Reviews don't really mean that much, people who didn't like the teacher are much more likely to post on rate my Prof than people who liked the teacher.
Good luck with Day lmao. ratemyprof is actually very useful if it's mostly negative or mostly positive stuff. But if it's decent reviews and comments but low easiness that doesn't mean much it just means people are stupid and did bad but the prof is still good. But ratemyprof is usually extremely accurate and on the dot.
^Pretty much, I usually find ratemyprof to be quite accurate although you do have to take note that people are more likely to leave bad reviews if they didn't do so well, and this may or may not be a result of the prof. maybe they just didn't get it or found the content too hard. But in regards to Russell Day, I had him in the spring and he is not THAT bad.
This is the thing, people take PSYC 100 or PSYC 102 expecting that it's gonna be an easy A. It's not that it's impossible but getting an A requires a lot of work. I easily spent more time in PSYC 100 than a lot of my other 200 lvl courses. While the content itself is not hard (quite interesting actually) I also found Russell to be a clear, coherent lecturer who knows EXACTLY what he's talking about.
But like I said, it does require work and you're gonna need to put a enough time to study each chapter (15-20 pages each) weekly for the i-clicker quizzes. There's also one assignment, and then there are 3 midterms (he counts only the 2 best ones) and one final. That's why you must stay on top of your game and actually study the material often. Just do your best to understand the chapters (don't just skim it, actually read it and see how you can apply it)
The essay portions can be challenging for Day's exams but it's doable. He'll give you 2-3 scientifc journal articles to read on WebCt for the 2nd and 3rd midterm and you're gonna want to know what the methods, purpose, experiment etc in those articles. Not sure if he's gonna change it for future PSYC 100 courses but that's what was on my exams when I took it with him in Spring 2013. Anyway, good luck and don't fret too much. Just do your best to absorb and understand the material! Oh, and like the ratemyprof reviews have said, the i-clicker quizzes are mostly from the text while the exams are usually from lecture. Russell was a funny and interesting prof so I always enjoyed going to class to see him! :)
I didn't have Day but I heard he was shit. He penalizes for guessing and that is just such bullshit. I took PSYC 100 with Jamie Palmer-Hague and this course is probably the second if not easiest class I ever had. I actually worked very very little in this course. Everything done the night before including exam studying and term assignment. In the A range right now.
^I'm pretty sure it's Alder that has that guessing penalty lol, not Day. When I took it with him he never had that guessing thing. That's interesting, guess it really depends on how the prof designs it lol
Yeah its Alder that has the correction for guessing. I took both 100 and 102 with him and he finally got rid of it half way through 102 when I guess too many people were complaining. Don't know if he went back to it or not
Comments
This is the thing, people take PSYC 100 or PSYC 102 expecting that it's gonna be an easy A. It's not that it's impossible but getting an A requires a lot of work. I easily spent more time in PSYC 100 than a lot of my other 200 lvl courses. While the content itself is not hard (quite interesting actually) I also found Russell to be a clear, coherent lecturer who knows EXACTLY what he's talking about.
But like I said, it does require work and you're gonna need to put a enough time to study each chapter (15-20 pages each) weekly for the i-clicker quizzes. There's also one assignment, and then there are 3 midterms (he counts only the 2 best ones) and one final. That's why you must stay on top of your game and actually study the material often. Just do your best to understand the chapters (don't just skim it, actually read it and see how you can apply it)
The essay portions can be challenging for Day's exams but it's doable. He'll give you 2-3 scientifc journal articles to read on WebCt for the 2nd and 3rd midterm and you're gonna want to know what the methods, purpose, experiment etc in those articles. Not sure if he's gonna change it for future PSYC 100 courses but that's what was on my exams when I took it with him in Spring 2013. Anyway, good luck and don't fret too much. Just do your best to absorb and understand the material! Oh, and like the ratemyprof reviews have said, the i-clicker quizzes are mostly from the text while the exams are usually from lecture. Russell was a funny and interesting prof so I always enjoyed going to class to see him! :)