Failing Psychology

[FailBoy123]

I'm on a 60% for psychology. I revise for days before a test but my mark keeps on getting worse. Everyone keeps telling me how easy psych is but I always finding it difficult to answer questions in a test and I honestly feel like dropping it now. Except, I really want free periods next year/ What should I do?

[K888]

Hey there Welcome to the ATAR Notes forums.

I didn't personally do Psych in VCE so can't comment on the specifics of the subject, but I think two important things for you to consider are:
1) Do you enjoy the subject?
2) Do you think the ways in which you study can be refined?

I think enjoying a subject definitely makes it easier to get high marks in, because you're more motivated to study for it and all that. So, if you're not really enjoying Psych, why not try to see if you can change the way you approach the subject to make it more interesting? You can ask your teacher for help in regards to this.

Likewise, you can be doing heaps of study for a subject but still not do amazingly well in it because you're not studying smart. Maybe it might be worth it catching up with your teacher to review your study methods and see if they have any suggestions to help you out. Plus, there's also a number of articles that should prove helpful in the articles section of the website, and you can also probably pick up some helpful tips from browsing through some of the threads on the forum.

Hope this has helped a little bit and gives you a bit of info to push you in the right direction All the best!

[dashnog]

There are many possibilities as why this is so, and I'll suggest a few that come to my mind, but please clarify if you do have a lead on why this is happening.


I guess one question we have to ask is if you enjoy the subject. Obviously, you don't enjoy failing, but do you actually find the content interesting and worth learning? If you don't, then that's a huge underlying problem for any subject. If you don't enjoy what you're doing, you'll naturally never succeed. If you don't enjoy the subject, and it's making you miserable, please, I wholeheartedly suggest dropping it. There's no point in suffering through anything for no reason.

Do you think you're experiencing burnout? As in, have your results started well off, but now they're veering into the less-than-desirable territory? If that is the case, just take a break. Stop studying for a while, try not to even think about the subject. Take a day or two off to recuperate. You should know that mental health is very important for functioning, what's said in your textbook isn't lying.

If you don't really understand why this is occurring to you, look at the tests you've already done and try to find a general trend in where you lose marks. Are there gaps in your tests? Are there questions you outright couldn't answer? Are your definitions wrong? If you can find a general trend in where your marks are lost, perhaps you can figure out a plan for how to rectify this in the future.

If you feel like you are falling behind in class, not keeping up with the pace of the class, etc., try to contact your teacher, find extra resources for studying, create a document or use preexisting documents as a checklist for knowledge needed in the topic. Perhaps you just need extra support in consolidating the information.

[Bri MT]

Hey,


- where are you losing your marks?
(Eg. Wording,  not remembering content,  finding it difficult to apply content)
- are there particular topics that you're stronger in?
- what form of studying are you doing?
-do you understand the content when you first hear it? 

[thegirlwithenameleyes]

 Have you tried doing practice questions? Even just some out of your textbook can be really helpful. I find completing questions on what I've learnt really helps me remember because I then have to apply my knowledge and connect it to form an answer. Also, does your school use Edrolo? It can be a really helpful revision tool, I often just leave it playing in the background as I tidy my bedroom or do other activities at home because just listening to it in the background can help me retain information.