Super-Curricular Activities for Psychology: Reading, Competitions and Projects

Admissions tutors for Psychology look first for evidence that an applicant understands the subject as a science, since most Psychology degrees sit within a Bachelor of Science and require fluency in research methods, statistics and experimental design that goes well beyond what A-level psychology, where it is studied at all, can cover. A personal statement or interview answer that treats psychology as an extension of personal insight into people, without reference to evidence or method, tends to raise doubts about a candidate's academic readiness. Super-curricular work exists to close that gap before the course begins.

Because Psychology recruits from a wide range of A-level combinations, from biology and maths through to English, sociology or history, tutors also use super-curricular evidence to judge whether an applicant's interest predates the UCAS form. Reading, competitions, a course or a project completed independently all show curiosity sustained well before the application, and each gives a candidate something specific to discuss at interview, where a vague claim to find how people think fascinating rarely survives a single follow-up question.

None of this depends on unusual access. A handful of books read carefully, one or two competitions entered properly and a project taken through to a considered conclusion will usually carry more weight than a long list of activities each touched only briefly. What tutors want from an applicant is the ability to explain why a particular idea mattered, what question it raised, and where that question was taken next.

What super-curricular activity means for Psychology applicants

Super-curricular work covers anything that extends a subject beyond the classroom syllabus. Extra-curricular activity, such as sport or music, speaks instead to character, separately from academic readiness. For Psychology this usually means reading beyond the A-level specification, entering essay prizes or competitions, following a free university course or lecture series, and completing an independent project such as an Extended Project Qualification. Because Psychology sits awkwardly between the sciences and the humanities in most school timetables, admissions tutors treat super-curricular evidence as the clearest available signal of whether an applicant has grasped its scientific core.

Most Psychology courses do not interview, so the personal statement carries the weight of this evidence on its own; Oxford's Psychology, Philosophy and Linguistics and Experimental Psychology courses and Cambridge's Psychological and Behavioural Sciences course are the main exceptions, both of which interview and expect applicants to reason through unfamiliar material on the spot. Whether or not a course interviews, tutors are checking for the same thing: an applicant who has gone looking for evidence, methodology and critique, with engagement that goes beyond simply having enjoyed thinking about people.

• Wider reading: books, journal articles and subject magazines
• Competitions and essay prizes
• Lectures, free courses and university taster events
• Projects, including the EPQ and small independent studies
• Relevant exposure, such as volunteering or shadowing where genuinely available
• A school or sixth-form psychology society, or starting one

Reading around the subject

A reading list for Psychology works best when it mixes accessible popular science with something closer to the primary literature, since tutors are usually looking for signs that an applicant can move past a book's headline argument to its evidence. Well-known titles by writers such as Oliver Sacks, Daniel Kahneman or Dan Ariely are a reasonable starting point, and most sixth formers encounter at least one of them somewhere in the process; what separates a strong personal statement is what came after the book, not the book itself.

Alongside popular titles, it is worth building in something closer to academic writing: the British Psychological Society's magazine The Psychologist covers current research in a form accessible to sixth formers, and many school libraries or local universities offer access to academic databases where an applicant can read an original study first-hand, going beyond a summary of one. Keeping a short log of what was read, what question it raised and where that question led is usually more useful than the length of the list itself.

Competitions and essay prizes

Psychology has no dedicated national olympiad in the way that mathematics or biology does, so essay prizes and general academic competitions tend to carry the weight instead. The John Locke Institute's essay competition includes a psychology category and sets questions that reward an argument built on evidence, going beyond opinion, and it is open to applicants of sixth-form age. Individual Oxbridge colleges also run subject essay competitions from time to time. These change year on year, so continuity should never be assumed, and checking directly on college websites is the best approach.

The value of entering a competition lies mostly in the discipline of building a structured, evidenced argument under a word limit, which is close to what an interview or a first-year essay will demand. An essay that engages seriously with counter-evidence and acknowledges the limits of a study, whether or not it wins a prize, becomes a genuinely useful thing to have written and to discuss later.

Lectures, courses and societies

Free lecture series and short courses let an applicant sample material closer to undergraduate level without any cost or formal application. Gresham College, based in London, publishes recordings of public lectures across the sciences and humanities, including psychology and behavioural science, and makes them freely available online. University open days and outreach programmes often include taster lectures aimed specifically at sixth formers considering Psychology, and it is worth checking department websites each year for what is on offer, since content and availability change.

Structured online courses offer a more sustained alternative to a single lecture. Yale's Introduction to Psychology course, taught by Paul Bloom and available free to audit on Coursera, covers a full term's worth of material and gives a genuine sense of what an undergraduate lecture course looks like. A school or sixth-form psychology society, whether joining an existing one or starting one where none exists, gives a further way to discuss ideas with peers and to organise reading or a competition entry as a group.

Projects, EPQs and practical exposure

An Extended Project Qualification built around a genuine psychological question, such as evaluating the evidence behind a particular therapy or comparing two explanations of a specific behaviour, gives an applicant a sustained piece of independent research to discuss at length. The strongest EPQs in this area engage with methodology directly, considering how a study's design shapes what it can and cannot show, going beyond simply summarising a topic. A project that ends with the applicant identifying a follow-up question they would want to investigate next tends to read as more genuine than one that ends with a conclusion.

Direct work experience in clinical or forensic psychology is difficult to arrange at sixth-form age because of confidentiality and safeguarding requirements, so tutors do not expect it and its absence is not usually held against an applicant. Volunteering with a listening or peer-support service, shadowing a school's special educational needs team, or spending time in a care setting can offer some exposure to how psychological principles operate in practice, and is worth mentioning where it genuinely happened, and was not sought out purely for the application.

A timeline from Year 12 to Year 13

Super-curricular work reads most convincingly when it builds steadily across the two years of sixth form, well before the rush of the UCAS deadline. Early exploration in Year 12, when the pressure of examinations and the personal statement is lower, gives an applicant room to try several books, a lecture series or a course before settling on the ideas worth pursuing in more depth. That early stage is also the natural point to join or start a subject society and to look at what competitions are open that year.

• Year 12, early: sample a range of reading, lectures and free courses
• Year 12, later: choose an EPQ topic or independent project; enter a competition or essay prize
• Summer before Year 13: consolidate reading into a shortlist and draft the personal statement
• Year 13, autumn: finalise the personal statement and revisit reading in preparation for interview

Talking about it in the personal statement, interview and common mistakes

A personal statement that lists several books and courses without connecting them tends to read as a checklist, whereas one that traces a single line of thought, from a specific claim in a book through to a question it left unanswered, demonstrates the kind of reasoning tutors are trying to assess. It usually works better to write in depth about two or three pieces of super-curricular work than to mention six or seven in passing, since depth is what an interviewer or admissions tutor will test.

At interview, any book, study or project mentioned in the personal statement is fair territory for a follow-up question, and interviewers will often push on the limitations of a study or ask for an alternative explanation of a finding an applicant has cited approvingly. Preparing for this usually means returning to the reading a second time with a critical eye, noting where the evidence is weaker than the headline claim suggests, and practising talking through that reasoning aloud as well as in writing.

A small number of mistakes recur across personal statements and interviews for Psychology. Long, undifferentiated reading lists suggest breadth without depth; reading drawn entirely from popular science, with nothing closer to a primary source or academic magazine, suggests unfamiliarity with how the subject is actually studied; and motivation framed only in personal terms, without any critical engagement with evidence, tends to explain interest without demonstrating academic readiness. An EPQ or project that summarises a topic, without asking and testing a specific question, falls into the same category.

• Long reading lists with no depth on any single item
• Reading limited to popular science, with nothing closer to a primary source
• Personal motivation presented without critical or evidential grounding
• A project or EPQ that describes a topic, without investigating a question

Recommended resources for Psychology

• Thinking, Fast and Slow: Daniel Kahneman's account of cognitive biases gives applicants a grounding in judgement and decision-making that recurs across the Psychology curriculum.
• Opening Skinner's Box: Lauren Slater's account of landmark psychology experiments raises questions of ethics and method that are useful to discuss critically.
• The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat: Oliver Sacks's case studies introduce neuropsychology through detailed, evidence-based clinical observation.
• Predictably Irrational: Dan Ariely's behavioural economics work shows how experimental design is used to test assumptions about human decision-making.
• British Psychological Society: The UK's professional body for psychology publishes research news, careers information and student resources relevant to applicants.
• The Psychologist: The British Psychological Society's magazine covers current research and debate in a form accessible to sixth formers.
• Introduction to Psychology (Yale, via Coursera): Paul Bloom's free-to-audit Yale course covers a full introductory term of psychology and mirrors an undergraduate lecture course.
• Gresham College: Gresham College publishes free public lectures, including on psychology and behavioural science, delivered by academics.
• John Locke Institute Essay Competition: An international essay competition with a psychology category, open to sixth-form-age applicants and useful practice for evidenced argument.
• Hidden Brain: A long-running podcast exploring psychological research and its bearing on everyday behaviour, useful for building a broader picture of the field.
• The Psychology Podcast: Scott Barry Kaufman interviews psychologists about current research, giving applicants exposure to how academics discuss their own work.

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