen and discuss your answers with others. Ask lots of questions too, as you'll learn in "Memory", asking questions can be defined as Elaboration which is a memory enhancement technique.
- If Psychology is your only subject with a mid-year exam, I reccommend that you start studying 7 weeks before the exam. If you have other exams, start earlier. I used the first 3 of the 7 weeks to revise what we had learned and to teach myself what we hadn't learned in class yet until I was confident that I knew everything. The remaining 4 weeks can be used for practise questions/exams. It's really vital that you have enough time to do as many (marked) questions as possible, without stressing yourself out with time limits. 1 exam a day (taking a total of 1.5 hours) should be ample. For end of year exams, start studying even earlier. 10 weeks is good, because then your study can be even more spread out, with ample time for your other subjects as well.

Good luck!

Sorry to revive, but this is really good advice. Very much helped me this year.

The only thing I can really add to that is I'd suggest that people who haven't done units 1/2 psychology should familarise themselves with the format of an ERA (empirical research activity) during the holidays. Eriny has posted a great sample of an ERA here: http://notes.vcenotes.com/?step=download&action=feedback&id=17. And there should also be an explanation on how to write an ERA at the front of your text book.

[delta_rox]

Sounds great, I like the idea of keeping 'dotpoint' notes in a seperate exercise book, aswell as normal class notes so they're highly accessible. I might do this

[Eliseblack]

i miss psych already!!

[Poppy M]

Thanks for this Eriny!
Very helpful!

[iNerd]

Excellent.
My time for Psych has come
Starting to utilise some of these tips...[study design printed and stapled ]

Thanks!

[darren94]

Excellent.
My time for Psych has come
Starting to utilise some of these tips...[study design printed and stapled ]

Thanks!

Printed + Stapled too!