Experimental Psychology

Choosing Your Course

The degree is 3 years long. Students are typically required to have a minimum of A*AA grades at A-level. It is recommended (though not compulsory) to have studied one or more science subjects (including psychology) or Maths at A-level. The admissions test that prospective students must sit is the Thinking Skills Assessment (TSA).

My biggest advice would be to bear in mind that this degree is extremely scientific. Alongside other aspects of psychology, it includes a lot of neurophysiology, neuroanatomy, and general biology, so if science puts you off, this psychology course might not be for you. There is also a lot of statistics. With that said, it’s all manageable and taught under the assumption you haven’t taken biology or maths at A-level, so don’t worry too much about it. It’s just worth bearing in mind.

Career Prospects

Careers in psychology can be pursued following post-graduate studies. This can lead you into clinical psychology, educational psychology etc. A psychology degree can be applied to many corporate careers in consultancy, human resources, business, marketing, etc. You can also go into education, research, medicine, finance, commerce industry, the media and information technology.

The degree is broken down into three main sections: Prelims, Part 1 and Part 2. In the first two terms of first year (terms 1 and 2) students will study for Prelims. This currently consists of 3 modules: Introduction to Psychology, Introduction to Neurophysiology and Introduction to Probability and Statistics.

In students’ third term of first year and first two terms of second year (terms 3, 4 and 5) they will usually complete 6 core practicals (2 each term). They also currently study the following modules: Perception, Cognition, Behavioural Neuroscience, Developmental Science, Social Psychology, Individual Differences and Clinical Psychology, and Experimental Design and Methods. Part 1 exams, sat at the beginning of your sixth term, are worth 40% of your final grade.

In the third term of second year through to the end of the degree (terms 6, 7, 8 and 9), students currently choose to sit either three advanced options, or two advanced options and a dissertation. And currently also carry out 4 lab-based ‘block’ practicals and a research project.

First Year (Prelims):

You will have around 2-3 tutorials a week, each requiring some work. You will have approximately 2 essays and a problem sheet a week to complete. The problem sheet is usually based off of the ‘Intro to Stats and Probability’ module. These usually take about a day to complete. Each essay will be based on the other lectures. To complete the essays, you will have to complete reading from textbooks and relevant articles to formulate an answer to the question. You are typically busier on days where you have an essay deadline.

Second Year:

In second year, you will generally have 12 tutorials each term, half of which require an essay. The other 6 will require some other work like presentation of an article, or another, lighter task set by your tutor. Alongside these deadlines you will have 2 core practicals which each count for ~1.5% of your final grade. These will either be shorter assignments or lab reports. The days in the build up to the lab report deadlines are generally the busiest of term.

Final Year:

Each advanced module consists of eight lectures and six tutorials (which you normally have to prepare essays for). The tutorial essays are typically much longer and, in more depth, than essays for second and first year. However, you still only sit one three-hour exam per module, consisting of three different essays (out of a choice of six).

Because you only do one advanced module per term, contact hours are limited, sometimes to just 1-2 hours a week if you aren't doing a block practical at the time. Final year therefore requires a lot of independent work.

You also get the chance to conduct your own research project (under the guidance of a supervisor). This is often the most exciting part of the course for many students and can come with a range of responsibilities such as: designing a study, submitting ethics applications, testing participants, analysing data, and writing the whole thing up into a 6000-word report