PSYC 2600

Interesting course material. Lectures aren't awful, but they aren't super helpful either. Smyth tends to ask about details of psych studies on exams as well, which I don't think is the important part of the class, but you're expected to memorize it anyways.

Smyth is the worst. He's a pretty boring lecturer so you don't want to pay attention, but you also can't use your laptop in class so you just have to sit there. Also, he makes his tests unnecessarily hard. I remember reviewing exams for the final and trying to find where one question came from. The term was not in the book at all and only appeared on half of a slide that he lectured on for maybe 2 minutes. that question was worth 2 points out of a total 45 for the exam. (That's essentially 1% off your entire course grade for getting it wrong btw) There were a number of other questions like this that were barely touched on and then tested. Take this class with literally any other professor. Oishi and Wilson are awesome. Smyth is not.

This class can be a little boring during lecture, but it is possible to do well if you're willing to study a lot. You have to know all the vocab and all the experiments. I don't recommend winging these tests

Smyth is the worst. If you're going to take Intro to Social Psych, take it with ANY professor besides Smyth. He makes an interesting class boring and makes the exams WAY harder than they need to be. It was ridiculous. Social psych should not be as hard as Smyth makes it. The material is very interesting though, so I would definitely recommend taking the class with a different professor. Just avoid Smyth at all costs.

DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS WITH SMYTH. Take the class by all means, it's a really cool class and you'll learn a lot of interesting things about how people interact, but take it with literally any other professor but him. Smyth's lectures do not go by the book at all; he rambles for an hour and 15 minutes about random experiments and doesn't put them into context in terms of social psych vocabulary or common themes. He does clicker questions every class that are designed to see how thoroughly you memorized the readings for that day, not to see how much you've actually learned. His exams are structured the same way and are nearly impossible to study for because they cover so much material (everything that is in the book as well as all those random experiments he covered in lecture) and his exam questions are unreasonably specific. I knew the material, the experiments, the terms, front and back and still barely managed a B in the class because his exam questions are designed to test memorization, not actual knowledge of the subject. Smyth's final exam is also cumulative, whereas Wilson's is not. Again, TAKE THIS CLASS WITH ANYONE OTHER THAN SMYTH unless you want to spend 10+ hours a week memorizing lecture slides and textbook chapters only to realize that it's literally impossible and his exams are a crapshoot anyways.

Do not take this class with Professor Smyth. You will regret it. The textbook is extremely interesting, but the classes were dreadfully boring and his midterms were impossible even after reading every page of the text, attending each lecture, taking extensive notes, and studying the vocabulary for hours. Rather than testing on the concepts, Smyth would incorporate questions on the smallest details from powerpoint slides from the title of a slide to a percentage difference between different methods of a study. If memorizing hundreds of powerpoint slides is your cup of tea, this may be the class for you. Awesome subject, but not worth the time if you take this class with Smyth.

If you are interested in psychology and want to take social psych, it is a very interesting course, but I DO NOT reccommend taking this course with Professor Smyth. Not only are his lectures boring, but his exams are close to impossible. I have a strong background knowledge in psychology and I am barely managing to keep a B in this class. Exams are based on minuscule details and have weighted questions making the harder questions worth a much high percentage of your overall grade. I have not missed a single lecture, textbook reading, or extra assignment and I am still scoring poorly on the exams do the the ridiculous questions and layouts. I WILL NOT be taking a course with Professor Smyth ever again!

Smyth really isn't that bad. Class is mandatory for the clicker questions. But he gives some pretty generous extra credit that isn't even needed (3 points added to final average grade). DO THE READINGS. He will pull from them and his lecture slides (word for word). This class is pure memorization, but it is also pretty interesting. Also, he curves exam grades, which isn't even necessary but definitely helpful. Make sure you study for the exams and it is mostly vocab and recalling studies. Textbook is interesting, but it is a lot as you read the whole thing. Try and do it ahead of time and take some notes so you don't ever have to open up a chapter again to study.

This class was so dumb. It was completely necessary to go to every lecture for the clicker questions and because he talks about random stuff that doesn't show up anywhere in the textbook. For each test, you are required to memorize about 75 vocab words and 30 experiments, while he will go over/explain 2 of them in lecture. He is so boring. In lecture he talks about experiments that barely have anything to do with the topic we are supposed to be learning, and then he'll ask you for the correlation coefficient on the exam, aka a literal decimal. It would be cool if he asked you about concepts, but instead he likes to test how many hours you spent memorizing terms on quizlet. Midterms weren't that bad, final was impossible. Make sure you do all of the homework videos and memorize all of the study tips he gives you, because even though it has nothing to do with social psych, there will still be a fill in the blank question on your exam that asks you to list the 6 study tips he gave you on the first day of class :).

This course is really great, but Smyth really isn't the best professor. Believe it or not, the textbook is super interesting and very enriching, but the way Smyth sets up his test, you have to go through it with a fine toothed comb. In terms of work, this class doesn't give much, just keep up with the readings. However, the lectures are incredibly dry, and the test much more difficult and detail-oriented then they need to be. Do yourself a favor and take this class, just with another professor.