PSYC 4420

Dr. Van Horn is a lovely person. He is so enthusiastic and passionate about MRI that you can't help but get excited about it along with him. He is genuinely very kind and easy to talk to, and he knows a TON so don't be afraid to ask him questions. To give you a heads up on the course structure: most of the semester alternates between lectures on Tuesdays and student presentations on Thursdays. The lectures are very dense and often hard to understand and not recorded so I would highly recommend attending and taking detailed notes. Dr. Van Horn is extremely intelligent and although he tries his best, sometimes it feels like he does not understand that our level of knowledge is far below his, so things that seem like a given to him are very complicated to us. The textbook is very useful in understanding complicated concepts (especially MRI physics). The student presentations are not a big deal at all so please don't stress yourself out! It's a partner presentation and you just have to summarize an fMRI study and come up with some discussion questions for the class. Your grade is 10% participation (class attendance + presentation), 10% for each of the 2 quizzes, 20% for the midterm, 20% for the final exam, and 30% for the final paper project. You get a cheat sheet for all assessments that is allowed to be one side of one sheet of paper. Type it so that you can fit in more information and don't have to memorize as much. The quizzes are pretty easy and the midterm is averagely hard. The final was cumulative but it wasn't as difficult as expected-- DEFINITELY study and use the space on your cheat sheet effectively. If you don't understand a concept, start working on it as soon as possible and visit the TAs or Dr. Van Horn for help. For the final paper, START EARLY!!!! My group started pretty late and even though we got it done and did well, it was a ton of work and would have been way less stressful if we figured out our project and started on research early. Overall, don't stress out too much over this class but do your best and stay on top of it as much as you can.