PSYC 2600

People have very mixed opinions about Mazurek but I genuinely think he is an amazing professor. His lectures are really interesting and he is a fantastic guy. The exams are pretty hard as it is a lot of memorization and the readings take quite some time but if you are willing to put in sufficient effort, you should be more than fine. They are 4 exams and one final. He drops your lowest grade and gave us one extra credit opportunity with a syllabus quiz which we had 3 attempts on and it was open book meaning that it was absolutely impossible not to get those extra credit points. The class is interesting and I recommend it for people interested in psychology or to fill a requirement but you have to be ready to put in some work too. Most people don't go to the lectures because he posts the slides but I truly believe you will do significantly better in the class if you go to lectures and pay attention.

Summary: Engaging content, the memory-based exams are pretty easy, lectures compliment the textbook well, Mazurek is a great guy!

For anyone who took AP Psych in high school, expect more of the same in PSYC 2600. The content is as advertised, you learn everything about how humans interact with one another and perceive their environment. If you can grind out flashcards/quizlet and memorize 40-50 terms for each midterm, you'll think this class is an easy A. But you really do have to read the textbook and come to lecture, which some students obviously fail to do. My friends and I, who did the proper prep, found the course super rewarding and applicable to our lives!

Response to Mazurek being dry in lecture: he doesn't speed through content if that makes sense, he leaves that to the textbook. He goes more into deep examples and studies, which some people like, some don't.

You need to read the book, and go to lecture with perfect attendance if you want an A. From what I found last semester, the students who were most successful created their own study materials. Such as making quizlets, not simply studying them. Even the brightest students had to put in a great deal of effort to achieve in this course. He does not intend for it to be an easy A. And I personally would not call it as such. If you attend most lectures, and do most of the reading however, you likely won’t have a problem getting a B. At the end of the day, the professor is interesting, the book isn’t too bad - or too long, and you truly do learn some very insightful and cool things that are very valuable as a human. I would recommend this course to a lot of people, but don’t do it if you are looking for an easy A, there are better options.

Mazurek is a terrific lecturer and overall a great guy. I was a bit worried going in as his grade distribution is a little lower than other teachers' typically are for this same course, but that's not indicative of his personality or class, just the fact that the class is based on exams only (he drops your lowest one). But class is interesting and worth attending, homework is just some pretty basic reading, and the exams weren't too bad in the end. Definitely a solid way to knock out that gen-ed, or a fun class if you're interested in psychology. #tCFF23

LOL nice to see some things never change. This class is definitely an easy A. you just need to take the time to memorize the definitions and pay attention to the case studies that are gone over in lecture and you are golden. There were some questions from stuff talked about only in the book which I'm sure Professor Mazurek asks to make sure we read the textbook but honestly they are pretty easy to deduce the answer because a lot of psychology principles are exactly what they sound like. So its really up to you if you want to read the book, definitely wouldn't pay for it though, not worth the money. The exams were like 25 multiple choice, 10 fill in the blank and 3 short answer with 3 different parts. The class itself was kind of disappointing where we didn't really get to the interesting stuff (in my opinion) until the end, but for all you psych majors who need it as a pre-req you can relax, this should be a breeze. #tCFfall22

This was supposed to be my easiest class but ended up doing the worst in it this semester. Don't get me wrong, Mazurek is a very nice man and great professor, and the course material is very interesting. There is also minimal homework besides reading the textbook (which I enjoyed) and doing outside psych studies (which are just time consuming but not hard). However, no matter how long I studied the vocabulary and concepts I managed to do worse than I would have expected on every exam. Not awfully, but some questions are designed to be tricky and always tripped me up. So this class is an easy B+, not an easy A. If psych is interesting to you, I would definitely recommend this class, but if you have a lot of other challenging classes in the same semester I would maybe choose a class with easier exams.

Professor Mazurek is a really cool guy that really cares for his students. I really liked this class and thought that I learned a lot from the professor. You have to do the readings because there are some gaps that you only get from the readings. The class is graded based on only exams, but one is dropped which is super clutch. I really recommend taking this class because of the flexibility that he has, but if you are looking for just an easy class where you don't really have to try, maybe find another one.

The readings are kind of long but very enjoyable because they are so relatable. The textbook gives you most of the knowledge you need to know so lectures aren't necessary as long as you take notes from the powerpoints he posts on collab. He goes more in depth on certain theories and studies in lecture that definitely show up on the exam. The exams this term were online on collab but you had to be in class to take them. The professor is nice and energetic, but spends too much time on tangents in class.

The lectures are pretty much verbatim coverage of the textbook, and they can be a little boring at times. I would recommend still going, because every now and then he'll throw in something that isn't on the textbook or cover something that is on the textbook in much greater depth. Mazurek himself is hilarious and engaging, as well as very reasonable when it comes to exam content. That being said, don't let the exam drop policy make you complacent. They get harder as you go on, and the final is especially tricky. If you keep up with the reading, you will do fine. Make flashcards in the way he recommends in the beginning of the semester (term on one side, definition form textbook, definition in your own words, and example on the back). There is a reason psychology profs recommend this method- it works really well for retention and will serve you well on the exam.

This course is by far the WORST course offered at UVA. The professor is one of those 'academics' that thinks they are much smarter than they actually are and thus compensates by making the exams tricky. He has said multiple times that there will be multiple correct answers and you should choose the "best" correct answer. It is impossible to do well unless you are good at deciphering what he wants you to answer. The only real way to study is to memorize vocabulary words and it feels like you are preparing for a 3rd grade vocabulary test, yet it really doesn't help. DONT TAKE THIS CLASS!

This class was okay. The material was interesting, but lectures were so boring (I stopped going to them after the first exam, and still managed to do fine). Make sure you keep up with the textbook readings because they pile up pretty quickly, and make flashcards to memorize the definitions. A lot of questions on the exams are about the studies discussed in the textbook, so review those. The cutoff for an A is a 95, but it's really easy to get a B+/A- if you just study before the exams and read the textbook.

Professor Mazurek is a very good teacher and clearly very passionate about the topics he teaches about. You can tell he knows what he is talking about and that he cares about his students, despite the large class size. The class is made up of 4 exams and a cumulative final. You get to drop the lowest of the first 4 exams. There are no other assignments that contribute to your grade. The exams are multiple choice, fill in the blank, and short answer. If you study and pay attention/take detailed notes in class, the exams are pretty manageable and not too bad. Lectures were very interesting and he does not record or put much information on his slides so you definitely need to actually go to class. Also take notes on the textbook and actually read it. Some of his test questions ask specifically about information from the textbook. Take detailed notes, go to class, and you should be able to do well. #tCFfall2021

I enjoyed this course, but it wasn't one of my favorites I've taken. The material itself is extremely interesting but I found lectures to be boring. Mazurek is a very nice guy but tends to answer student's questions for a large part of lecture so we don't always get through the material. Lectures are not super helpful, but Mazurek will go over some studies that are not in the book and will show up on the exams so get the notes from a friend if you skip. The best advice I can give you for this class is to read the textbook because there will be material on the tests from the book that is not covered in lecture. However, this is still a very easy class. It's very similar to AP psychology - I had learned about 90% of the material in high school so the tests were not difficult for me. If you've never taken a psychology class, it may take you until after the first exam to figure it out. To score well on Mazurek's exams you need to know how to apply terms, not just their definitions. The only outside work is to read the textbook and there are four exams worth 25% each (your worst grade will be dropped) as well as a cumulative final worth the final 25%. Don't worry if you don't do too well at first because the one of the first two exams are usually people's drop.

Professor Mazurek is a nice guy and is very relaxed. The problem is that he doesn't actually really teach. At a certain point, I realized that I was learning more by doing the readings and studying on my own than by attending lectures. The tests themselves aren't that difficult. He drops the score of your lowest one. It was just a very "meh" course.

This class follows the format of a pretty standard psych class in the College. It's four exams (but you get to drop your lowest grade or not take one of them), and a final exam. The week's work consists of reading & taking notes on the textbook (1-2 chapters per week); you have to do this because there are details in the textbook not included in the lectures that are on the exams), attending lectures (2x per week), and studying if there is an exam coming up. Overall, this class is definitely manageable and it's very interesting to learn different concepts that are applicable and relevant to how people react based on social influence. Mazurek is a good professor who really cares about his students and offers office hours for anyone who even has a question. He has interesting lectures, I think in part because he has an amiable personality and the social psych content is intriguing. However, his care about his students sometimes is to a fault in that he can spend time answering people's questions in lecture for a couple of minutes and we don't get to cover all the material for the day's lecture. However, we always cover enough to prepare for the upcoming test.

I took this course online during COVID so keep that in mind when reading my review. Professor Mazurek was a nice guy and appeared very cheerful in his videos. I don't know how it'll be when you take this course in-person, but for us, his lectures were simply him discussing a particular study/experiment or two in greater detail that was covered in the book. I recommend taking good notes when reading the textbook and during lectures. For our exams, we had multiple choice questions, fill-in-the blank and 3 short essay questions (~150 words). The course consists of 3 exams and a cumulative final. We also had 2 types of discussion boards each week. The unique examples ones were easy to do, but he graded pretty harshly on the science of psychology ones. For discussion boards, if you did everything correctly you'd get a 5/5, if you submitted on time, wrote properly, but the answer wasn't what he wanted you would get a 2.5/5. There was no grade between 2.5 and 5 you could receive, which was annoying. Try to study a few days before the exams because there is a lot of material that each one covers. The exams themselves weren't bad, there were some questions that were super easy and others that required a bit more thinking, just take your time. Good luck :)

This class when I took it was online asynchronous, I really enjoyed the class never the less. I learned a lot, Mazurek seems like an incredibly nice individual and the tests were fairly easy.

(Taken during COVID semester) This class was not too hard but could be annoying. There are weekly revel quizzes that can be really annoying. The tests were open note which was nice but I still had to put a lot of time into taking good notes on the textbook and things like that. I would say 90% of the class is just reading and knowing the textbook and the rest are his mini-lectures. The tests are not too bad and the big thing is not to forget to take a homework revel quiz. I forgot a few of them and they hurt my grade. I would have gotten an A instead of an A- if I had done all the quizzes on time.

Overall, this was an easy course for me, and I enjoyed it. I didn't end up ever meeting with Mazurek, but from email communication and lectures, he was a good teacher, engaging, and accommodating. During COVID-19, all of our tests (including the final) were open-book, and most of the grading was done on 3 tests, each worth 20% of our grade. They were difficult if you didn't study, but if you used the book to help supplement in random details, they were very easy. Not a lot of work otherwise. Just make sure you really have the general concepts down.

I took this course asynchronously but I really enjoyed it. You could really tell that Professor Mazurek put lots of effort into making his lecture videos both informative and enjoyable. The format of this course consisted of reading chapters, answering questions, and watching lecture videos. The workload was definitely manageable and the material was easy to understand. The main portion of your grade comes from three semester exams and a cumulative final exam. All the exams were open notes but you still need to study in order to complete the exam on time. To do well on exams, make sure you take notes on the lecture videos because short answer questions typically comes from material discussed in the videos. If the lecture video is on an experiment make sure you're familiar with all the different variables of the experiment and the results and what concepts the results demonstrate/relate to. For the multiple choice portion of the exam the questions are fairly straight forward and are similar to the questions you answer with the textbook reading in format and difficulty. If you put in the work and keep up with all the assignments it is definitely possible to get an A in this course.

I really loved this course! Professor Mazurek is a great professor and the material is super interesting. It does require a lot of reading because a lot of questions on tests come from the textbook. It is also good not to skip lectures because he says a lot of important material.

God, this is the worst class I've taken at UVA. It's your typical class where the Prof lectures and you take notes during class, but it just suck that the only grades were the two exams and final. I wasn't ready for how bad my grades were in this class since normally I do so well as most UVA students are used to. I read the textbook which was the only homework and tried to pay attention to lectures, but he was just using textbook content so it didn't seem like I had to pay attention that much. I had the textbook down pretty well, but I did so poorly on all of the tests! The tests were a combo of MC, short answer, and fill in the blank. I'd do reasonably well on most parts but then for short answer, the TAs were so harsh with how they graded them. Sometimes, I'd get perfect scores and sometimes, they actually gave me a 0!!! You might think I'm overreacting, but don't take this class unless you are really interesting in psych, because the lectures were so boring. Social psych sounds so cool, but the way it was taught here was the worst.

This class is easy in the sense that there isn't any outside work assigned. All of the grades are based on exam grades only! There are 4 exams and one gets drops + the final. Mazurek isn't a great lecturer, he goes on tangents and I found it hard to focus. To do well on the exams, make sure to read all of the chapters, make flashcards, pay attention to the reading. During the lecture, he goes over the basic ideas of the chapter but everything is fair game in the textbook even if it wasn't mentioned in the lecture so be sure to retain all the info from the textbook. The threshold for an A is a 95. Wouldn't necessarily say it's an easy class unless you have time to memorization details from a textbook and are ready to spend copious amounts of time memorizing facts and vocabulary.

Mazurek's lectures are pretty painful to sit through, he spend a lot of time on really simple concepts and its impossible to sit through. Good thing though is the textbook is extremely easy to read and he posts his lecture slides online. I ended up skipping a lot and just spending the time I would have been in class studying the textbook and lecture notes and I did well on all the tests. He drops your lowest test and theres nothing about attendance in your grade so if you know you're good at memorization, teaching yourself stuff then this class is a good choice!

Mazurek is terrible. For starters, he spends the first 40 minutes of class answering random questions from students, most of them irrelevant to the actual subject matter. He spends the next 35 minutes "teaching" and he does an atrocious job. He talks on and on about some weird, outrageous social scenario with multiple moving parts to illustrate very easy concepts. He arbitrarily spends 10-15 minutes on one relatively easy concept, and then barely glosses over (and sometimes outright ignores if he runs out of time) more difficult concepts. READ THE TEXTBOOK and MEMORIZE EVERYTHING IN THE ASSIGNED CHAPTERS. Mazurek has shamelessly admitted that everything in the assigned readings is fair game for the exams, even if it was not covered in class. I would say that Mazurek probably covers around 20% of the concepts that we have to know and the other 80% are in the assigned readings.

I have no idea why the other reviewers rate him well. Yes he's a cheery guy and it's not hard to get an A, but if you dismiss those two facts this class is terribly taught and managed. While others may like Mazurek for his personality, I find him to be immature, hyperactive, and very unprofessional.

Mazurek doesn't actually teach. He just wastes a lot of time repeating himself and allowing the class to ask irrelevant questions. The only way you learn is from reading the textbook because Mazurek comes no where near covering all the material that will be on the exams. This class is easy if you read the textbook but the actual classes seem like a waste of time.

Mazurek is a super fun prof and it is obvious that he really cares about the subject. This class was one of my favorite classes this semester. The material is not that difficult at all, but it is a lot of memorization. Reading the text book is super important, but it is pretty easy to get through. I took notes while I was reading which helped me a lot. If you're trying to get into batten, i think this is easier than the other option for pre-req. you can drop one of the tests too

I really did not like this class and I am learning that UVA psychology classes are just pretty boring. Mazurek tries, but lecture is just incredibly boring. Still, I think it is important to go, especially because his powerpoints are not that elaborate when it comes to information. The information is not too difficult, but I would recommend really reading the textbook as some questions on the test are taken directly from there. There are 4 regular tests and the lowest is dropped, then the final. You also have to do the 6 credits of psychology studies if you have not completed so already. I took this as a Batten prereq, but I am interested in psychology, yet could not get myself to enjoy this class.

I took this class with Mazurek, while my brother took it with Wilson. Though Wilson seems to be very highly regarded in the field and my brother did like him, I think Mazurek is the "easier" deal. Whereas Wilson has papers and projects intermixed, Mazurek does 4 midterms and a final, with the lowest midterm being dropped. The three counted midterms make up 70% of the course, whereas the final makes up the remaining thirty.

The threshold for an A is a 95, which is annoying, but attainable. If you want it, you HAVE HAVE HAVE to read the textbook, and memorize some seemingly trivial information. Mazurek doesn't always get through the whole chapter in class, but he expects you to read. The good news is the textbook is pretty easy to read, and what you ought to know is apparent-- bolded vocabulary words.

As a lecturer, I really enjoyed Mazurek. He clearly loves the content and is excited to be teaching it. Lectures are 75 minutes and not always thrilling in terms of content, but he does his best to deliver it with energy and enthusiasm. Curses a lot, which can be fun and occasionally surprising.

Professor is not the best lecturer and goes off on random tangents accompanied with occasional swears and screaming to make his points. Nonetheless, he was very nice and approachable and is very passionate about the class. Changed the threshold of an A to a 95 so its pretty hard to get an A which sucks. READING IS A MUST. Very interesting class though and made me consider psych as a major. Grading can seem a bit unfair at times but he justifies his reasoning whether you like it or not. This class just doesn't seem like one that should have such a high threshold for an A.

The content of this class is very interesting and Professor Mazurek is pretty interesting. The only homework (which is optional) is reading the textbook. Professor Mazurek rarely gets through all of the information from each chapter in the lecture. If you read each chapter, pay attention to the details (especially small details mentioned in class), and take good notes, the tests are relatively simple.

This class teaches you a lot of applicable knowledge that is very helpful to know and comes up in other non-PSYC classes at UVA. Professor Mazurek makes a pretty boring class pretty entertaining and gives all students a great opportunity to succeed. If you actually show up to class (a lot of people don't) the tests will feel really easy and you will get your clicker points. To do well on the tests, you have to thoroughly read to chapters assigned, familiarize yourself with the labs and studies he talks about in class, and really focus on vocabulary because it comes up a lot on the tests. The final is VERY heavy on the last chapters after the fourth test, which messed me up a bit because I studied a lot of the material from the beginning of the class and a lot of it wasn't even used. I still recommend really studying the vocabulary from the entirety of the class, but be sure you treat most of the final like the "fifth test" rather than the final.

This class is totally an easy A if you are willing to create and memorize flashcards. I got smacked before the final, got a B-, and still ended up with an A in the class because I had done so well on the mid-terms. Mazurek is the bomb.

I always wanted to take this class before I graduated, but once I saw Professor Mazurek was teaching it I was even more excited to take it. I had him for a previous class and he is easily one of my favorite professors. His lectures are always entertaining because he's excited and enthusiastic about the material (even super early in the morning!) and the way he teaches makes understanding the material really easy. There are 4 exams (lowest grade dropped), a cumulative final, and daily clicker questions. The written portions of the exams can be a bit tricky because so much detail is required, but he gives partial credit which is great. He is super approachable and does his best to make sure you get the help you need if you visit him during office hours, and goes above and beyond to make sure you have everything you need to be successful. This was a great class and I would absolutely recommend taking this class (or any class) with Mazurek!

Mazurek is one of my favorite professors I've had throughout my experience at UVA. His lectures are extremely entertaining- he makes them fun and applicable. Moreover, the material you learn in this course is applicable to everyday life, so understanding the principle concepts of social psychology is really simple. I wouldn't say this class is an easy A, but rather an easy A- or B+. You can definitely get an A if you don't just "skim" and you focus a little more on the "small details" he doesn't always talk about in lecture. He allows you to drop your lowest of 4 midterms (your three highest are worth 60% of your grade). The final exam is worth 30% of your grade, and clicker questions (one per lecture) are worth 10%. His test material is extremely straightforward and is mainly pulled from lectures and also touches on experiments you learn about during lecture. Anything not learned in lecture that was part of the reading is fair game for a midterm or final (but it's usually made into a multiple choice question). However, the fill-in-the-blank questions can be really specific vocab terms and are sometimes pretty tricky (it separates the A's from the A- groups). Overall, I really enjoyed this class and would highly recommend it. It's not too time intensive and Mazurek is an awesome, very friendly, very informative professor (and he's also a Jeopardy winner if you ever get the chance to ask him about it!).

If you are interested in psychology, this is an awesome course to take. I really enjoyed AP psych in high school and absolutely loved this course. Professor gives interesting lectures and does a great job of applying psych concepts to funny/engaging real life scenarios. Only homework is reading and you are tested on the reading with daily iclicker questions. The readings never take more than 20 minutes and the textbook is at about a third grade reading level (but is interesting). The tests are SO EASY. The questions are really straightforward. For 98% of the questions, he gives you a social scenario and you have to say what psychology vocab term applies to that situation. Many of the test question scenarios come straight from the reading. Also, many test questions come straight from lectures so you definitely want to attend class. Since the reading doesn't take long, I usually just did it the night before the test and memorized the vocab he taught in class and I got high A's on all the test, very easily. If you go to class and study but DONT do the readings, you can probably pull off a B or a B+ on the tests. You take 4 tests (drops the lowest) and a final. I actually learned a lot of stuff that I could apply to every day life and I genuinely looked forward to going to class. In a nutshell: if you go to class (which is interesting), do the reading (which is short and interesting), and study for a few hours the night before the test, you will get an A.

Professor Mazurek is really there to help you. I didn’t do so hot on the first exam, ended up meeting with him in office hours weekly, and improving with each exam. In addition, because he knew me, the class was roughly about 100 students, and knew that I truly wanted to improve and put in the effort - my end of the course grade should have been a C+. He bumped me up to a B-. If you think you’ll like psyc, take it, but I’m pretty neutral about the subject. All my friends think I hate psyc just because it was difficult for me, haha but it’s all good if you’ve had exposure to psyc before.

Professor Mazurek is a great professor. His lectures are MUCH less boring than Smyth's. Tests aren't difficult if you do the reading and know the material, and clicker questions are easy, but the fill in the blank can be tricky. they can be really specific and trip you up and they're worth a lot on the exams so it can quickly hurt your grade. I wouldn't say easy A because you need to go to lecture and do the readings and the fill in the blank, but manageable class overall and enjoyable.

Overall one of the easiest psych classes I've taken. If you took AP psychology in high school, you will be totally fine in this class. I kept up with the readings which definitely helped with exams, but basically just review the Powerpoints and notes from textbook before exams and you'll make an A. Lecture can be a bit boring, but you really don't need to pay that much attention since he posts the slides.

This class is pretty interesting and not that difficult. Sometimes the lectures are a bit boring , but the tests are not that difficult because the material comes straight from the book and lecture.

Professor Mazurek is a really nice guy who genuinely cares about the subject. He is very engaging in lecture and likes to think of examples to put the material into perspective in our own lives. The tests aren't bad and they make up pretty much your entire grade. Overall, I would really recommend this class.