A Level Psychology – your questions answered about our draft planned refresh

Nicola Heath, Psychology Subject Advisor

This blog has been updated from the version originally published in November 2023.

In this blog I’ll answer your key questions about our planned refreshed A Level specification, explain how and why our content and assessment models are changing, and give an overview of our contemporary and engaging qualification.

We are submitting a refresh of our A Level Psychology specification to the regulator for accreditation. We are planning for this to be approved for first teaching in September 2025. For now, you don’t need to take any action, or make any plans.

To see our refreshed A Level in Psychology, including our draft specifications, sample assessment materials and the support available, please visit our dedicated webpage.

Why are we making changes?

The changes we are proposing are teacher led. We always listen to teachers, and collect their feedback about our qualifications. We found several emerging themes about our A Level Psychology and decided to work on these improvements sooner rather than later.

How did we do it?

We began the development in summer 2022, starting with a detailed external review of our specification and analysis of any previous teacher feedback. We wanted to make sure we got it just right, and our process has been very vigorous and thoughtful. We then held a number of consultation focus groups with teachers, heads of department, principal examiners, HE lecturers, and representatives from organisations such as The ATP and BPS.

Teacher and stakeholder feedback is always at the very heart of everything we do. Throughout the development journey we analysed all the feedback from our surveys. Thanks to so many of you who gave up your time and got involved.

Teacher feedback – content

One of the major themes coming through from teachers’ feedback was to reduce the volume of content that was required to be taught. This would take some pressure off both teachers and students while also allowing time for additional activities such as practical research projects and a focus on exam technique and revision.

1. They wanted to keep the successful structured approach with named studies and clear content for each component.
2. Whilst not introducing too many new studies to learn and teach.
3. It was seen as important to simplify the assessment process and ensure consistency.

What’s changed?

With these parameters set, we feel confident that we can deliver a successful refreshed A Level Psychology qualification that meets the needs of our teachers and students. In our draft proposal we have: 

• reduced the statistical calculations to just one statistical test
• reduced the number of core and key studies to help with manageability
• updated and extended the important topic of mental health, and included new studies on racial bias and artificial intelligence
• included criminal psychology as a compulsory option to show its significance 
• simplified the assessment approach to use fewer mark tariffs across the three components
• improved consistency of command terms and mark schemes across components
• reduced the mark allocation per paper to 80, whilst retaining the 2 hour time limit to support students time management in the exam.

What support will there be for planning and delivering A Level Psychology?

Our team of psychology subject advisors are ready to help you along your journey. We’ll be offering a range of preparation and delivery support services. We’ll share updates and resources, and invite you to training and networking opportunities by email. Make sure you sign up to receive subject updates. 

To help you navigate the specification and its content we’ll be producing:

• detailed assessment guides
  
• comprehensive curriculum planners and schemes of work to support with planning
• extensive range of free teacher guides and teaching resources to support delivery
• new textbooks and teaching and learning resources from leading third parties and publishers 
• access to our free results analysis service, Active Results – review the performance of individual students or the whole school
• access to our free question-building platform ExamBuilder – build your own tests, as our bank of past live-series questions grows.

You can find these teaching resources on our dedicated secure teacher website, Teach Cambridge. Please ask your exams officer if you need access.

We will also have a wide range of professional development courses, from getting started with us to exploring our exams and assessment materials. You can discover more on our professional development website.

In summary

I hope the blog has helped inform you about the latest development stages of the draft refresh to A Level Psychology. We are planning for the refreshed qualification to be ready for first teaching in September 2025. 

The proposed changes to the volume of content and consistency of assessment have been made as a direct result of the extensive and valuable teacher feedback we have received. We are busy working on new resources and support for existing and new OCR teachers. 

There is nothing you need to do for now. We’ll be in touch when we know the outcome of the regulatory process, and we’ll be here to help you every step of the way with the transition.

Stay connected

Share your thoughts in the comments below. If you have any questions, you can email us at psychology@org.uk, call us on 01223 553998 or message us on X (formerly Twitter) @ocr_psychology. You can also sign up to subject updates to keep up-to-date with the latest news, updates and resources.

About the author

Nicola joined OCR in 2022 as the Subject Advisor for Psychology. Before joining OCR, she taught psychology for over 10 years and had various other responsibilities in that time including being Head of Year, SENDCo and Subject Leader for PSHE. Nicola has a personal interest in mental health and wellbeing and enjoys reading, baking and spending time outdoors to relax.