How to Gamble in The Finals?
How to Gamble in The Finals?
Introduction
You all know that you don't have unlimited amount of time and energy to study everything for the finals. Here are some quick guidelines for "safe gambling" with your IB Psychology final exams. This can help you with prioritisation.
General
Try to find general overlaps from the syllabus. Can you find contents, terms and pieces of research that you can use with several locations within the syllabus? Good example of this is Maguire et al. (2000). This piece of research can be used with several topics within the syllabus. Can you spot similar overlaps? If you can, you don't have to study that many individual contents, terms and pieces of research. You can use one thing in several locations. While doing this, you are also excercising your critical thinking skills. A useful excercise for all IB Psychology students.
In addition to overlaps, keep things simple. Don't study more than is required for the finals. If you continue studying Psychology or similar subject after the IB DP, you have plenty of time and possibilities to stretch your understanding AFTER the finals.
Paper 1
SAQs
There are no shortcuts here. You have three SAQs in the finals, one from the biological approach, one from the cognitive approach and one from the sociocultural approach. You have to answer ALL of them. This means that you pretty much have to study all the Topics, Contents and the parts under Content headings in italics in the syllabus in order to answer ALL SAQs effectively. Naturally you need to master the contents and terms, but you should also have ONE piece of research for each the Topics, Contents and the parts under Content headings in italics. See the "General" part above to find some help for this.
ERQ/essays
You have three ERQ/essay options in the finals, one from the biological approach, one from the cognitive approach and one from the sociocultural approach. You need to answer ONE ERQ/essay option. This allows you to have some room for gambling. If you can answer ALL SAQs from all three core approaches, you can focus on ONE approach for the essay.
ERQ/essay questions are formulated based on the Topics and Contents parts and "Relevant to all topics are:" parts (ethical considerations and research methods). You should have a good command on the terms, contents and/or theories under each Topics and Contents parts including ethical considerations and research methods for EACH Topics and Contents. You should know at least TWO studies per each Topics and Contents parts with "Relevant to all topics are:" parts. Try to find studies for the topics that cast a different light to the topic. This is also an excellent excercise for your critical thinking.
Paper 2
Similar roles apply here as with the Paper 1 ERQ/essays. In paper 2, HL students need to answer ONE ERQ/essay from TWO different options (two ERQ/essay responses). SL students need to answer ONE ERQ/essay from ONE option (one ERQ/essay response). In each option, there are three main topics. In each Paper 2, one ERQ/essay question will be asked from each main topic. This means that you can focus on one topic per option. In other words, pick ONE topic per option and study all the contents under that topic. (Disclaimer: this strategy might backfire, since Paper 2 questions can take you by a surprise. A safer bet is to study TWO topics, but this might take too much time.)
Paper 3 (for HL only)
No true shortcuts here, other than overlapping. You need to master ALL essential features of Psychological research in order to address the stimulus material effectively. If you can study research methods WHILE you are studying for Paper 1 and Paper 2, you can easily find ways to study for all the papers in the finals simultaneously.
You all know that you don't have unlimited amount of time and energy to study everything for the finals. Here are some quick guidelines for "safe gambling" with your IB Psychology final exams. This can help you with prioritisation.
General
Try to find general overlaps from the syllabus. Can you find contents, terms and pieces of research that you can use with several locations within the syllabus? Good example of this is Maguire et al. (2000). This piece of research can be used with several topics within the syllabus. Can you spot similar overlaps? If you can, you don't have to study that many individual contents, terms and pieces of research. You can use one thing in several locations. While doing this, you are also excercising your critical thinking skills. A useful excercise for all IB Psychology students.
In addition to overlaps, keep things simple. Don't study more than is required for the finals. If you continue studying Psychology or similar subject after the IB DP, you have plenty of time and possibilities to stretch your understanding AFTER the finals.
Paper 1
SAQs
There are no shortcuts here. You have three SAQs in the finals, one from the biological approach, one from the cognitive approach and one from the sociocultural approach. You have to answer ALL of them. This means that you pretty much have to study all the Topics, Contents and the parts under Content headings in italics in the syllabus in order to answer ALL SAQs effectively. Naturally you need to master the contents and terms, but you should also have ONE piece of research for each the Topics, Contents and the parts under Content headings in italics. See the "General" part above to find some help for this.
ERQ/essays
You have three ERQ/essay options in the finals, one from the biological approach, one from the cognitive approach and one from the sociocultural approach. You need to answer ONE ERQ/essay option. This allows you to have some room for gambling. If you can answer ALL SAQs from all three core approaches, you can focus on ONE approach for the essay.
ERQ/essay questions are formulated based on the Topics and Contents parts and "Relevant to all topics are:" parts (ethical considerations and research methods). You should have a good command on the terms, contents and/or theories under each Topics and Contents parts including ethical considerations and research methods for EACH Topics and Contents. You should know at least TWO studies per each Topics and Contents parts with "Relevant to all topics are:" parts. Try to find studies for the topics that cast a different light to the topic. This is also an excellent excercise for your critical thinking.
Paper 2
Similar roles apply here as with the Paper 1 ERQ/essays. In paper 2, HL students need to answer ONE ERQ/essay from TWO different options (two ERQ/essay responses). SL students need to answer ONE ERQ/essay from ONE option (one ERQ/essay response). In each option, there are three main topics. In each Paper 2, one ERQ/essay question will be asked from each main topic. This means that you can focus on one topic per option. In other words, pick ONE topic per option and study all the contents under that topic. (Disclaimer: this strategy might backfire, since Paper 2 questions can take you by a surprise. A safer bet is to study TWO topics, but this might take too much time.)
Paper 3 (for HL only)
No true shortcuts here, other than overlapping. You need to master ALL essential features of Psychological research in order to address the stimulus material effectively. If you can study research methods WHILE you are studying for Paper 1 and Paper 2, you can easily find ways to study for all the papers in the finals simultaneously.