PSYC 1010

I really enjoy this class. Past reviews said that the exams have open endeds, but now they are all multiple choice and fill in the blank. He is an extremely engaging lecturer and genuinely enjoys teaching. His examples strengthen understanding and the textbook is super easy to follow. To manage an A or A- in this class you do have to do all the readings, and they do become a lot, but you can get away with just reading the week prior to the exam. I find that missing a lecture per exam time hasn't really effected my performance, and it is overall a great class. I recommend, but it isn't an easy A, there is work that needs to be put in.

This class was not too hard. I went to every lecture and read the textbook and got an A. You'll have 4 exams, he lets you drop one, so each is worth 25% of your grade and then the final is worth 25% of your grade (you can't use your exam drop on the final). His lectures weren't that boring, and he definitely goes through the material that you need to know for exams. The average exam grades would usually be Bs or B-, but I did fine so if you go to lectures, read the textbook, and then for exams: use the study/notecards feature of the online textbook, read over your class notes and make sure you remember stuff from the textbook, then you'll be fine. He's a super nice guy and makes his lectures as engaging as possible. The exams are usually like 25 MC, 8 fill in the blank, and 1 short answer (you can't exceed 140 words for short answer or he'll take points off), so the exams really aren't that bad! Would recommend this course - it's what made me want to major in psych!

This class is a great introduction class if you are interested in psychology. To continue, I really liked professor Mazurek but that opinion is not shared amongst all students because he does spend a lot of time answering questions and sometimes going over things that were already in the reading. On the other hand, I still find his lectures to be very interesting, he is clearly passionate about what he teaches. Moreover, the book is super interesting and easy to read. The only problem is that sometimes the reading that is required for class is very long. They are 4 main exams and a final. Each exam covers 2 chapters and the final covers all learned chapters plus an extra one that he goes over the weeks before the final. The exams are not hard if you study sufficiently for them. You mainly need to remember special vocab words and you will be more than fine.

Intro Psychology is a very basic overview of all of psychology and because of this there were parts that I found interesting and others I found very boring. Professor Mazurek is a pretty good lecturer but has a large issue. He often ends up repeating what was read in the textbook the night before for 90% of his lecture. The annoying thing about this is you have to read the textbook because he doesn't cover all the details in lecture, but you also have to come to lecture because the other 10% of his lecture is new material not covered in the textbook. The grading system was a lot more annoying than I expected. You take 4 tests throughout the year and a final cumulative test. Your lowest of the first four tests is dropped and the other four are averaged. I thought this would be fine because I'm normally a very strong test taker, but the issue is you have to have above a 95% to get an A. This means you can't miss more than 2 questions on each test to get an A, which was really annoying. The class does what is advertised and gives an overview of psychology, but I would skip this class and take a more advanced one unless you're super interested in learning about a very large variety of psychology topics all in one class.

Professor Mazurek is a light-hearted and caring instructor. I loved take this class with him and it was relatively laid-back for me. Here is just one important tip: do not slack on the reading! As long as you keep up with the reading, it will be much easier to prepare for the exams. And don't just focus on memorization--focus on actually being able to understand and explain how the mind works. Also, make sure you go to the lectures! The free-response questions will have a question that is sometimes only answerable if you attended the lectures. A lot of people were stumped by these questions when I took the class. Another pro tip: actually pay attention to the lectures. I saw a lot of people playing online solitaire during class lol. You are going to waste a lot of time trying to write down notes and remember what the lecture covered if you wait until afterwards, so just pay attention and write in the moment. It will save you a lot of effort down the line.
Mazurek is eager to answer questions and likes sharing stories. His enthusiasm was contagious for me and I greatly enjoyed the class. Would definitely recommend!

PSYCHOLO-GEEWIZ! I took this course without much thought- and it ended up being my most time consuming class throughout this semester. The amount of notes that needed to be taken in order to do well is kind of crazy, but the worst part was the memorizing (especially for the final). If the exams did not compose the entirety of the final grade, I think it would've been fine. However, because we did not have any opportunity for additional points, my GPA is probably going to go down from this class. If you have to take it, it really isn't that bad if you put in the hard work, and Professor Mazurek is a really nice guy.

Mazurek seems like a nice guy, is very enthusiastic, and has great energy. Not a difficult class since the only work was reading the textbook and the participant pool credits. His lectures were painfully boring though, as he pretty much just regurgitates the textbook, takes way too many irrelevant questions, and tells stories that take too long to get to the point. He also doesn't get to most of the test content, so reading the textbook, taking good notes, and memorization is key. The tests are not difficult, but annoying since they require very specific details and he'll make sure to include lecture content that was not in the textbook to make sure people come to class. #tCFfall2021

I took this during covid, and it was an asynchronous class. We had to read the online textbook on our own; this was how we learned most of the course material. We also watched mini-lectures that Professor Mazurek made. They were really well done, Professor Mazurek edited them, added music, etc, to make them entertaining, and he seems like an enthusiastic professor. However, the mini-lectures only covered a small amount of the course material we needed to know for the exams. Exams were open note and not very difficult, and as a result I didn't really study much and didn't learn much in this course.

Keep in mind while reading this, that I finished with an A in this class, and that I am not spiteful because of a bad grade. Mazurek would show up to class between 5 and 10 minutes late almost every class and would not get lecture started for another 5 minutes. Lectures themselves were totally useless. Lectures cover no more than 20% of the material that you need to know for the tests. The only reason to go is because of extra credit iClicker questions and each test has 1 or 2 questions about something very specific from lecture that's not in the textbook. Tests make up all of your grade, but the lowest test score other than the final gets dropped. Tests themselves are structured very poorly. He asks about very specific things that have little to do with psychology, or asks questions like "Name the four results of this experiment that were on the lecture powerpoint". Free-response questions make up 30% of the test grades and are completely arbitrary. You will feel like you answered the question completely correctly but still end up getting points off, even if you answer matches the textbook definition. He will also often pull up minute, insignificant topics and make them FRQ's so if you missed 2 lines in the textbook, there goes 10% of your test grade. He will also change scientific terms into other phrases/terms and expect you to know it even though it is not the way you learned it. If you are shooting for an A in this class, I recommend taking it with Dodson. You could know 99% of the material in this class and still end up with a B.

Professor Mazurek is a bit odd, the class isn't particularly interesting or engaging which makes it hard to be excited about the content, plus he teaches very fast and does not go over all the content that is on the test. However, the material is in the textbook and the reading is not too bad if you keep up with it. The tests are okay, some questions are tricky but it's manageable. Overall, I wouldn't recommend taking the class for fun, only take it if you need to. It's not an easy A and its not the most enjoyable.

Professor Mazurek was great. From what I've heard, he's definitely the professor to take PSYC 1010 with. He's really sweet and helpful and has a good sense of humor. His lectures can be a little dull purely by virtue of the fact that he's just reiterating the textbook content, but you need to go to them because he does graded clicker questions that factor into your grade. Because his lectures repeat a lot of textbook material, you don't need to spend a TON of time doing textbook reading. HOWEVER, he almost never makes it through everything in a chapter during lecture, so you DO need to be aware of what he doesn't cover and make sure to read it before exams - the topics will most definitely show up! The tests are pretty reasonable. They are a mixture of multiple choice, fill in the blank, and two 150 word free response questions. After the first couple tests, it becomes fairly easy to predict what topics might show up as the free response questions.

Professor Mazurek is the BEST! He is fun, encouraging, and always willing to help. He makes the class and the somewhat dry material engaging and fun to learn. PSYC 1010 is an absolute treat and definitely a class to take if you're looking for something that piques your interest in the subject. The class is easy enough as long as you do the readings and actually study, you should have no problem getting a decent grade. Tests are fair, grading is well done, and just an overall great experience. My only gripe is the participant pool, but that's no fault of Prof. Mazurek's. Please, please, take this class, and take it with Prof Mazurek, y'all won't regret it!!!

Before the start of the semester, I was told that Intro to Psych was going to be a horrible class and to drop it when I could. However, Professor Mazurek made this class highly enjoyable and I learned a great deal. The only homework you have in this class is readings, and if you stay on top of it, the class is a breeze. He does lecture straight from the book which can be very sleep-worthy if you have read, but he knows what he is talking about and you can tell that he really enjoys teaching. He adds information during lectures that the textbook doesn't cover and does clicker questions which will help your grade. His tests aren't bad and more than fair. Go to lectures, do the readings, and study for the tests and you can easily pull off an A in this class. If you are going to take PSYC 1010, take it with Mazurek.

Professor Mazurek lectures straight from the book and doesn't get to about 75% of it. He keeps people there through iClicker questions. He's seems like a fun guy but his class style isn't great. Exams are alright but as an off-grounds student, hauling myself to Gilmer twice a week to do Clicker questions was terrible.

I loved the Intro to Psych class with Professor Mazurek. At first, I thought it was going to be a boring class but as the year began to pick up, this easily became my favorite class to attend. You can really tell that Professor Mazurek loves to teach psychology and is very passionate about making sure all of his students do well. I had heard coming in to psychology that intro was the hardest class. However, Mazurek makes it very easy, and as long as you read the textbook you will do fine. The exams are straight from the readings and lectures. Additionally, he drops the lowest exam score and also gives a few extra credit points. It is very easy to do well in this class as long as you keep up with the work. I would definitely recommend.

Do not take this class unless you have to. The tests are WAY too hard for an intro psych class. I took this class because I thought a psych class could be interesting but this class is going to bring my GPA down. Overall the tests are just too specific even for someone who studied heavily. I would not recommend this class especially If you are looking for a good grade.

The most enthusiastic professor I've had so far at UVA. His love for psychology is infectious and his dad jokes / colorful language are very endearing. He's relatively new to UVA (after having taught in Missouri for over a decade) so he doesn't have the feel of a cynical tenured professor at all. Very talkative and friendly, and really helpful during office hours too. The textbook is surprisingly interesting and thorough - I'm glad we used this one instead of the one the other 1010 professors use. My only complaint is that he takes TOO many questions at the start of every class, which delays the lesson by 15 minutes almost every time. You will need to read the book and take good notes / make flashcards to do well on the tests - they are fair, but not particularly easy (especially not the first test, which covers mostly biology). I'm so glad I waited until the spring to take this course with Mazurek. Wish I had also taken him for Social Psych. After this class I feel very prepared to go on and take Neural Basis, Abnormal, or any other psychology course here. If you have the chance to take a class with this man, do it! You won't regret it.

I love intro PSYC with professor Mazurek. Although his lectures are literally straight from the book, he makes them very interesting and fun to follow. The only issue I have with him is that he never makes it through all the material he actually needs to get through in lecture and flat out tells us to study the book. It could be a lot worse though. I would recommend using this youtube channel to help you study: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYyE1HK1j71Y9ZpsOYfizDw
This guy's lectures match up exactly with the textbook and he explains it in such a concise, simple way to where everything makes sense. Use this video as you read your textbook.