PSYC 3235

This is a really great class, and I felt like Prof Connelly really cared about us learning the content. The latter guides how she sets the class up. The exams are open usually from Thursday to the next Tuesday and there is no time limit. They were also open-note and open-book, as she had said that she believes making really hard exams and forcing students to memorize all of the content is not really conducive to having students learn and actually enjoy the content. You can also drop 1 exam, including the final (or simply not take the final, which is what I did). That being said, the exams allowed for chatGPT and cheating, and so she made the third exam much much more difficult than the previous two. While I still got a 98, it was a lot more stressful. We were also her guinuea pigs since she had not taught the class in several years, so keep in mind that the class may change a lot as she develops it in the next few semesters. There is also a group project, which my group did well on (my advice is to be a little creative with it). However, each group had ~7 people, which felt like "too many cooks in the kitchen" to me. Finally, she takes attendance, so you need to go to lecture as much as you possibly can (if you miss a class or two because you're sick you will be ok).

In terms of content, the first two units were very interesting and I actually really enjoyed reading the studies we read (and that were heavily featured on exams). One for example, was on how early life care in rats can actually affect the modulation of genes that regulate the stress response! The third unit, on the other hand, was far too abstract for me personally, going into detail on methods of assessing epigenetics and the genome, so that is where I struggled the most to keep up (again, that is my own personal experience). Finally, I really enjoyed the guest lectures throughout the semester (I would take at least a few notes on each speaker's main points, but it doesn't have to be in detail). Finally, remember that even though the content can be tricky, she and the TAs are rather lenient in grading. The very large majority of the class ended up with grades in the 90s, and many of those ended with above 95.

The homework consisted of weekly assignments you had to complete before class based on assigned textbook readings or research papers; honestly super easy and took a max of 90 minutes. The tests were all open-note, no-time-limit exams with free response questions drawing from both the lecture material and the assigned readings. I thought all the questions were really fair but make sure you particularly understand and can apply the info from the research papers covered in class. The biggest problem I had with this class was the lack of clarity regarding excused absences/extensions. Attendance is graded but there apparently is no such thing as "excused absences" which I only came to know of after talking to the professor privately. There is no COVID policy in this class either so if you have COVID you are either expected to come to class or to just take to the drop in your attendance grade. Also, SDAC accommodations related to class attendance or homework extensions aren't exactly honored in this class. These things weren't included in the syllabus for the fall 2023 semester so a lot of people were blindsided by these expectations. Hopefully, the syllabus will include these expectations for future semesters!