PSYC 2160

This class has its pros and cons. You get very easy points from the clicker questions and even bonus points. But the tests are extremely difficult and for no good reason. It’s very writing heavy and she requires you to memorize each study that is mentioned in lecture, and there are a lot, and know everything about it. She emphasized that the class is focused on studies because the field of cognitive neuroscience is so new, thus there is little evidence to back up the claims presented in the studies, so it would be unfair to test us on them. This is a fair point, but at the end of this class I now feel like I know a bunch about individual studies, but very little about a cohesive topic of cognitive neuroscience.

Professor Long seemed nice enough, but this class was "taught" at a breakneck pace in which random facts and studies were presented on a (dry) powerpoint for 75 minutes. The studies would often lack context, and Dr. Long was never clear as to what aspects of the studies we needed to know and which aspects we did not. Hint, its everything. The quizzes are 5 questions every week and you have 45 seconds to answer them, which makes them easy unless Professor long feels like shes making thing to easy and then puts a question up there that is completely doable, but with need for at least 2 minutes to read over. The exams were never consistent, with the format changing each time, and Dr. Long assigned entire chapters in the syllabus, only to skim through maybe 10 pages of it during lecture, making reading the chapters a huge waste of time. Disappointing class. Moral of the story - never take a brand new class.

This course moves at a faster pace than most other 2000-level PSYC courses. When I took the course, grades were determined from short weekly iClicker quizes on material covered in class, and several midterms consisting of both multiple-choice and short answer questions. If you're willing to do the reading, it's a really interesting and engaging course. Prof. Long is extremely knowledgeable, focused in her lectures, and open to receiving feedback from students. There's a lot of memorization required to do well, but that's pretty much to be expected in 2000-level courses that survey the field. Overall, I enjoyed my experience - it wasn't the easiest, but it rewarded engagement with the material.

I was one of the few people who liked this course. With course registration around the corner I feel like I should write this review and do Dr. Long some justice because I absolutely loved having her as a professor. Yes, the course was fast-paced, but it's just like any other upper level psych or bio course. The information in the course is really interesting, so learning all of it was not too bothersome. Also, Dr. Long is very passionate, knowledgable, and approachable! She really wants you to do your best and succeed in her class. I recommend going to her office hours or even just going up after class to talk to her. When it comes to the textbook, I never read it (never bought it lol) and it did not hurt me at all. Tests were purely lecture information, the textbook was really there as a supplement, but it wasn't necessary at all. Her lecture presentations are very straightforward, and she posts the slides online after lecture. With that being said, I would definitely attend every lecture and take notes on what she is saying. The slides alone can be a little confusing to understand without her verbal explanations. When it comes to quizzes they were pretty simple. Each one has 4 questions; you take 10 quizzes and you get to drop 5 so it was an easy 20/20. Now here comes the part everyone hates, tests. Tests were not the worst thing in the world. There are 3 of them and Dr. Long is nice enough to drop your worst one. Study efficiently and effectively. She is testing your understanding, analysis, and ability to apply the knowledge in different scenarios. She is NOT testing your memorization skills. Her tests consist of a lot of "select all that apply" type of questions, so you have to be able to see the bigger picture with the information she provides you in lecture. As for the final, it is just like a big midterm. It was cumulative, but there was a big focus on the information covered after the 3rd test. Same type of questions that you see in the midterms, no tricks. Study for it like you would a midterm. This was my favorite class last semester. The information was amazing and Dr. Long is an amazing professor. I recommend any psych major/minor, neuroscience lover, and premed student to take this class.

TL;DR
Yes, this is a 2000 level psych course, but it isn't social psych. Treat it like it is 3000 level.
You don't need the textbook
Attend lecture and take notes
She drops 5/10 quizzes and 1/3 midterms
Midterms test application/understanding and not memorization
Getting an A is very doable!

Do not take this class unless it is absolutely necessary. The exam averages in this class were lower than the exam averages in orgo. Prof Long is way too smart and her exams are impossible. For each question you can select either one or all of the answers and generally every answer is correct but you have to choose the answer that she thinks goes best with the question. Nightmare of a class.

This was probably the worst class i've taken at UVA. Although i found the information to be generally interesting, the lectures themselves are super dry and tiringly long. Professor Long is clearly knowledgable, but she's not great at delivering that information to students that are learning it for the first time. The exams are unnecessarily difficult as you have to remember the details of hundreds of studies that she talks about throughout the weeks. There are clicker quizzes, which are helpful a bit grade wise, but they do not reflect the kind of questions that you find on the exams. Overall, I did not enjoy this class at all and would not recommend to anyone.

This was a class that I took my first year and first semester. Me, thinking it was gonna be interesting, soon realized that I hated it, but I decided to stick with it. The first chapter was very interesting and then everything became very boring as the class continued. Don't get me wrong, Professor Long is very smart and very knowledgeable. However, the tests are insanely hard. Even with attending every lecture, taking notes, and reading the textbook, I ended with a very low score and it didn't reflect the amount of work I put in the class. Overall, I would not recommend anyone to take this class unless you are 100 percent interested in it and are willing to do all the work.