AS Psychology: What can we learn from AQA AS Paper 1?

Monday 16^th May has finally passed and students across the country sat the first of the new linear AS Psychology papers – introductory topics in psychology.

Were the months of preparation, speculation and analysis of the sample papers enough to prepare students for the unknown…apparently so. There were no major surprises with the new exam, however some interesting points to take away:

• Firstly, the weighting of the first paper was 31 marks for AO1 (43%), 15 marks for AO2 plus 10 marks for RM (35%) and only 16 marks for AO3 (22%).
• Secondly, AQA included three essays, including two 12 markers!
• Thirdly, the application (AO2) questions were not as difficult as the sample papers AQA led us to believe, which was a pleasant relief.

Will paper 2 be as seemingly straight-forward…if last year is anything to go by, then we shouldn’t be lulled into a false sense of security, especially as the next paper includes some favourites for our students – biopsychology and research methods