PSYC 2150

I honestly don't really understand the hype around this professor. He's nice and everything, but I honestly found his lectures to be confusing. I don't think he was the best at explaining things and his powerpoints were very bare. People rave about the textbook but I thought it was annoying to read. He wrote the textbook to read like a novel which is cool, but not what I want in a textbook. It made it hard to figure out what you actually needed to know. He also does grading weirdly which he claims is always supported by students every semester, but I found it hard to figure out what my grade was going into finals and what I needed on the final. He gives you a grade based on your z-score + 10, so if you have an 11/22 (why 22 I don't know, somehow the final grade was then out of 15???) you have an A somehow and if you have like a 10.5 you have an A-, etc. It was super confusing, I just wanted to be able to take my average scores and figure out what I needed to get on the final from there. Overall, the course was somewhat challenging, but doable. He did do a good job switching to online. I would take the course again, I just thought the way he did things was a little strange.

Professor Willingham is a really great professor, and he really cares about what he teaches! He was also super helpful with the transition to online classes this semester, so that made the class much more enjoyable!

The course is awesome! I love the way Willingham taught the course, as he knew how to get us to understand the content. Also, the course only has reading assignment as assignment and the final grade depends completely on midterms and finals, which sounds great. One suppose to read on average 100 pages per week, which could be a little bit overwhelming if you did not finish them on time and rush to read them before the exam.

I'm a computer science major and took this class as an integrative elective. I loved this class both from a psychology and computer science standpoint! Professor Willingham does a great job with explaining the principles of cognitive psychology and how they relate to computer science in a very interesting way. The lectures were engaging and captivating, though if you left the textbook reading to the last minute it piled up quick. Willingham wrote the textbook and once said he hoped it would be like his students bible for the semester in that they would read a little everyday. If you stick with that mantra, the reading is interesting and manageable. This class is not an easy A, but if you study you can get a good grade and learn a lot about how your mind works and how to better your study habits.

Overall I enjoyed this class, even though there were some complicated and boring lectures. This was partially my fault because I didn’t read the textbook for most of the course, so I was confused and that made things more boring. Seriously, READ THE TEXTBOOK. Not only does it make everything make sense, it’s also interesting and kinda funny. Also THE TESTS HAVE QUESTIONS ABOUT MATERIAL THAT WAS ONLY COVERED IN THE TEXTBOOK. There are three tests and a final, and he drops your lowest test grade (excluding your grade on the final). He doesn’t have questions that are like “A and C” or “all of the above” because he says they stress students, which is greatly appreciated. He has a complicated grading system with z scores and no matter how many times he explains it I don’t understand it. Willingham is funny and a good lecturer. If you take this class in-person, record lectures (even though he has a no phone policy he still lets you record).

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

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 :)

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

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

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