There are three units:

• Core studies in psychology - You will look at fifteen different studies which have been deliberately chosen to reflect the diversity of human behaviour. These include how we respond to authority figures, how our memory can be altered, as well as considering how we develop our morality.
• Research methods - You will become familiar with research methods that psychologists frequently use such as experiments, observation, questionnaires and correlation studies.  You will carry out research of your own and analyse your findings.
• Applied psychology - You will study mental health and criminal psychology. 

You will also look at one of the following options:

Child Psychology (brain development, perceptual development and attachment)

Environmental Psychology (biological rhythms, recycling behaviours and the effect of the built environment)

Sport and Exercise Psychology (exercise & mental health, motivation and audience effects).

Psychology is an academic subject and will therefore require quiet reading, note-taking and essay writing.  Lessons will be varied and class activities could include the following:

• discussions and debates 
• experiments 
• role-play 
• videos 
• student presentations

This is a linear A level course.  Assessment will be through three exams at the end of the second year of the course.  There will be one exam for each unit, and all exams will be two hours long.  The ways in which you are assessed are quite varied:

• Unit 1 (Research Methods) - the exam includes multiple-choice questions as well as questions in which you are asked to design a study of your own, and questions requiring you to analyse some 'dummy data' that you are given from a made-up study.
• Unit 2 (Core Studies) - the exam includes short-answer questions about the detail of the Core Studies as well as a structured essay on one or more of the debates you will study (e.g. the nature-nurture debate; the debate about whether psychology is a science).  You will also be required to consider how you could improve upon a study, design a study to investigate a particular concept or apply knowledge from a study to a novel scenario.
• Unit 3 (Applied Psychology) - the exam includes a variety of short and longer answer questions in relation to the mental health and criminal topics. There is a structured set of questions including a longer essay style response for the chosen unit. 

Each exam is worth 33.3% of the grade. There is no coursework.

• When you start the course, you will be given an independent learning plan to help guide you through extra reading, podcasts and video clips that follow similar topics to what you will be learning about in class but take you beyond the course curriculum. For example, it includes short journal articles from the British Psychological Society and Ted Talks. 
• On our study directory we have information on sources to help enrich and deepen a wider interest in Psychology. For example: 
  • - Extra reading – This includes suggestions for relevant Psychology-related novels, biographies, and academic books;
  • - Extra viewing –this includes Psychology-related films to watch or Ted Talks,
  • - Extra listening – this includes suggestions for Psychology-related podcasts to listen to such as ‘speaking of psychology’ 
  • - Extra studying – we encourage students to undertake additional study through free online courses laid on by Universities (i.e. MOOCs).
• Trips laid on by us – we lay on trips to hear lectures from psychologists, trips to the theatre (e.g. to see The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time; Rain Man; Twelve Angry Men), visits to Crown Courts, visits to the Freud Museum in Hampstead, and there is also our annual Behind Bars conference. 
• Trips that students can organise independently – on the Study Directory, we provide suggestions for Psychology-related visits that students could do themselves;
• Part-time paid work and voluntary work – on our Study Directory, there is a document outlining suggestions for Psychology-related work that students can do (e.g. to enhance their Personal Statements if applying to study Psychology at University)
• Careers and Employability: We have a careers page on our study directory where you can watch interviews with people working in psychology related jobs (for example, a researcher in social psychology, an occupational psychologist and a psychotherapist). There are also outlines of different job profiles related to psychology. 
• We always respond positively to local Universities when they ask if we have students who would be interested in taking part in research (and in the last few years students at the College have participated in research being conducted at Royal Holloway, Surrey, Sussex, Reading and Oxford Universities).

Psychology combines well with practically all other subjects.

The skills and knowledge of psychology are relevant to any career involving contact with other people.  Whilst they will be particularly relevant to such careers as teaching, medicine, personnel management and social work, they are also relevant to careers in business, customer relations, the police, journalism, advertising, and the law.  An A level in psychology can help you into work but is also recognised as a sound preparation for university.

You can find the prep work for this course at prepwork.farnborough.ac.uk.