PSYC 2150

Professor Willingham is an amazing professor, who really knows a lot about his field, and tries to make the class as interesting as possible with providing real life examples that you can relate to. All of the material is fascinating, so this is a class that is genuinely interesting. He also doesn't assign any work besides textbook readings, and even those are spread out among different days, so some days there is no work at all.

That being said, you do need to go to class every time and read the textbook when the syllabus says to. Willingham does it a little differently in that he likes students to read the textbook after his lecture, which actually helps you understand the reading better, so I would recommend following his advice on that. There are three midterms and a final. The lowest of the three midterms is dropped, and the other two count for 30% of your grade each, with the final counting as 40%. So, studying is important, and questions are about 50-50 between the lecture and the textbook, less so for the first midterm as there aren't many readings for the first one. He'll start off the first day by going over his exams, and how he wants the average grade on his exams to be a 70. This does sound frightening, but honestly just read the textbook, take notes on the book and in lecture, and genuinely study and you'll get above this for sure. He also curves the exams in a very weird way that is extremely complicated, so I would say the only bad part about this class is you don't know your true grade until you go into the final, after the third midterm. One final piece of advice on the exams: there are "test review" sections in the book after a number of pages, and they have a bunch of questions on the material. Go through those when you study for the text so you actually can answer questions about the text on the exam.

Overall, this class is a fascinating course with amazing material. As long as you read the textbook and actually study, you'll be fine. I would definitely recommend this course to anyone, even if they are not a psych major.

Fairly easy course. Willingham is cool and an interesting lecturer. Make sure to go to the lectures because the exams are very detailed and exactly from the lectures. I barely did any reading from the textbook and concentrated more on studying from the lectures. Would recommend to someone who is interested in the topic, has a background in psych or is willing to put in a decent amount of studying a week before the exams. (I got an A-)

This class is very conceptual and the tests are insanely frustrating. There are three midterms (one is dropped) and a final. Willingham is very smart but quite full of himself and patronizing. He also does a poor job of explaining things on a level that is understandable. The tests are annoying, but they are curved.

This was a really interesting course and Willingham is a great lecturer. He is able to speak articulately without being too fast or confusing which is a rare quality in my opinion. The material is interesting however it is fairly necessary to go to his lectures. The textbook will only take you so far in this class (unless he starts using the textbook that he is currently writing, I don't know when that will begin though) and the lecture slides are not very useful on their own. I highly recommend printing them out before the class if possible and taking notes on them. Overall I highly recommend, but take it at a time that you won't be tempted to sleep in and skip like I did.

I absolutely loved this class. It is a difficult class, but an A is possible you go to lecture, do the readings, and go to the review sessions before tests (they are super super helpful). Professor Willingham is a cool guy and good about answering questions in class and online on Collab. Sometimes he starts to lecture super fast but he gladly slows down if someone lets him know.

First off, I should say that I love this class and Mr. Willingham. He gives a lot of character to the class and makes every lecture slide much more approachable. The information presented in this class is applicable in so many facets of life outside of a psychology major. At the least, you should sit in on 2nd day's lecture as he goes over scientifically supported study methods along with associated research. After this class I quite literally felt bigger brained. On the downside, this class is very hard. Willingham expects that you have a thorough understanding of the topics presented in class since his test questions can either be very specific or they push your understanding of the concepts to the limit. I tried as hard as I could for a B and honestly I'm happy with it, but of course I'm sure if I understood the concepts in more detail and asked myself more questions like "what happens if I change this thing in the system" or "how do these concepts relate to what was taught previously?"

Willingham is super interesting to hear lecture, even though his tests can be tricky. Definitely recommend taking this class if you're interested in the topic, but if you're not then you're not going to do very well and your grade will suffer. Four exams, he drops the lowest and the class is curved at the end.

Willingham is a great lecturer. This class will give you a new perspective on psychology. Prof basically spent the first half of the semester disproving everything we "know" about psychology. You learn about many different models for the same concept, and he explains how each model came to be and how they can be proven/disproven. This course deals with a lot of abstract concepts, and sometimes I left lecture feeling like the main idea was "we know nothing about how ___ works but here is what seems most likely." Attendance is not mandatory for this course, but I highly recommend going to lecture. The only "homework" for this class is to do readings which are always assigned after we go over the concept in class. Readings are usually very long, but imo they will help you do well in this class. While this course is difficult and challenges what you may have learned in previous courses, it is definitely worth taking.

Professor Willingham is kind of a well-known academic in the area of cognitive psychology, although I didn't know that going in. When he lectures, it's evident that he cares a lot about the content and knows a *ton* about the subject. There's a lot of content, but the textbook is very well-written and if you're at all able to keep up with the reading, I'd highly recommend that you do. He wrote the textbook, so it matches up extremely well with the lectures and usually offers the same content as the lectures, but in a different format. A fair warning: sometimes, the midterms will ask questions that are only discussed in the textbook. These aren't super common, but expect 1-2 questions per exam that will require that you have done your reading. Willingham did a great job getting me excited about cognitive psychology, and I learned so much about not just the field but about how psychology and science is conducted in general. You'll be introduced to a bunch of different and widely applicable concepts, and you'll find yourself thinking about them in everyday life. Highly recommend this class for anyone!!!

I absolutely loved this class. Professor Willingham was an amazing professor and his lectures were super interesting and engaging. He wrote the textbook we used, and I actually found it pretty enjoyable and entertaining to read. It also matched up super well with the content of the lectures. The reading is manageable and the only assignment outside of lecture. Your grade is made up of three midterms (lowest is dropped) and a final. The exams are multiple choice and he purposely makes them difficult, but there is a forgiving curve at the end of the semester. The TAs also hold a review session every week. Overall, I would highly recommend this course with Willingham!