Mnemonics

You'll remember I give out a few mnemonics for the research methods topic. For example, CROC - control, replication, operationalising, cause&effect - for the features of the experimental method. Maybe you could picture and experimenter wearing crocs, or perhaps a crocodile wearing a lab coat?



Anyway, use these and the other ones if you like...in terms of what you really need to know for Research Methods, let's simplify it as much as possible. Two or three 'features' of each method, plus one strength and one weakness for each should do it for questions such as 'Describe and evaluate the ___ method' - the longest type of question in this section.

The other common things which come up include:

- Design (e.g. Repeated Measures/Independent Measures)
- Sampling (Random v's Opportunity)
- Features of a good sample (large, unbiased, representative, random...)
- Hypotheses (be able to write an experimental/null hypothesis)
- Defining measures of central tendency (mean, mode, median) and distribution (range & SD).
- Graphs and charts - be able to identify pie chart, histogram etc and know their uses.

As mentioned in the previous post, past paper questions will be very useful preparation.