Alright, let’s talk about the IB Psychology exam – although it can get very tricky, with the right tips and resources you can surely nail that 7.
Psychology is such a fun topic to read about but taking it as an IB subject is a completely different thing. Something that many students might not be aware of is the syllabus’s size and the amount of information and topics covered in it.
(yes, even SL)
Do not let it scare you though, with an organized schedule and effective study methods it is very doable.
General Tips:
- First and foremost, you should know the syllabus inside out. What are the different sections and their topics, as well as the High Level (HL) extensions if you’re an HL student. The content is no joke, you better make sure that you are really familiar with the key studies for each topic, methods, and tools. Don’t just memorize it because it is too much and you are bound to forget something, you have to understand
- Do NOT give little attention to the key studies because they are the backbone to ALL of your exam responses, whether it is a Short Answer Question (SAQ) or Extended Response Question (ERQ).
- Practice writing SAQs and ERQs like your life depends on it, it is the most practical and effective way to prepare for those exams.
Now I’ll be sharing some detailed tips and resources which helped me score relatively well as a High Level (HL) student.
Methods
Memorizing studies:
A thing to note is that not all methods work for everyone, you should explore them all and see which one is the most effective for you.
Some common issues when it comes to studying IB Psychology is the number of studies needed to be memorized, obviously the content too. To solve this issue make a list of studies and arrange them by topics, while doing that you will realize that some studies may apply to more than one topic therefore minimizing the number of studies you have to memorize! (trust me, even if it is just 3 studies less, you will be jumping up from joy)
While making this list of studies keep it short and simple, always write the name, the researcher(s), aim, sample, process, results, and findings (all in bullet points and keywords). This will help keep your memory fresh, write less, and to the point. If you’re unsure about one study, I suggest writing it down in more detail but always try to keep it as short as possible, so they serve more as reminders rather than full pieces of information to train your memory.
Writing down those studies on flashcards will also help you memorize them faster as you can practice active recall which forces your brain to remember what you may have trouble recalling. (It does work, trust me. Just put effort and give it a chance)
Writing SAQs and ERQs:
This method is the endgame.
When practicing writing SAQs and ERQs, you are collecting all of the information you studied and memorized to form your final product.
A good thing about IB Psychology is that the questions that come up on the exams over the years don’t really change as they can‘t come up with new concepts or theories, it is the same content unless the IB completely renews the syllabus.
First, find question banks for all possible SAQs and ERQs. My personal favorites are RevisionDojo.
Then start solving every single question on every single topic, don’t forget to focus on the keywords in the question to know how you should formulate the answer (eg. Discuss, Evaluate, Explain).
After writing down your responses to the questions you answered, ask your teacher to correct your work and give you proper feedback so you get a 7-mark-worthy answer. Then these responses will serve as your ultimate revision paper, you’ll have all possible questions and their model answers so you will be ready for anything that may come in the exam.
Then by the very end, a few weeks before exams, you can generate mock exams on RevisionDojo for the topics you feel least confident in, and solve them till you feel like you ended psychology once and for all. (Trust me, this is an entire game changer)
Extra Resources and Tips:
Although you may start studying a month before finals for most subjects, this approach will no way work for psychology. You must continuously study psychology and I know it may be hard with the amount of work as an IB student, but I am sure you can spare a couple of hours on the weekend to study a topic you just covered that week.
Always keep your memory fresh, because the content is NOT little at all.
For final revision to just freshen up the memory, I suggest you watch YouTube videos which summarize each topic and its studies and take notes on what you think you may have trouble remembering.
It is a challenging subject, but it is very doable if you put in effort. Challenging yourself is proving to yourself that you can do anything. Good luck, I know you can do it.
