PSYC 3006

#tCFF23 The class is structured into one in person (2.5 hr) lecture a week & an online lab once a week. The lectures were really confusing. Eventually, I stopped going because I felt it made my performance on the homework more difficult. Prof Schmidt answered questions in a confusing way, but it was also obvious that she was an expert on the topic.. all around confusing experience. The labs themselves were helpful, especially in completing the weekly homework. In labs, we were given the codes and notes to help us successfully run experiments in R.

The course has changed a lot over the years. Most importantly, there are no longer any tests, which seemed to be the biggest sticking point for past students. If you want to understand this course, take it the semester after PSYC2005 (and preferably STAT1601 too). It's pretty quantitative stuff, so if you're a psych major who, like me, doesn't care about research, buckle up. She does do a good job at explaining the reasons behind the things you learn, which is helped by the fact that Schmidt herself is a character. Seriously, without any tests to grade, it's clear that she feels free to just be a professor who professes things.

DO NOT TAKE THIS WITH KAREN SCHMIDT. If you have the option, take this with Meyer. I know the class time for him was very inconvenient this year, but if you want to learn anything it has to be with him. I self taught the material for this class, as lectures were useless. The professor was frankly quite rude to students throughout the semester.

This class has been the most frustrating class I have taken at UVA. Professor Schmidt has good intentions, but the lectures were so disorganized that students were teaching each other in the groupme. She gives 8 mini exams in sets of 2, but the mini exams were basically a full exam. She refused to let us email her, but emailed us very often. Even though I am getting a good grade, I have no confidence in my ability to do any of the techniques she "taught" us. Recommend not taking it with her unless you love random tangents mid class and complete confusion. There is also a lab component, and the lab worksheets were somewhat challenging at times. The class was also on zoom even though she was given an option to teach in person. Overall, just a bad experience. #tcfFall2021

The material of this course is not incredibly complicated after taking PSYC 2005 but the professor makes it difficult because of her lack or response to student needs. The syllabus is not followed, grading policy and test format are not clear, and the professor does not allow email communication. I would reccomend taking this course with Joey Myer if able to.

Don't do it. Horrible. Karen is really nice, but not a good instructor in any way. This class is a requirement for the psych major so you can't really avoid it, but be prepared for chaos

I took this course online during COVID so keep that in mind whilst reading my review. Professor Schmidt is a nice person, based on all the previous reviews I had read on this site from other students I was really worried when going into her class. However, she isn't as bad as people make her out to be, sometimes she's just a bit moody which is understandable (we all have those days). Her lecture slides were the best, they were very thorough and detailed. I never even read the textbook once in this class and I got an A-. Her slides state exactly what the textbook says except they're just summed up which is great. I found that her actual lectures were a bit boring, because all she does is read directly off of the slides she wrote, so you're literally just sitting and listening to an audiobook. There were 8 exams in this course and no final. We had 4 design-it exams which were based entirely off of a 20-40 min video she made as well as a study you had to create yourself. You were given a chance to write your design a couple of days before the exam. (I highly recommend writing it up ahead of time and showing it to her during OHs to get her opinion so that you can make the right changes) Designing a study sounds really scary at first, but it's not. You're simply stating an IV, DV, hypothesis (something you would do in a typical biology course in high school). Her 4 test-it exams are based on the lectures. They involve calculations and a general understanding of the concepts discussed in class. The majority of her exams require you to write which was tiresome, there were very little multiple choice questions. And let me say that ANYTHING is free game on her exams and she distinctly states this in her lectures. From a small discussion to a thing she stated out of the blue one day in her lecture (ufff is all I can say). Design its and Test its were conducted in the same week - for instance if you had a design-it on Wednesday, test-it would be on Friday. I suggest working on the practice question(s) listed on the review video/slides she gives out the Monday before the exam because it's very similar to the calculation question on the exam itself.

The labs were a bit weird, they're created by the TAs so I guess they just depend on what TAs you have, but I HIGHLY recommend going to their OHs to ask any questions you have when working on them. We also had a final lab project instead of the final which was super easy to do. Good luck :)

When judging whether to take this class with Professor Schmidt, please SORT BY MOST RECENT!! There are a lot of really negative reviews of her from 2010-2011 and it's truly a shame that those reviews are causing a lot of people to avoid taking this class with her. Professor Schmidt has completely changed her way of teaching this course and she is so nice and approachable. Her exams are pretty easy if you've paid even a small amount of attention and study for like an hour or two the day before. Seriously don't miss out on taking this class with Professor Schmidt because a bunch of now 30 year olds hated her 10 years ago. She's a lovely professor.

I was nervous to take this class with Professor Schmidt because of all the negative reviews, but I ended up having a great experience! Professor Schmidt was understanding and open to questions, and I never felt like she was rude or condescending to anyone during lecture or office hours. She also changed the exams in recent years, so each test had less material (which I really appreciated) and there was no cumulative final. The only thing I would change about the course is that she never gives back graded tests (you only get the grade itself), so it was difficult to know where points were taken off or how to improve without going to office hours. Overall, though, this course was great, and I definitely would recommend Professor Schmidt!

I was hesitant to take this class with Professor Schmidt based on reviews here, but let me say that Professor Schmidt is genuinely a kind person and was a great professor. She has clearly taken student feedback to heart and has adjusted her course accordingly. She understood the circumstances of COVID and how it affected everyone's lives and made her class much more manageable. She made our lowest exam score worth half as much as others, which was definitely helpful for a lot of people. The exams were pretty easy and fair. Professor Schmidt is super nice and fun and I encourage you to give her class a chance!