Psychology 2008

[Nick]

To all those undertaking psych in 2008,

Feel free to post any comments, questions about the course or any difficulties you might be having over the summer break. I've already been discussing psych with a few people in other threads, but I thought it would be good to have a specific place to post questions.

I'm more than happy to help in any way possible and for those completing psych next year, I would recommend reading over Unit 3 in a thorough fashion and summarising Area of Study One- Brain and Nervous system. Buy some poster paper and do diagrams and mind maps- especially for the lobes of the brain and the divisions of the nervous system- creating visual diagrams such as these will assist your retention of the information. Doing these will give you a great head start and will give you the best possible chance of maximising your score in 2008.

Good luck everyone  :wink:

Questions can also be directed to: [email protected]

[Odette]

Thats so true
Try making your own powerpoints as well that helps
I have a few that were sent to me ^_^ and i found that helped heaps (couldnt be bothered making them lol) So if you want any just let me know
If you have any questions I'd be glad to help out as well

Good luck guys and girls

[kido_1]

Would anyone know if we need to know Chapter 1 of Grivas' book on Stratified sampling, median, mean,mode,extraneous variables...

[Nick]

Would anyone know if we need to know Chapter 1 of Grivas' book on Stratified sampling, median, mean,mode,extraneous variables...

It's good to see you're using the Grivas book- it is the best one.

Stratified samplying and extraneous variables are a MUST. Extraneous variables are relevant to both Unit 3 and 4, while stratified sampling is only specified to be knowledge required for Unit 4.

Techically they can't test you on median, mode and mean. It was actually taken off the study design. Despite this, the psych examiners have a really bad habit of testing knowledge outside the study design. You have to be really careful, as in the past, questions have appeared on the exams which were never allowed to be tested. Just to be safe, I'd have a very rough idea of what each of these terms mean (a definition would be sufficient).

[Eriny]

And it's a good idea to be able to work out the mean/median/mode, which should be easy if you're mathematically inclined (although, once again, this is not required for unit 3).

In pretty sure stratified sampling was part of visual perception, so it is required for unit 3. You will definitely need to know about extraneous variables, experimental designs (e.g. repeated-measures, etc.), and ethics. It's a good idea to also know the DV and the IV although I think that's more for unit 4. You should be able to explain words like 'population' and 'sample' and be able to identify if a sample is random, random stratified, stratified or none of these.

[Nick]

And it's a good idea to be able to work out the mean/median/mode, which should be easy if you're mathematically inclined (although, once again, this is not required for unit 3).

I doubt you'd be asked to actually calculate these values; the psych teachers would probably head towards the VCAA building on a killing rampage. There have definitely been some very controversial inclusions on the psych VCAA exams in the past few years though.

For these three pieces of information you would basically need to know:

Mean- the average of all the data values. This is calculated by adding together all the data values and dividing them by the number of values in the data set.

Median- the middle number in a data set. To find the position of the median in the data set, it can be calculated using:
n + 1 / 2
where n is the number of values in the data set

Mode- the number that appears most often in the data set

In pretty sure stratified sampling was part of visual perception, so it is required for unit 3. You will definitely need to know about extraneous variables, experimental designs (e.g. repeated-measures, etc.), and ethics. It's a good idea to also know the DV and the IV although I think that's more for unit 4. You should be able to explain words like 'population' and 'sample' and be able to identify if a sample is random, random stratified, stratified or none of these.

All this knowledge will become a lot clearer when you actually study unit 4 (research methods). All the definitions begin to make proper sense when you are asked to actually apply these definitions and knowledge to research situations. The research scenarios actually end up being quite fun. LOL. I would actually recommend trying a few research scenarios prior to the unit 3 exam (even though they are not tested until the end of year exam). By doing these scenarios at this stage (where you apply the knowledge to a practical situation), you will be able to determine whether you actually understand the research methods concepts required for unit 3.

[kido_1]

Ok, Now I get it. Thanks for the help Nick and Eriny.

[daniel99]

Nick- could you please tell me your marks for unit 3 and 4 or your grades and also for the exam's? I want 44 and you got 45, so it would give me a good indication of the marks I need..thank you.

[Nick]

For SACs I got 199/200 (ranked 1 in the class)

For the mid year exam I got an A+ (168/180)
For the end of year I also got an A+ (160/180)

[daniel99]

lol well I hope I do better on the exams than you becase you did a lot better than me with sacs so far!!!!

How did you study for sacs and what did you find worked the best? e.g. completing exam questions or notes/reading etc? And when did you start to revise for they exam?

Was there anything that you did not expect to be on the exam that was?

[Nick]

As my class went through each area of study, I would go home every night and summarise everything that was covered in class. I would refer directly to the study design to ensure that I did not leave anything relevant out of my summaries.

By the time each SAC date arrived, I had memorised a majority of my summaries and completed lots of checkpoint questions. I also found that using cues assisted me to determine what I needed to learn more thoroughly in preparation for the SAC. Prior to the SAC I would prepare a document that provided a variety of prompts. For example, terms such as "frontal lobe", "magnetic resonance imaging" and "somatic nervous system" might appear on the sheet. Next to each of these prompts I would write down as much as a I knew about each of the terms, without the aid of any of my books or notes. If I wasn't able to write down enough about each term, this would indicate that I needed to go back over this content.

I probably started revising for the exam in mid May. I already had all my summaries prepared, so it was simply a matter of memorising definitions and going back over all of the key knowledge required. I did quite a few practice exams and also completed a majority of the checkpoint questions. I think completing practice exams is the most important element of your exam preparation. If you perform well in practice exams, it not only shows that you understand the content of the course, but that you can apply the knowledge to a variety of situations. Too many students fall into the trap of simply memorising the information without actually having a thorough understanding of how the information can be applied to a range of scenarios.

There weren't really many surprises on either of the exams. If you know the information provided in the study design, there is no reason why you can't perform well on all the exam questions.

[daniel99]

It is 8 weeks to the exam in 49 minutes lol....Who is starting to prematurely study for the exam and if not, when do you intend to start?

It's good for me as it is my only mid-year, so i can focus on it 100%. All my subjects have mid-years, but they are only set by the school and not by the vcaa (they are worth nothing basically).

[Nick]

All my subjects have mid-years, but they are only set by the school and not by the vcaa (they are worth nothing basically).

Your school sets internal exams? What a waste of time. You have heaps of time to do practice exams for your other subjects later in the year.

[daniel99]

All my subjects have mid-years, but they are only set by the school and not by the vcaa (they are worth nothing basically).

Your school sets internal exams? What a waste of time. You have heaps of time to do practice exams for your other subjects later in the year.

Yeh, we have them for every subject to get us use to the format of the exams and so it's less stressful when it comes to exam time I guess.

They are basically a waste of time and I will only study for psychology exam, which is a vcaa one.

I think it would be better to have no exams other than vcaa ones in year 12 so you can focus on actual exams that go towards your enter

[daniel99]

IS unit 4 easier or harden than unit 3? Also we only need to retain information on reaserach methods and nothing else?