The 3-step active recall method

Re-reading notes is a futile process when your aim is to remember the information and successfully apply it in exam settings. Active recall is the method you use to ensure the information sticks for a long period of time.

But even active recall can be futile unless you have a structured way of implementing it. This is where the 3-step active recall method comes in, a structured method that is signature to the Levo Learning guides.

1. Step 1

   Answer up to 10 questions cold, closed book, even if you are unsure on the topic.

2. Step 2

   Answer the same questions again, but open book. Write the correct answer down even if it seems pointless.

3. Step 3

   Repeat as step 1 and answer the questions closed book again.

Worked across the WJEC A-Level Psychology specification, one subtopic at a time.

The subject, and what is assessed

WJEC A-Level Psychology is assessed by four units. Unit 1 covers psychology past to present and Unit 2 covers contemporary debates with research methods, each lasting 1 hour 30 minutes and worth 20% of the A-Level.

Unit 3 covers implications in the real world, lasting 2 hours 30 minutes and worth 40%. Unit 4 covers applied research methods, lasting 1 hour 30 minutes and worth 20%.

The five approaches introduced in Unit 1 are applied again in Unit 3, so they are examined across both years.

Memorisation, then application

Marks are given for applying content to the question that has been set, which cannot happen while the content is still being looked up. Step 1 shows what is actually held.

Step 2 puts the correct wording in front of you while the gap is still fresh. Step 3 repeats the cold test, and the difference between the first and third attempt is the part that has moved.

Every question in the guide is paired with its answer in the same document, so step 2 is done from the guide itself rather than from a separate set of notes.

What is inside the guide

Questions are grouped by topic and then by subtopic, following the WJEC specification. Open a topic to see its subtopics.

Sample questions

Taken from the WJEC A-Level Psychology guide. Answer each one closed book first, then open the answer.

1. AS Unit 1: Psychology Past to Present, the Five Approaches

   Whose theory of natural selection underpins the evolutionary assumption, and in what year was it published?

   Show the answer

   Charles Darwin's, in On the Origin of Species in 1859.

2. AS Unit 2 Section A: Contemporary Debates

   What does it mean to identify the core of a psychological debate?

   Show the answer

   It means stating the single question the two sides actually disagree about, rather than listing everything that is known about the topic.

3. AS Unit 2 Section B: Principles of Research and Application of Research Methods

   What was the aim of Milgram's (1963) study?

   Show the answer

   To investigate how far ordinary people would obey an authority figure who instructed them to give increasingly severe electric shocks to another person.

4. Mathematical Requirements for Psychology (Appendix A: AS Unit 2 and A2 Unit 4)

   A researcher screens 48 000 archived records in a secondary-data study. How is that number written in standard form?

   Show the answer

   The researcher screens 4.8 × 10⁴ records.

5. A2 Unit 3 Section A: The Study of Behaviours

   What is the difference between tolerance and withdrawal?

   Show the answer

   Tolerance is needing progressively more of the substance or activity to get the same effect; withdrawal is the unpleasant physical and psychological state that appears when use stops or is reduced.

6. A2 Unit 3 Section B: Controversies in Psychology

   What is meant by cultural bias in psychology?

   Show the answer

   Cultural bias is the tendency to interpret and judge behaviour using the assumptions of one's own culture, so that findings drawn from one group are treated as though they described everyone.

7. A2 Unit 4: Applied Research Methods

   What determines which methodology is the right one for a given research question?

   Show the answer

   The methodology follows from what the question asks: an experiment is needed to establish cause and effect, a correlation where two existing variables are simply measured together, and an observation or self-report where behaviour has to be described rather than manipulated.

8. AS Unit 1: Psychology Past to Present, the Five Approaches

   On what assumption does drug therapy rest?

   Show the answer

   That psychological disorders are caused by an imbalance of neurotransmitters, which medication can correct at the synapse.

Questions about this guide

Other WJEC A-Level guides

All WJEC A-Level guides · All A-Level guides