Specifications that use this resource:

Teaching guide: preparing for AS and A-level Psychology assessment - podcast

These podcast teaching guides cover topics from our AS and A-level Psychology specifications. You can download them below.

Podcast 4: Preparing for AS and A-level Psychology assessment

It can be daunting preparing for assessment with new specifications. Whether your students are doing the AS exam or going straight on to A-level, in this podcast we’ve got information about the assessment demands, how students can help prepare themselves for assessment – and we’ll answer your frequently asked questions.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to AQA’s Psychology podcast aimed at supporting your teaching of our new AS and A-Level specifications. In this podcast we’ll look at the nature and demands of assessment at AS and A-level, the materials provided to support preparation, how students can play a more active role in preparing for assessment, and finally we’ll respond to some frequently asked questions.

Most students when asked how they prepare for exams will tell you that they check that all the topics in the specifications are covered and have a go at some sample exam questions. They then outline the various strategies they use for revising which generally consist of self-testing recall activities to quiz their memory. Few, if any, talk about fine tuning their skills. So today we’re going to focus on this aspect of preparation.

Just to note, you can find sample assessment materials, student responses with examiner commentary and more in our assessment resources at aqa.org.uk/psychology-resources.

To start, we’re going to give you a quick reminder of the exam structure. At AS, there are two exam papers and each is one and a half hours in length. Each paper is divided into three topic areas. Paper one will cover the introductory topics in psychology, social influence, memory, and attachment and paper two will cover psychology in context, so approaches in psychology, psychopathology and

research methods. There will be a series of questions on each of the topics with a total of 24 marks per topic, giving 72 marks in total for each paper.

At A-level there are three exam papers of which each is two hours in length. As in the AS there will be a series of questions on each of the topics, with a total of 24 marks for each, giving 96 marks for the paper as a whole. Paper one will assess introductory topics in psychology, paper two will assess psychology in context and it’s worth noting that the third section of this paper covers research methods and is worth 48 marks.

As illustrated in the specimen assessment materials, knowledge, understanding and application, as well as analytic and evaluative skills will be assessed by a range of different question styles. These will include extended writing in the form of essays, application questions, multiple-choice questions, and a variety of short answer questions.

Let’s look first at the nature and demands of assessment. At AS the assessment is weighted towards knowledge and understanding (AO1) and using that knowledge and understanding in both a theoretical and practical context (AO2). There is assessment of analytical and evaluative skills (AO3) but this contributes less to the overall grade than at A-level. So, at A-level there are proportionately fewer marks for knowledge and understanding (AO1), almost the same weighting for application skills (AO2) and proportionately more marks for analysis, evaluation and associated critical thinking skills such as interpretation, making judgements and drawing conclusions (AO3).

It’s essential that students are flexible and develop their skills rather than trying to learn rote model answers. Our questions have been devised to assess thoroughly and certain exam questions are used to assess certain skills. Multiple choice questions, for example, allow us to test knowledge and understanding of concepts, theories, processes, approaches and research methods. By using alternatives that focus on understanding of more abstract concepts, or, by using alternatives that represent finer distinctions therefore requiring more thorough understanding, we can make them appropriate for AS and for A level.

Short answer questions allow assessment of a full range of skills but generally require students to be more selective in the material they present, either because the questions are allocated fewer marks and hence involve less writing time, or because the questions make specific requirements for example, “Explain one limitation of …..”

Stem or scenario questions are used to assess application skills and, given the greater weighting of application skills when compared with our legacy specifications, Psychology A and B, there will now be a greater proportion of the overall marks for these questions. At A-level, stem questions are likely to include more elements that need to be taken into consideration or require students to use their knowledge and understanding to select the most relevant material to construct their response. Whereas, at AS the stem questions may be structured to support the student more by including a more limited range of cues that focus them on the required knowledge and understanding.

Extended writing questions allow assessment of a full range of skills but also require students to plan and structure their response. Such questions may be relatively short, for example six or sight marks, or more substantial, for example 12 marks at AS or in the A-level 16 marks out of the 24 marks for a topic.

In questions that assess a combination of knowledge and understanding (AO1) and evaluation and/or application (AO2 or 3) it’s important that students know that at AS the balance is 1:1 whilst at A-level it is approximately 1:2. This is illustrated clearly in the extended writing tasks where at AS the maximum mark is 12, six marks for knowledge and understanding, and six marks for evaluation and possibly some application. At A level the maximum mark is 16, and as in the AS, six marks are for knowledge and understanding, but 10 marks are for evaluation and possibly some application.

Let’s turn our attention now to the materials that we have available to support your preparation for assessment and how students can play a more active role in preparing themselves.

Generally speaking teachers do most of the work analysing exam papers and mark schemes, digesting this information and then conveying it to students in the form of a series of rules to remember, along with other tips about using black ink, legibility of hand writing and where they should and shouldn’t write in answer books.

It could be useful if students did more of the analysis of question papers and mark schemes and associated resources themselves. It may help to build their familiarity with the structure and demands of the paper that will in turn give them greater confidence at answering the different question types.

In the teaching and assessment section of aqa.org.uk/psychology-resources you can find a list of command words, specimen question papers and mark schemes for both the AS and A-level papers, and examples of student responses with examiner commentaries. Each of these resources can be used to build activities that will help students prepare themselves for assessment. On e-AQA, our secure website, you’ll also find another set of specimen assessment materials. We’ve put them there, where they are only accessible by login so that you can use them for your mocks. If you don’t have access to e-AQA talk to your Centre Administrator (usually your Exams Officer) about getting set up. Find out more at aqa.org.uk/e-AQA.

Here’s an idea for an activity that will help students to develop a sound understanding of what each command word requires them to do in an exam. Start by providing one or two exam papers and mark schemes. Ask students to work in small groups to list all the command words used in the exam papers and to then use the mark schemes to generate a description of what they think they need to do if an exam question uses each command word in their list. Students can then check their description with that on the elaborated command word list. To further check their understanding, provide students with some exemplar responses to exam questions and ask them to say what they think the command word was. By doing this students quickly realise how important it is to select and shape material to meet the question requirements.

Students often understand the various task requirements of an exam and the standards required better by scrutinising others’ work. To help students understand what makes an effective response, select a few student exemplar responses to the same question. Get students to work in groups to put the responses in rank order of what they think received the highest mark to the lowest. Then ask them to compare the exemplar responses with the mark scheme and level descriptors to decide what mark they think each should get and why.

In the actual exam it’s vital that students do what the question requires. Too often in the exam students see a few trigger words and write an answer to the question that they hoped would come up rather than answering the question posed on the exam paper. Some write all they know about a topic without selecting or shaping their knowledge to answer the question and other students reproduce a rote learned model answer even if it doesn’t answer the question posed. So students need to adopt an analytic approach to exam questions. They need to practice identifying the command word or words, the topic area identified in the question along with any qualifiers that specify a particular aspect of the topic area or that modify the command word.

So for example, if the question says:

“Briefly discuss how observational research might be improved by conducting observations in a controlled environment.” This question is worth four marks.

The command word is ‘discuss’ and there are two qualifiers, the first ‘briefly’ that should remind students this is a four mark question so they should take a maximum of five minutes to answer it and ‘how’ that tells them the focus is on ways; so in this case the ways in which the research would be improved. The topic is “observational research” and the qualifier is that they must focus on how a ‘controlled environment’ improves observational research.

Or if the question says:

“Explain one limitation of using nonhuman animals to research the brain mechanisms of eating behaviour.” This is a two mark question.

The command word is ‘explain’, so just identifying a limitation is not enough; the student has to also say why it’s a limitation. The topic is ‘limitation of using nonhuman animals’ and there are two qualifiers. Firstly it has to be a ‘limitation of their use to investigate brain mechanisms’ and in particular those mechanisms involved in ‘eating behaviour’.

This type of analytic approach to interpreting questions helps students to select and present material so that it’s explicitly relevant to the question and to understand why generic responses would gain relatively few marks.

A useful exercise to help students develop the skill of analysing questions and selecting material is to provide them with a series of questions and ask them to explain what material from their notes they would include in their answer to each question.

Timing is also important in exams. It’s useful to get students to work out for themselves how long they should be spending on questions. We estimate that students should spend about 1.25 minutes per mark on questions, this timing is the same for both AS and A-level which should help reassure those students who are progressing through both qualifications.

Our mark schemes are quite accessible for students as they list likely content, application points and evaluation or discussion points as appropriate to the exam questions. There is also a single set of bands or level descriptors. Having access to the mark schemes should enable students to check the knowledge and content relevant to the specific questions and to fine tune their understanding of command words.

To help students develop the ability to write a logically structured response with a clear line of argument you might provide them with the mark scheme for a question (tweaking it to match the specific material you’ve taught). The student then has to write the essay. The focus of this activity is then on structuring the response effectively, linking ideas and justifying assertions rather than selecting the content.

Ok, now let’s turn our attention to some frequently asked questions about preparing for assessment.

So, as the AS and A-level have common content does this mean that the same question can be asked on both the AS and A-level exam papers?

It’s possible that the same question could be asked for AS and A-level but we would expect a different level of response at A-level compared with AS. For example, if the question was an essay question at A-level there would be proportionally more marks for analysis, evaluation and associated critical thinking skills such as interpretation, making judgements and drawing conclusions.

In the case of application questions the same basic question may be asked but the stem or scenario at A-level is likely to be more complex and include more elements that need to be taken into consideration when responding. Whereas at AS the stem may be structured to support the student by including a more limited range of more focused cues.

In a question about evaluating a theory how many studies should students present in their evaluation?

There’s no correct response to this question. It would depend on the theory being evaluated. Students need to cover sufficient studies to be able to use research effectively and to generate a coherent discussion. To evaluate a theory, students’ would probably need more than one study. However some of the more extensive research studies where a number of variables are manipulated or in which a whole range of different samples are used it might be possible to develop an effective evaluation of a theory based on one piece of research alone. When deciding on research evidence that you intend to cover, providing evidence that both supports and challenges assumptions of the theory helps students to structure an evaluative essay. It’s also useful to have evidence generated using different research methods.

Will there always be a 12 mark essay on each topic on the AS papers and a 16 mark essay on the A-level papers?

There are no exact rules about the number of 12 or 16 mark essays. But you will be able to see from the sample assessment materials on the AS paper one, that there is no 12 mark essay on memory, instead there is a shorter eight mark extended writing question. Similarly, on the A-level paper one, there is an eight mark extended writing question for attachment and no extended writing for psychopathology. On the A-level paper three the optional topics are grouped into three sections. To ensure comparability of demands if one of the topics in the section has a 16 mark question so will each of the other topics in that section.

In short answer questions do students have to write in continuous prose?

Continuous prose is not required in all short answer responses. There are some instances where a diagram or a list of stages would provide a more coherent response than would continuous prose. The important thing to stress to students is that what they present needs to be clear and coherent.

In application questions where there is a scenario and students are asked to refer to the scenario or to the characters in scenario can students embellish the details in their answer. For example “if the character was A then it could be explained by reference to B theory.”

Generally we would expect students to focus their response on cues provided in the scenario. However where application is included as a part of extended writing, or where the phrase ‘such as’ is used in the question wording, students could gain credit for well-reasoned speculation.

Will ‘economic implications’ be assessed in every exam paper?

As can be seen from the sample assessment papers available online not every exam paper has an explicit question on economic implications, however students will be credited where relevant economic implications are included in discussion and/or evaluation.

In extended writing is it necessary for a student to provide an introduction and conclusion to the essay?

Even in the 16 mark extended writing at A-level the student only has 20 minutes to plan, structure and write their essay, therefore introductions and conclusions that don’t go beyond the material presented in the body of the essay are unlikely to gain further credit. Such material may have some value in that the introduction can provide signposts for the reader and the conclusion may clarify points in the body of the essay. In the case of evaluative essays where students need to make some judgement based on the evidence or line of argument presented, writing a conclusion may be useful as long as it goes beyond the material in the body of the essay.

How important is it that students use psychological terminology in their answers to exam questions?

If you look at the levels descriptors in the mark scheme it’s clear that in extended writing questions students will need to show understanding and the ability to use psychological terminology. At A level there is an expectation that students will be more familiar with subject specific terminology so questions may more frequently include such terminology and students will be expected to demonstrate the ability to use it effectively in their own writing.

Can students use their own opinions in their answers to exam questions?

Most exam questions direct students to present and/or evaluate material from psychological research. As a science, psychology is evidenced based. If assertions or opinions presented in students’ work are to gain any credit they would have to be underpinned or supported explicitly by psychological evidence.

Thank you for listening to this instalment in AQA’s series of psychology podcasts. We hope that this has helped to effectively introduce you to preparing for assessment. If you have any questions feel free to contact us by phone on 01483 477 822 or email us at psychology@aqa.org.uk. Thank you and goodbye.