PSYC 2005

Took this class when it still had a lab and was called PSYC 3005 - but it will essentially be the same thing , if not easier. If you have any background in statistics this class will be a breeze/review and def easier than other intro psych classes. If you haven't, it still won't be bad but I would stay up to date with the topics and do a few practice problems. You definitely have to do the readings because the clickers are pretty specific. It's a class that every university across the country makes their psych majors take and I don't think most people look forward to it, but after taking it, I do think the skills are useful to know esp if you're interested in research etc. Lectures can be dry but overall, way less painful than I thought it would be!! An easy A-, a do-able A.

He's a great professor! Lectures get a little boring near the end of the semester because they pretty much echo the readings, but it's enjoyable overall. You really have to do the reading because clicker questions are specific, but tests are pretty easy and he makes it easy to get extra credit.

Smyth is a chill person who wants to keep his students engaged and teach others. I liked him as a person and he is sometimes funny but he has the driest lectures . They rarely are helpful in learning the material on the test. I've never seen so many students sleeping during an afternoon class before. If not that, they were on their phones or talking. It was obvious what they were doing, but he rarely confronted anyone about it. The readings are annoying and he usually picks either the smallest parts of the reading to test us on or the most obvious parts. If you don't have any experience with stats or aren't good at it, you will most likely struggle in this class a bit. The readings usually aren't too hard and usually short, but they will build up if you don't keep up with them and your exam score will suffer because of it. Personally, I don't like the exams and think we should get more than 50 minutes to complete them. As for the content, make sure you understand not only how to solve the problems, but what the formulas and the answers to them means. Also pay attention to random vocab, the collab readings (on the final, but not on the other exams), and the goeff cumming videos. Overall, would not take this class unless necessary

Smyth really has the most disorganized and driest lectures ever. In addition he puts a ton of clicker questions (~5) throughout his lecture on very specific things within the reading. Besides that I thought the class was ok, I've never taken a stats class before but didn't find the material to be too difficult. His exams can be tedious but he usually ends up curving exam grades by a lot. He's a little odd and insists on collecting your scratch work at the end of the exam and will actually go through everybody's paper and make sure that they did their own work.

Easy class if you've taken STAT 2020 or similar course. Smyth isn't the best at explaining things, but he tries to make lectures engaging ("tries" is the key term here). He has clicker questions every lecture which are worth points, although some are extra credit (which give you a nice boost). The exams are fine if you do the optional homework and study key terms from the textbook and lectures. It is a requirement for the psychology major/minor, but honestly not that bad.

For reference, I did not do super well in the class. I came in without a stat background, but that wasn't the reason why. I think the bottom line of what I learned from this semester with Smyth was that doing his optional homeworks as you learned the material really helped as you went along. Memorize the wording of his essay responses. But also (especially for the final) try to understand what the relationships are between certain variables in the formulas. It's really just big concepts there. For the final, review his powerpoints unless you really don't understand the math (then you can go back in the textbook). But all of the major stuff will be on there. Also, make sure to watch the videos that he includes in the powerpoints since he heavily emphasizes those in the tests.

I don't know like Smyth seems like a nice guy he's funny but he doesn't do a great job teaching stats. I knew STATS beforehand and his explanations are really muddled. Good use of clickers - has daily quizes and extra credit questions (doesnt use them as attendence tool). First exam was a joke but subsequent exams weren't. Readings for every class that he quizzes on every class. I didn't do them though because I'm stubborn. You should do them. Take only if you have to.

I ended up having to withdraw from this course. Professor Smyth is extremely nice and considerate, but his lectures are so incredibly boring and hard to follow. I don't have much of a statistics background and found it hard to learn the math concepts from the lectures, as well as the textbook. I recommend if you are good at math/statistics, but otherwise, this might not be the class for you.

This course was fine if you need it as a prerequisite for psych or cogsci, but I would not recommend taking it unless you have to. Your grade was based off of three midterms, a final, and clicker points. If your clicker score was higher than your lowest midterm, he swapped in that grade at the end of the semester. Smyth also offered a significant amount of extra credit (up to 3% added to your final grade) which was mostly earned through extra credit clicker points and participation in class. He also curves the exams so your grade will usually end up fine in the end. However, his exams were INCREDIBLY specific pulling sometimes single sentences that we never went over in class from the textbook readings. There were about 40 pages of reading per class (three times a week) that you had to do not only to score decently on clicker questions and extra credit, but to have any hope on the exam. Math and application on the exams was straightforward and pretty easy, but the section based on exact lines of the textbook was stupid hard and super frustrating. Lecture participation was necessary if you wanted the clicker points, but I felt like coming to class was pointless. He almost never lectured on anything concrete that you could take notes on and never elaborated on the difficult part of the material. I took STAT 2120 last semester, and I don't think I would have understood the stats concepts the way they were presented in this class if I didn't have that background. Overall Smyth is a nice guy, but the class is not enjoyable.

Prof Smyth is a good guy. People who like slow lectures will like his class, people who like intense class with talkshow style will probably hate it. I watch his video with a 1.5-2.0 speed because I took well notes from textbook, and video adds on to it and he practically explains the concept using great examples. His class looks like a lot, but it's actually not. Quizzes and optional homework are helpful in preparing test. There are also many extra credits available.
Prof Smyth is great. He is generous with quiz and test scores, go to his office hour, if you find a problem he gives full point back if you explained well why you think your different answer should be accepted, he also give partial point back, he also curve a lot. He's also understanding about schedule conflict. Personalitywise, he care about social problems and inequality faced by minority. He introduced researches on gender bias, social class, and racial bias to inform on stereotypes. Especially, he's the first instructor I've had in my life who would actually mention and care about Asian as a minority with other minority groups. I felt true diversity in his class.
Some advise would be to pay attention to readings he requires because he cares about research ethics and good practice.