My Woodhouse Psychology
Liz Maltseva
Liz Maltseva came to Woodhouse from Friern Barnet School and lives in
Whetstone. She is currently studying psychology, philosophy and French in her
second year of A level.
“I didn’t have the option to study psychology at GCSE and when I saw I
could choose it at Woodhouse I thought it would be interesting to learn about
how the human mind works, what makes people behave the way they do and what
drives human nature? And to study it and
at Woodhouse is especially good. The atmosphere and people when I came to the
open day made me see it’s just a really good place for me. Plus, I got to do
all the subjects I wanted to here.
Psychology explores how we can empirically
measure human behaviour and scientifically say why people do the things that
they do, you have to prove it with actual evidence, it’s more like a science.
Psychology has been one of my favorite subjects because by the end of every
lesson I come out having learned something completely new about people and behaviour.
When I see people interacting it makes me question why some do things that others
don’t. That curiosity, and applying the things I’ve learned in real life, has
been a big part of why I like psychology, because a lot of the time the things
we talk about in class I see later when I am with friends, and I can understand
where they are coming from. Psychology is definitely influencing my life right
now!
At the beginning of the course I had to adjust to the fact I would need
to do a lot of independent research and work. At GCSE, they give you a text
book with all the material you need, but at A level the text book is not enough.
You have to talk to your teachers outside of lessons and research different
books and articles – because you can’t just expect to find all the information
in one source. That said, I think I adapted quite well in the first few months.
Classes are varied… there’s a lot of exam practice, a lot of group
activities too – presentations, or getting divided into teams for debates – quite
a bit of our teacher explaining theories and the different way they apply to
the world… there’s always a lot of interaction going on. Classes are never just passive listening.
There’s always lots of discussion as things we
talk about in psychology are often controversial and everyone has their own opinion.
And
there’s different supporting
evidence. Students will bring in one study that supports their view, but
then someone else has another that goes against it, so we then have to debate which
is more valid and which one is right.
What’s interested me this year? – Talking about mind and body problems.The mind is in the brain. But is there actually
a physically reality to the mind, is it all just cells and neurons… or is it
something else? There are psychological cases for both and in class people were
drawn to both sides… Obviously, we didn’t reach a conclusion, but the fact that
everyone had their own point of view and were arguing their own cases was
interesting.
We went to a psychology conference in London which was good because a
lot of the psychologists we had been studying were there. Elizabeth Loftus was
the key speaker and she’s very famous in the psychology world for her research
on eye-witness testimonies. We also met the people who created the text book we
are studying from and they were able to give us useful exam tips. Later this
year we are planning theatre trips to see plays that link to our topics later
on… I’m going to see Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
We get great support and resources here. We can always talk to our
teachers or email them, and we have regular subject tutorials. There’s a
subscription to the psychology review in the library, so we can read back
issues if there’s an article about something we are studying, everything is accessible.
Our teacher gives us a revision guide and websites too, so there’s lots of
extra material to help you. I like to watch the crash course videos on YouTube,
and there’s a website – Simply Psychology - that I use.
The study of psychology is rooted in philosophy before they decide to study
it scientifically, so there is always that link. Both study the human mind and ask
questions about freewill and nature vs nurture, but from different perspectives.
I want to study a joint honors degree in Psychology and Philosophy, but
I’m not sure where yet – maybe Nottingham or Durham. I may take a conversion
course to law after because studying a degree in Law isn’t like something I want
to do. I’ve decided to study something I enjoy at university and then maybe
become a lawyer, or I may change my mind during my degree and stick with
psychology and do something related to that. I think a lot of psychologists go
into law because the study of criminology links with psychology. During my law
work experience I found out that a lot of the lawyers working there had a
philosophy degree, because the experience of critical and analytical thinking
is useful – so my degree will have good, relevant skills for law.
I did work experience at
two law firms – HSF (Herbert Smith Freehills
is one of the world's leading professional services businesses) and Freshfields
Bruckhaus Deringer, both in London, and two of the biggest law firms. I applied
for the work experience programme through Woodhouse after seeing a visiting
speaker from SEO Scholars. About a dozen of us, plus students from elsewhere, shadowed
the lawyers activities for a week. We completed a project and did a
presentation at the end of it. The experience was very useful, the skills developed
– organization, being professional in your manner , team work, debating – I can
use anywhere.
I took Latin American dancing for extracurricular. I used to dance a lot but
hadn’t in a while and it was great fun, I made some new friends from that. I’ve
also been part of the Philosophy Club where we discuss ‘extracurricular’
questions – not things we need to do for
exams but things that maybe useful for university or interviews, or just
because they are interesting questions to look at, we’ve also looked at Oxbridge interview
questions.
Friern Barnet School is a partner school with Woodhouse, but I would have
come here anyway. I think Woodhouse is such a welcoming place and very
diverse - there will never be anyone who feels like they don’t fit in. And
staff are not patronizing – they understand that we’re young adults now, they
don’t just tell us we’re right or wrong, they talk to us.
I’ve come out of my shell since joining Woodhouse and I’ve become more
confident around different people when asking questions or giving answers in
class. It’s because you are supported here and can feel that no one is ever
going to judge you, everyone’s in the
same boat. And I’ve learned how to manage my time properly because there’ a big
workload and a lot of extra hours.
Being able to switch off all my distractions and be more focused on my
work – I’ve definitely learned that this year."