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2026 QCE Psychology exam: What to learn from last year's mistakes
Hi all, in preparation for the upcoming exam, here's what to learn from last year's mistakes.
2025 exam median and average: not stated in QCAA's report.
The General exam was 95 raw marks and worth 50% of the subject result. Paper 1 had 49 marks; Paper 2 had 46.
I've gone through the report and guide. Definitions alone leave marks behind when the question asks you to apply them.
QCAA doesn't give written-question averages. These examples explain the marking requirements, not the percentage of students who got each one wrong.
Paper 1, Q25: Modelling and vicarious conditioning
4 marks.
Where an answer loses marks: Treating both as copying someone and leaving out the examples.
What you needed: Modelling involves learning by observing another person's behaviour. Vicarious conditioning involves learning from the consequences someone else receives. For example, copying a demonstrated action illustrates modelling; becoming more likely to perform it after seeing the model rewarded illustrates vicarious reinforcement. Each process needed an explanation and a relevant example.
Paper 2, Q1c: Bystanders versus indifference
2 marks.
Where an answer loses marks: Saying the participants didn't care without comparing that explanation with the actual result.
What you needed: If indifference explained the behaviour, helping would be low regardless of group size. The study instead found that individuals were less likely to help as the group grew. Give the predicted pattern and contrast it with the observed pattern. Those were the two marks.
Paper 2, Q3a: Comparing conditioning
3 marks.
Where an answer loses marks: Giving a similarity and difference but ignoring the significance of the difference.
What you needed: Both are behavioural approaches to learning. Classical conditioning concerns involuntary responses; operant conditioning concerns voluntary behaviour and its consequences. Explain why that matters: operant conditioning suits training a dog to perform a voluntary action such as sitting. The application earned the third mark.
Paper 2, Q5b and c: Context cues
2 marks each.
Where an answer loses marks: Claiming context matters without using the study's results, or reading p < 0.05 as the size of the effect.
What you needed: The matched silent condition had mean performance of about 14.1, compared with 11.7 in the mismatched noisy condition. Those are study results, not exam averages. Use the difference to describe better recall in the matched condition. Then justify the conclusion that context cues aid retrieval using the statistically significant result, p < 0.05. The p-value doesn't mean performance improved by 5%.
For 2026, perception includes auditory as well as visual perception. Brain-function content has been revised, and perusal time is five minutes instead of ten.
Use the 2025 report alongside official marking guide. 2026 syllabus changes.
Figures and criteria: QCAA. Explanations paraphrased from its materials, © State of Queensland (QCAA) 2025–2026, CC BY 4.0.
Use the Psychology hub and past papers and marking guides alongside this.
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