Exam Help? (Psychology)

JellyBeans92

This is NOT a thread for predictions or anything like that?

Just I've been having some trouble about what I'm supposed to know for the PS101 (Biological and Developmental) exam in January?

Like how do you go about answering the question, what level of answers would you need to be giving to be getting very good marks (70%+ like)
I'm in the competing group and I'm just a bit stuck with this module?

If anyone could PM me some help it would be appreciated

John

The questions will be based on the lectures and the information from the lectures alone will give you a mark around 50-60 %. To get higher, read the recommended reading (probably chapters from the Biopsychology book or a similar textbook and some journal articles) and get the past papers from the library website. Answer the questions and integrate the information from the lectures with the extra material you have read and be sure to cite your sources in your answer (you don't need a reference section at the end but put the name of the author and year beside the fact you're citing).

If you do enough of the past papers, you will be sorted for the exam (provided you put the work in). Make sure your answer makes sense and don't put in superfluous information to show off, keep it all related to the question you're answering. The size of your answer should be what you're able to write in the amount of time available for the question in the exam (i.e. if you need to answer two questions in a 90 minute exam, allow about 35 min a question to give you time to read over the paper, read back over your answers, etc.).

When reading any exam paper, read the whole thing first, identify which questions you can answer well. Then look at the question and underline and number the important parts of the question. For example, if you were looking at last year's paper and question 1 (b):
Using a diagram of the brain (1) indicate the location (2) of the frontal, temporal, parietal, and occipital lobes (3), and write a brief description of the function of each (4).

If you don't address one or more of these requirements, you will immediately be down a large portion of your marks. Your diagram doesn't have to be realistic, just show the basic shape of the brain and where these structures are found. A paragraph or two on the function of each lobe with reference to appropriate studies will then finish off your answer.

Similarly, from Section B of the same paper:
"Children's happiness (1) is more than a product of genetic inheritance (2)." Discuss the truth or otherwise of this statement (3) with reference to empirical evidence (4).

This is less straightforward but the big thing is that you have to pay attention to is that it's children's happiness that is being asked about, studies involving adults will not be relevant. You don't have to agree with the statement but you have to be able to back up your view with reference to studies that show any link or lack thereof between children's happiness and genetics.

Hope this is of help.

AlwaysConfused

Hi

I'm having problems with Psychology too, except all I'm aiming to do is pass it, most the stuff in the lectures went over my head a bit in PS101, as long as I can get about 40-45% I'm happy out, any pointers?

lilsis

Hi, John pretty much covered everything there that I was going to tell you, but I just wanted to stress that you need to put in sources otherwise you definitely won't be able to reach that high mark, so I would suggest reading a few general book so that you can have a good few references to put into your essay (this is especially necessary for the developmental section). Then with the biological section I'd recommend that you know how to draw the different diagrams and how to properly label them as a lot of the time you're asked to draw them, even if you're not explicably asked you could put them in anyway. Most importantly make sure that you're answering the question and not just throwing all the information that you know on the topic down. The Biological questions tend to follow the structure that's given to you in your lectures but make sure you structure your Developmental answer to the question. As for what to learn, maybe look back over the past papers and make sure you can answer all the questions. You'll find that they repeat themselves meaning that there's only a certain amount of information that you need to learn.

AlwaysConfused all I can recommend if you're having trouble understanding the material is to go to your lecturer or maybe see if you can find a tutorial online for the material or even check wikipedia although be aware that wikipedia is not peer reviewed meaning that the information could be wrong.