PSYC 2200

This class is one of the hardest classes I have ever taken at UVA. I wish that Professor Clabough was open to constructive criticism about this course, because there are constantly complaints year after year, yet the course stays the same. It is online asynchronous plus a weekly meeting session each week. You do absolutely nothing in the weekly sessions. She usually has a game or activity planned that focuses on only one concept from the whole unit with no time for explanations or help on other topics. They are are a total waste of time, but go, because it is an easy way to get points. The online lectures were filmed in 2020 and she has not updated them since, so they are totally out of synch with the textbook, which was updated in 2022. Clabough jumps around to different topics during lecture without warning, so your notes will be totally out of order and you NEED to read the textbook to understand. I put in probably 10 hours a week on this class, and if there was an exam, probably 20. This should be 4 credits. There are 4 exams and a final– you get one drop but it is a replacement with a meditation assignment so make sure you do it. I got an A- in the class but I put in an absurd amount of work and had to put my other classes on the backburner to get through this. This class literally shortened my lifespan.

tl;dr do not take this class unless you have to, set aside a lot of dedicated time for this

Full disclosure: I took this course as a BACS integration elective, which was a mistake on my part since this class benefits from a strong psychology and biology background (of which I have none). That being said, while the class is extremely difficult, it is not the fault of Professor Clabough, who made the class as accessible as possible considering the material. The professor and TA's all know how hard this class can be, so if you need help, ask right away and they'll usually be happy to.

The asynchronous lectures themselves were released every Wednesday and Friday, so I recommend setting aside a consistent time and place to watch them and take thorough notes as if it were in-person. The lecture checks are open note and have unlimited time as long as you complete them before your section, so that wasn't a problem. Similarly, the active learning assignments were very easy 100s if you came to them. The main problem is the exams since it relies a lot on memorizing a hefty chunk of content, which is why you should start the meditation assignment ASAP to replace the lowest exam grade.

#tCFF24

The 4 week summer session was jam packed with lecture, but Prof Clabough does everything she can to communicate the essentials in a fun and engaging manner. Discussion homework can be long, but, in my opinion, it's better to make students engage with the content than have everything be generatable via LLM. Exams felt fair and tested knowledge of the class rather than xyz specific study with xyz specific author and xyz specific year.

I took this course in the summer and from what I hear Prof. Clabough changes the organization of her class very often - the way she taught now is different than 2 semesters ago and is different from 4 semesters ago.. You get the point. This session though I felt she was very fair, daily lectures either 45min or ~1hr15min which is pretty good for an accelerated summer course with daily knowledge checks with straightforward questions. If you took decent notes during the lecture, they're a breeze. Course grade was based on 4 discussion board posts which were pretty easy, 5 exams (one each week plus a final), daily knowledge checks and an optional meditation assignment. I thought her lectures were well organized for the questions she had on the exams and I found the material interesting. Especially for it being an asynchronous class, I enjoyed having the daily checks to force me to stay up to date with the lectures.

This class will take up a lot of your time. The lectures are all recorded from when the course was entirely virtual (pandemic days), and you will only meet in person once a week for "lab" time. I put lab in quotations as you do nothing that feels very scientific or helpful in learning the content. Instead, time is spent playing games, writing plays, going through escape rooms, and using playdough (Clabough's favorite, as we did this twice). I found the setup of this course to feel lazy and poorly structured, especially as the lectures themselves were often disorganized and focused on seemingly insignificant details that did not come up on exams. On the topic of exams, Clabough does not even write her test questions, including on the final. The exams are tough and do not always focus on lecture content. Instead, they often throw questions at you that relate to anything from the 100+ pages of reading you were assigned in that module. Do not only study the lectures; read the text carefully and pay close attention to the experiments and the names of researchers. Do not forget or miss out on the meditation assignment opportunity. This optional assignment is your only chance of getting any points back, as there is no chance of rounding/curving on any exams. Clabough will not allow exam retakes or rescheduling under any circumstance, as the meditation assignment enables you to drop one exam grade if completed. Participation is a large part of your grade, but this is very easy as long as you show up to class every day (you can only miss one, or it tanks your grade) and are friendly to your TA. Overall, this class is much more difficult than it should be, but it contains some very interesting content, and I was disappointed in the teaching style. #tCFF23

While I've heard bad things about this class in the past, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Professor Clabough is extremely nice, and the class is still asynchronous, so all the lectures are just online videos you need to watch. The weekly active learning activities are the only in person part, and they are basically just graded on attendance/completion. They are actually pretty fun. The exams are on canvas but are in person now, which makes it a bit harder as this class has a lot of content to memorize. She lets you complete a meditation assignment that basically replaces the grade for one of your exam scores, which is also nice. I ended up with an A- in this class and I would say I only put in half effort. #tCFF23

I want to say first and foremost that this is still a difficult class. I would not recommend taking it unless it’s for your major or something you’re 100% sure you’re interested in and want to put the work in for. It’s apparent she’s very dedicated to the field, and I personally thought she tried her best to keep everyone engaged and successful even though it’s a difficult subject.
Dr. Clabough has made some important changes to the curriculum. Here is the new course layout:
62% of the final grade is exams (5 exams, 12% each). However, she offered an optional meditation assignment that’s a very easy A, as long as you follow the directions, that can stand in place of one of these exam grades. The exams in my opinion aren’t bad as long as you take/ study effective notes (which means write down what she says in the lectures exactly as she says it, bc she is tricky with the wording sometimes). People in other reviews warn that she takes random things from the textbook. She only questions about experiments from the textbook. Just make sure to remember the results of these experiments bc that’s likely the answer to these exam questions.
Warning: the second exam sucks.
23% of the grade is active learning sessions. DO NOT SKIP THESE. There are 10 of them and there’s only 1 drop. There are makeup assignments but they’re a hassle. These are easy 100s if you participate and be friendly to the TA.
The remaining grade is the knowledge checks at the end of the lectures. If you pay attention and take effective notes these are easy to do well on, as long as you make sure to actually do them.
Overall I don’t think it’s difficult to achieve a decent grade in this class, IF you’re dedicated to the work. There’s lots of specific information- you either know it or you don’t. I spent about 5 hours a week working for this class and earned an A. It’s hard, yes, but achievable, so don’t get scared from previous reviews!

Was a little bit scared about taking this class because of past reviews, but I ended up not even having to take the final-- it's definitely easier to get a good grade than it used to be. Unfortunately, the lectures were pretty dry, and I honestly did not enjoy it very much despite going into it wanting to major in neuroscience (cool content, painful to get through lectures).

#tCFfall22

It's clear that Professor Clabough has taken this course's criticism seriously and made great strides in improving its accessibility and ease, but I gotta say I think UVA's psych program might just be hard, you guys. This is a pillar course, meaning it's required for the major, and as I understand it, also the neuroscience major. I say required, but considering the other option is a 3000-level bio course that you don't get major credit for, yeah, this is required. Make no mistake, this is hard, and the readings vary from 3 pages to 30, just to keep you on your toes. Still, it's better than it used to be, so take the older reviews with a grain of salt.

I ended with an A+ in this class. With now a hybrid class format, there is a lot more buffer room for your grade than in previous semesters. In-person class activities are easy 20/20s. The knowledge checks after each chapter reading and lectures are also free 100s. To do well on the exams, write down every detail Dr. Clabough talks about in her lectures because they can end up on the exams. Write anything you find important from the readings and take detailed notes. There is a LOT of reading - pace yourself and set out to read a little a day. sit down for 2-3 hours every day and work to memorize the information. Be it active recall with flashcards or just going over your notes again and again or drawing out diagrams to help with understanding, just memorize everything. The review sessions that the TAs did were super helpful and the questions were similar to the caliber found on the actual exams. The content in the class is super interesting, but you have to put in the time and effort if you want to do well.

Dr.Clabough has switched her instruction to an "active learning" classroom. This entails watching lectures on your own that have been pre-recorded, and then meeting once a week for a group work activity. The recorded lectures are usually very long; much longer than a 3 credit lecture should be. Along with this, her syllabus does not accurately represent the course. On her syllabus, she states that she will get rid of quiz scores, which she does not do. The percentages listed for final grades are very skewed and don't accurately represent your grade. It must be calculated using her point system; her percentages are listed incorrectly on the syllabus. Overall, her teaching is very ineffective and she is very inconsistent within her syllabus. As a result, many students (me among them) get screwed over when calculating grades due to the false statements within her syllabus. If you take this class, you must get A's on all exams in order to get an A in the class. Again, however, the syllabus does not reflect this well.

Let me just start off by saying that I was a bit scared to take this course after reading some of the reviews. And let me follow that up by saying it is not as bad as everyone made it out to be. Is the content dense and difficult at times? Yeah. (The TA's often do not know the answers to the questions you may have). But that is not Dr. Clabough's fault and she delivers the material in a digestible way. She is always willing to answer your questions, too. The course, this semester, was hybrid. We watched recorded lectures (2 per week) and then took 2 knowledge check quizzes on them. You didn't even have to do them a certain day...just by Monday night. Then, in discussion, we did interactive activities with the knowledge we had just learned. By doing this, we were able to engage with the material in a fun way (ex. using play doh) and also get to know our classmates. The course grading consisted of 816 points and your grade is calculated by doing X points/816 points.
500 points in assessments (4 tests, cumulative final, meditation assignment...all 100 points and the lowest gets dropped)
200 points active learning (10 sessions of active learning 20 points each...easy if you show up and participate)
116 points (29 lecture quizzes worth 4 points each)
The meditation assignment is so fun. Also, since she drops the lowest of the assessments, you do not even have to do one...meaning a lot of people probably do not take the final exam if you do well enough on the first 4. Although the exams were closed notes, they were not that bad. She gives a lot of "Select all that apply" but she gives partial credit. I was able to get consistent A- on the exams and still finish with an A in the course. She does not curve and she does not bump, but it truly is not necessary. If you are on the fence about taking this class, I would highly recommend it because I learned a ton and saw Dr. Clabough's efforts with us and really appreciated her.

If you can avoid it, do not take this course. Dr. Clabough has no organization to her lectures which makes understanding and studying the course content extremely difficult. If you want to succeed in this course, transcribe her lectures because she will ask exam questions on something she mentioned off-handedly. The exam average for every exam was between a 70 and 75, and she does not curve if that tells you how difficult it is to actually learn from this course. The content isn't hard, but figuring out what the content is is the challenge. Good luck.

This review is coming from a psychology major, so I only took this class as a requirement for the major. I love behavior and I was so excited to get back into the biological aspect of psychology and learn about the neural basis of behavior, but I left this class questioning my own abilities and competency in the field. I attended all lectures, read all chapters, even studied for hours with fellow classmates before exams, but I still couldn't get higher than a 72% on any exam in the class. There are 4 exams and then a final and you get to drop your lowest (including the final), so your grade is calculated as X/400 points. The only thing that saved me in this class was the alternate meditation assignment where you had to meditate 40 times over the semester for 10 minutes each and record that on a log and then write a 500-750 word essay with prompted questions. Each meditation is worth 2 points so you automatically receive an 80% for simply doing the meditations, and the remaining 20 points comes from the reflection. The textbook was extremely dense, so even if you were only assigned 5 pages of reading it could take an hour and a half to understand and take notes on the info. The lectures have few slides, if any, and if they are included its just pictures. You aren't supposed to take notes on a computer, but handwritten notes are difficult when the lecture is mostly spoken and you're trying to write down all that is being said down to smallest detail. The exams wouldn't have been so frustrating but there are questions where you have to select all that apply. Instead of it being scored as: getting points for selecting the correct answer and getting points for not selecting incorrect answers, it is scored as the amount of correct answers minus the number of incorrect answers. For example, if a question is worth 3 points and I select B and D but the correct answer is C and D I don't get 1.5, I get 0 points because it is one correct answer minus one incorrect answer. This process can be infuriating because there are ~9-10 questions like this that can completely destroy your grade. There is no curve in this class, so the average can be a 75% and it will simply not change. I was able to get a C in the class which was all I needed to not retake, but I was in a constant state of panic that I was going to have to retake it. Unless you have to take this class as a psych/neuroscience requirement, I wouldn't recommend putting yourself through this stress and frustration. (I think the spring section is going to have a discussion/interactive section which I think with be SUPER helpful to talk out this dense info. Since the class is currently: lecture, read, exam (which is not conducive to the content due to its complexity) I think the discussion section will be a big help). Professor Clabough is a very sweet woman, but I don't think the structure of the current class is helpful to 18-22 year olds that aren't experts in the field.

I am trying to major in neuroscience, so I honestly really enjoyed this course and its content. Clabough is an amazing person and it is very clear that she is passionate about her work field. That being said, I would only recommend this class for those who need to take it as a pre-req. This is definitely a course you need to do the textbook readings for, you need to pay attention in lecture, and it is easy to fall behind if you do not review the material each day (or at least each day you have lecture). It took me a while to learn how to study for this class, but I would say the best way is to RECORD the lectures so you do not miss any content (anything is fair game for exams) and take notes on your computer and then recopy them on paper later. I would also recommend making a review guide before tests to organize info (brain areas, people, neurotransmitters, etc.). This class is definitely one you can do well in, but you have to be willing to put in the work, so being passionate about these topics is extremely helpful. Again, the professor is very genuine and worth getting to know, but it is crucial that you take initiative to stay on top of this course because she is strict on exams. She drops one exam grade, but no extensions or excuses are permitted ever outside of this one dropped exam. We were given the chance to write a reflection of meditation (40 days) as an alternative to the final, which was extremely helpful, though. The content was very interesting overall, but there is a lot that she covers and the readings are extremely dense.

This class has interesting material but is formatted in the least student friendly way possible. Exams are not curved even when the class averages are crazy low. There are only grades for exams but she barely covered the material in lecture. The textbook is to be read like the bible and there is no accommodation for personal extensions. She gives 1 exam drop and that has to cover any medical/family/personal emergency you have. She did allow us to submit a reflective essay on medication as our final, but aside from this I would not recommend this course unless you have already taken Psych classes. (If you do take this course make amazing notes and review after every class)

This course covers A LOT of content, which anyone considering taking this course should definitely be aware of. That being said, the content is very interesting, I think that Dr. Clabough did a great job at pacing the content to ensure that she covered everything she needed to while still thoroughly going into each subject. Dr. Clabough is a very genuine and passionate professor, so definitely make the effort to get to know her. I think that a lot of students struggling in the class took that out on Dr. Clabough when really it was just that the course itself requires getting through a lot of content, and these students never figured out how to handle that. If you're interested in the subject and willing to put in the effort, absolutely would reccomend this course. #tCFfall2021

Usually, I feel like my teachers and professors want me to succeed. That statement could not be less true for Clabough's class. While the material is genuinely interesting, it was taught in a horrible manner. The exams are impossible and the questions are written to trick you. They cover material from the textbook and lectures, and you cannot skim the textbook or zone out in class because the questions can be about the smallest detail. You’re only assigned 5-20 pages for every lecture, but each page is so dense and she could hypothetically quiz you on any detail that they still take forever. Clabough uses no notes or slides and she just rambles so the lectures can be impossible to follow. The only nice things about the class are that you can drop one exam (out of four midterms) and you can substitute the final with meditations and a reflection. Since she gives you these options though, none of the midterms have curves even though the class average is consistently 75%. There is absolutely no reason for you to take this class unless you need it for the psych major. Work wise week-to-week it’s not that bad, but 100% of your grade is exams and they’re all impossible,

I truly hate Erin with a passion. I had been waiting for her to retire, but no such luck. All of her lectures were on YouTube and she refused to help when I met her during office hours. Truly thought about taking the Bio option because I simply could not look at her anymore. Definitely do not recommend. RIP to all the Psych majors

I agree with what everyone has said about this course in previous reviews: it’s interesting but WAY way too much information to take notes on and memorize. But, I think waiting to take this class till you have a bunch of other psych and/or bio (and even kinesiology) classes done is really helpful, because i felt like a lot of the information was a review and even if it went more in depth, i had more background knowledge going in as a rising 4th year than i would have if i took this class second year.

This course is simultaneously one of the toughest and most interesting courses I have taken in my 3 years at UVA. This class is required for both of my majors and I had been putting it off because of previous reviews of this class. This class is a LOT of work. I took this asynchronously during COVID, so my experience will have been very different than future students. Dr. Clabough is clearly a very knowledgable person and does do a good job of explaining things, if you're an auditory learner. I don't know why professors who teach this class refuse to use valuable powerpoints. Dr. Clabough would use powerpoints, but only for a few pictures during the lecture. The lectures were recorded and posted on Youtube and were often less than the 50 minute class period, but it still took me on average about an hour and a half to get through them. I would have to pause the lecture every few minutes to catch up on notes. My advice is to stay on top of the readings. I've never been one to stay on top of readings for any course, and this is the first time I've taken a course where I never got behind on readings and I'm so grateful I did that for myself. Readings do compliment lecture really well, they just take forever to get through. This course is 4 midterms and a final and they are all weighted equally. The lowest is dropped, so if you like your grade, you can just skip the final. There's a mix of multiple choice and multiple-multiple choice on the exams, which makes them pretty tough. I ended up with an A-, and it was the hardest I have ever worked for that grade. I enjoyed the content of the course and Dr. Clabough is a very nice person, this course just needs to be adjusted in its grading and delivery style.

This course was really difficult, but in my opinion, it was rewarding. The information taught in class was so fascinating, and I highly recommend taking it if you are interested in the material. However, the entire course grade was dependent on the exams (one exam, including the final, could be dropped), and this was where I found difficulty. The exams had information from the textbook that wasn't taught in lecture, and the questions pulled from the textbook were often easily missed especially because the readings were so long. I studied a lot for the exams, but I still did worse than I thought I would because it was very easy to lose points on them. Dr. Clabough is amazing, though - she was very helpful in office hours, and she really seemed to care about her students and their learning. Overall, you should take this course if you want to learn about the material, but be wary of the exams and study a lot for them.
#tCFspring2021

I took this class during the last semester of my senior year and received an A. Even though this is an introductory course it felt like anything but. It was much on par with the upper level biology courses I have taken at UVA. You need to make sure you take notes on every single thing she says in her lectures and make sure you takes notes on ALL of the diagrams she draws on her whiteboard. This semester was probably better for me because it was online and she posted her lectures on Youtube so I was able to stop and play to make sure I write everything she says and I could screenshot her diagrams, but her exams were still difficult. You also have to make sure you get everything from the readings down because she will literally take the most random experiments or lines from the textbook and ask it on the exam. So basically know everything. I did well on my first four exams so I didn't need to worry about the fifth exam since she drops the lowest exam, but it was very hard to do well. I would not recommend this course unless you have to take it. Clabough is not that good at explaining and that can be really frustrating when trying to take down notes and the readings can be so much especially when juggling other work. If you have to take this course, just really try to know everything from lectures to readings as much as you can and be ready to put in a lot of work. I would recommend having a group of people to study with on this exam to really combine knowledge, since someone might have information on something you did not catch while taking notes. The review from last semester really captures my experience too. Good luck!

I took this course online during COVID so take that into account when reading my review. Professor Clabough always came to class with a bright smile which was nice. Her course consists of 4 exams along with a final (lowest of the 5 is dropped). Your grade is entirely based off of your exams out of 400 points, there's no other coursework to do other than the textbook readings. Her lectures were interesting, she would mostly focus on a specific study or several concepts she believed were important from the readings. I often found that she required us to read way more than was necessary for the exams, because the exams tended to focus on the more general concepts. She provides you with practice exams (without answers) to use to study which were created by the previous professor (Brunjes) and weren't at all similar to the questions she uses. I recommend doing the readings before going to the lectures, because that'll save you a lot of time and writing. I thought her exams were pretty straightforward, she included these multiple-multiple choice questions which had a ridiculous method of being graded, but I don't think she'll include such questions on her in-person exams (not sure though). Make sure to take good notes when you're reading the textbook and draw out any diagrams she draws on the whiteboard. I would say focus more on what she says during the lectures, but definitely take a look at the readings as well, because she doesn't cover everything in her lectures. She allows you to see what questions you got wrong on the exam which I thought was nice. Also make sure to look through your exam and check for any errors in the answers or grading, because there were times where that happened. All her exams were 34 questions and you had an hour to do them. Good luck everyone :)

You will have to study A LOT for the exams. She asks random details from the book that you wouldn't think you need to know and very particular questions from the lectures. I took it online, so I was able to make sure I wrote everything down during lecture, but I highly recommend recording live lectures. We had two exams where the average was in the 70s, but she doesn't curve anything, so it is really difficult to get an A. Definitely do not take this course to fulfill the science requirement unless you are a psych major. You have to put in a lot of work to actually do well. She is not very good at lecturing. She goes very quickly through new concepts and expects everyone to know what she is talking about. It seems like she assumes everyone has some biology background even though this is an intro course. Some parts of the lectures seemed disjointed and unorganized. It's clear that she has a lot of knowledge on the subject and is very passionate about; she's just doesn't really know how to effectively teach the material. She is also really bad at replying to emails. Be prepared to email her a few times (and give her many days) before she actually replies

I’ll begin with what I enjoyed about this class. Dr. Clabough seems really sweet, and I guess lots of students from Spring 2020 complained about the powerpoints because now she uploads all powerpoints to Collab. She also put us in (optional) study groups, which was helpful. The content we learned was mostly interesting, and the lectures are on YouTube so it was easy to pause and rewatch while taking notes. The rest of this review is more or less me complaining about the heavy workload but I got an A- so it’s possible to get a good grade in this class (and this isn't a petty rant about a bad grade, I'm actually shocked I did so well). On to what I didn’t like: When I signed up for this class, it was a synchronous class that lasted 75 minutes, but then it switched to an asynchronous class that lasted 90 minutes. This may not be Clabough’s fault, but it felt unfair that the lectures were so long. Some days were one short lecture (ex. 45 minutes), but other days were multiple lectures that added up to 90 minutes or longer. The longest class had two lectures that added up to 2 hours. There are four exams and one cumulative final, and the lowest grade of those five is dropped (each exam is about 23% of your final grade, bless Clabough for letting us drop the final). One of our exams was on election day, and even though Clabough extended the time we could take the exam (it opened at 6pm on the day before election day) and on the day of the exam she told us that she could help us if we couldn’t vote and take the exam, it still didn’t feel fair. Anyway, the first exam is the easiest. As the other reviews have mentioned, everything is fair game for the exams. I missed a question on an exam because I didn’t remember a specific word on a diagram on a powerpoint slide that Clabough probably didn’t even mention. It’s impossible to take notes on every detail from the lectures and textbook, so some questions felt like they were based solely on memory. You also complete 4 discussion board posts, which is basically a 2-3 paragraph response to a prompt, and one is selected to be graded (about 7% of your final grade). Obviously this is a large class and the TAs can’t grade every discussion board so only one is selected, but it felt unfair that I had spent a lot of time researching and working on my other discussion board posts that weren’t graded. It’s a heavy workload (which Clabough warns you about at the start of the semester), and honestly it felt like a 4 credit class instead of a 3 credit class. What I learned in high school biology, PSYC 1010, BIOL 2100, and BIOL 2200 helped me get a grasp on the basics of neuroscience before I even took this course, but if you don’t have a background in biology then this class may be more of a struggle for you. Unless you need this class for your major or you’re super passionate about neuroscience, then you probably don’t want to take this class.

An incredibly tough class to take online. If you can avoid it, do. If not, allocate all of your free time to the readings and lectures. #tCF2020

Clabough is definitely the professor you want to take this class with. This class is pretty much mandatory for the psych major, and as a fourth year, I'd been putting off taking it for a really long time. The content is not incredibly hard to understand, and this is coming from someone who is not particularly good at science, but there is so much to cover. Her online lectures are very convenient because you can rewind them if you missed something. This is particularly great for studying because you can go back and watch them. The one issue that's always echoed with this class is that the test questions can be the most random thing from a small excerpt of the textbook. This is definitely annoying, but reflecting on the class, I'm incredibly grateful she has those types of questions. Because I feel so much pressure to know every little thing from lecture and the readings, I have a true mastery of the material. As a result, I can honestly say I've learned more in this one class, than I have in my other 4 classes combined from this semester. It is a looooot of work, there's no denying that, but if you put in the effort to learn it all, you're going to leave the class feeling extremely fulfilled. Def recommend taking this with Clabough.

Definitely one of the harder classes in the psych department, but an A is not out of reach. Clabough is a great instructor and is able to make even the most complex topics understandable. Paying attention and note-taking during lecture are a must, but don't neglect the textbook readings either. Grades are 4 best exams (inc. comprehensive final) and 1 discussion board post (complete 4, one random picked for grading).

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.