PSYC 2150

Professor Willingham is a fantastic lecturer because he makes the complicated material simple to understand. He is also very energetic and passionate about what he is teaching and is sometimes genuinely funny. The material can be difficult to understand but he is good at simplifying the information with examples, and the book also helps with understanding the material. The readings were very long and boring, which is annoying because the test will bring up specific instances from the book. The class was composed of 3 midterms and a final. The midterms are not bad if you keep up with the readings and study a lot beforehand. However, the final was incredibly hard, but it was curved a decent amount. Even though the class was hard, I found the class enjoyable because the material was interesting as it showed my mental processes.

This course will put you on the forefront of cognitive science and Willingham knows what he's talking about. Although that sounds really cool, know that when something is confusing, the internet really can't help you much. For example, try getting a straightforward definition for "pragmatic reasoning schema"--it's not easy. The tests are the real killer of the class. They make up 100% of your grade and are curved such that the average is a B/B+. To earn an A you'll need to outperform most of the class and as Willingham estimates, study around 20 hours per test (with 3 tests / semester). But if this subject area interests you, definitely take the course. You will learn a lot.

Grading: For my class, 13% got an A, 13% got an A-, 50% got from B+ to B- range. There are 3 midterms, you drop the lowest one, and a final. Midterms are 30% each and final is 40%. The midterms are 40 questions, 32ish multiple choice and 8ish fill in the blank. The final is 80 questions, 65ish multiple choice and 15ish fill in the blank. Each midterm average was around a 75 and the final average was a 65. Professor Willingham heavily curves the exams based on mean/SD so the averages ended up being around a B/B+ on each exam. You don't know your realistic course grade until after the last midterm because he waits for the exams to be dropped to do the curve. But he makes sure you know going into the final.
I read the Course Forum reviews for this class before I took it and freaked out because everyone said the tests were so hard. The tests are not hard, they are just very specific. You have pay attention to everything in lecture (which are recorded) and read the textbook very carefully. The test questions ask about specific terms and details, but none of the questions are interpretative or analytical so I would not consider the tests "hard." If you study well, you will do well. He gives you the exams from the previous semester and they are very good benchmarks to see if you are studying well enough. He also repeats some questions from year to year. I don't want to make the class sound like an easy A, its definitely not. I just want to even out some of the other reviews which might have been motivated by low scores in the class. If you put in the work, you can get an A.
For reference, I got 97.5, 100, and 95 on the midterms before the curve. I got a 98 on the final without the curve. I'm not a genius, I haven't taken a cognition class before, I just studied. If I can do it, so can you!

Professor: Professor Willingham is obviously extremely intelligent and extremely knowledgeable. He wrote the textbook and seems to know everything written in the textbook by heart. He knows the material back and forth but can still explain it in a way that makes sense to the average student. His lectures are extremely organized and well structured. He advices students to read the textbook chapters after lecture which I found very useful because the material is so much easier to understand after lecture has given an overview/explanation. He clearly wants his students to do well, but expects you to do the work to do well. He even gives an entire lecture at the beginning of the semester about how to study based on cognitive research. He was always available for office hours whenever I asked and was very helpful about answering specific questions from the textbook and re-explaining things that I didn't understand in lecture. He was always very approachable and welcoming.

Overall: As a psychology major, I found the material of this course to be interesting overall despite expecting otherwise. The main topics are vision, attention, working memory, long term memory, language, decision making, reasoning, and problem solving. The class seems less "science-y" than I expected which was a pleasant surprise; you only need to know links between cognitive processes and parts of the brain as they apply to the material which ends up being like 4-5 parts total and you don't need to know specific details. I wouldn't recommend taking this course unless its required or you are interested in the material because its not an easy A. However, like I said, if you put in the work studying, you can definitely get an A. There's no work besides the textbook readings and the exams so its definitely manageable. Each textbook chapter took me 2-3 hours to read and take notes but usually he assigned half a chapter per class. To study, I took detailed lecture notes, detailed textbook notes, then combined them into a quizlet for each exam. Each quizlet ended up having 150/200 terms. Its basically all terms/definitions and knowing broad ideas of studies. None of it is conceptually difficult.

As someone interested in psychology, I LOVED this class. Dan willingam is incredibly knowledgable and teaches knowledge that is actually useful to know in daily life. I still find myself thinking about concepts I learned in his class. That being said, this class was not easy and does require diligent note-taking in class and a good amount of studying before exams. So i would only recommend if you're actually interested in the subject, and if you have to take it as a psyc major-- take it with willingham. Overall, great professor, challenging but rewarding subject matter, and my favorite uva class so far.

Probably the worst class I've ever taken. Your final grade is made up of only THREE exams, two midterms for 30% and one final for 40%. Which is abhorrent. His lectures are incredibly confusing since they have zero structure to them, I found myself not being able to take good notes because there were absolutely no logical connections between the topics he was discussing. His lecture slides are SO SO BAD. Usually, professors would make them so that they have the basic gist of whatever they're trying to lecture about on the slides so that when you go back to study, you can reference them, but his slides were genuinely so unhelpful. He gives his students absolutely ZERO resources to study except for a single old exam from previous semesters and his own textbook. If you don't memorize every single word in his textbook, you can't expect to do well on the exams. The only redeemable part about this course is the curve he gives on exams. Do not take this class unless it is required for your major.

This class is a balance between super interesting and kinda hard. You need to go to every lecture (the panopto never worked) and memorize everything that comes out of DTW's mouth. I took audio recordings of every single lecture so that if I missed something I could go back later and listen to it again—I definitely recommend recording everything yourself if you can. The textbook was written by DTW himself and yes, you also have to memorize every single line. Your grade is determined by three 40-question multiple choice midterms and one 80-question multiple choice final. A lot of people complain about that but I took this class for my HSS elective as an E-school student so I definitely preferred the tests to writing papers and having discussions. I got an A in the class, so my biggest tips are going to every lecture, recording, taking notes while reading, taking notes during lecture, and rewriting those lecture notes after class. I also made a study group with my friends who were taking it with me, and we locked in every weekend before tests to draw mindmaps of content and quiz each other. The class is super interesting and DTW is a really interesting guy to listen to/talk to (go to office hours and talk to him!), and especially if you're in the E-school and looking for an HSS elective that doesn't require writing, I would def recommend.

This was one of my first psychology classes at UVA and it was extremely difficult. For this class there are two 75 minute lectures and the only grades are four exams. You are expected to do the readings from the textbook, which Dr. Willingham wrote himself, before class, then he lectures about a few things that will be on the exams. He does not lecture about all the content so it is really important to take good notes from the textbook and study it intensively before the exams. Due to bad performance on exams, there was always a pretty large curve for each exam, but even with that I did not do well in the course. Attendance is optional for the lectures, but you will not pass the class if you do not attend the lectures, because he talks about specific things that will appear on any of the exams. #tCFS24

Willingham is a great professor. He is a super nice guy who genuinely cares about his students and wants to ensure you do well. He frequently stops in-class for questions, which is super refreshing. The professor is amazing. That being said, the course is not easy. The readings are not bad compared to other psychology classes. He usually has us read a chapter a week, which is nice, but that also means he has 2 days to go super in-depth into the concepts to make the course and the exams more detail-oriented. Your grade comprises 3 exams + the final, but you get to drop your test grade further from the class's mean on the test. However, you will not know what you have in the class until the last day of class. I enjoyed him but wish his class was not so detail-oriented.

#tCFF23

This class is super interesting if you are interested in psychology or neuroscience, but it is not an easy A. You def have to read the textbook and study for exams. I also recommend going to lecture as much as possible because even though he uploads slides, they aren't nearly as informative as he is in lecture. His slides are vague, and he fills in the blanks in class. That said I def did skip once or twice and I still got an A. Willingham is funny, I think he is a good lecturer. The reading can be a pain, but overall it is pretty interesting stuff. I recommend this class but be ready to put a bit of work into it!

I really liked this class. Professor Willingham is a great lecturer, and he wrote the textbook that he assigns which is very helpful. He doesn't record the lectures and I highly recommend going because he clarifies many of the things covered in the textbook and often talks about things that aren't in the book. He does post the slides after the lecture, but I don't think it's enough to just read them and not go to lecture. Your grade is solely based on your midterms and finals. There are three midterms and you get to drop one. I don't think the midterms were that hard, but he does grab some niche topics so make sure you study and cover everything in the book and from lectures. Reading the textbook took me a while, but I take meticulous notes so it may not be that way for everyone. He does curve all the tests so that the average grade is a B, which can be helpful if you're on the lower end of the spectrum and can even add a point or two if you're on the mid to higher end. The material itself is interesting and relatable to everyday life, which made it easier to understand. Overall not too hard, and Willingham is great.