AO2 and AO3 Exam Practice

AO2 = 12 marks Assessment Objective: Application of your psychological knowledge and understanding. This is assessed through your ability to analyse and evaluate theories and studies. You will need to demonstrate that you can apply your knowledge to unfamiliar situations, and can assess the validity, reliability and credibility of scientific information.

AO3 = 4 marks Assessment Objective: How science works in psychology. Assessed through your understanding of how scientific information is collected and how scientific information is developed in psychology. This includes your understanding of qualitative and quantitative scientific methods, ethical practices, and your ability to analyse, interpret and evaluate the methodology of psychological investigations.

REMEMBER: You can only ever get 9 marks for description (AO1). This means you have about 10 mins MAX to summarise key theories and studies in your answer. When revising you should practice this skill…can you summarise Bandura’s social learning theory in 10 mins for example? *AO1 = 36% of your mark *AO2/3 = 64% of your mark *Pass mark = 40% approx

Developing your evaluation skills There are 16 marks available for commentary and evaluation in each essay you write for unit 3. Basically, this means putting a value to something, or saying how good it is. To gain higher marks for evaluation, you will need to develop and demonstrate a range of skills…

Synopticity Synoptic - presenting a summary or general view of a whole This means making links to other areas of psychology. The easiest way to do this is linking your answers to research methods. Evaluating a study in terms of its research methods would mean your answer would fall into either the effective or reasonable mark band.