Social Psychologist. Research Methods Specialist. Researcher safety and wellbeing advocate. Sometime Agony Aunt.
I frequently give talks in schools about choosing psychology at A level or for your degree which I love doing. The biggest shock always comes when I tell pupils if I were applying to do a psychology A level today I'd not get a place. You need maths GCSE at grade 4 to 6 (depending on the college) to study A level psychology - and after failing many years in a row I still don't have anything above GCSE 1 equivalent in maths. What would you be able to do - or not do - at college now based on your original qualifications? How do we address barriers where some students won't be able to get to college, let alone university due to grades. What advice and support can we offer?
I failed my maths GCSE twice, however, I find programming really easy, spent years working with excel and then with R. Don't think mathematical ability has anything to do with it, think it's just about how your mind works sometimes.
Insightful post. I was discussing this with some African teenagers last month. I felt they were helpless and I was thinking of ways to support them.
Jane Evans PhD
3mo
I wouldn't be able to do quite a lot but thankfully, despite not doing well at school, I got a First Class The Open University degree after several years of part time study while working and /or raising very small children.
I was a straight A student, but I don't think I would get my university place now because grades were all I had. My parents lived a long way from school, in an area with no buses, and didn't see any value in extra curricular activities - and definitely not Duke of Edinburgh or Scouts ("you'll be lost") or anything that involved giving me lifts, or once I could drive, anything that involved me not being able to drive my siblings. I would be far too dull and one dimensional to compete in a world where far more children have decent grades. I hope my kids do well in school, but I think once they get off the conveyer belt and into the world, they'll do better with lifeskills, interests and resilience but a mediocre education than a straight A average and all the street smarts of a startled moth.
Social Psychologist. Research Methods Specialist. Researcher safety and wellbeing advocate. Sometime Agony Aunt.
3mobtw people always ask me if I don't have a maths qualification how I can do research? They assume I generally do qualitative research, which isn't the case. I use different methods and can do qual or quant research but I work with statisticians at all stages for quant. I know what I want to do, I just can't process how to do it or read numbers. I also need help interpreting data but once I know what it's saying I'm fine. I'm regularly told since I don't have a maths qualification that I should retake my exams, get a tutor, or as an adult I will be able to do maths now. None of this is helpful. I still can't do it, if anything my maths skills have deteriorated over time. You can't practice your way out of a learning disability any more than you outgrow one. The other assumptions, once they learn I can't do maths, is that I've written books on research process but haven't done research myself. Or I've had a minor role on other people's projects. Or I've not published in peer reviewed journals (at least not any good ones). Followed by the inevitable question should I be able to teach and do research? I obviously think so but many academics disagree. I think it reveals a lot, how people react. I'm happy to discuss it.