I am a psychology major that had to take this class as a psychology requirement. I entered this class thinking that I was going to do decently well since I had discussed cognitive psychology in IB psych in high school, but I was sadly mistaken. This class really made me question my capabilities as a psychology student and made me question my major altogether. For this class Professor Willingham wrote the textbook that is used so he knows this information inside and out. Professor Willingham has a good personality and cracks jokes during lecture, but even if you pay attention to the full lecture, and read all the chapters, you will almost inevitably do poorly on the exams. My grade in a regularly weighted class would've been a D, but with the curve in this class I ended with a C+. Professor Willingham basically creates his own grading system with Z scores and deviations that is extremely confusing and leaves you unsure of what your grade will be. You get a "rough" estimate of your curve for the first 3 exams, but you can't really use that as an indicator of your grade because it is subject to change. You take 3 exams and a final, and the lowest of your first 3 exams is dropped. The first 2 exams are each worth 30% and the final is worth 40%. Even with consistently low averages on the exams, nothing about the way the class was run changed. The most frustrating part of this class is that you can go to lecture, read the textbook, and study with classmates and still fail the exams. You can talk out the content and really understand/grasp what each study or theory is saying, but the questions are so complex and convoluted that your basic understanding of the content is not enough. Just be prepared to receive a test grade that does not truly reflect your understanding of the content. Unless you have to take this class as a psych requirement, I do not recommend putting yourself through this course.

This class was a lot. Professor Willingham is a good lecturer, he's entertaining and cracks jokes here and there. The class material itself is just a lot. There are specific studies, concepts, applications, etc... And there are things not discussed in the lecture that are in the textbook that you kind of have to piece together yourself. The tests were kind of hard but there's a curve. I didn't know my grade until the very end of the semester so that was not fun ,

The lectures were for the most part captivating and enjoyable. His dialogue was never monotonous, he would never just read off of the slides, he would explain the concepts at a pace where we could take it in and he would always give us time to ask questions. The exams were not easy, with grades averaging around a C. You have to put in time reading the textbook and studying the material at depth. It's maybe not the best option if you dislike psychology, but if you do, definitely take this class. He is a cool dude.

Willingham is an amazing lecturer! He's really funny and engaging, and he's definitely very knowledgeable. It's clear that he wants you to succeed. However, sometimes he starts going off on tangents and we wouldn't be able to finish the lesson for that day (though when this happens he makes it very clear in his slides so you know to focus on that more in the textbook readings). His slides are pretty bare bones and out of context if you don't go to lectures so I wouldn't recommend skipping. He also doesn't record lectures unless you're sick and email him ahead of time to say you'll be absent. Overall, he's a very nice person and good teacher. The class itself is also really interesting and covered a range of psychology topics.

The textbook readings can be pretty dense. However, the tests mention really specific stuff from the readings that he doesn't cover in lectures so DEFINITELY read the textbook in addition to attending class. I always read it after the lectures because I found the textbook more confusing so it was easier to have some background knowledge going into it. Usually he assigned about 30 pages 1-2 times a week, and each chapter took me probably 1.5 hours to finish.

There are literally no assignments besides the exams so on weeks when I didn't have the study the workload was pretty light. This makes the exams more stressful though - there's 3 midterms, the lowest of which is dropped (so the 2 highest scores are each 20% of your grade), plus the 1 final which is worth 40% of your grade. The tests are pretty hard since they mention A LOT of really specific details. They're mostly multiple choice with some fill in the blank. It's basically pure memorization, but really deep memorization where you have to understand the concepts fully. His curves are pretty generous. I think the average on every test, pre-curve, was a 70% but the average in the class at the end of the semester (post-curve) was a B.

I did well in this class (A+) and I took notes on every chapter because the exams often mention specific studies or vocab terms from that. I hand-wrote my lecture notes, so before each test I would go through those notes and the lecture slides and then type them up to review. I would then reread my textbook notes, taking notes on those notes and integrating that information with my class notes. I also rewatched the exam review session recordings he posted since they were really helpful.

This was the first psychology class I'd taken ever, and it didn't leave the greatest impression. Willingham is a really cool guy and his lectures are always interesting to sit in, but it was just so much information that mixed too much together. The exams were pretty much based more on memorization than understanding and application, so they were beyond hard, especially since information typically came from 4-5 chapters of reading each AND lecture. For reference, the class average for most of the exams was ~75% and for the final ~70%. If you're really great at psychology (and I mean REALLY great), then this might be the course for you, but for most people, it's not a great course to be taking for a grade.
If you do end up taking the course, I would recommend getting the reading in before you start studying for the exams (i.e.: don't use the textbook as a review, actively take notes) and always review with a friend or two. Try to teach each other the material and connect vocab to each other. Always ask clarifying questions, especially during office hours and the review session. Good luck.
#tCFfall2021

Professor Willingham is a really funny and engaging lecturer, and he explains concepts pretty well. There are 1-2 readings per week, and they are essential to the course because test questions come from lecture and readings equally. You take three midterms, of which the lowest is dropped, and then the final is worth 40%. The tests are fairly difficult, but Prof. Willingham curves them well. Most importantly, the content was interesting (and there is a lot of it). Overall, I would recommend this class. #tCFfall2021

Professor Willingham is definitely passionate about his subject, and he makes his material relatively interesting. However, his exams have caused me more frustration than all of my other classes combined. Willingham curves decently well, but the questions are super convoluted and the practice exams he gives are absolutely nothing like the actual exam. He admits early on that his exams are going to be impossible. This is so important because your grade is made up of only the exams — three midterms (lowest is dropped so it goes to two) that add up to 60% of your grade and then a final worth 40%. Needless to say I didn’t love this class

This class is an extremely fascinating one if the topic is one that interests you, and the professor is an engaging and entertaining lecturer. The professor is the author of the textbook you will read, so he is very qualified for this position, and both the readings and lectures are worded in ways that keep attention. That being said, it is also a difficult class unless you attend every lecture, do every reading throughly, and study well before each exam. Your final grade is only made up of the exams, and the way it is curved can be confusing, which is also frustrating. As someone who did all of the above, I still found some of the questions on the exam to be unnecessarily specific, and I feel that the final grade is likely an unfair representation of your actual learning. I did really enjoy the class for the material itself and would still recommend to mainly cognitive science/psychology majors, but it's definitely not a stereotypically easy psych class.
#tCFfall2021

I took this course online during COVID so keep that in mind when reading this review. Professor Willingham appeared like a nice guy, but I can't say I was a real fan of his course. His lectures were ridiculously long for no reason (and pretty boring) and his slides had almost nothing written on them so they were meaningless to look over again when studying. The course was set to be 75 minutes but the majority of the lectures he put out were around 90 minutes which was annoying because they took so long to watch. His videos were extremely content heavy and in no way related to the material written in the textbook readings. It was as if you were taking two different courses at once. You would think that him having WRITTEN his OWN textbook would make the lectures a bit more easy to follow, but nope. The material covered in the textbook itself was interesting, but I didn't like the way the textbook was written so it was hard to focus on what you were reading. His exams - uff. He made them open notes but it didn't make a difference. I memorized every single thing you could think of from the lectures and readings but it still wasn't enough. My notes were beautiful and very organized but still utterly useless for his exams. The questions were ridiculously tough and tricky. Although he tried to make them easier on the second midterm, people still pretty much scored the same which was sad. We had 2 midterms and a final, there was no other coursework that went into your final grade, so if you didn't do well on the exams there was nothing you could do to pick up your grade. I wouldn't really recommend this course unless you really needed to take it. I really don't have any suggestions other than don't leave your studying until the last minute and pray before each exam. I recommend creating a groupme with the other students and gathering in groups to study and motivate each other. I'm a straight A student so when I say I hope I never have to take this class again....Good luck :)

Warning: This is not an intro psych class. I'm a non-psych major, and I took this class because it sounded interesting and it was being taught asynchronously. The class is three exams (2 midterms @ 30% each and a final worth 40%). You MUST read the textbook as a good portion of the exam questions related to textbook material that was NOT covered in lectures. Professor Willingham was nice enough. He curved the first and second exams, and then he made the final incredibly easy. Other than that, I didn't really interact with him. I could tell that he was incredibly well versed in the material, though as a non-psych major who had never taken any sort of psychology course in my life I was confused/bored for the majority of the class. Bottom line: don't take this class expecting an easy A. Honestly, I wouldn't recommend taking it unless you have to... Sorry Prof. Willingham