PSYC 3160

Cog Neuro is not a class I would recommend taking unless you have to for your Neuroscience degree. This is mainly due to Prof Long. While I will preface this by saying that she did improve in the last 1/3 of the course after being allegedly enrolled in remedial training, she was exceedingly rude for the majority of the course. When students asked questions, she was quite condescending and very snippy on a consistent basis. Even when people had technical issues during online quizzes, she had a very "not my problem" attitude. As I mentioned, she did get much better towards the end, but I am not sure if this was just a temporary flop or what. I will say she does know her stuff overall.

In terms of the course material, it is relatively well structured. It gives a good overview of a lot of different concepts. She does cram a ton of info into each lecture. Tests are reasonably fair. You get to drop 1 of the exams which comes in handy for sure. I think it is a decent class but the instructor kind of ruins it.

Despite the scary reviews and difficulty of the course, I really enjoyed this class and Prof Long! You definitely need to go to class every day, and if you do miss class, try to have someone you know in the class send you the notes. She uses a powerpoint but just looking at the slides does NOT contain nearly enough info to understand the content. As other comments have noted: truly take her advice about quizzing yourself to heart. I actually did not use flashcards, but I did create a column in my notes every lecture which included the learning target questions she introduces at the beginning of each class, in addition to creating my own questions. Before exams, I would go back thorough my notes and highlight important parts while using that to create questions that I could use to quiz myself. I really wish I had done this after each lecture (ie later that day or something) instead of leaving it to the end of each unit, but this still worked pretty well for me. Some people have talked a lot of memorization, and while it is true that you need to pay attention to details, I think noticing patterns and general finding is far more important. You will NOT need to memorize names or exact details, but you will need to be able to determine whether something is determining function vs necessity and the differences, as well as differences between EEG, lesions, and fMRI, for example. You will then later be able to apply this across all units.

I think the division of assignments is quite fair and helpful. For example, quizzes are worth 20% of your grade, but you take a total of 10 throughout the semester and only your top 5 are included. I think I got 4/4 on 5 or 6 of these and therefore ended up with a 100% in quizzes even though I did not do very well on all of them. You also get to drop 1 of the 3 midterms. I got an 88, 88, and 82, so with the dropped 82 and getting a 91 on the final, I was pretty satisfied with my exam performance, because the exams can be quite difficult! Finally, the discission posts are a nice grade booster, I think I got a 100 on all of them. I ended up with a 92.5 in the class, but beware that she will not round grades. Overall, I learned a lot and really enjoyed the content as a behavioral neuro major, and although she may seem a little impatient with questions in class, she is very kind and helpful in office hours (which you will need to go to anyway to see what questions you got wrong on exams).

I absolutely loved this class!! Don't let the other reviews scare you-- I started off the semester absolutely terrified but this class is extremely doable, even if it takes work, and I ended up getting an A+. Dr. Long is incredibly knowledgable and a very effective lecturer in my opinion. One of my favorite things about this class is how well structured her lectures are and how she keeps tying everything back to the central points that she highlights at the beginning of each class. She does not record lectures, so take *detailed* notes and do not skip class unless you have a friend that can record the lecture for you or send you detailed notes. I would highly recommend making flashcards after every lecture and include every detail about each study she highlights and make sure you know the definitions of everything. Try your very best to stay on top of this because it gets overwhelming having to make cards for several lectures at once. If your notes are thorough, this shouldn't be too much work. To prepare for exams, I would start off my going through all the information in detail and then using your cards to do active recall. It really helps to study with friends and explain the concepts to each other. This is a fairly high-level class and Dr. Long expects you to synthesize information across units (this is not as difficult as it sounds, I promise!). I did not use the textbook at all during this course, you will be perfectly fine with lecture information.

This class is pretty straightforward but for me, it was very difficult. Professor Long's lecture style is fairly typical but going to class is pretty much essential. She doesn't record lectures and the slides aren't posted until after class and they often don't include the information that she says in class. The textbook readings are useless because she only tests on information that is in the lectures. Professor Long can be kind of short with her responses but was fairly nice when talking one-on-one.
Grades are composed of 2 out of 3 midterms (25% each), 5 of 10 in-class quizzes (4% each), 3 discussion posts (5% total), and 1 final exam(25%) The average for the midterms was around 80 each time but you can only see your questions if you go to office hours. These were the most difficult for me because her questions expected us to remember in detail and connect the topics. They also were on Canvas with select all that apply so grading for that can be harsh. The final was about 20% cumulative but focused mostly on big-picture information and 80% was on the last section of material and this exam was my highest grade.
#tCFFall23

This class is an overview of neuroscience. The first unit goes over action potentials and research methods, and the following three units are a comprehensive overview of how the human brain works. Overall, I really enjoyed the class and felt like I learned a lot. However, this class was undeniably challenging. 75% of the grade is made up of exams, 20% from quizzes, and 5% from participation in the form of discussion posts/surveys. One commenter said that you need to memorize everything: if you are going to take this class, I would take that advice to heart.
Professor Long is very knowledgable about the course content, and I appreciated the way she structured her lectures. Each lecture would have multiple "learning objectives" that she would introduce, then lecture about, and then summarize, before moving to the next learning objective. The lectures are not recorded, so you need to plan on attending class (and making a friend in class so that you can get the notes if you have to skip class).
Professor Long recommends using active recall (ex. flashcards, explaining concepts to a friend) to study for this class, and this is absolutely the best study strategy. I got an A in this class, and this is how I studied. First, I would attend lecture and take notes on my laptop. After class, I would spend an hour "synthesizing" my notes down to key concepts and studies on a sheet of notebook paper. Then I would make flashcards for all the vocabulary words, brain regions, studies, etc. Flashcards will be your best friend if you want to succeed in this class, because you really do need to know the details of the content in order to succeed—do not convince yourself that this is a "common sense" class, because it is not. I spent about two hours studying per class, focusing on the content covered in class specifically—I never read the assigned chapter, and only used the textbook to clarify things I was confused about.
As far as quizzes and tests go, there are ten four-question quizzes, five of which are dropped. There are three midterms (one is dropped) and a cumulative final which cannot be dropped. Your goal is to get perfect scores on at least five of these quizzes, so that 20% of your grade is a 100% score. The quizzes are also great tools to assess your knowledge, and can affirm if your study strategies are working. Another piece of advice I have is to read the test questions thoroughly. One thing you learn early on in this class is that lesions prove necessity. So, if a question asks about necessity, you need to be looking for the answer choices that describe lesions to the relevant brain region—and you need to ignore the answer choices that are true but irrelevant to the question being asked.
This class was definitely a challenge, but overall, I enjoyed the content I learned and felt like taking the class made me a better student. Take this class seriously, show up to lecture, use active recall to study, and you should be just fine. You got this! #tCFF23

Overall, I really enjoyed this class and took a lot from it. That being said, this is NOT an easy class. Professor Long does a great job explaining concepts, and if you don't understand something in lecture I highly recommend talking to her one-on-one in office hours (I went pretty often, and this is probably what benefitted me the most in this class). The class has 3 midterms worth 25% (lowest dropped), 10 quizzes worth 4% each or 20% in total (5 lowest are dropped), participation worth 5%, and the final worth 25%. Exams dictate the bulk of your grade, so I advise taking the advice of a previous reviewer by listening to Professor Long's study tips on the first day of class. The exams can be challenging because they are designed to test not only your direct knowledge but also your ability to understand and make connections to previously discussed studies and concepts (the most difficult questions being the multi-select multiple choice ones). It's really important to understand general principles covered in previous exams as that knowledge will carry over to other exams and the final. Another big thing about this class is that lectures are not recorded, so keep that in mind when you are taking notes in class. The textbook is not necessary to do well in this class. Understanding EVERYTHING she talks about in lecture and the information on the slides are really all you need to succeed. #tCFF23

As someone with a good amount of prior neuroscience/psychology coursework, this class was still pretty tough. However, I do think it's a necessary course for anyone with aspirations in neuroscience to understand different cognitive phenomena in the brain. The exams are very lecture-based, and the lectures are very heavily composed of different studies done in the field. To do well on exams, you'll really want to understand these studies inside and out and be able to apply their conclusions to other contexts. Exam questions can be really tricky, especially when it's a multiple-multiple-choice style question, but you should be able to answer them if you've absorbed everything from her Powerpoints (including diagrams) and the studies-- no textbook reading necessary (although could be a good supplement). I'd highly recommend studying with a friend or group.
Professor Long's lecture style can feel repetitive and dry after a while, but I appreciated her help in office hours.

I really enjoyed the content of this class; it was really interesting. That being said, it was pretty content heavy, and it's what you would expect for a 3000-level course. You not only have to memorize and understand the material, but you need to be able to synthesize info across units and be able to answer certain hypotheticals with course knowledge in order to perform well on exams. Professor Long will give you advice at the beginning of the semester about efficient study strategies, and I HIGHLY recommend you take it. Using active recall and testing myself / explaining topics to a literal wall helped me make sure I actually understood things more than just reviewing my notes. I honestly only used the textbook a few times; I can see how it can supplement learning, but you definitely don't need it to do well. The 4-question iClicker quizzes are pretty easy and the exams, while they can be tricky, are fair if you've studied. Be advised that much of cognitive science is based on studies, so you will have to be familiar with lots of them. Professor Long is very knowledgeable, and when she isn't 100% sure about something (someone's question that wouldn't ever be on an exam) she's still able to hypothesize because she's an active researcher involved in the academic spheres answering these questions. She isn't super approachable though, and you have to go to office hours in order to see what you got wrong on exams, but I think it can be helpful to force yourself to go in and actually try to learn what you missed. Overall, this course was definitely manageable but I wouldn't say it's easy.

In the beginning, I was really excited to take this course, but professor long ruined it for me. The way the course is set up makes it difficult to get a good grade. There aren’t many assignments that can cushion your grade, most of your grade will be dependent on your test scores. There are 3 midterms, the lowest grade is dropped, and one final exam. The tests are difficult. Some of the questions are “select all that apply” so it’s not like a straightforward question with one answer. We also don’t get to review our tests after we take them unless you email her to meet up during her office hours. I find this really inefficient, I would rather like the go through the most missed questions during class so that we know how to answer these types of questions. I wish she would give us practice questions or practice review tests so we could better prepare ourselves. The in class quizzes we do are not enough. The material itself is not that difficult but just know she talks a lot about experiments and tests heavily on them too. Also she seems very passive aggressive. Sometimes during the in class quizzes, a good majority of the students will get a question wrong and when explaining she’s a little snarky. Like we wouldn’t get it wrong if you could walk us step by step in what you’re looking for. There are also 3 discussion posts, which aren’t difficult but I have no idea on how they’re being graded. I dislike that our grade is solely based on 2 tests and an exam. It leaves no room for chance to improve our grade. 4 question quizzes and a few discussion posts are not going to boost our grade. I wouldn’t recommend this class to anyone, the lectures are boring, the professor is unapproachable, and the tests are difficult. I didn’t really learn much from this course, you’re probably better off with someone else.

DO NOT take this course. Professor Long is a really bad lecturer and the material is very confusing. The class had 3 exams (drop your lowest), a cumulative final, quizzes every week on iClicker, and 3 discussion posts throughout the semester. It was the hardest PSYC class I have taken at UVA and I don't feel like I learned a lot. The tests are completely memorization based and she will ask very specific questions about studies. You need to memorize everything. Every study, every diagram from the slides, and everything she says. Definitely do not take this class unless you have to - it is really hard to get a good grade.