Edexcel have announced that they are to offer psychology GCSE.

Currently AQA and OCR offer GCSE psychology, which is still a relatively small market. Last summer 3275 candidates sat AQA GCSE psychology and 3843 sat GCSE OCR psychology.

However, looking at the Edexcel web site it does seem that they have some way to go in putting together their new GCSE psychology specifications.  They want your help.

Advanced Extension Awards (AEAs) were introduced in summer 2002 and were designed to challenge the most able A level students and to provide opportunities for students to show a greater depth of understanding than required at A level.

The AEA is available in 19 subjects. The subjects offered for AEA have been shared across the awarding bodies. There are two pass grades – Distinction and Merit. Those not reaching the award of Merit are reported as ‘Unclassified’.

Last year there were 11,099 entries for the 19 different AEAs. The pass rate was almost 50% with 18% of entries gaining a Distinction and 31.8% gaining a merit.

The Psychology AEA was introduced in 2005 by AQA and has been running for three years. In June 2005, 903 candidates sat the exam. This rose to 1163 in 2006 and in 2007 dropped to 995. The pass rate for psychology in 2007 was only 28.6% with only 6.3% distinctions and 22.3% merits.

At the time of writing this blog QCA have not yet announced whether the AEA awards will be scrapped when the new A levels are introduced in 2008. As the new A levels are to incorporate a ‘stretch and challenge’ theme it is likely that the AEA award will not be with us for very long.

As the results above show, many psychology teachers have not had a great experience of the psychology AEA and will not be sad to see it disappear.

The AQA (A) specification is still the clear leader in terms of number of students sitting the different specifications.

Last June (2007) 60.6% of students sitting A level psychology followed the AQA (A) specifications and 60.4% of students sitting AS psychology followed the AQA (A) route.

Below are figures taken from the various awarding bodies’ websites.

Percentage of students sitting A level psychology June 2007

AQA (A)   60.6%
OCR         19.9%
AQA (B)   10.2%
Edexcel      9.2%

Percentage of students sitting AS level psychology June 2007

AQA (A)    60.4%
OCR          19.2%
AQA (B)    10.1%
Edexcel       8.6%
WJEC          1.8%

Below are the percentages of students sitting A level psychology June 2006

AQA (A)    60.3%
OCR          18.5%
AQA (B)    11.0%
Edexcel     10.2%

The percentages are all rounded up to 1 decimal point.

Has the number of students sitting A level psychology reached a plateaux or are we going to see a decline?

According to data from the J.C.Q. the number of students sitting A level psychology has fallen for the first time.

In June 2007 52,048 candidates sat A level psychology whereas in June 2006 the number was 52,621. Both figures however still represent approximately 6.5% of the total number of students sitting A levels.

A level psychology is currently the fifth biggest A level and the third biggest AS level.

Psychology has until this year been growing at an incredible pace when, for example, one notes that only as far back as 2001 31,740 candidates sat A level psychology.    The initial examination entry in 1972 was 272 candidates and by 1997 the number of candidates had grown to 28,ooo. 

Below are the data for the past seven years

Number of A level Psychology candidates sitting the exams in June

2007

52048 which is 6.5% of total students sitting the June exams. 13176 were male and 38872 were female

2006

52621 which is 6.5% of total students sitting the June exams. 13485 were male and 39176 were female

2005

50035 which is 6.4% of total students sitting the June exams. 12798 were male and 37237 were female

2004

46933 which is 6.1% of total students sitting the June exams. 11875 were male and 35058 female

2003

41949 which is 5.6% of total students sitting the June exams. 10193 were male and 31756 were female

2002

34611 which is 4.9% of total students sitting the June exams. 8038 were male and were 26573 female

2001

31740 which is 4.2% of total students sitting the June exams. 7188 were male and 24552 female

Number of AS level Psychology candidates sitting the exams in May

2007

79468 which is 7.1% of total students sitting the May exams. 23041 were male and 56427 were female

2006

78731 which is 7.2% of total students sitting the May exams. 22750 were male and 55981 were female

2005

77977 which is 7.2% of total students sitting the May exams. 22695 were male and 55282 were female

2004

74188 which is 7.1% of total students sitting the May exams. 21423 were male and 52765 were female

2003

71056 which is 6.92% of total students sitting the May exams. 20308 were male 50748 were female

2002

62039 which is 6.2% of total students sitting the May exams. 16765 were male and 45274 were female

2001

48342 which is 6.1% of total students sitting the May exams. 12525 were male and 35817 were female