PSYC 1010

This class is all about reading. Keep up with the assigned text and you will do fine.. If you cannot do the reading then I would not suggest taking this class. Smyth can be dry at times but overall he really cares about the students. He asks clicker questions in class for accuracy, based on the assigned reading and 95% of the tests are made up from the book. READ

Hard class but helpful and clear professor—really knows how to teach and make PPTs!

Basically with his class it is a hit or miss. If you enjoy reading textbooks and find psych to be a fascinating topic then by all means take this course because he is the head of the psych department. However, if you are looking for an easy A, it is not this class. E-School for the love of God do yourself a favor and don't take this class... you have it hard enough as it is. Overall, I enjoyed the class and had fun with the professors lectures, but for the sake of my GPA probably wouldn't have taken it if I had the change to redo my class schedule.

This class was impossible to grasp. Smyth was incredibly unclear about things we should focus on and made it such that tests covered obscure textbook details and everything he highlighted in lecture. It got progressively more boring as the semester went on and he was very un accommodating about clicker points when I was incredibly sick for two classes.

Professor Smyth was a fantastic professor. He is passionate about the subject, and manages to make the class very interesting. If you keep up with the reading and study it, the PowerPoints, and videos for tests you will receive a decent grade. You also have to keep up with the readings if you want to get a good clicker score, which is also entirely feasible if you read the textbook. If you don't want to read or you don't have strong self-motivation, this isn't the class for you. Great material, great professor, hard work.

Smyth is fantastic. He really cares about the subject and wants to connect with his students and does so by learning names. He doesn't forget, either! That aside be warned that this is a reading-intensive class. Exams are very fair when it comes to the material, be it in lectures, video clips, or the book. Take really good notes in lecture and while reading the book. Also make sure you read well for the clicker questions. Don't pass up on the chance in lecture to randomly answer a question on the microphone; take the bonus chances you're offered. Every so often, Prof. Smyth will talk about UVA psychology faculty and other researchers affiliated with UVA in the past who have revolutionized their field. Made me think UVA had the best psych department ever. This class and Smyth made me want to continue studying to the point of a psychology minor. Highly recommend if you're interested in psychology.

The content of the course was extremely interesting. Some cons of the class with Smyth are that: you aren't allowed to take notes on a laptop (which was really inconvenient for me), he doesn't drop any test grades (other professors who teach this same level do), and the lectures can be bit dry. The textbook was interesting, though.

Smyth is an amazing lecturer. His exams are tough and require you to really know the material though.

This class is not easy! Smyth requires you to know every small detail from each chapter of the text book rather than overall concepts. And you have to read the entire textbook cover to cover if you want to do well!! The tests were only a few questions with ridiculously specific and random facts. Not sure why people are saying he is an interesting lecturer, the lectures are extremely boring and do not help prepare for the tests at all. The material is still interesting, so I advise to take it with another teacher. The other intro classes did not have half as much reading as Smyth did.

Don't take this class with Smyth!!! His lectures can be interesting but his tests are extremely detailed and hard. I studied a lot for every test and still felt like I knew nothing on the exams because he tests you on specific details from the textbook and what he says in lectures/videos from class. His clicker questions are hard and he also calls randomly on people during lecture. He knows his stuff but I found it extremely difficult to do well on his tests. He also makes you read around 40 pages for homework every night and if you don't do the reading, you won't be able to answer the clicker questions correctly. Take this class with Dodson, not Smyth!!!! You have been warned