PSYC 1010

I didn't think this was a super easy class. There was no homework, but the exams I thought were really hard. Chad is super enthusiastic which made me excited to take the class, but I wouldn't take it if I didn't have to. Also, don't buy the textbook. We never once did anything with it and the content is nicely displayed through his powerpoints

So, I started the semester assuming the class would be much easier than it is. There is no homework, and the only thing that is graded is your top 4/5 exams. Frankly, I found all but the first exam to be difficult; the exams probably felt difficult this semester since the course was online. The exams were open book, but I assume Prof. Dodson counter-balanced this by making them longer and more heavily focused on the textbook readings. The issue is that it can be fairly time-consuming to locate the answer from the textbook if the exam is on 140 pages of reading. Prof. Dodson is pretty nice and tries to make his lectures fun and interesting. My only issue with him was that I thought he organized the powerpoints poorly, which made note-taking more frustrating.

The course was overall extremely interesting and easy to follow along. Lectures kept me entertained and there was not much work to do outside of studying. I would highly recommend attending the review sessions that he mentions in the beginning of the semester because those instructors were super helpful all year! The exams were a little bit more difficult than I had expected, but overall solid class! Highly recommend.

Being my first introduction to the subject, PSYC 1010 was a great course. Although it was online due to COVID, Professor Dodson was a very enthusiastic and comprehensible lecturer. As long as you pay 100% attention during class and take detailed notes, there is no need to read the textbook. You take five exams including the final, all of which are equally weighted, and the lowest of the first four is dropped. The exams can have fairly tricky conceptual questions, so make sure you grasp what he talks about in class. Otherwise, it wasn't a particularly difficult course, and the content was very interesting... it actually got me really interested in psychology as a possible major, but we'll see where that goes. #tCF2020

Chad is great. He is super pumped about psychology and whenever someone asks a question, he always says "that's a GREAT question", which makes you feel good. This class was synchronous online this semester. It's a giant lecture hall, with around 300-400 people, so at first, it was a little unexpected that the class was synchronous. Personally, I preferred the class being synchronous because it allowed students to ask questions in real-time. However, all the lectures were recorded and uploaded to COLLAB so sometimes if I was working on something for another class, I would skip the synchronous lecture and watch the async recording afterward, which was really, really helpful. This course is basic psych, you don't get too deep, but Chad always suggests other courses within the psych department if you express interest in a certain unit covered in the intro to psych. There are no papers, but there are three required exams throughout the semester (you can take the fourth and they will drop your lowest exam grade- highly recommend taking the fourth), and then a mandatory final exam. Sometimes the class was boring, in regards to the neuroscience unit we covered, but generally, it's pretty interesting because you get to see how the mind works. Be aware that if this is your first psych class at UVA, you will need to fulfill 6 Participant Research Credits (3 due halfway through, other three due at end of the semester). This just means you have to participate in psychological studies with the UVA research center. There are a lot of cool studies, but start working on them early in the semester bc you don't want to be rushing to do them with concluding assignments toward the end of the semester. The only thing that takes a long time is taking notes on the parts of textbook that correspond to the lecture notes. But that is only reading you will need to do in his class.

I rewatched each lectures more than 3 times. It was very time consuming on my end because I wanted to make sure I got an A! Engage with the material and you will do well. Dodson is AMAZING and super funny and interesting. Stay active and do not procrasinate lectures!! #tCF2020