OCR A-Level Psychology Past Papers & Mark Schemes

The core studies approach means you must know each of the 20 studies in genuine depth — not just a summary, but the specific details that examiners ask about. For Milgram's obedience study, for instance, you need: the exact experimental setup (the 'teacher-learner' paradigm), the voltage levels and verbal prods used, the quantitative findings (65% administered maximum shock), the qualitative observations (signs of extreme stress), the ethical criticisms, the variations conducted, and how it connects to the social approach. Create study cards with this level of detail for all 20 studies. Research methods questions in Paper 1 are frequently set in novel contexts — you will be given a description of an unfamiliar study and asked to identify variables, evaluate the design, suggest improvements, or analyse data. Practise by reading psychology research abstracts and identifying: the IV and DV (or variables in correlational designs), the experimental design, potential confounding variables, strengths and weaknesses of the methodology, and whether the conclusions are justified by the findings. The applied options in Paper 3 require you to connect theoretical psychology to practical applications. In Criminal Psychology, for example, you must link theories of criminal behaviour (biological, social learning, cognitive) to practical issues like offender profiling, prison effectiveness, and jury decision-making. The marks go to students who explicitly bridge theory and application rather than writing theoretical essays or purely practical descriptions. Inferential statistics appear in Paper 1 — know when to use each test (chi-squared for nominal data, Mann-Whitney for ordinal/interval independent measures, Wilcoxon for ordinal/interval repeated measures) and how to interpret results using significance levels and critical values tables. These are some of the most predictable marks in the specification.