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Who's better, Day or Alder for PSYCH 100/102 Courses?

immadiamond
edited December 2012 in General
i've heard lots of mixed reviews for both professors but most people seem to be leaning towards Day
the subject matter for psych 100 seems more boring than 102 though

thoughts on these two profs? thanks@

Comments

  • guitarch94
    Not sure about Alder but I have Day right now in PSYC 102. I'm not a Psych major but I chose psyc 102 because it's the more "arts" side compared to the "scientific" side of PSYC 100. 

    Lectures weren't really helpful at times and you can skip and still get a good mark because I basically learned everything from the book. 
  • sfustudent13
    I've never taken a class with Day so I can't say but as for Alder, he's a nice guy and all, I just don't like his teaching method. Everyone hate's the correction for guessing/penalty for wrong answers and his notes are useless since the exam questions are straight from the textbook (which makes it harder to study when you have 7 chapters to go through, all 40 pages each). I heard all the PSYC intro classes are similar thought so I'm not sure if its the same problem with Day or not
  • Abc123
    Day is really passionate about the material, even if lectures aren't necessary to succeed in the course. Alder has guessing penalties. I'd go for Day.
  • abc1234567
    How does he know whether or not you guessed on a question?
  • sfustudent1
    Say you take a multiple choice out of 100 and you get a grade of 80%. If you answered all 100 questions then he knows you guessed on the 20 questions you got wrong. So there's a formula he uses that brings down your grade if you guess
  • sfustudent1
    ^so think of it as a penalty for wrong answers rather than penalty for guessing
  • abc1234567
    So not only do you not get a mark for the wrong answer, you get marks taken off...I wish I found this out before I registered in his class. Think I'm definitely dropping it and taking it in the summer with someone else.
  • 112233
    If the class is scaled everyone will be affected equally, so it won't be the worst thing in the world.
  • immadiamond
    @student1

    Are you serious? So he is discouraging students to complete all the questions and rather you leave 20 questions blank if you don't know? What if the question is weirded wrong or something, even if you studied everything

    I was always kinda iffy about this course because of the quizes and 4 exams lol...idk

    112233, if its scaled doesnt it mean he assigned letter grade according to your percentage? I thought it would be better if its curved. lol

  • sfustudent1
    Yes, he's discouraging students from completing all the questions and wants you to leave blank answers. He's pretty much saying only answer a question if you know you are 100% sure otherwise you will be punished. Obviously you are not going to know for sure the answer to every question, thats what makes taking the tests so hard. On the final exam I got 66% but after he used the formula my mark was dropped to 54%. However, the bright side to this is that because the average for every test is so low (final exam was 51%), if you can manage to say above the class average you'll do fine since the class is curved. Unfortunately this is easier said that done as I was a victim to the correction for guessing and received only C in the course as every test I took I dropped at least 1 or 2 letter grades and tests are worth either 66% or 70% of your final mark
  • sfustudent1
    ^Final exam was the only test (out of 3) that I got above the average and still only got a C
  • immadiamond
    ^O M G. For real?

    That's ridiculous. Average is only 51%? for the final exam, wow. This is supposed to be an intro level psych 100 course, yet he makes the marking scheme so weird and unfair. That doesn't even make any sense though because what if you did study every single page and read everything over, but he tests on a really small irrelevant thing like "What % of the population ____" even if you understand all the theories

    I actually thought that since he takes the 2/3 best exam mark that it would be ok. But I'm kinda worried now

    Smh, this is just an intro psych course for people interested in psych. I mean it"s PSYCH, Not chem or bio or anything, and it's not like an intro accounting or physics course where they probably want to weed out everyone.

    on the other hand,the ratemyprof ratings say he is a good lecturer though. maybe he just likes to screw his students over with those weird exam policies :/
  • sfustudent1
    He doesn't take the best of your 3 exam marks, all count for your final grade. First midterm is worth 12%, second is worth 18% and the final exam is 35%. Quizzes are worth 18% of your final mark (15% in Psyc 102 I believe) and your lowest quiz mark is dropped. But all 3 exams regardless of your mark are counted. He does use the bell curve though so if you stay above the class average you will get at least a B-. The thing about is Alder is that you do NOT need to attend lectures because the notes he gives your are honestly useless. All test and quiz questions come directly from the textbook. So in order to do well you need to read each chapter, study each chapter, make YOUR OWN notes on each chapter and memorize definitions/key points (very time consuming). My friend made the mistake of only studying the lecture notes for the first midterm and he learned pretty fast thats not how this class works. As for Alder himself, hes a nice guy, hes not necessarily a hard professor, he is very intelligent and helpful, its just the fact that the way this course is set up will burn some students
  • immadiamond
    ^ crying, all this time, I thought you were talking about DAY. lol! so stupid I should have read the part above where you said Alder. Ok i think i've contained my feels now.

    I actually took psych 102 with Alder a few terms ago and I didn't realize he had this new exam policy because he sure didn't use it back when I took it with him. Seems like he made the course much harder than before, usually i heard that his course was ok but i dont understand why he made it more challenging. he is a nice guy but really really boring in lecture and now with that new weird exam rule...

    sorry im just totally like omg'ing right now because i thought u were referring to day, i was crying and then now im like oh phew. thank you though for your long replies, think it will help other students out in the future if they plan on taking it with Alder. 
  • sfustudent1
    Haha no problem. From what I understand because Day doesn't use correction for guessing his term tests are worth 70% all together instead of 66% like Alder. I may be wrong though since I've never had him. I didn't realize Alder never used to have this exam policy, I thought it was something he always did... Its frustrating since you were always taught to guess if you don't know a question on a m/c test. Even my CRIM professor this semester said it kills her when people leave questions blank lol 
  • immadiamond
    oh rly? weird, but nonetheless it is a really stupid rule and seems not that important. like just put the thing thru the scantron and let the students know their mark! why does he have to be all fancy dandy and add another thing to complicate it.

    ikr! all my past teachers have said guessing is better than nothing. even bullshitting on a test could get you at least some part marks if the prof can understand where you're getting at. like seriously lol!
  • BeAnBeAnBeAnBeAn
    lol sfustudent1, are you referring to Fabian? 
  • sfustudent1
    Peters. Is Fabian the same way?
  • immadiamond
    BTW For anyone who knows, does it matter if we use i clicker #1 or #2? because the bookstore says we need i clicker #2 but apparently for Day's class we are still allowed to use i clicker 1?

    Thanks in advance!
  • sfustudent1
    It doesn't matter which one you use
  • BeAnBeAnBeAnBeAn
    ^Yes, Fabian told people not to leave answers blank. I think the deduction of marks for getting wrong is just completely stupid. 

    @immadiamond, iClicker 2 is really only required for quantitative courses because it allows you to answer numerically. 

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