Good professor. This is a purely memorization based class. The only grades were tests. Your grade is the average of your top 4 test scores, including the final, so you might not have to take the final. Some questions are poorly written, but he always corrected the answer key accordingly which is admirable.

David Hill is a great professor. I had heard a lot of bad things about this class, but he explains things so clearly that it makes it easy to understand! The tests are all 40 multiple choice, so every point you get wrong can be worth a lot. There aren't trick questions, but each section covers a lot of material, so its hard to study it all. Overall, I would recommend taking this class with David Hill, because he's a great professor!

This class is actually not that bad IF you take it as a premed during your last years at UVA in conjunction with anatomy or having already taken anatomy (sometimes I saw the same questions appear on both Hill's exams and Kopeny's exams). I had already learned about 75% of the material in this class due to having already taken intro bio, biochem, and anatomy so if you are a pre med psych major or thinking of being one, save this class until the END of your UVA career. Even if you arent premed, this material isnt that difficult to learn and Hill goes INCREDIBLY slowly, like he spends an entire month teaching action potentials (which I didn't bother going to class for and still did well on the exam). The class is doable, you only need the textbook to look up vocab terms, and one exam can get dropped which is nice. He did curve a bit this year making an 88 an A-.

I actually really enjoyed this class with Prof Hill! It's pretty much a biology class and the topics were pretty engaging. There are 4 exams and the final which you can drop at the end of the semester (so nice!!!!). Overall, I would say that the exams are pretty average. Some of the questions are definitely there to trip you up (especially since a lot of them have the None of the Above Choice which is sometimes right). However, Hill is understanding at the review sessions and will give back points to questions where more than one answer might seem correct. Hill has a dry sense of humor, but keeps the class pretty engaged. Make sure you print of the PowerPoint slides before coming to class because most of the information for the exams come straight from lecture. I'm going to end up with an A in the class, so it's definitely doable to do well in this class. You WILL get through this class. Good Luck!!!

I came into this class having heard only bad things and expecting to fail, but I actually did much better than I expected and really enjoyed the class! He does say at the beginning of the semester that he refers to the course as Psychobiology because it really isn't focused on psychology at all. However, if you are interested in neuroscience and biology, and how they relate to psychology, then the material is very interesting, though it can be a bit difficult or confusing. There are 4 exams and a final, all 40 multiple choice, with the lowest grade being dropped (including the final). The exams can be tricky for sure, and it does seem some of the questions are designed to trip you up, but I think some of the students exaggerate this at least a little bit. I never got above an 85 on an exam, but he posts the grades and answers a couple hours after each one and when I reviewed my exams I was immediately able to figure out why I had gotten it wrong or why it made more sense, even thought I didn't fully understand while taking the exam. Aside from the class being a little difficult and hard to study for with the amount of material you have to know, my only other concern is with the way the professor interacts with the students. He definitely has a sense of humor and I enjoyed all of the lectures and was entertained during them, but he often comes across as condescending when students ask questions, which can make you feel hesitant to ask for help. Overall, I would recommend this class if the material sounds interesting to you, though I wouldn't take it expecting an easy A.

I actually really liked this class! Fair warning, it isn't as much of a PYSCH class as it is a biology and anatomy course. I found the material very interesting, especially if your interested in the medical field later on. Professor Hill can have a monotone voice, but if you power through, he actually can have a very dry sense of humor. I would recommend this class- the material is super interesting, but fair warning there is a lot of it.

Hill is the worst professor I've had. The course is so interesting, yet he makes the material dull and unlearnable.

This course is not curved, and have a pretty low test average (mid 70s usually)
Tests are unnecessarily difficult and even though I study and feel confident both before and after the exam, I've never scored above an 85 on a test. I seriously believe he writes them with the intention of you getting them wrong; I have no other explanation. There is no need to confuse students as much as Hill does in order to test their knowledge on a topic. It's killing my GPA this semester, despite the fact that I enrolled in it hoping for a relatively easy interesting psych class AND i actually do understand the material very well. Hill said there would be no material covered on the final exam that wasn't covered on our other four exams which is straight up lie. Final was even harder than the other exams. I cannot express how taxing this class was - I wouldn't take this class if my life depended on it. you will destroy your GPA and your mental health. DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS YOU WILL REGRET IT

This class was deceptively hard for me. Prof. Hill's passion for the topic is infectious, and it makes his lectures seem a little more informal at times. However, do not allow his passion to underestimate his tests!! They are exactly like other tests in the intro psych courses -- detail oriented and designed to confuse people who don't know the information inside and out.

The readings are important, but pay more attention and take detailed notes in his lectures because most of the test material comes from the lectures. Also, pay attention to the details in lectures! Take notes on the diagrams he spends time on and on the videos he shows, because those are also used in tests.

For sure interesting material, and Hill does a great job explaining it... but the tests are another story. None of the questions are straight forward and most seem to be very unfair trick questions (I still have not figured out why a professor would manipulate their exams in this way, tricking students into getting the wrong answers on material that was studied in depth). Anyways, it is a very fast paced class, but pretty manageable if you do some of the readings and attend lecture. Still, I would not recommend this class to anyone who anticipates that their grades reflect their efforts in a class, unless it is required (if that is the case, good luck).

update: just took the final and 19/40 questions had the correct answer of "none of the above" or "more than one of the above." this class is 10/10 a scam.