Though I’m going into my final year of university, I still hear people discussing PSYC 100 as a notorious core memory for many Queen’s students.
With its huge class size and heavy workload, PSYC100 has been referred to as one of the most daunting courses for first year students. This fact may sound scary, but below is a survival guide to help you defeat this intense course — and to succeed at doing so.
Principles of Psychology, or PSYC 100, is an introductory psychology course covering a variety of areas in psychology including biological, cognitive, social, and developmental topics. It’s mandatory for many majors at Queen’s, including Concurrent Education, Nursing, Kinesiology, and Psychology.
As a full year course with 71 chapters of mandatory readings, , students taking the class call it one of the most content heavy and stressful courses. Although some majors (Nursing, ConEd) require a pass grade in this class, for others, survival in this class doesn’t just depend on passing. Psychology students must achieve an A (85 per cent) minimum for guaranteed entry into the major.
As a fifth-year PSYC student, this is how to both survive and excel in PSYC100.
When it comes to content throughout the year, the readings in PSYC 100, although exhausting and heavy with information, are crucial to success in this class. While readings may seem optional in many courses — they certainly aren’t for this class. Exams cover content from both lectures and readings.
Use the learning objectives of the chapters as guides for your note taking. At the beginning of each chapter, the learning objectives list the main topics that will be covered in each chapter. Turn them into questions and actively take notes during the readings. It saves you time and helps cut down on extra fluff, which may not be tested.
PSYC 100 is all about application and understanding, so simply using a highlighter to isolate information is not your friend. Cut down on time wasted highlighting by using the learning objectives effectively, and it will pay off in exams and assignments.
Engaging with the content is equally as important as keeping up with the content of the week. Understanding is easily the most important part of this class.
Memorizing can only get you so far, meaning interacting and relating with the content in meaningful ways is the way to go. In fact, a memory trick that you might learn about in PSYC 100 is the self-reference effect. Memory is boosted when you can relate content to yourself, your life, and things around you. For example, when learning about social phenomena, I tied the bystander effect to the time I saw a bat in a lecture hall full of people, and no one knew what to do, so they all did nothing.
Another memory trick is chunking, which involves breaking apart ideas and then connecting them together. Make mind maps and webs to connect topics further to engage with the content.
Taking exams in your first year is already stressful, and for a class as content heavy as PSYC 100, it can be even more so. While studying for PSYC 100 exams, be sure to actively test yourself. Active recall is a great way to engage with content and learn as efficiently as possible.
An effective way to do this is creating flashcards and testing yourself on facts, concepts, and processes. It is also helpful to study in groups, as explaining concepts to your classmates helps you understand it too.
The PSYC DSC has a lot of resources to assist PSYC 100 students. They run Kahoot nights every year during PSYC100 exam periods to quiz students on PSYC100 concepts, and there are other review sessions available on campus for students in this challenging class.
Engagement with the material does more than just repeating the facts to yourself or reading over notes. Sure, you can memorize all the steps of neural transmission, but if you don’t understand it, it’s less likely to help you on the exam if the question is application based.
Although it sounds daunting to hear from upper years about the difficult nature of the class, as long as you apply yourself, and these tips, you will survive PSYC 100. Good luck!
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exams, PSYC100, Psychology, Study, study tips
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