Right now, I have 25 days to decide where I want to go for my University studies (due 4 May 2010).
Been thinking real hard, but I'm having problems deciding, especially after visiting the universities. I really like Warwick, and I'm undivided when it comes to Manchester and Exeter. The good thing about this is that I know what one of my option will be - Warwick. Also, I don't want Manchester to be my firm, since their offer is the lowest of the 3. So, that The bad news? Well, there's 3 options in my mind to choose from -
Scenario 1:
Firm Exeter, Insurance Warwick.
Scenario 2:
Firm Warwick, Insurance Exeter.
Scenario 3:
Firm Warwick, Insurance Manchester.
Basically, my dilemma lies with the requirement for Econs, assuming I drop Psychology A2 - Exeter would want an A, while the other two would take B. If I take Psychology A2, Exeter would also accept an A in that.
My concern is that my Econs Jan exam results weren't what I'd call 'bullish' - I thought I did alright after the paper, and the result came out to be B, instead of the A that I needed. And that was just Unit 2. Now that I'll be taking all 4 units, and seeing how Unit 3 is being covered so quickly, I have doubts over my ability to get an A in Econs.
Psychology is not a good fall-back safe harbour either - the essay mark schemes in A2 are vague, and our teacher (bless her, she tries her best, but she) isn't very helpful in terms of being explicit on the requirements of a good, credit-worthy essay in the new syllabus. Come to think of it, the AQA board's marking methods are as specific as the Labour & Tory Parties' description on how they'll cut spending. Efficiency Savings - what does that even mean? And what counts as evaluation? Does a description of a study which contradicts another person's theory = evaluation or description?
E.g.: for a question on describing and evaluating the role of hormones on gender role: Troche et al. (2007) vs Rommsayer & Troche (2007) on the correlation between 2D:4DR ratios and an individual's sex role. The former showed no correlation, but the latter indicated significant results in males by suggesting that masculinity may be linked to pre-natal exposure to androgens and oestrogens. So, does the mention of a contradicting study count as evaluation? After all, of the 25 marks for an essay, only 9 goes to description, and 16 to evaluation.
This brings me to my next question: should I drop Psychology A2 (yes, I know it's late, but better late than never), so that I can take one slab of burden off of me and focus more on Econs? Or should I just keep diving deeper into this 'mess', as I chose (well, sort-of) to do with HCL at O Level?
Don't get me wrong - I really like Psychology as an area of academia, in the same way I like Biology. It's deeply thought-provoking, fascinating, and impressive to learn so much about human behaviour, only to discover there's so much we don't know. But I don't think knowledge in these areas are what I need to be tested on at this stage, nor in this way. Not when there's loads still left to be covered for Econs in just one month!
---too tired to edit/continue with this post. If you read my FB statuses, you'd know why.---
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