Not a class to take your first semester. Jaswal is a fantastically nice guy and a great lecturer but his exams are evil. I repeat, evil. You have to read (everything in the textbook), and you have to be able to apply it, not just regurgitate it. You also have to read the extra readings he assigns through collab. A few midterms, a final, and a small essay (1 page) project worth 10%. He drops your lowest midterm which is nice. I only wish he remembered that this is a survey course and we aren't going to learn the info as well as he knows it. Tough class with really heavy content. I'd avoid if I could do it over.

Jaswal is truly a great professor! The class is so interesting, and exams are hard, but it is definitely possible to get an A as long as you thoroughly and carefully do all of the readings. Definitely not an easy A, but it is definitely attainable if you study hard! I suggest making review sheets for the exams.

This is one of those classes where you either do really well, or really poorly. If you read the textbook and go over the lecture, and synthesize what you learn then that is probably your best bet for doing well on tests.

As other's have said, Jaswal does seem to care and makes the material somewhat engaging; however, I found this course to be one of those that seems really easy and then the exams more tricky. The material is presented in a very slow manner; I felt like I was in kindergarten at times. The exams then were on very specific (and sometimes unnecessary) details. Nonetheless I did decently on the exams except the final was unreasonably tricky and detail oriented, cumulative, and somehow a whopping 40% of the grade. There are 3 midterms and the lowest one is dropped but I would have preferred to keep all 3 midterm grades and not have the final to be almost half the class grade. I felt that that distribution was unfair because I was set to receive an A- in the course and it went down tremendously because I did poorly on the final (Although I admit I am a biology major and it wasn't my top priority class to study. for.) So you'll probably do fine if you study a lot. Just don't let this class trick you into thinking it's easy. The material is a lot of review from other classes (I honestly didn't learn much new because I've taken other psychology biology, and philosophy classes.) But if you don't have much experience in cognition, the class is interesting enough that I do recommend it if you are a psychology major and you can put the time into this class. If not, don't risk hurting your gpa.

The professor was amazing, and the lectures were really engaging. My biggest issue overall was the unnecessarily difficult phrasing of the trick questions. The tests are ridiculously convoluted. For example, you'll have true/false questions specifically relating to questions and topics that are still being debated so you'll just be confused and have to guess. And the TA was nice, I guess, but her review sessions were not helpful in the least. I attended most of them and they did not make a difference whatsoever for me.

Loved this course! Jaswal does a great job explaining concepts in lecture and I was always very engaged. You definitely have to read the textbook to do well in the course, but there are 3 midterms and the lowest one is dropped, so it is not too stressful. There is also a jigsaw assignment, which is reading an article and doing a 250 word analysis on it. The class average for that was in the mid-to-high B range, so was not graded too harshly. Overall, this course has inspired me to even considering doing a cognitive science major. I found it to be highly enjoyable and also not difficult to get a good grade if you read the textbook and attend lecture.

This class is interesting and applicable, but not easy. Jaswal is awesome. His lectures are pretty engaging, but in my opinion kind of start to sound the same after a while as the material is just so vast and similar throughout the course. I can't say I have thoroughly enjoyed the class, but I have learned quite a bit. The tests are hard mainly because you can only miss 5 questions before going below a 90. That was way harder for me than I thought it would be going in. I would only take this if you really like Psych.

I really liked professor Jaswal and this class in general. His lectures were designed to easy to understand and I don't think he ever went over a topic that I didn't understand by the time he was done talking. Sometimes it could get a little boring but I enjoyed lecture for the most part. I would definitely recommend reading the textbook as he tends to ask questions about the studies mentioned in the book and the ones mentioned in lecture. I would recommend going to lecture as he makes topics very easy to understand and he gives four short writing assignments over the semester that can be used for extra credit if you are between final letter grades (so they won't hurt you at all). Other than that, there is no form of attendance and he posts his slides on collab after class is over. There is one writing assignment in April that he calls a jigsaw assignment. Basically you read an article, write a one page paper on it, then go to class and he puts you in groups with people who read different articles then you teach each other what you read about.
There are three midterms and one can be dropped. They're paper and pencil and in my opinion fairly easy. From what he's said in class, the averages are usually in the 80's but from personal experience its not hard to score better than that.

Jaswal is a fantastic lecturer and he really cares about the topic. He's always enthusiastic in class and he keeps your attention. If you study for the exams then they aren't that bad.

READ THE TEXTBOOK. I read it towards the beginning of the course but not towards the end. Big mistake. You'll never get an A if you don't read the book. I ended the course with a B. Class lectures are very fun to go to. Definitely attend class. Exam questions are pulled from lecture notes and the textbook. Jaswal is very passionate about cog psy which makes the class engaging; he always shows interesting videos and demonstrations. Jigsaw exercise is easy to do, but don't procrastinate on it! TAs (Jessica and Sierra) were amazing--super approachable and very clear in answering questions. Overall, this psych class is definitely worth your time.