Which QCE Psychology past paper do students score lowest on?

The 2020 Paper 2, averaging 39.4% across 53 marked attempts on AusGrader. The 2024 Paper 1 is the highest on 70.5%.

Which QCE Psychology dot points give the best return on revision time?

3.4.2 (2.7 marks at risk per 100), 3.3.9 (2.2 marks at risk per 100) and 3.2.2 (2.0 marks at risk per 100). Marks at risk combines a dot point's share of paper marks with the marks students drop on it, so it ranks by recoverable marks and not by score alone.

How many attempts is each QCE Psychology figure based on?

25,110 marked attempts overall, with the per-row count shown in every table. Any cut below 50 attempts is withheld instead of published.

Do these averages show how the QCAA cohort performed?

No. They are AusGrader users' marked attempts, a self-selected group practising when they chose to and often without exam timing. They corroborate what QCAA publishes about this subject and do not replace it.

QCE Psychology hardest topics

Across 25,110 marked attempts on AusGrader, QCE Psychology students average 63.1% on questions taken from board external papers. The lowest average of any command verb is compare on 41.4%, and the verb that costs the most marks is describe, which carries 28.1% of the paper against 2.9% for compare. These are self-selected users practising when they chose to, not the QCAA cohort under exam conditions.

How to read these numbers

The figures are AusGrader users' marked attempts, not QCAA results. They corroborate what the board publishes about this subject and do not stand in for it.
Any cut with fewer than 50 attempts is withheld, which on this page is 19 dot points, 1 question type and 14 verbs. Every figure shown carries its attempt count.
Scores cover questions mapped to the QCE Psychology syllabus from any board's external papers, which is why the sample is larger than the 12 QCAA papers alone. The paper table below is the exception and uses QCAA papers only.
Internal assessment and school-uploaded exams are excluded throughout, so these averages differ from the ones on QCE Psychology performance stats, which count every attempt.

Score by past paper

Year	Paper	Average	Attempts
2025	Paper 1	62.5%	849
2025	Paper 2	63.8%	520
2024	Paper 1	70.5%	648
2024	Paper 2	60.9%	253
2023	Paper 1	69.9%	565
2023	Paper 2	63.0%	126
2022	Paper 1	60.3%	550
2022	Paper 2	61.2%	126
2021	Paper 1	64.2%	396
2021	Paper 2	64.9%	97
2020	Paper 1	69.5%	505
2020	Paper 2	39.4%	53

The lowest average belongs to the 2020 Paper 2 on 39.4% from 53 attempts, and the highest to the 2024 Paper 1 on 70.5% from 648 attempts. A paper's average reflects both how hard it was and who chose to sit it, so treat the spread as a guide to which papers make demanding practice.

Score by question type

Question type	Average	Attempts
Multiple choice	63.2%	22,391
Short answer	63.5%	2,714

Score by unit

Unit	Average	Attempts
Unit 3: Individual thinking	62.7%	21,419
Unit 4: The influence of others	67.2%	2,171

An attempt counts once per unit, so a question assessed across two units appears in both rows and the column adds to slightly more than 25,110.

The priority list: heavy topics with low scores

Topic	Share of marks	Average	Attempts	Marks at risk
Learning	14.9%	58.4%	6,380	6.2
Memory	17.8%	65.6%	8,123	6.1
Brain function	13.9%	63.2%	8,837	5.1
Interpersonal processes	13.1%	66.9%	168	4.3
Social psychology	10.0%	61.5%	828	3.9
Attitudes	14.9%	75.1%	550	3.7
Sensation and perception	8.5%	65.1%	140	3.0
Cross-cultural psychology	6.9%	69.1%	657	2.1

The topic list is close: 6.2 against 6.1 marks at risk separates first from second, so topic choice alone will not order revision. The dot-point list below spreads further.

The same cut at dot-point level

Dot point	Content	Share of marks	Average	Attempts	Marks at risk
3.4.2	For classical conditioning describe the concepts unconditioned stimulus (UCS), unconditioned response (UCR), neutral stimulus (NS), conditioned stimulus (CS) and conditioned response (CR); distinguish between stimulus generalisation and discrimination; describe extinction and spontaneous recovery; describe learned fear responses, with reference to the ‘Little Albert’ experiment	5.9%	54.7%	3,308	2.7
3.3.9	Interpret data about the context-dependency of memory from a modified experiment following Grant et al. (1998)	5.5%	60.3%	340	2.2
3.2.2	Explain psychological aspects of sensation and perception including perceptual set with respect to past experience, context, motivation and emotional state; visual perception principles, e.g. Gestalt principles, depth cues, and visual constancies; loudness, pitch and timbre	4.4%	54.5%	85	2.0
3.4.3	For operant conditioning distinguish between negative and positive reinforcement, and negative and positive punishment; describe stimulus generalisation and discrimination; describe extinction and spontaneous recovery; describe the operation of the ‘Skinner box’ in operant conditioning studies	4.4%	61.9%	3,169	1.7
4.1.5	Explain how obedience, conformity and social norms (as described by Cialdini et al. 2006) lead to behaviour change	2.4%	37.0%	142	1.5
3.3.1	Compare three models of memory, specifically the multi-store model of memory, including sensory, short-term and long-term memory; the working memory model, including the central executive, phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad, and episodic buffer; the levels of processing (LOP) model of memory, including the role of encoding in long-term memory	3.4%	64.6%	2,157	1.2
4.1.6	Describe the findings of historical social psychological research, with reference to Asch’s (1955) research on conformity; Milgram’s (1963) research on obedience; Haney, Banks and Zimbardo’s (1973) research on status, roles and power	3.3%	66.5%	309	1.1
3.4.1	Compare classical conditioning, operant conditioning and social learning theory, and discuss the underlying theories of behaviourism and social and cognitive psychology	2.0%	48.1%	1,105	1.0
3.1.4	Explain that Broca’s area, Wernicke’s area, and Geschwind’s territory have specific roles in language processing	2.2%	60.6%	232	0.9
3.1.7	Describe neurotransmission, with reference to action potentials and synaptic transmission	1.9%	56.0%	2,283	0.8
3.3.8	Discuss strategies to improve memory, including spacing, interleaving, chunking, elaborative and maintenance rehearsal, and the method of loci	2.1%	61.9%	769	0.8
3.4.4	For social learning theory distinguish between modelling and vicarious conditioning; describe vicarious conditioning, as observed in the ‘Bobo doll’ experiments conducted by Bandura and colleagues	2.5%	69.2%	733	0.8
3.2.1	Describe the processes of seeing and hearing, with reference to reception by accessory structures; transduction by sensory receptors and receptive fields; transmission to the CNS via the optic/acoustic nerves; preliminary processing in the thalamus; organisation and interpretation by the primary visual/auditory cortex	3.0%	76.0%	68	0.7
3.1.3	Describe how brain function can be viewed as both localised and distributed, with some functions being identified with specific areas in the cerebral cortex, including the frontal, occipital, parietal and temporal lobes; some functions being distributed across large or multiple brain regions, e.g; the storage of explicit memory is associated with the hippocampus, the neo-cortex and the amygdala; the formation of implicit memories relies upon the basal ganglia and cerebellum	1.6%	59.7%	1,419	0.6
3.1.1	Describe the structure of the human nervous system, with reference to the central (i.e. brain and spinal cord) and peripheral (i.e. somatic and autonomic) nervous systems	1.7%	63.3%	1,883	0.6
4.3.5	Describe attributions, and recognise how they are used to explain behaviour, with reference to situational and dispositional attributions, and the fundamental attribution error	2.2%	72.0%	231	0.6
3.3.2	State the duration and capacity of sensory memory (including iconic and echoic), and short-term and long-term memory	1.6%	66.1%	752	0.5
3.1.9	Describe the physical and psychological function of acetylcholine, epinephrine, norepinephrine, dopamine and serotonin	1.6%	66.0%	543	0.5
4.1.2	Describe gender and compare social learning, cognitive developmental and biological theories of gender role formation	1.2%	55.9%	143	0.5
3.3.7	Describe problems with memory such as encoding failure, retrieval failure and interference effects	1.6%	67.4%	969	0.5

Which command verbs cost the most marks

Verb	Share of marks	Average	Attempts	Marks at risk
describe	28.1%	63.0%	845	10.4
identify	20.5%	63.1%	751	7.6
explain	14.5%	59.4%	317	5.9
justify	5.9%	62.1%	234	2.2
draw	3.4%	47.6%	81	1.8
predict	3.8%	53.6%	102	1.8
compare	2.9%	41.4%	72	1.7
provide	5.5%	73.6%	89	1.4

Compare has the lowest average on the page at 41.4%, and it is not where the marks go. Describe averages 63.0% but carries 28.1% of the paper against 2.9%, so it puts 10.4 marks per 100 at risk against 1.7. For the plain ranking of verbs by score, and what QCAA has said about each, read the QCE Psychology study guide.

What this does not measure

Where to practise

Work the priority list from the top: Learning and Memory first, then the dot points above. Each topic page holds real QCAA questions with marking criteria attached. For what the papers actually cover, read QCE Psychology most tested topics.

Syllabus and assessment material referenced in this guide is © State of Queensland (Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority), licensed under CC BY 4.0. See our QCAA licensing notice. AusGrader is an independent study tool and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated by the QCAA.