Students Questions 5 - what grades do I need to get into psychology?

In this series, I respond to questions that I was asked as part of "I'm a Researcher, get me out of here". See my earlier post on the event for more detail on the event as a whole. Students in secondary schools asked questions about my research, experiences, and researcher life. There was much less time and space to talk about these questions / issues than needed to give a full picture. So, this series has more of my thoughts and reflections on those questions. I'll keep the editing to a minimum, so that this is a more organic process, maybe I'll even get a podcast or two recorded on this topic. Comment or contact me directly to pose new questions, and I'll aim to answer them!

Today's question;

What subjects/grades do I need to get into Psychology?

These kinds of questions were asked regularly during the I'm a Researcher live chats. So, to procrastinate from writing my thesis, I thought I'd share a few thoughts on what subjects and grades you need to get into psychology. I'll assume that by asking one of these kinds of questions that you are the sort of student that a) turns up to lessons, b) cares at least a little bit about grades, and c) maybe wants to go to university. I have no idea how other systems work in terms of getting to university, so I wont speculate on ones outside of the UK. But, if you do know more, leave a comment because I'd love to know what is different and where.

The Living Library Librarian (Hint: not me)

My story

A few folk at the Living Library event (I got to be a book and talk about my research in quick-fire chats to loads of people. God my throat was sore afterwards) were surprised that I didn't follow a direct route into studying psychology at university. I think that it's expected that to work / research in a particular area that you must have done that subject at GCSE, A levels and so on. But, that's not always the case. So, here's my quick story. 

GCSEs: We didn't get too much choice in subjects for GCSE, so I just went with the flow and got relatively decent grades (mostly Bs). That was back when my memory was better, and I benefited from managing to get a lessons work done quickly and well enough that I could doss about for the remainder of the lesson (at least I'm being honest here, I guess). Note, I did get the work done, so I learned and remembered enough for the exams. Back then I had zero exam anxiety as well, which helped. During my degree it got worse, mainly because there was more riding on each grade. 

A levels: I took Maths, Further Maths, Philosophy for A level, as well as an AS (1st year of A levels) in Physics, and blagged my way to an A level in general studies (whatever that means).

BSc in Psychology: I needed three Cs to get in to my Psychology/Philosophy course at the University of Stirling (beautiful place, worth a visit even if you don't want to study there). So, I was confident that my conditional offer would go through without an issue based on grades. About a year and a half into my 4 year course (Scottish undergraduate degrees tend to be 4 years), I switched to study Psychology alone. 

There are people that took a whole other route as well. I met quite a few people during my MSc at Oxford Brookes that were taking the course in order to get the BPS accreditation (after I think a years course beforehand) so that they could pursue clinical psychology, for example. These routes take a bit longer overall, but give the opportunity to transfer between fields.

Honestly, it's OK to not have been studying psychology super early on

"We don't want to hear any more about you Sam, get to answering the question!". Fine, imaginary grumpy teenager (maybe the ghost of myself, who knows), I'll get to the point, geez. 

Which subjects?

You don't have to have to do the exact subject you might want to study at university in your GCSEs or A levels. For some subjects it may be a necessity, for me at the time it was not (but check, because I'd hate to be caught out on this). Psychology Undergrad degrees are so general and introductory that if you want a career in psychology, it's just the first step anyway. It will be easier if you've already studied something for awhile to continue studying it. But, don't kick yourself if your school doesn't offer Psychology, or the specific subject you want. I took further maths at A level because I was always in advanced maths classes and I was basically told that if I took that I'd get into University easily. Now I realise that was a complete over exaggeration, but it was well intended I suppose. If you can try the subject that you're interested in, that's great. It might light a fire in you to study further, or it might explode in your face and you hate it, but at least you tried it early. If you cant try it, then do some research into what it's like to do that subject. Hopefully this blog is useful, but there are many more that talk about similar issues across fields. Either way, it's possible to take a university course in your chosen subject. I'll discuss being able to stay working in that field in academia in a future post.

Quick aside. If you know that psychology is for you and it's your chosen path, try to take some statistics classes, and maybe some programming classes. They will really help. It's not necessary to get onto the course, but it will help a lot, even just to relieve some of the numbers anxiety that I see in some undergrad psych students.

What grades?

My guess is that this is the question that you are really interested in. It's also why I left it until the end, so I could trick you into reading the rest of my waffle, muwahahaha. Anyway, grades. You'll have a rough idea of what sort of student you are, on average. Whether you are a solid A student, or more of a CCC grade kind of person, or like me somewhere in the middle, there'll be a University for you. If your grades fall below that and you're keen on studying psychology for example, there will be conversion courses that you can take first to bridge the gap before an undergraduate degree.

Here's my honest truth. You don't need to be a A+++ student to get into university, nor do I think its healthy for the government to continue making things extra stressful with more and harder exams and standards. I don't think that it is reasonable to expect that of people. You do need to work hard, you do need to get whatever grades your chosen university requires. But, it should not be at the expense of your own wellbeing. Also remember that the "best" university for you may not necessarily be the one that requires the highest grades. My secondary choice required higher grades than Stirling, but I knew from visiting there that it was where I wanted to be for the next few years. The point is that there are lots of routes and required standards to get onto a psychology degree. there is not a single or "right" path that you have to follow.

Thought this was funny and relevant enough to get away with including