PSYC 2200

Dr. Clabough is a great lecturer. She's very clear and concise, and although she doesn't use PowerPoints, she likes to draw on the board and write up important terms. I've definitely learned a lot. This really isn't a class you can skip though, as there won't be a PowerPoint or anything online to review.
Even though she's a great professor, this class has been really hard. There's 5 tests including a cumulative final- 25% each and you drop your lowest. However, the tests have a lot of multiple select questions that are super tricky, and any information from the textbook is fair game (no matter how small of a detail it is). She has also made it clear she does not believe in curving any of the tests or the class itself, so you get what you get. As someone who does not have a biology background, I found this class to be tough. Maybe don't take my word for it if you're a bio major.
Edit: I also want to mention that even though Dr. Clabough lectures well, was not accommodating during the COVID-19 crisis. I don't think she even offered words of sympathy for our situation once. The tests remained closed-note and tough, the difficulty of the material ramped up, and the time limit for exams remained 50 minutes (I once had technical difficulties that ate up 10 minutes of my time trying to sort out, but it didn't matter.) She stopped hosting regular office hours and just posted YouTube lectures 3 times a week. I was disappointed by this because the transition to online was difficult for many students. I found her to be a kind professor before this and just didn't understand why we got NO leniency at all.

This class is very interesting, but the exams are really difficult as they are more detail oriented than simply understanding the concepts (you also have to recall dozens of studies mentioned in the book and lecture). Although Professor Clabough is pretty likeable in general, she made no effort to accommodate during the Covid-19 situation, leaving exams with a 50 minute limit (regardless of technological concerns) while simply posting lecture on youtube weekly. Also there was no curving, whatsoever even when the class average was low for most of the exams. Would not recommend the class unless it is needed for the major as it simply adds stress to your life.

Took this course as this was a requirement for my psychology degree, otherwise I would’ve never taken it nor would I recommend it to anyone. Professor Clabough (along with every other professor that teaches this course) refuses to use PowerPoint slides, opting to draw crude diagrams on a chalkboard which disappear forever once erased. To make matters worse, every minute detail that is mentioned in lecture (which you have no access to if you don’t take notes!) and in the textbook can and will be tested on the needlessly deceptive and difficult exam. Professor Clabough refused to make any accommodations amidst COVID-19 in terms of exams, with no curve added whatsoever absolutely no possibility of rescheduling. I had multiple occasions at home where electricity, much less internet access in my home was a certainty and I’m quite frankly dunbfounded that this professor doesn’t care or does not have the insight to understand other families’ circumstances. Highly would NOT recommend taking this course with Professor Clabough.

Ok this is going to be a long review, because although I loved the content from this class, I hated everything else about it. I ended with a high A in the class, so take that into account when you read my review.

I took this course because it is a pre-requisite to apply for applying to the neuro major. Professor Clabough opened the class on the first by saying this is an introductory course, and that if you are a third or fourth year you should be taking a higher level course. I can tell you, this course is anything but introductory in terms of the rigor and amount of material required to know. Professor Clabough is not good at lecturing. She has a set of topics to talk about printed in front of her, and will often just read off of her abbreviated bullet points if she doesn't remember how to elaborate on something. I didn't see this as much when we were in person, but when we went online she could more often than not be seen reading directly off of something. In the beginning of the course she explained concepts very well, but as the course progressed and the content got harder she was not very good at explaining things. She does not use a powerpoint or give out her script to the class, so if you don't write something down or remember it, you are fucked. She draws diagrams on the whiteboard, which I found useful, but again, if you do not copy word-for-word everything she says and writes, you can very easily miss something on the exams. Why is that? Because according to her, "anything is fair game for the exams". Anything. At all. From the unit. That ranges from a big concept, like what is epigenetics, to a very specific study that was only mentioned once in the 120+ pages of reading for each test. Her exams have multiple questions that are "choose all that apply", and she tries to trick you on very specific things. She says she does this to make sure you are reading the textbook and paying attention in class, but honestly it is just to make sure you are memorizing everything she says and everything in the textbook. I want to emphasize this in case you haven't gotten the message already: ANYTHING CAN BE ON THE TESTS. No matter how insignificant it is, anything can be on the test. If you miss a lecture, make sure you to talk to someone who was there and ask them to verbatim say what Clabough said during lecture. I've filled up a 1 subject notebook with notes, and I have still have like 10 extra pages beyond that, full of random gibberish and studies and brain areas that are listed as circuits from the textbook. There are 5 tests throughout this course, of which only 4 count toward your grade (so if you do well enough on the first four tests, you don't have to take the cumulative final). You also cannot make up these tests. Sick? That's your one test dropped. Internet failed before you could finish and submit it? That's your one test dropped. Mental health issues that prevent you from taking the test? That's your one test dropped. Clabough is brutal, and does not show mercy. She does not care. The class is not curved at all, so what you get on the tests is your final grade for that test. No chance for a bump, no chance for a curve. I think this was Clabough's first year at UVA, and she did not know how this course worked so she structured it like how the last professor (Peter Brunjes) taught it. The thing is, Brunjes curved his grades! So people in his class did fine! Clabough adds way too much stress to your life, so do not take this course unless you have to. I think the only reason I did well in this class was because when we went online, I could rewatch her lectures and catch things I missed the first time, because she just posted recordings on YouTube. I would recommend you record lectures, because that way when you're reviewing if you realize you don't understand something, you can go directly back to the lecture and hear again what Clabough said. When reviewing for this class, memorize everything, and pray you remember it during the test. TA office hours are pretty useful if you have specific questions, but they can't generalize and explain everything to you again. However, as much as I hated everything about this class, from the professor to the exams, I thoroughly enjoyed what we learned. Very interesting topics, very cool studies, but way too much to know and understand for each test.

Dr. Clabough made this class unnecessarily difficult. She didn't use powerpoint or anything. instead, she used the chalkboard and pulled up pictures. She drew on the chalkboard to explain some concepts which was very helpful, but if you missed one thing you were kinda screwed. I would definitely handwrite your notes for this class due to most of the notes being diagrams. RECORD the lecture! She expects you to memorize EVERYTHING, even the miniscule details that seem irrelevant. She also expects you to memorize EVERYTHING IN THE TEXTBOOK, even the little notes or pages on a specific experiment. She also expects you to memorize her exact wording. She isn't a very good lecturer, but she is willing to answer specific questions and such. Her test are difficult and confusing at times. There was also an incident where she said incorrect info during lecture so majority of the students got it wrong on the exam and when we brought it up she got very defensive and was actually kinda rude about it. She doesn't like being told she made mistakes or being called out. The annoying thing was that I really enjoyed the material and found it interesting, but her lack of ability to teach ruined it for me. I understand that this course is suppose to be difficult concepts but she made the learning process hard. If you can take it with someone else I would.

This class has a lot of content and was pretty difficult. The readings were dense but actually helped because it was difficult to take notes during the lectures. Professor Clabough give the link for her recorded lectures from the spring semester where she writes everything on a whiteboard behind her which I grew to hate as the class progressed because it would be so hard to get information from it. The camera would often be positioned so not all of the board would be visible or the professor would position herself between the camera and the board, or there would be a glare obscuring the words, or the marker color would be too light to make out. The tests were crazy because some of them would be all multiple choice multiple answer and the tests would be on the obscure things that Clabough said in lecture. There aren't any slides so you have to write down everything she says which is impossible. Thankfully the recorded lectures allowed me to rewind and get stuff that I missed. I would not recommend this class unless you're really interested in neuroscience and I would definitely not recommend this class as a summer class.

I cannot advise this class to anyone, especially if it continues online. The professor does not use any slides but it is clear she is reading off of a sheet. Slides would be easy to make from this I am sure, but they are not available. This is frustrating, as she is also a very bad speller, so she will write something up and it will be spelled wrong. This can be very confusing with many specific brain words. The lecture is also very boring, and the tests are incredibly difficult and tricky. You must memorize every word she says and every word of the textbook practically. The tests are also very short, which is frustrating. The whole thing felt like it was not very well put together.

Took this class in the summer and hated it so much. The material is interesting but her lectures are awful: disorganized, cluttered, and honestly lazy. She expects you to remember obscure details mentioned in passing during the lectures you have to transcribe to survive. The exam time limits were way too short. We had one guest lecturer that was decent. She's taught this class before but you could never tell. I'm glad I got it over with in the summer rather then spending an entire semester with her. My worst class in the psychology department and tied for worst at uva. Would not recommend if you have a choice.

Unless this class is necessary for your major, DO NOT TAKE IT! Yes, the pre-recorded lectures are way better than in-class lectures, but that doesn't mean anything is going to be easier. I can't even tell you what to study because you'll be tested on what occurred on video 2 at 13:43. Anything and everything can be on these exams. In short, good luck.

It's important to note that I took this course over the summer, so the pacing was very different from what it would be for a semester. I really enjoyed having a class with Professor Clabough! I thought her lectures were engaging and easy to follow. She did a lot of drawing and showed a lot of diagrams that were really important and useful for the exams. I found that she also made sure to highlight some specific topics that would be on the exam in her lectures. The textbook readings could be somewhat dense and usually took me a couple of hours. The exams were based about 50% on the textbook and 50% on the lectures, so understanding the textbook was essential. I would definitely recommend paying attention to diagrams in the textbook as they were often on the exams. Exams were definitely difficult. They included a lot of tricky choose all that apply questions. Memorization is a big part of this class as you need to know a lot of very specific brain regions. I made dozens of Quizlets with hundreds of terms for each exam. So if memorization is not your strength, I would not recommend taking this class unless you need to. I also recommend focusing on experiments and the specific outcomes of the experiments as experimental questions and application questions are frequently on the exams. For the summer class, we had 4 discussion board writing assignments, 4 exams and a paper. She dropped the lowest of either your paper or your lowest exam score (which was definitely needed because there is no curve). I don't know if Professor Clabough or the TA was grading the writing assignments, but they were all pretty interesting and I think graded pretty easily. If you're considering taking it over the summer, it is a lot of condensed memorization. But overall, I highly recommend this class with Clabough!