PSYC 2410

This was a wonderful course that I recommend for anyone interested in psychology to take. The content is very interesting as we go through causes, course, and outcome for a wide variety of disorders. I also believe Dr. Emery does a good job of hitting many of the main points of each topic in lecture.
The course grade consists of 4 exams and a final, with the lowest grade being dropped. You should beware that the exams require you to both attend the lecture and to read the textbook. The exams can be tricky, but overall are manageable. The average for the exams is in the mid to low 80's, but as long as you pay attention in lecture and carefully read you should be able to average 90+.
Additionally, I took the final without studying (because I could drop it and still have an A) and ended up getting a 100. The exam was pretty easy and far less specific than the other exams. (Though the exam was curved, I think this was because of many students with high grades in the course choosing not to take the exam, rather than the difficulty of the exam)
Additionally, there are 1 page papers that you can write to bump your grade half a letter (ex. A to A+).
I took advantage of the extra credit and came out with an A+.

Preface: for more reviews on this class, look at PSYC3410 (they changed the course number to 2410 recently). This class was awesome. Emery is one of the best lecturers ive ever had and the material is very interesting. I would highly recommend this class, it wasn't very difficult (especially if you use quizlet to study hint hint hint), although Emery does have some oddly specific questions on the exams. There are 4 exams and a final, but you can drop one, so I didn't take the final. This was prob my favorite psychology class, prob tied with PSYC3480 (Adolescent Psych). If you write 5 of the 6 one page papers that Emery assigns, he will bump up your grade from a B to a B+ or A- to an A, etc, and they are super easy to do, prob take 30 mins a piece. There was no outside work besides studying for the exams. I would read the 4 chapters on each test in the 4 days before the exam (~1 per day) and then study the slides for 1-2 hours the day before the test and easily averaged an A, even without the added grade bump. Great class, great prof, what more could you ask for?

I honestly loved this class. Professor Emery tries to make lectures very interesting and engaging. After the first exam I was a bit skeptical about the class because I did not score as high as I wanted to, but once I learned how to take the exams, the class got easier. He lets you drop one exam and write additional 1 page papers for extra credit. The extra credit bumped me up half a letter grade (from an A- to an A) and I did not have to take the final exam. If you study his powerpoint slides and read the textbook (that he wrote), you'll be fine! This class was one of my favorite classes at UVA.

I did super well in this class as I am better at learning big concepts instead of memorizing random facts. This class was super easy and I ended up studying just an hour or two for the exams. There are 5 exams but you can drop one and you can drop the final if you do well on the other ones. Emery lets you look at old quizlets and I recommend using them to study for the exams Using the quizlets and showing up to lecture and taking simple notes of big ideas instead of writing down every fact that he said got me an A+ I wouldnt even take notes sometimes just re listen to the lectures and the main ideas were so obvious on the exams that just doing that was enough. A lot of this class is just common knowledge if you know basics about mental illnesses. Emery is the best though dont take the class with anyone else.

I really, really enjoyed taking this course with Professor Emery. I found his lectures to be really easy to follow and he tried to make them as entertaining as possible. You can tell he is very knowledgeable and passionate about this field. I am a slow reader, so I found myself getting behind sometimes in the reading assignments, but some of them I wouldn't do if I felt comfortable with the material from the lecture. Definitely go to the lectures because he will explain the major concepts he wants you to know, and will usually give an example which I found really helpful. There are 5 exams and the lowest gets dropped. I found the first exam and the final exam to be the hardest because there were just more broad questions, whereas exams 2-4 were concentrated more on identifying characteristics of certain disorders and mental illnesses. There are 6 extra credit papers that you can do (all one-page and single spaced) and if you do 5 out of 6 you can go from a B- to a B/ A to an A+ so I recommend doing those. This was the first Psychology class I took at UVA and it made me want to minor in Psychology so I definitely recommend taking it!

super great course! emery was interactive and helpful even with the extra stress of covid

The topics covered in this class and the lectures are quite interesting. Lectures mostly cover Emery's opinions on the topics and scientific controversies rather than specific facts (those are covered in the textbook). There is a lot of textbook readings. Exams are based on both the lectures and readings, but one exam can be dropped.

This class is overhyped. Emery is not a good lecturer at all- incredibly slow and loses his train of thought all the time. I rewatched lectures at 2x speed and they sounded like he was talking at a normal speed, thats how slow he is. There is a ridiculous amount of textbook reading required and none of it is particularly interesting. He also throws in way too many of his own personal hot takes into the lectures and will not hesitate to test you on "what Emery thinks". This class is easy to get a good grade in but it will crush your will to live along the way.

Emery is the best! He's one of my fave profs so far, and his lectures are very engaging. He clearly works to engage people and get them to participate, and he's easily approachable and accessible outside of class and through office hours. You do have to do a fair amount of reading though, as the exams heavily contain questions based on the textbook, required readings, and lecture. He does occasionally have very specific questions on the exam but overall the exams are not too bad, and he drops your lowest score. He also offers extra credit writing opportunities that are not too difficult, as they generally take about 30 mins to an hour to complete. Overall, I'd definitely recommend this class! It was the first psych class I ever took (and probably the last even though I loved it), and I still managed to get an A+.

Prof. Emery has such an inflated head and high image of himself that it's nauseating. Otherwise, it's an enjoyable class with fascinating material on lots of different disorders and helps you better understand and contextualize disorders. Emery also encourages and really pushes you to be a skeptical individual, which I really appreciated. If you have the chance to take it with a better professor, you should take it. If not, take it for the content.