January 2026 Psychology subject update | Pearson qualifications

January 2026 Psychology subject update

Mon Jan 05 00:00:00 UTC 2026

Hi everyone,

Your January Psychology Update Is Here! Much of the news from my December update is repeated here as it's still relevant, and because I appreciate having a reminder in January of key information that was shared with me in December!

As ever, do get in touch if I might be able to help with any aspect of your teaching - follow the link below to the bottom of the page to book a Teams call with me or to get in touch via email.

Best wishes,
Tim Lawrence
Psychology Subject Advisor

Read more

View ways to get in touch at the bottom of this page

This update includes:

 

Key dates
12 January A Level Psychology Deep Dive into Issue and Debate questions training
21 January IG and IAL results from October/November series to centres
22 January IG and IAL results from October/November series to candidates
5 February GCSE Psychology Deep Dive into Issue and Debate questions training

Final exam timetables for the summer 2026 exam series are available on our webpage linked below along with those for International A Level exams in January 2026.
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General updates
Ofqual consultation for on-screen assessment

Ofqual has launched a consultation on proposals for how on-screen assessment should be regulated in GCSEs, AS and A levels in England. Whilst they propose a controlled introduction of on-screen assessment, pen-and-paper will remain central to most exams.

As teachers working directly with students, you understand their needs and the challenges this proposal may present.

Your opinion counts. The consultation closes on 5 March 2026. Please take a look and have your say.

Go to Ofqual's consultation page 
The January Challenge 2026
The January Challenge 2026

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Join the final January Challenge!

Pearson is proud to partner with 64 Million Artists for the last-ever January Challenge – a free programme of daily creative prompts throughout January. Perfect for classrooms, staff rooms, and whole-school activities.

This year the theme is ‘Courageous Change’ with each of the prompts designed to help us get a new perspective, build our courage and helpus collaborate so that we can be more prepared for this ever changing world.

At Pearson, we've helped create the schools resource pack again this year and two prompts were written by your Subject Advisors!

To get involved, you can:

  • Sign up to receive daily creative prompts in January
  • Download the schools pack
  • Use the schools pack to help your school get creative and make change

Last year 360,000 people took part and we’re hoping to make the last one the biggest and best. There’s no better time to make change than now, so sign up and take part, and we’ll see you there!

Sign up for The January Challenge 2026

Download the Schools pack for The January Challenge 2026
Pearson Edexcel Facebook Group
Pearson Edexcel Art and Design teacher group for GCSE, A Level and International GCSE Art and Design teachers. Run by your Subject Advisor Jaclyn Wiid.

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Do you follow our general Pearson Edexcel page on Facebook?

From the 19th December, our Pearson Edexcel page will be closing but you can still find the same great content on our new Pearson Edexcel group. The group will be a space for sharing examiner recruitment opportunities, important information published in our Pearson General Qualifications Bulletin, support documents for students, parents and carers and much more.  

Join the Pearson Edexcel Facebook Group

IAL Psychology January 2026 exams based on updated specification

The upcoming January 2026 exam series will be the first assessing the updated specification which we announced a year ago. The changes are minor and only affect assessment of the psychodynamic approach in Unit 2, and one 8 mark question on Unit 3. They will affect any candidates re-sitting as well as those taking these units for the first time.

Read about the changes in my November 2024 update.

UK A Level Psychology sample papers updated
As we have previously shared our UK A Level paper 1 and paper 2 will have an additional 15 minutes allowed from the June 2026 exam series. AS and A Level papers also have some minor improvements to their formulae and statistical tables sections (we have reordered the tables for the Mann-Whitney U test and have improved the instructions for the Wilcoxon signed ranks test).
Download updated Sample Assessment Materials

You can now download updated Sample Assessment Materials showing these changes below, along with our 'summary of changes' document and a separate 'formulae and statistical tables' document which may be useful for mock exams.

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GCSE Psychology exam timing - have your say
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In response to teacher and student feedback we have increased the time allowed for our UK A Level paper 1 and paper 2, and we are now seeking teachers' views on a similar change for our GCSE Psychology papers. 

The recently published Curriculum and Assessment Review states the UK Government's intention to reduce GCSE assessment time by 10% when new GCSEs are introduced. While we approve this future direction, we are not able to reduce the number of marks or the amount of content assessed on papers for our current GCSE. We therefore wish to explore the option of increasing the time in order to give candidates more opportunity to show what they have learned.

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Training and professional development

Sign up for our free Deep Dive into Issue and Debate questions training for GCSE and A Level Psychology using the link below. These sessions have been planned in response to requests from teachers for advice on how to prepare students for these exam questions.

  • A Level Deep Dive into Issue and Debate questions: Monday 12 January, 16.00-17.30
  • GCSE Deep Dive into Issue and Debate questions: Thursday 5 February, 16.00-17.30
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Exam Insights training for IAL, A Level and GCSE Psychology took place in November. Recordings of the GCSE and A Level events are now available, and the IAL recording will be shortly. To protect these papers for use as unseen mock exams the recordings are 'unlisted' on YouTube - to access them teachers can download the 'locked' event packs from the 'teaching and learning materials' section of the qualification website - see links below!

These events are a great way to sharpen your understanding of what examiners are looking for and help students feel more confident going into their exams.
 

A Level Psychology past training content

International A Level Psychology past training content

GCSE Psychology past training content

New free resources from Tutor2u

If you missed the festive quizes Tutor2u produced specifically for Edexcel GCSE and A Level psychology students you might find an opportunity to use them to lift spirits and inject energy in January! There are also a range of new thought-provoking 'psychology in the news' resources available which are great for extending students' thinking and preparing them for 'unseen content' exam questions.
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FAQs from psychology teachers 
What can I do if I can't download past papers?

If the issue is that you can't download padlocked exam materials (the papers, mark schemes and examiner reports from the last 12 months) then most likely you need your Edexcel Online account re-set so you can get the Multi-Factor Authentication working. Contact our teaching services team through the support portal, or if you don't have an EOL account contact the exam officer at your school.

If you can access resources generally but the website is showing error messages, it's worth trying the following:

  • Refresh the page (sometimes the first paper downloads correctly but not the second - a simple refresh can resolve this).
  • Clear your browser's cache and try again.
  • Try with a different browser (e.g. switch from Edge to Chrome) if you have one.

If these don't work, you can contact me at teachingpsychology@pearson.com and I can send you padlocked papers by secure file transfer.

Is a Welsh language version of GCSE psychology in development?

Unfortunately the number of candidates entering for GCSE psychology in Wales is not great enough to make developing this course as a bilingual one viable. This means that next year's Year 10 learners, starting GCSE psychology in 2026, will be the last cohort to be funded in Wales.

Will an International GCSE in psychology be developed?
While we have not yet announced a development, we continue to consult with teachers around our psychology course offer for international centres. We emailed over 70 teachers recently to thank them for their contribution to our survey, and for offering to take part in a follow up early in 2026 as we develop our plans further. If you would like to be involved in this process and haven't received our email sent in December, please get in touch at teachingpsychology@pearson.com.

Ways to get in touch
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Subject advisor

Tim Lawrence

Psychology and international Science

Email :
teachingscience@pearson.com
Facebook :
Phone :
+44 (0) 344 463 2535 (Teaching Services team | Mon - Fri, 8am - 5pm GMT)
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