Try the full study dashboard free, no signup: practice, flashcards and your Exam Readiness Score. Open it →
Home / Practice tests / A-level Psychology
A-level · Last updated November 2026

A-level Psychology Exam: free practice test

A-level Psychology is a two-year linear qualification. With AQA (7182) you sit three 2-hour papers, each worth 96 marks and a third of the grade: Introductory Topics, Psychology in Context, and Issues and Options. All papers are taken in the May/June series at the end of the course, and summer 2027 is the first A-level series on AQA's updated specification.

Premium: 3,000 practice questions, 6 full mock exams, 800 flashcards and 60 comprehensive key notes, topic by topic. See the study path ·

Or open the free A-level Psychology study dashboard: flashcards, notes and your Readiness Score, no signup →

About the A-level Psychology exam

A-level Psychology is a two-year linear qualification. With AQA (7182) you sit three 2-hour papers, each worth 96 marks and a third of the grade: Introductory Topics, Psychology in Context, and Issues and Options. All papers are taken in the May/June series at the end of the course, and summer 2027 is the first A-level series on AQA's updated specification.

What's on the exam

A-level Psychology
Social Influence
8 key facts
Memory
8 key facts
Attachment
8 key facts
Clinical Psychology and Mental Health
8 key facts
Approaches and Biopsychology
8 key facts
Research Methods
8 key facts
Issues and Debates
7 key facts
Paper 3 Options
6 key facts

Each branch is a topic in the official outline. Members see every key fact on the full mind map. Read the free study guide →

How to pass the A-level Psychology exam

  • You have 120 minutes for 96 marks, so about 1 minute 15 seconds per mark. A 16-mark essay deserves about 20 minutes; a 2-mark definition no more than 2.
  • In most 16-mark essays only 6 marks are AO1 (description) and 10 are AO3 (evaluation). Keep description tight and spend your time on developed evaluation points.
  • Research methods is at least 25 to 30% of the A-level and maths at least 10%. Practise the sign test, percentages, standard deviation and choosing a statistical test until they are automatic.
  • Application (AO2) questions give a scenario. Quote or refer to the stem in every point, or you cap your marks however good the psychology is.
  • On Paper 3, answer only the option sections you studied. Read the section headers carefully so you do not start the wrong topic.

Save your results and get your Readiness Score

Create a free account after the test: your score by topic, a mistakes bank, the complete study notes for the first topic, flashcards and the GCSE Maths Formula Sheet.

Take the test first

What's in the premium A-level Psychology prep

Premium A-level Psychology prep is studied one topic at a time. Each step starts with that topic's key notes and flashcard deck, then its own question sets of 25, so you master one topic before you move to the next. When every topic is strong, the 6 full mock exams show you're ready.

3,000practice questions, every answer explained
6full-length mock exams, 50 questions each, timed
800flashcards with spaced repetition, sorted by topic
60comprehensive key notes across 8 topics

Your step-by-step study path

  1. 1
    Social Influence8 key notes, 100 flashcards, then 375 practice questions in 15 sets of 25
    Notes free with an account
  2. 2
    Memory8 key notes, 100 flashcards, then 375 practice questions in 15 sets of 25
    Premium
  3. 3
    Attachment8 key notes, 100 flashcards, then 375 practice questions in 15 sets of 25
    Premium
  4. 4
    Clinical Psychology and Mental Health8 key notes, 100 flashcards, then 375 practice questions in 15 sets of 25
    Premium
  5. 5
    Approaches and Biopsychology7 key notes, 100 flashcards, then 375 practice questions in 15 sets of 25
    Premium
  6. 6
    Research Methods7 key notes, 100 flashcards, then 375 practice questions in 15 sets of 25
    Premium
  7. 7
    Issues and Debates7 key notes, 100 flashcards, then 375 practice questions in 15 sets of 25
    Premium
  8. 8
    Paper 3 Options7 key notes, 100 flashcards, then 375 practice questions in 15 sets of 25
    Premium
  9. Final step: 6 full mock exams50 questions each, timed like exam day. Hit your target on them before your first paper.
    Premium
Free with an account

Read the complete A-level Psychology study notes for “Social Influence”

Our first full set of comprehensive notes, about 15 minutes of reading: Types of conformity · Why people conform: ISI and NSI · Asch and the variables affecting conformity · Asch's three variables · Obedience: Milgram and situational variables · Explaining obedience: situational and dispositional · Resistance to social influence · Minority influence, a worked exam example, the traps examiners use and a one-minute recap. Create a free account to read it and see how premium notes work before you decide.

Open the free dashboard

Study tools included

3,000 practice questions

3,000 exam-style questions per exam, organised topic by topic in sets of 25. Every answer explained, with the rule it comes from.

6 full mock exams

6 full-length timed mock exams per exam, with real question counts and time limits, so test day feels like practice day.

Exam Readiness Score

One 0 to 100 number that tells you when you're ready for exam day. Reach 80 and you're covered by our Pass Guarantee.

800 flashcards + spaced repetition

800 flashcards per exam, in a deck for each topic, that come back right before you'd forget them. Five minutes a day keeps every number fresh.

60 comprehensive key notes

60 key notes per exam, split across its topics and each explained in full: the concepts, worked exam examples, the traps examiners use and a quick recap. Your first set is free with an account.

Mind maps

See the whole exam on one screen: every topic and the facts under it.

Sample questions with answers

These are the questions in the free test above, with answers. Try the test first. You'll learn more by getting some wrong.

1. In Asch's variations of his line study, which change produced the biggest fall in conformity?
Answer: Adding one confederate who gave the correct answer. Breaking unanimity with one dissenter who gave the right answer cut conformity from about 37% in the baseline to about 5.5%. Larger majorities beyond about 3 made little difference, and a harder task increased conformity.
2. A nurse gives a patient a dose she thinks is too high because the doctor told her to, saying 'it's his responsibility, not mine'. Which explanation of obedience fits best?
Answer: The agentic state. In the agentic state a person sees themselves as acting for an authority figure and so not responsible for the outcome. Shifting responsibility to the doctor is the key sign.
3. Baddeley (1966) found that participants struggled most to recall lists of acoustically similar words immediately after learning them. What does this suggest?
Answer: Short-term memory mainly codes information acoustically. Similar-sounding words were confused in immediate recall, so STM uses acoustic coding. After a delay, semantically similar words caused problems, showing LTM is mainly semantic.
4. In Loftus and Palmer (1974), participants who heard the verb 'smashed' estimated higher speeds than those who heard 'contacted'. Which factor affecting eyewitness testimony does this show?
Answer: Leading questions. Only the wording of the question changed, so the verb acted as a leading question. 'Smashed' gave a mean estimate of about 41 mph against about 32 mph for 'contacted'.
5. In the Strange Situation, an infant shows little distress when the caregiver leaves and ignores them when they return. Which attachment type is this?
Answer: Insecure-avoidant. Insecure-avoidant infants show low separation anxiety and avoid contact at reunion. Resistant infants are very distressed and both seek and reject the caregiver.
6. Which concept from Bowlby's monotropic theory explains why early attachment may affect later adult relationships?
Answer: The internal working model. The internal working model is a mental template of relationships formed from the first attachment. It is used to predict how later relationships will work.
7. A man is so anxious that he cannot go to work, pay his bills or keep his flat clean. Which definition of abnormality applies most directly?
Answer: Failure to function adequately. Not coping with the demands of everyday life, such as work and basic self-care, is failure to function adequately (Rosenhan and Seligman's signs).
8. Beck's negative triad describes negative views about:
Answer: The self, the world and the future. Beck's cognitive explanation of depression is the negative triad of self, world and future. A-B-C is Ellis's model, a different cognitive explanation.
9. After a stroke, a patient understands speech but speaks slowly, with great effort and few words. Damage is most likely to be in:
Answer: Broca's area in the left frontal lobe. Broca's area controls speech production, so damage gives slow, effortful speech with good comprehension. Wernicke's damage gives fluent but meaningless speech and poor comprehension.
10. In social learning theory, a child is more likely to copy a behaviour after seeing a model rewarded for it. This is called:
Answer: Vicarious reinforcement. Vicarious reinforcement is learning from the consequences for someone else. Positive reinforcement would mean the child was rewarded directly.
11. A psychologist uses an independent groups design, collects ordinal data and tests for a difference between conditions. Which statistical test should be used?
Answer: Mann-Whitney. Difference + unrelated design + ordinal data = Mann-Whitney. Wilcoxon is for a related design, Spearman's rho is for correlation and Chi-squared needs nominal data.
12. In a repeated measures study of 12 participants, 9 improved, 2 got worse and 1 showed no change. For the sign test, what are S and N?
Answer: S = 2, N = 11. Remove the participant with no change, so N = 12 − 1 = 11. S is the number of the less frequent sign: 2. The result is significant if S is equal to or less than the critical value.
13. A researcher uses a significance level of p ≤ 0.10 instead of p ≤ 0.05. What is the main risk?
Answer: A Type I error: rejecting a null hypothesis that is true. A more lenient level makes it easier to call a result significant, so a false positive (Type I error) is more likely. A strict level such as 0.01 raises the risk of a Type II error.
14. A theory assumes men and women are the same and so ignores or minimises real differences between them. This is:
Answer: Beta bias. Beta bias minimises differences, often because research used male participants and assumed the results apply to women. Alpha bias exaggerates differences.
15. Option: Schizophrenia. The original dopamine hypothesis links the positive symptoms of schizophrenia to:
Answer: Excess dopamine activity in subcortical pathways. The original hypothesis proposed hyperdopaminergia in subcortical (mesolimbic) areas, causing hallucinations and delusions. The revised version adds low prefrontal dopamine to explain negative symptoms.

Get the full A-level Psychology prep

Most popular · cancel anytime

Premium Monthly

£29/month
per exam
About £0.95 a day · less than a cup of hot chocolate, for the grade that opens the next door
  • One subject of your choice: any GCSE, A-level or Functional Skills exam
  • 3,000 practice questions + 6 full mock exams per exam
  • 800 flashcards + 60 key notes per exam, by topic, plus mind maps
  • Spaced repetition + mistakes bank
  • Readiness Score & detailed reports
  • Video lessons as they release
  • Content updates during your access
  • 5 bonuses: GCSE Maths formula sheet, command words cheat sheet, 12-week revision planner and more
  • Pass Guarantee: complete the prep, pass or 100% back

Renews monthly until you cancel. Cancel in two clicks from your account; you keep access until the end of the month you've paid for. No minimum term.

Best value · 3 months free

Premium Yearly

£261/year
per exam
Pay for 9 months, get 12. Save £87 against paying monthly.
  • One subject of your choice: any GCSE, A-level or Functional Skills exam
  • 3,000 practice questions + 6 full mock exams per exam
  • 800 flashcards + 60 key notes per exam, by topic, plus mind maps
  • Spaced repetition + mistakes bank
  • Readiness Score & detailed reports
  • Video lessons as they release
  • Content updates during your access
  • 5 bonuses: GCSE Maths formula sheet, command words cheat sheet, 12-week revision planner and more
  • Pass Guarantee: complete the prep, pass or 100% back

Renews once a year until you cancel. We email you before each renewal. Cancel any time from your account; you keep access until the end of the year you've paid for.

Pass Guarantee. Complete the full prep, sit your exam in the next exam series, and if you don't pass we refund 100% of your subscription payments. See the requirements
Secure checkout by Stripe Card, Apple Pay, Google Pay Pass Guarantee

Exam guide

A-level Psychology exam guide (2027): Most A-level Psychology students in England take AQA's specification 7182. It is assessed by three written papers, each 2 hours long and worth 96 marks, all sat in the May/June series at the end of the course. Summer 2027 is the first A-level series on AQA's updated specification, which trims some content and rewords other parts. Here is what is on each paper, how grading works and how to plan your revision.

A-level Psychology exam FAQ

How many questions are on the A-level Psychology exam?

AQA: 3 written papers, 96 marks each (288 marks in total), each worth 33.3%, with a time limit of 6 hours in total (3 × 2 hours). Format: written exams with multiple-choice, short-answer and extended-writing questions; a calculator is allowed. no coursework.

What is the passing score for A-level Psychology?

Grades run A* to E, and grade E is a pass. Boundaries are set after every exam series, so aim for 70% in practice.

How much does the A-level Psychology exam cost?

No fee for school and college students (the school pays). Private candidates pay the exam centre; fees vary by centre. School and college students don't pay exam fees themselves. Private candidates pay the exam centre, and fees vary by centre and board.

Which languages is the A-level Psychology exam offered in?

English.

Where do I take the A-level Psychology exam?

At your school or college, or as a private candidate at an exam centre that accepts them.

Is this A-level Psychology practice test free?

Yes. The 15-question practice test on this page is free, with an explanation for every answer and no signup. A free account also unlocks the complete study notes for the first topic. The full A-level Psychology prep is Premium at £29 a month for this exam.

What's in the premium A-level Psychology prep?

3,000 practice questions organised topic by topic (Social Influence: 375; Memory: 375; Attachment: 375; Clinical Psychology and Mental Health: 375; Approaches and Biopsychology: 375; Research Methods: 375; Issues and Debates: 375; Paper 3 Options: 375), 6 full-length timed mock exams of 50 questions, 800 flashcards and 60 comprehensive key notes split across all 8 topics, plus a mistakes bank and the Readiness Score.

Related practice tests

Exam details are summarised from the exam boards' published specifications available in November 2026. the exam boards changes formats and fees, so confirm with AQA (7182, by far the most taken), Pearson Edexcel and OCR before you book. Kennington College is not affiliated with any exam board or with Ofqual.

Start the free test