Edexcel GCSE Psychology Tutors Online

Edexcel GCSE Psychology is code 1PS0, with a qualification number of 603/0890/4 and a discount code of PK1, written for first teaching from September 2017 and first certification from 2019. This page works from Issue 1, dated December 2016, which remains the current version of the specification. It is one of the older GCSE specifications still running, not one of the recent reforms.

The qualification has two externally examined papers and it does not weight them equally. Paper 1 is 1 hour and 45 minutes, carries 98 marks and is worth 55% of the qualification. Paper 2 is 1 hour and 20 minutes, carries 79 marks and is worth 45%. All assessment is completed in May and June in a single year, and there is no November series.

Paper 1 has an unusual structure of six sections. The first five each cover a compulsory topic: Development, Memory, Psychological problems, The brain and neuropsychology, and Social influence. Every question must be answered. The sixth section holds two extended open-response questions, which focus on debates within psychology and on the interrelationships between the core areas of the subject.

Paper 2 works the other way and requires a choice. Section A covers research methods and is compulsory, and it can draw on material from the five topics in Paper 1. Students then answer all the questions from two further sections chosen from sections B to F. Each of those covers one optional topic, from Criminal psychology, The self, Perception, Sleep and dreaming, and Language, thought and communication. So a student studies two of five optional topics, and the two are chosen by the centre, not by the student on the day.

Every section in Paper 2 contains one extended open-response question, and Section A includes calculations, which is why calculators are permitted. They must be of a size suitable for a desk, battery or solar powered, and free of lids or covers carrying printed instructions, and they must not offer a language translator or symbolic algebraic manipulation.

The assessment objectives are weighted evenly between the first two and heavily on the third. AO1, demonstrating knowledge and understanding, is 35%. AO2, applying that knowledge and understanding, is 35%. AO3, analysing and evaluating psychological information to make judgements and draw conclusions, is 30%, so nearly a third of the qualification is awarded for evaluation rather than recall.

At paper level the weighting is uneven in a way that matters for revision. In Paper 1, AO1 is 20.3%, AO2 is 14.6% and AO3 is 20.3%, so recall and evaluation carry the same weight there and application is the smallest. In Paper 2, AO1 is 14.2%, AO2 is 20.3% and AO3 is 10.1%, so application dominates and evaluation is smallest. Pearson notes that the totals have been rounded either up or down.