PSYC 2150

I COMPLETELY disagree with the review below- Willingham is a phenomenal professor. Although he goes so fast during the lecture that it's almost impossible to copy down relevant information, I highly recommend taking the course if you have any interest whatsoever in the material. Don't expect it to be easy-I've never taken a psyc course and I'm sure that made it a bit more difficult for me, but you definitely have to work hard. I recommend reading the textbook and taking the practice tests on Collab--it seemed like nearly half the questions on the final were from previous exams. Overall, I definitely recommend the class!!

It's not too hard a course work wise. However, you absolutely must show up for lecture. Readings are also necessary, as they tend to account for 1/4th of your test grade (although he doesn't gives you a very reasonable amount of reading). DTW is a great lecturer, and is definitely hilarious, but you will need to take notes on a laptop to do well. I didn't do well on the first midterm, but after I switched to taking notes on my laptop I did much better. There are two practice tests on collab for each test. TAKE THEM. A lot of those questions, or at least ones similar to them, find their way onto the actual test! Basically, if you learn how to take his tests, you'll do well in his class.

If you don't plan on attending every lecture, you probably shouldn't plan on taking this class. Why? Well, to begin, tests are about 80% lecture and 20% textbook. You might think, "It's okay, I'll just get notes from Collab." Wrong, you won't get notes from Collab because DTW doesn't post anything helpful to Collab. If you do go to lecture, you'll probably be ok. Not to mention the lectures are actually interesting most of the time. The textbook is pretty drab and not a very easy read just because it's so dumbed down and uninteresting. In terms of what is good, DTW and the TAs make themselves pretty available so if you need help, they're there. The tests are pretty hard and most people get low to mid Bs. If you want a class that is a relatively easy A, this class is not for you. Take this class if A) You need it for your major, or B) You want to challenge yourself with something different from any class you've ever taken.

Going to lecture is crucial and the book readings, though dry and boring, is also necessary. Though Willingham is a funny and engaging lecturer, he talks way too fast to write down all the fundamental points and the way he presents the material is "this is correct but this is more correct but this theory still isn't right," which makes it really confusing. Overall, interesting class but semi difficult. Make sure to take the practice exams since some questions show up on the final and midterms.

I loved this class! For reference, I'm a first year and the only exposure I've had to psychology was with AP Psych in high school (though only a handful of ideas from the class were brought up in this one).
The class was divided into 3 units, with the first unit having barely any reading and the last 2 having a considerable amount, but definitely not unreasonable. For the first exam I got a B-, probs because there was no reading to clarify points that were quickly taught in lecture, but on the last 2 I got a solid A and A-, with an A on the final.
I do agree with a previous reviewer that he tends to speed through some things and it can be confusing when he presents multiple theories and at the end of lecture briefly mentions how the theories aren't all so valid, but that didn't prove to be a huge problem since there were review sessions, office hours, and a discussion board that Prof. Willingham checked frequently.

If you can spend 2-3hrs reading/notetaking per week, this class shouldn't be bad at all. Like others have said, it's important to go to lecture since he only posts a select few slides to post on Collab. I thought lectures were pretty entertaining though so I didn't mind... And honestly the textbook readings were actually pretty interesting, and this is coming from someone with zero interest in science!

It seems like I'm going against the majority opinion here, but I honestly feel that Willingham wasn't all that great. A decent and mildly entertaining lecturer yes, but I found it hard to get meaningful takeaways from him. He'd introduce a topic, talk about it, make analogies, a quip or two, we take notes, he'll test us on it later, but it felt like we never got to the significance and at times it was either trivial or common sense. I acknowledge that this is an intro course, and I guess these are foundations, but a little more novelty would have helped.
He would also occasionally put forth several theories that explain a notion with no clear indication as to which is correct. This is confusing, but understandable given the course's nature as it's hard to absolutely prove this kind of thing.

I found the book to be bloated and kind of silly. Although there isn't much reading for the course, and the content overlaps with lecture, tests are bound to include some information from the readings so read carefully :/
On the topic of tests, some of the questions are bound to be horrible. To the point where if you ask him about it later at office hours, he will acknowledge that that it was a bad question. Despite this, one can easily do well on tests by coming to lecture, taking good notes, and using some intuition. People say his tests are hard, they're not really, some questions are just poorly constructed with multiple "right" answers.

This review has taken a turn for the negative. I don't mean to dissuade anyone from the course. Just don't get your hopes up so high with these glowing reviews. Willingham is a good professor, he holds review sessions and is approachable and kind. The course itself certainly has interesting parts, but I found some to be kind of trivial and aimless. Take this course if you're interested in psychology or the mind because it's a good start, but it is not as ideal as described.

This was such a great class. Professor Willingham is hilarious, down to earth, and very helpful. His tests are difficult but if you take the time to study and are able to understand the concepts well you should be fine!

I really like Professor Willingham. He explains things well, complements the textbook, and uses lecture time productively. You definitely need to show up regularly. Most of the studying is just getting familiar with/memorizing the info... it's not difficult to grasp. Tests cover both lecture and textbook material, so study your notes on both. TAs have review sessions weekly. Great class for social science students; probably not the most interesting course for people who aren't into psychology. Three midterms, lowest one is dropped, the other two are 30% each. Final is 40%. Clicker questions are recorded by participation and influence the grade by a half-step up/down.

Interesting material very hard exams. I understood all the material per Professor W himself; however, the exam questions were extremely difficult to interpret.

I struggled with this class but made it out with a B. When writing notes, copy absolutely everything he says - even if it doesn't make sense. As other have mentioned, the reading is boring but it's not terrible to get through since you're tested on it.

Most importantly, DO THE PRACTICE EXAMS. The questions are very tricky and most have more than 1 right answer. Those got me every time. You have to commit all note examples and concepts to memory and make sure you're over-prepared from the get-go. Don't let the stuff go over your head and then think "Oh I'll just study it later." The TA's I had were pretty bad at making me feel any more comfortable with the material. However, you should definitely go see Willingham sometime during the semester. He was so nice to talk to that I went to visit twice. He is a very nice person, and really influenced me to go into psychology.