PSYC 3160

TLDR: Great professor, you learn a ton of useful information that’s highly relevant to your major. The class is challenging but definitely manageable if you stay on top of the material.

Professor: I’m honestly not sure why Dr. Long gets a bad reputation. Most of my classmates and I agree that she’s incredibly intelligent and genuinely nice. She’s always willing to answer questions during class and is super approachable if you ask for help one on one. Some people might mistake her confidence for being rude, but I strongly disagree with that. In fact, I think her teaching style is clear and effective. She uses excellent slides that cover all the essential material, making it easier to follow along.

Class: The grading structure includes 3 midterms (with the lowest one dropped), a final worth 25%, 10 quizzes (lowest 5 dropped), and participation (5%). You can definitely succeed in this class. Just avoid cramming the night before. Instead, focus on understanding and memorizing the slides, and actively quiz yourself on the material. Connect the different topics as you go. I found the first exam and final to be significantly easier. Don’t stress too much about the final being cumulative — the cumulative questions were straightforward, but make sure to study everything.

TLDR: this class is very challenging but you will pass if you are proactive about your assignments and studying. VERY relevant to the neuroscience/psych major so PAY ATTENTION.

Professor: Long creates her lectures to be straightforward, engaging, clear, and organized. I think she is an incredibly effective professor when it comes to having the knowledge to teach AND answer every random question she receives. However, I do think she can be incredibly rude most times. She's willing to answer questions during lecture, but she has a very small limit until she seems to become agitated. I advise asking questions after class/during office hours, NOT lecture.

Class: The grading structure includes 3 midterms (with the lowest one dropped), a final worth 25%, 10 quizzes (lowest 5 dropped), and participation (5%). Her exams are mainly multiple choice, multiple answer, and her final is cumulative but focuses mainly on the last 5 lectures. Focus on memorizing and conceptualizing her lecture slides. I don't believe reading the chapters before lecture was useful. instead, use it to simplify or clarify topics you don't understand. avoid cramming the night before or procrastinating. In order to succeed in this class you have to be willing to review the material in depth after EACH lecture, while continuing to connect topics, quiz yourself, clarify your questions with the book, and attending office hours. In all, I spent around 8-10 h/week (more if we had an exam) on this class inlcuding lecture time, office hours, and studying after lecture.

My friends and I who are straight-A students were scared of not passing the class (We all ended with Bs and Cs). You have to have photographic memory to prepare for exams because you are not tested on overarching themes of study/research results presented in class but instead expected to memorize entire graphs, IVs, DVs, type of participant tested, and other small details.

i'm not sure why professor long gets a bad rep--she is honestly incredibly nice and sweet, and explains things extremely clearly. this class has no homework which means you don't really have to think about it until a week before the exam. there were 10 quizzes but only five were graded, so make sure to just lock in for the first 5 and you won't have to think about course content for a long time. out of the three midterms, she only grades 2, and the first one especially tends to be on the easier side so make sure to do well on that. even though her final is "cumulative" it was definitely like 80% content from the fourth module with randomly sprinkled in questions about some earlier general concepts (very unspecific). i actually tended to dislike psychology classes before this one as they often tend to be overly vague with "concepts" and "theories" that you learn without providing any evidence, but this class is largely studies based which honestly makes learning the theories easier imo. some other reviews say you have to memorize every nook and cranny of every slide, but her exams are much more straightforward than that tbh. additionally, despite being an hour and 15 minute class, almost every class we had ended in an hour. i will say that she has a very specific question style that, once you get used to, make some exam questions incredibly obvious what she wants the right answer to be. overall a very interesting course that honestly does not require too much effort to do well in!

This course is definitely not as scary as other reviews make it out to be! I was intimidated going in but found that Professor Long is a very effective communicator and well-organized. Lectures were typically an hour long, cohesive, and decently engaging. Slides are posted after each lecture. Professor Long does speak pretty quickly but takes moments to pause to let you catch up. I recommend taking notes verbatim and going through them after lecture to synthesize/review. The textbook readings are supplementary -- only read it when you are confused on specific topics. You are tested on what is presented in lecture. This class is based on research studies, so I recommend making a chart including every study Professor Long goes through with what is happening, the IV, DV, results, and overall conclusion. This definitely helped me stay clear and organized when I went back to study. There are short 4 multiple choice iClicker quizzes at the beginning of about every other lecture (10 total), but your bottom 5 are dropped. There are 3 multiple choice midterm exams with the lowest score dropped. The final is mandatory. I found her exams to be appropriately challenging while remaining fair. Professor Long builds in opportunities for participation (5%) and extra credit of up to 1%. Additionally, Professor Long is available to meet for office hours and is kind, so don't be scared to meet with her to ask questions or go over your exams! If you study hard, do the work, and pay attention, it is definitely possible to get an A in this class.

I really enjoyed this course with Nicole Long! She is kinda scary haha, but I thought her lectures were engaging!! The content was super interesting and her slideshows were really well-made. This was probably my favorite class this semester!

I know a lot of people find her test questions tricky... and they are meant to trip you up, but if you actually have a good understanding of the content, they won't be as confusing. And you can learn how you're supposed to respond to them. She emphasizes what's important to know (e.g. "lesions = necessity"). If you study her slides and your notes (assuming you take furious notes in class - I wasn't even able to use my iPad because I couldn't keep up), you should be set :)