A Level Psychology Uncovered: An Analysis of The AQA Linear Results by Paper, Topic and Question Type

The results are in, and the Excel Document has been churning our percentages all day long. On this page, you will find our initial analysis and thoughts to the AQA A Level Psychology results.

Please note: This analysis is intended to help you identify national patterns and trends and may not reflect your results. The tutor2u team will be hosting a series of webinars in September where we will delve into these results in more detail and look at practical ways that we can develop some of the ‘problem’ areas…

Did performance vary between the three papers?

In short, yes. While the average score for paper 1 and 2 was broadly the same, it was no surprise to see paper 3 driving down the averages. The average score of paper 3 was 10% lower than the other two papers, with the Gender and Forensic options causing problems.

While it is expected that paper 3, which contains conceptually difficult topics, to be lower than the other two papers, this drastic difference could be attributed to other factors. Listing the potential factors goes beyond the scope of this entry; however, it’s interesting to note that paper 3 consistent of 64 marks worth of essays questions, a whopping two-thirds of the exam, and this could certainly be one of the contributing factors. Is five essays (three 16 markers and two 8 markers) too much for an A Level Psychology student?

Essays matter. Full stop.

Anyone who has attended any tutor2u event has probably heard me say ‘Essays Matter, Full Stop’ many times. Out of 288 marks available at A Level, 148 marks were awarded for essay questions, which is just over 50%. In total, students answered five 8 mark questions, six 16 mark questions and a 12-mark extended RM question. Interestingly, an analysis of the applied essays versus regular essays questions didn’t highlight any major differences; however, the average score for the 8 mark essays was 54%, compared to 42% for the 16 mark essays. It’s important to note that the 16 mark essays score is skewed by some poor results in paper 3, especially in Gender and Forensic, although the difference is still sizeable and highlights an area of focus for 2017/18.

Where there any surprises?

It was fantastic to see that Biopsychology was the highest performing section across all three papers. Furthermore, students performed better in Research Methods than some of the favourite year one topics, e.g. Memory. Likewise, the Issues and Debates topic was reasonable well answered with an average of 54%, putting it level with Memory, Approaches and Research Methods.

Paper 3 Optional Topics

Option Block A: Student performance was comparable in Relationships and Cognition, with an average score of 48% and 47% respectively, while Gender trails behind at 41%. Within Gender, the essay question on ‘atypical gender development’ caused an issue with many students selecting inappropriate material to answer the question (which is something we will delve into in our September webinars).

Option Block B: The performance in option block B was significantly better overall, and this is due to the improved performance on the two 8 mark questions, compared to the 16 mark questions in option blocks A and C. Schizophrenia was the most popular option with the best overall performance at 57%, while Stress had the lowest score within this block, at 51%.

Option Block C: Finally, option block C performance was the worst (although this could be attributed to a number of factors including time). The Forensic section was the worst in the entire A Level, with an average score of 34% compared to Addiction at 46% and Aggression at 44%. Again, it was the essay question that caused an issue with many students selecting completely inappropriate material (e.g. Eysenck) to answer a question on cognitive explanations of offending behaviour.  

What’s next?

• An overview of the AS Psychology headline figures
• An overview of the A Level Psychology headline figures.
• A breakdown of the AS and A Level Psychology grade boundaries by exam board and paper

This entry will be followed-up with a series of entries unpicking the strengths/weaknesses of the new AS Level papers and what we can do to support our students in September. Make sure that you are subscribed to email updates to receive an email notification when we publish more Psychology news.