r/psychologystudents

I have been studying for a bachelor’s in psych for two years now. I failed most of my classes in the first year due to many different issues and had to retake most of them in the second year. However, I am now failing, AGAIN. I have faced two main issues besides my personal issues. Firstly, I completely avoided statistics because I am not good at math. In hs I did not attend any math classes. The thought of even attempting to learn scared me so bad because I figured it would be so humiliating to do in front of so many other students. Many years of trying to avoid math, I have become very resistant to it. I know this is a very childish mindset but unfortunately I let fear dictate most of my decisions in life.

Secondly, my programme is VERY interactive. I have many practical lessons in which we have to work on communication skills, etc. I have severe social anxiety so naturally I screwed up those classes. In short, I've spent the last two years feeling extremely incompotent.

I chose to study psychology when I was eighteen and like many other eighteen years old I was quick to make a superficial decision. After two years, I do not think that I will be able to continue here due to too many failed classes. This realization forced me to do a lot of self reflection and I am now debating on whether I should completely switch up plans or take a break for a year to work on myself before I can apply to another psychology programme.

The part that confuses me is that I actually really love this field. If not for my issues, I really enjoyed my classes. Stats is a big issue but I believe that I could overcome it by studying during my break. I have other interests but I never felt as though they would bring me enough tangible carrier opportunities. If not for this, I actually don’t have a single clue what I might want to do. I am a very socially anxious person and people often ask me why I chose this as my study as they don't see me fit for it. My answer would be that I have always wanted to do work that feels meaningful to me and working with mental health is one of those things that I know I would feel fulfilled doing. I love learning about people and studying it never feels like a waste of time like many other things do. It just feels important to me somehow. But in the end, how does it make sense for somebody with my type of personality to want to go down that path? I am seeing somebody in order to work on my social anxiety but I have no idea when I might show improvement. There is no way to say, for now.

I know this is a very personal situation so it is up to me what I wish to do. I was just wondering if anybody has experienced something similar or has any advice. If I did happen to keep studying in this field, what kind of job could I even do as a very timid/shy person? Has anybody studied psychology with similar issues and managed to overcome it?

I am interested in clinical psychology. I’ve done work experience where I got to experience administering standardised testing. I’m more worried about having to do “talk therapy” like CBT, and how I’ll fare in a much more unplanned and unstructured environment. I don’t want to enrol in a postgraduate course and undertake a ton of debt, only to realise that I’m not cut out for it.

I don’t think I can just pray and hope that I get a competent lecturer or supervisor in grad school. I’m autistic I’ve always needed more time and preparation than neurotypical people and I’ve accepted and am willing to work for it.

I don’t think job shadowing is a good way to ascertain that either, I feel like I fumble when put on the spot and I want to test whether I can reduce this given more familiarity with the modalities. But I can’t see clients without already being in a grad school program.

Hi everyone,

I'm from India and recently completed my M.Sc. in Applied Psychology from NMIMS, Mumbai. During my master's, I completed clinical internships at government psychiatric hospitals, rehabilitation centres, and hospitals, where I gained experience in psychological assessments, case history taking, Mental Status Examination (MSE), psychoeducation, and CBT, REBT, and ACT-based interventions. I also provide supervised counselling through a mental health platform.

My long-term goal is to move to Australia through a job, rather than by studying there again.

I would really appreciate guidance from psychologists, recruiters, or anyone who has moved from India to Australia.

Some questions I have are:

- Is my Indian M.Sc. in Applied Psychology recognised in Australia?

- What types of psychology or mental health jobs can someone with my background apply for?

- Do employers sponsor visas for candidates from India?

- What additional qualifications or registrations would I need to work in Australia?

- Would I need to complete further study, supervised practice, or an Australian bridging program?

- Which cities currently have the best opportunities in mental health?

- Are there any roles outside registered psychologist positions (such as mental health worker, counsellor, research assistant, behavioural therapist, wellbeing consultant, etc.) that could help me enter Australia first?

- If you were in my position, what would be the most realistic pathway to secure a job and eventually become established in Australia?

I'd be grateful for any advice, especially from Indians who have successfully made this transition or Australian psychologists familiar with the registration process.

Thank you!

This question is very broad I know, but to tldr it, I have the opportunity to pick any online school I want, and the direction I wish to go is psychology. This is just starting out, so I know something like an associates is just setting the foundation, but I understand that certain schools have more merit compared to others, so I was wondering exactly how much it matters right now and if there is any recommendations of online schools that y'all could give. Can't give an exact end goal yet, but mental health and the general science of psychology has always been an interesting topic to me, as well as myself having previous administration and management experience in ROTC, even if it was just high school stuff which doesn't matter to most I know some people look for that.

I am considering applying for masters of clinical neuropsychology, but from what I know the jobs for this areas are very limited to the point there’s only 2-3 a year, apparently.

Does anyone know if clinical neuropsychologists can practice as either clinical or general psychologists, assuming they can’t find a job as neuropsych?

Hi! So I’m in between some potential job paths. I plan on going back to school to get my masters and potentially a PHD but I’m honestly not too sure on which path I want to go to. Obviously I want to make a lot of money but I am currently in between:
Clinical psychology
BCBA
Something related to industrial psychology
Neuropsych
Currently right now I am an RBT so if I do enjoy it I might become a BCBA but I’m looking to see if anyone has any experiences in these fields and can share their own experience or just any tips in general. Any general advice or take on these career paths would be helpful too!! I basically just want to see what each field looks like in terms of working/ day to day.

I received old aatbs text books and flash cards as well as Psychprep modules from friends. I’m wondering which site is the best for exams and test prep? Please let me know your thoughts on Psychprep vs Prepjet vs Aatbs. For example, since I have the printed materials for aatbs and psych prep, should I use another site for the exams and quizzes? Since the materials are a little older, I will need updated DSM study material. I’m probably overthinking this, but materials are so expensive! I want to make the best purchase. Thanks in advance!

I tried everything. Got a tutor for my assessment. Studied everything. Try to improve from feedbacks. Did volunteer jobs.

Nothing worked. Everything came back 70-75%. I guess just too stupid to function, 80% is just not possible for me.

I want to work for master of clinical psychology but I guess it is just not possible now. What should I do? What jobs can I get from this degree?

I’ve been using AI to do my psychology research project. I have worked on this project for a year. I’ve done a lot from creating the question, literature review, data collection, survey making, collecting participants , and writing up the final paper. I’ve used AI for a lot of my project to help me.

Examples of what I’ve used it for include :

-Reading SPSS output ( putting my exact output from SPSS in ai as a PDF or photo)
-To create the tables in my paper
-To tell me exactly step by step how to do regression analysis and independent T- tests as well as how to read them and what hypothesis they answer
-Finding peer reviewed
-Putting Citations into APA format
-Summarizing Articles
-Refining my Research Questions
-Using it to reword things in my paper to make it sound more academic
-Fixing comments from my professor

Some of the exact prompts I’ve used:

“Can you see the comments on this paper and if so can you fix them” from uploaded version of paper with teachers comments 

“Use all attachments to examine my data ouputs and report on my hypotheses for my research paper  This includes making tables for all hypotheses, as well as one for my t-tests. “

Now I am working on a paper to publish my data with my old professors. Problem is after using the AI system to help me figure out how to do the extra calculations with my survey data. Some of the output is wrong and I recoded binary and composite variables incorrectly. When my previous professor asks me exactly what I did . I can’t properly explain it to my professor because I was just following the steps the AI told me. Apart from that publishing this paper is supposed to help me when trying to apply to PHD/PSYD programs this Fall.

I think if I wrote everything down from the AI and used it as more of a learning tool I could be ok. But is me using it at all already a big sign that I shouldn’t be doing this kind of work? I’m unsure of what I should do next and if what I’m doing is unethical.

Hey there! So my partner and I are due to have a baby later this year. I will finish my fourth year this you as well and therefore will be able to apply for masters for next year intake. Assuming I receive an offer into a masters program, I was curious if anyone was able to study with a new baby? I am older and want to get my career going, and have a family, and I am just not sure I can do it all. We don't necessarily have a village, but will have people that can help here and there. I am the mother btw, and hope to breast feed and tentatively work a day a week once maternity leave finishes. My partner is also studying too, so it's important financially for us to move into our new careers eventually (sooner rather than later), so we don't have to struggle to survive financially. Thanks for anyone's input :) I recognise everyone's experience is different too, just want to hear your stories of survival, or lack thereof ;) (AUS)

I am about to be a Senior in high school, and I've been effectively taking Dual Enrollment classes all throughout my HS years. I've chosen to eventually become a psychologist due to my love of the human mind and talk therapy, and the psychology courses I am already taking look fairly promising and interesting. However, I am curious on how much exactly my associates degree will actually do for me in the long run, as I know that psychology programs are usually very specific and competitive in their courses. Not only that, but I know that the time spent in college for a psychologist is extremely long. Anyone know anything about that?

I recently completed my first assignment for an online Research Methods in Psychology course, where I was tasked with dissecting a peer-reviewed article on a document by answering 14 separate questions regarding the content discussed. The article we were tasked with dissecting was called "Attributes of Introductory Psychology and Statistics Teachers: Findings From Comments on RateMyProfessors.com"

Today, my professor posted the answer key, and while most of what I submitted coincided neatly with what she put out, there were a few things that caught my attention. This is particularly worrisome to me considering that she made it very clear she would be grading on accuracy.

(!) Disclaimer - I did NOT use AI in the making of this post or the assignment it references.

The questions of concern, and my answers to them, are as follows:

>Question #4 - What variables (e.g., the dependent and independent variables) were studied? What were the hypotheses concerning these variables? Based upon my reading of the article, the research conducted by Addison et al. was a content analysis of pre-existing comments made by students on RMP. There was no traditional DV/IV setup, as no variables were manipulated. It could be argued/viewed that the IV-equivalent in the article was the grouping variable they used (i.e., the course type), while the DV-equivalent in the article was the measured outcome (i.e., rapport-based vs. skills-based attributes). The article also does not state a formal a priori hypothesis, and examines the existing literature as well as the data gathered from their comment analyses as an exploratory research question.

While I do think my position was defensible with the way I explained it, her answer key (which I will not be posting in its entirety) very clearly outlines the IV and DV:

>IV - Type of Psych course: intro to psych & psych statistics

>DV - Attributes - teacher related / skills-related.

The second question of concern, which goes hand-in-hand with question one, is:

>Question #8 - What were the major results of the study? Were the results consistent with the hypotheses? The major results of the study were that rapport-related attributes were mentioned more often for statistics courses than for introductory psychology courses. In terms of within-category attribute frequencies, they observed that rapport-related attributes (i.e., “personable”) were used most often to describe both statistics and psychology courses, while “engaging” was the most-used skill-based attribute (Addison et al., 2015, p. 232). Conversely, rapport-based phrases like “respectful” were the least common (Addison et al., 2015, p. 232). I cannot confidently say that the results confirmed the hypothesis, as no explicit hypothesis was formally articulated. However, I do believe their results successfully met their goal of navigating an exploratory research avenue, such that further, more targeted research endeavors could be derived from it.

Again, my concern here is with the statement about the hypothesis since I very clearly argued that there basically isn't one (at least not one that was directly stated). However, her answer key says:

>"Discussion

>'Expected results/ hypothesis supported.' - from prof

>Overall, the results suggest that, not surprisingly, students view introductory classes more positively than they do statistics classes."

All things considered, I do think I defended my position fairly well. But her instructions explicitly state, "Please note you will be graded on the accuracy of your responses, so please be sure you allow yourself enough time to read, re-read, and maybe re-read the article again to locate the important information. All of the assignment answers can be found in the RMP article."

I'm worried that I am in for a bad grade on this one. What do you guys think? Was I right?

p.s. if you are reading this, Professor, im very excited to be in your class and I just want to do a good job

Hey everyone, I am an international student from India and planning to go to the UK for my master's for September 2026 intake. So my first question is what should I choose between clinical psychology or neuropsychology master's or master's in neuroscience is terms of having a wide job scope and being able to work in both hospital and corporate settings? I like working in hospital settings its just I am not too sure if I am interested in therapy or too research heavy roles. My second question is that if I end up taking neuroscience, the options which best aligned with my interests where the Msc clinical neuroscience practice course at City St. George's and the Msc neuroscience course at the university of Liverpool so I am having a hard time deciding between these two universities. I like City St. George's due to their clinical focus as well having partnerships with hospitals where students will be placed directly during the placement module of the semester but for university of Liverpool I like how they have both clinical focus and industry relevant modules as well. The answer to this might seem simple but really its a clash between my interests and job stability. So I would love it if you guys could give me your advice on this. I would appreciate to hear all the different perspectives that would be offered on this. Thank you

Hi everyone. I am interested in becoming a therapist, but I am really interested in the research aspect of it. My therapist recommended that I look into PhD work, because there is more of a chance that I could do research in that area, so I’ve been looking. But it’s really confusing, and as a first time college student in my family, with no help, I feel a bit overwhelmed and unsure of what exactly I should pursue.

I found a school in my city that has a few different programs, but I’m not entirely sure what the difference is. I wanted to ask if anyone here happens to have these degrees or has gone through programs for this, and what that looks like now being in the field.

Some of the programs on this page include:

Clinical Psychology (PhD)
Clinical Psychology (PsyD)
Marital and Family Therapy (PhD)
Marital and Family Therapy (PsyD)
Industrial and Organization
Psychology (PhD)

From what I gathered, a phd would be more likely the route I want to take, but seeing these options makes me unsure of what each route really entails once you are actually in the field.

For more context, I am interested in studying more about bpd, and other personality disorders. My therapist told me about a woman by the name of Marsha Linehan, and how she herself has bpd and developed the DBT module to help others like herself. I have yet to read her book, but that’s exactly the kind of work I am interested in. I wanted to see if I could contact Marsha directly, but apparently she has dementia as of two years ago, so this seems less possible now. I have some friends with grandparents or other family members who do this type of work, but I know they probably had different routes they took to get into their work, since times change and I assume things might be a bit different now than then. But still, I’d like some guidance or advice when it comes to this.

Thank you for your time reading this, I hope to get some pointers. I don’t want to get so overwhelmed by the process that I psyche myself out of it. I already have a sense of imposter syndrome even researching this stuff, but I’m working through it as I go. I do feel really passionate about this, and I think researching would be most ideal for me, alongside working with clients and more. But I’d love to be able to help my bpd community, and hopefully contribute my own findings and experience in a way that can be meaningful, and lasting.

Idk if this is the right place to post this, so I’m sorry if it’s not, I understand if this gets removed but I figured I’d ask somewhere. Thanks again yall!

Hey everyone,

I’m an overseas-qualified psychologist currently navigating the process to get registered in Australia, and I could use some insight from anyone who has been through this.

I just received my qualifications assessment back from the APS (Australian Psychological Society), and they have assessed my degree as comparable to an Australian 4-year APAC-accredited sequence.

Meanwhile, I have an ongoing application with AHPRA where I am hoping to get onto the provisional registration pathway (with the goal of fulfilling the final requirements to full registration through supervised practice or a transitional program here).

My question is: How will this 4-year comparable result from the APS affect my AHPRA assessment?

Since a 4-year sequence is the baseline academic requirement for provisional registration, does AHPRA generally accept the APS's evaluation of the degrees, or do they completely redo the deep dive into the transcripts themselves? If you've been on the provisional pathway with a 4-year overseas equivalence, did you face any major pushback or specific hurdles during the AHPRA review?

Would love to hear from anyone who has transitioned via this pathway. Thanks in advance!

Asking for my girlfriend, she’s an incoming first year student in a Clinical PsyD program. Her federal loans cover about 2 years into the program but she will need to then finish another 3 years. Federal loan interest is 8% plus she will need to take out private loans. Any advice? Best options for private loans? Has anyone heard of organizations like Jelf that help Jewish students take out loans interest free? Anything is appreciated.

Hi everyone, I’m just writing this to see if people from all stages of getting their psyd or having it can let me know if I genuinely have a chance of getting into a psyd program for the fall of 2027.

I am currently going into my 3rd year of college and am graduating in spring 27. I did a lot of AP classes in high school so I am graduating early. I am getting a double major in psychology and criminology with a minor in sociology from the university of Utah. My current overall gpa is a 3.89. I’m hoping to get involved with research this next year but don’t have any under my belt quite yet. I have an internship set up for this next year with a non profit, I don’t quite know what the internship entails quite yet cause we are going through the process of the program currently. I also was a TA for one of my psychology classes and will be a TA for one of my sociology classes this fall. I also am an ambassador for my college on campus and have volunteered and worked with the Boys & Girls Club for 5 years.

At this point I’m just wondering if I will even get accepted into anything, because of my inexperience. Or maybe do I have a chance of getting into a more recognized program.

Let me know if yall need more info or anything you guys think!

I’m planning to ask my supervisors to write references for me. I’m not that confident that I’ll get in the first try, so I’m wondering whether they’ll need to rewrite the reference again a year later, or if the references will stay there for longer than a year.

I’m quite hesistating about my future school, but for now UQ is my top choice, followed by Macquarie. However, Brisbane is often regarded as a boring place to live (I’ve heard that shops and commercial stores are much fewer there). But I really like the course structure, plus feedbacks from Reddit are also good.

So I wanna ask whether it is worthwhile to go to UQ for my future studies, or should I choose any other unis in Syd/Melb?

And can I ask for more recommendations on best unis for Psych? I should state clearly that I am more of a research student, and want to lean into higher study right after Bachelor.

Tysm!!