Hey!
I took both Psych courses this past year. They are changing the courses for Sept. '08 though (
http://www.science.mcmaster. ca/psych...s/courses.html). But, I can't comment on HOW much its changing. However, I can say that the courses this year were significantly different than what I had heard about them in past years. Basically, we didn't have the traditional "go-to-class" lectures; rather, we had weekly web modules (commonly known as online lectures). These lectures would be released on a certain day and we would have unlimited access to them for a limited amount of time (about a week if I am not mistaken), after which they would be taken down off for viewing. Also, the online lectures would last anywhere from 15 minutes to 40 minutes. But a lot of students, including me, found that these lectures were very time-consuming, in that we had to constantly pause/play the lectures to take notes into the Psych handbook (our midterms and exam were open-book, so it definitely helped having notes in the handbook... the amount of information you write down is up to you ... some students barely took notes, while others absolutely FILLED every inch of the handbook with writing).
Okay, so basically what happened this year was students would watch the lectures and attend tutorials in which a TA would discuss the information covered in the lectures, and would give additional information not covered in the lectures.
Also, in terms of grades and assessment, the two courses were slightly different:
Psych 1A03 had two midterms, an exam, tutorial participation, tutorial quizzes, and a big group project.
In Psych 1AA3, everything was the same, except instead of the big group project, we had 4 mini-assignments (out of which only the 3 best counted for our final marks). A lot of students disliked the assignments, primarily because of how they were marked (reasons: TAs were subjective, picky, etc.).
So, that was a brief background to the courses. Both courses were certainly interesting and topics that were covered included (I may be missing some):
Psych 1A03:
- Evolution
- Development
- Brain
- Vision
- Colour Perception
- Form Perception
- Depth, Distance, & Motion
- Audition
- Music
- Chemical, Senses, & Touch
- Motivation (Hunger)
Psych 1AA3:
- Learning
- Memory
- Language
- Attention
- Categories & Concepts
- Forming Impressions
- Influence of Others
- Altruism
- Personality
- Psychopathalogy (my personal favourite!)
Overall, I liked Psych 1A03 better because it covered psychology from a science perspective, which I personally enjoyed. In terms of level of difficulty, I think it seemed as if Psych 1A03 covered a lot more content than the 1AA3. But, I guess it was because there was a lot of science involved, and the amount of content would be really deep. Psych 1AA3 was an easier courses (in terms of studying for the midterms and exams), but what made it "hard" was the marking of the mini-assignments.
Also, a word of advice for those who are going to be taken these courses: make sure you know the material really well! Dr. Kim is a really tricky professor, and his multiple choice questions (on the midterms and exams) are application-based and truly test whether or not students understand the material. You will notice that these courses, like every other course in university, is not about pure memorizing and then regurgitating what you know onto the midterms/exams.
You have to be able to understand the concepts and then apply them to novel situations! Overall, I think if you put in the effort though, you should be able to do really well in both courses (atleast a 10 or A-).
Good luck to those who are taking these course!
this course is hard
