Are you trying to study with your laptop and smartphone? You might even argue that you need your phone to study because that’s how you read your textbook. You might even be reading this digitally if your school has shifted to digital texts in favour of old-fashioned textbooks. In this post, we’ll see what the research says about reading digitally …
IB Psychology Exam Banks + Past Papers
The links below will take you to a list of the most probably exam questions you’ll be asked about each topic in IB Psychology. They also include questions from past papers. PAPER ONE SL/HL Paper 1: Biological approach (Link) Paper 1: Cognitive approach (Link) Paper 1: Sociocultural approach (Link) PAPER ONE HL Extensions Paper 1: HL Ext Bio Animal Studies …
#9 Best Study Tip for IB Psych: Work Backwards
When you’ve started studying seriously, it’s tempting to tell yourself, “I’ll just read the textbook then figure out what I need to know for the exams.” While this is the easiest way to think about studying, it’s not very effective. You’ll end up working way harder than you need to. Let’s look at a more systematic approach. In the previous …
#10 Best Study Tip for IB Psych: Get Started
Action precedes motivation. I learn this every time I need to work on something boring. Act first and the motivation to do it will come later. It sounds counterintuitive but trust me, it’s true. Studying for your IB Psychology exams probably doesn’t make you excited. You’ll start cleaning your room, making study playlists, writing a letter to your Grandma, or …
Note taking: Is typing or handwriting better?
IB students are the iGen, so you probably can’t imagine working without a laptop. This begs the question – is it better to take notes by hand on paper or typing on a laptop? Let’s review the research. Let’s first look at Mueller and Oppenheimer’s now famous study “the pen is mightier than the keypad:” In this quasi-experiment, 67 students …
Flashcards: Are online or hard copy better?
Flashcards are the best method for studying lots of content. But which is better – using digital (like Quizlet) or hard copy (like our IB Psych flashcards)? In this post we’ll review the research and see. Numerous studies have found benefits to using apps like Quizlet to improve memory, particularly for second language learners studying vocab. These studies do pre and post-tests …
Essay Introductions: How to write the perfect essay introduction for IB Psych exams.
This post will show you four easy steps you can apply to any exam question to write the perfect introduction. Scroll to the bottom for a simple practice tip. First impressions matter, especially in your IB exams. You’re writing essays in IB Psych to show what an excellent psychologist you are, but you have about 1,000 words and 60 minutes to …
The biggest mistake students make in IB Psychology exams
I still can’t figure it out. After teaching IB Psych for over a decade, marking thousands of essays and short answers, writing hundreds of blogs and recording heaps of video tutorials about this topic, there’s still one mistake that students continue to make in their IB Psych exams. Read on to find out what it is and how you can avoid …
Emotion-focused vs. Problem-focused Coping Strategies
Coping is “a person’s efforts to manage demands that are appraised as taxing or exceeding their resources.”(1) In other words, coping is how we try to deal with stress. It is a widely studied topic in psychology and there are over 400 categorized styles of coping. (2) These styles are commonly grouped into two distinct types: problem focused vs. emotion-focused. In …
IA Resources – IB Psychology | HOME PAGE
Need help with your IB Psychology IA? This page has everything you should need. If not, leave a comment and I’ll see if I can help. IA YouTube Playlist IA eBook IA TSP Getting Started Not sure what to do? This IB Psych IA Quick Summary will help. (Blog and Video) The most important aspect of the IA is not …
Morning Motivation Hack
Want to start your day with more motivation? Here’s some tricks I’m trying based on neuroscience. They seem to be working so far. Every morning I wake up sometime between 3:30am and 6am (I don’t use an alarm to avoid sleep deprivation). I go straight to my computer and start writing while the family sleeps. But lately that changed. I …
The Command Term Conundrum
Allow me to explain the IB Psychology command terms: Explain means explain if it’s in Paper 1, but not if it’s in Paper 2, unless of course it’s coupled with another level three command term (e.g. discuss), then it does mean explain. And outline doesn’t really mean outline, it means describe, unless the question (or mark scheme) is actually asking …
Example essay: Contrast two models of memory
Of the command terms for IB Psychology essays, “contrast” is the hardest to write. Here is an example essay that contrasts two models of memory. Please note – this essay is not written with the intention that you will memorize it. That is a highly inefficient way to study. It’s written so you can get ideas on how to structure a contrast …
Key Study: Schemas and Story Interpretations (Anderson et al., 1976)
“No two people read the same novel or watch the same movie.” This is one of my favourite sayings as an English teacher. It conveys the simple fact that our interpretations of stories are based on our personalities, our experiences, our biases, our schemas. While this might be common knowledge now, in the 1970s it was being slowly revealed through …
Key Study: The Office Schema Study (Brewer and Treyens, 1981)
Our life’s memories are filed away in our long-term memory and our mind categories these into clusters, which we call schema. These schema then affect how we process new information and remember old information. At least, these are the claims of schema theory. In this post we’ll look at how these claims are supported by a classic study. Because of …
How to “explain additional ethical considerations that could be taken into account when applying the findings.”
The following has been adapted from our IB revision textbook, now available as an online textbook. IB Psychology’s Paper 3 will have a question on ethical considerations. One of these questions asks you to “describe the ethical considerations in reporting the results…” This is comparatively easy to the second part of this question, “…and explain additional ethical considerations that could …
How to “describe the ethical considerations in reporting the results” in Paper 3
The following has been adapted from our IB revision textbook, now available as an online textbook. IB Psychology’s Paper 3 will have a question on ethical considerations. One of these questions asks you to “describe the ethical considerations in reporting the results” of the study summarized in the stimulus material. Let’s look at how you can score full marks (3/3) …
How to “explain if further considerations could be applied” in Paper 3.
The following has been adapted from our IB revision textbook, now available as an online textbook. In the new IB Psychology Paper 3, you may be asked to describe the ethical considerations that were applied in the study and “explain if further considerations could be applied.” This question is a little misleading, so let’s look at how you can score …
How to “describe the ethical considerations that were applied in the study.”
The following has been adapted from our IB revision textbook, now available as an online textbook. In the new IB Psychology Paper 3, you may be asked to “describe the ethical considerations that were applied in the study.” This post explains how. The most important thing to know about Question 2 in Paper 3 is that it’s worth 6 marks …
Should you study with music?
I was 16 and studying for my big exams. I sat down at my desk and read a brochure my mum gave me. The first line said, “Turn off your music. Stop kidding yourself, you don’t study any better with it on!” I did and it helped. But were they right? As always in psychology, we have to ask ourselves …
Applications of the working memory model (Baddeley and Hitch, 1974)
Theories and models in psychology can be evaluated based on their empirical evidence and their validity in explaining and predicting human behaviour. But they can also be judged on their productiveness – the extent to which they’ve inspired and provoked further research and applications in various fields. In this post, we’ll look at the various contributions the WMM has made …
Memory Effects & The Working Memory Model
Want to improve your memory? The secret is to understand your working memory. In this post, we’ll review some factors that can reduce memory and then explain these using Baddeley and Hitch’s working memory model. The Articulatory Suppression Effect The articulatory suppression effect happens when memory decreases because researchers block (suppress) someone’s ability to rehearse (articulate) information they’re trying to remember. …
How to answer Paper 3, Question 1 (a, b & c)
The following has been adapted from our textbook “IB Psychology: A Revision Guide.” (Now available as an online textbook). All HL students should score 100% (9/9) for the first questions in Paper 3 because it’s so easy. But most don’t because they make basic mistakes. Let’s look at the best and simplest way to answer these three questions. We know …
Four things you didn’t know about the multi-store model of memory
It’s in all the textbooks and every introduction to psychology course, but here are some things you didn’t know about Atkinson and Shiffrin’s multi-store model of memory. #1. There’s a store within the store The short-term store is where we temporarily hold information in our working memory. If it’s rehearsed enough it will transfer to the long-term store. But did …
Limitations of the multi-store model of memory (Atkinson and Shiffrin, 1968)
Atkinson and Shiffrin’s MSM is over 50 years old yet it’s still in every introduction to Psychology textbook and still influences modern psychologists. But it’s not without its critics. This post will examine some of their critiques. Because the MSM was so popular, it received a lot of criticism. But “…criticism could itself be viewed as a success, given the …