GDST Psychology Cup

Being part of the Girls’ Day School Trust provides ample opportunities to share ideas, network and compete on a national scale – this month saw the inaugural GDST Psychology Cup competition for our A Level Psychologists.

The new competition encouraged students from across the GDST to design their own study, collecting and analysing data and presenting their conclusions both orally and as a journal article. One group, selected from each of the participating schools, then headed to the final to share their findings. Upper Sixth Psychology student, Tilly, reports back on the highlights of their day.

‘Despite our loudest prayers, we were picked to go first in round one: the presentation. We delivered the findings of our research: “The sex differences of visual perception of colour and hue”. After a round of rather tough questions, testing our quick and lateral thinking skills, our section was over. Throughout the rest of the morning we watched other presentations including: “The halo effect and criminal attractiveness” and “How effective mindfulness really is at relieving stress in a school situation.”

After a quick lunch and a trip up to the sky garden of the GDST building (where we tested our London geography skills, trying to identify Buckingham Palace), we returned for round two: a picture quiz. This really put us to the test, as we attempted to identify famous faces in Psychology and untangle research methodology-related anagrams (so obvious, once the answers were revealed!) Then came round three, the dreaded graph interpretation round. It really felt like all the years of Maths and Science came down to these 25 minutes of trying to resurrect the correct graph titles and explanations, buried deep under the rubble of Year 11 and Lower Sixth lessons. As the judges deliberated we enjoyed a “relaxing” quiz… Hannah fared pretty well, coming in second place overall! Then came the big reveal – unfortunately Oxford High won this year – but both Hannah and myself really enjoyed the day and hope that next year’s girls enter and bring the cup back to South Hampstead.’

Members of the Judging Panel, including researchers at Nottingham University, were very impressed by the breadth and depth of the research that had been conducted by the Sixth Formers, commenting that much of what they saw exceeded the level of undergraduate research. Psychology is one of 23 A Levels on offer at South Hampstead Sixth Form and several leavers go on to study the subject at university each year.