The biological approach – A-Level Notes by an Oxford University student (Approaches to Psychology)
Hi! My name is Marty, and I am a second year student reading Psychology and Linguistics at the
University of Oxford. I have always loved psychology, having taken it as both a GCSE and an A-Level,
and this passion has made it my strongest subject. I have decided to share with you some of my A-
Level notes, which got me an A* in Psychology, and helped me get into Oxford. As A-Level
Psychology essays tend to allocate more marks onto the AO3 part (i.e. the evaluation), this has been
the focus of my essays.
I structure my essays in such a way that I briefly describe the theory/research and then dive straight
into the evaluation. But what makes my notes special is that, instead of writing short and disjointed
paragraphs stating a basic strength or weakness, my evaluations are written as longer paragraphs,
full of links, examples and elaboration. I also include contrasts within the same paragraph: this
shows the examiner that you are able to pull together various strings of thought to effectively weigh
out what makes the research/theory good or bad. Feel free to ask your teacher; I got this tip from
mine! So, to clarify, my evaluation paragraphs usually look something like:
Strength Weakness
(Elaboration/example) (Elaboration/example)
Weakness Strength
OR
(Elaboration/example) (Elaboration/example)
Strength Weakness
Conclusion Conclusion
This also helps you remember the evaluation points better! If you have already looked at the topic of
memory, then you know that encoding clues when you study can help make your recall more
effective! Therefore, linking your strengths and weaknesses together creates associations between
them, making them easier to remember and showing off your judgement skills. As an example:
A strength of [insert study here] is that it had a large sample…
However, this sample was biased because [insert reason, e.g. only males = gender bias, only
students = not representative of the greater population, etc.] …
On the other hand, when this study was recreated by [insert researchers here] later on,
results showed that… [e.g. they were similar/the same]…
Therefore, we can be sure that [conclusion, e.g. results are still valid and reliable because
they were replicated].
This is very basic and underdeveloped, of course, but you get the idea. Being able to do this with all
your evaluation points means that you are essentially evaluating the evaluations! This means the
examiner will notice that you have a very strong sense of judgement, and it means you can include
many evaluation points in your essay without having to cram tons of information into your brain. In
this very essay, I have included 7 evaluation points in just 2 paragraphs! Don’t believe me? Just try
these notes! It’s definitely a skill worthy of practising. If you use just two or three of this type of
paragraphs in each of your essays, you are guaranteed to do well!
That’s all from me, I hope my notes help you develop your essays, particularly your AO3!
Make sure to get those marks!
Good luck!
Marty
Hi! My name is Marty, and I am a second year student reading Psychology and Linguistics at the
University of Oxford. I have always loved psychology, having taken it as both a GCSE and an A-Level,
and this passion has made it my strongest subject. I have decided to share with you some of my A-
Level notes, which got me an A* in Psychology, and helped me get into Oxford. As A-Level
Psychology essays tend to allocate more marks onto the AO3 part (i.e. the evaluation), this has been
the focus of my essays.
I structure my essays in such a way that I briefly describe the theory/research and then dive straight
into the evaluation. But what makes my notes special is that, instead of writing short and disjointed
paragraphs stating a basic strength or weakness, my evaluations are written as longer paragraphs,
full of links, examples and elaboration. I also include contrasts within the same paragraph: this
shows the examiner that you are able to pull together various strings of thought to effectively weigh
out what makes the research/theory good or bad. Feel free to ask your teacher; I got this tip from
mine! So, to clarify, my evaluation paragraphs usually look something like:
Strength Weakness
(Elaboration/example) (Elaboration/example)
Weakness Strength
OR
(Elaboration/example) (Elaboration/example)
Strength Weakness
Conclusion Conclusion
This also helps you remember the evaluation points better! If you have already looked at the topic of
memory, then you know that encoding clues when you study can help make your recall more
effective! Therefore, linking your strengths and weaknesses together creates associations between
them, making them easier to remember and showing off your judgement skills. As an example:
A strength of [insert study here] is that it had a large sample…
However, this sample was biased because [insert reason, e.g. only males = gender bias, only
students = not representative of the greater population, etc.] …
On the other hand, when this study was recreated by [insert researchers here] later on,
results showed that… [e.g. they were similar/the same]…
Therefore, we can be sure that [conclusion, e.g. results are still valid and reliable because
they were replicated].
This is very basic and underdeveloped, of course, but you get the idea. Being able to do this with all
your evaluation points means that you are essentially evaluating the evaluations! This means the
examiner will notice that you have a very strong sense of judgement, and it means you can include
many evaluation points in your essay without having to cram tons of information into your brain. In
this very essay, I have included 7 evaluation points in just 2 paragraphs! Don’t believe me? Just try
these notes! It’s definitely a skill worthy of practising. If you use just two or three of this type of
paragraphs in each of your essays, you are guaranteed to do well!
That’s all from me, I hope my notes help you develop your essays, particularly your AO3!
Make sure to get those marks!
Good luck!
Marty
