Originally Posted by Philipp31

I didn't particularly like Psych, but thinking back it really wasn't that bad. Quizes can be annoying, tutorials are pretty straightforward. The exam was pretty easy. A lot of reading to do though.

I never had to buy the textbook at all. The beauty of 1X03 are the online modules, because if I missed something or need to listen to the lecture again, it's there. The problem though was getting enough discipline to watch the videos ahead of time.

Originally Posted by Alexmahone

Someone said that Psych 1X03 requires an enormous amount of work. Is it true?

Tutorials were an easy 10% of our mark, the quizzes were decent (getting along with a group would be a good idea), and research participation was an EASY 5% bonus. It allowed me to meet some profs and be a part of their research! Midterm 1 was tricky...but the final was easy.

Overall, I found psych to be a more organized and, I guess, easier course compared to English because I hate writing essays and studying poems.

^you get quizzed on book only content now. exam had a few book only questions too.

Originally Posted by Silver

^you get quizzed on book only content now. exam had a few book only questions too.

The book isn't much different from the web modules aside from the fact they contain more sample questions to practice... There haven't been any major recent changes to major psychological theories that I'm aware of, to be that important to modify an entire first year course completely.

I bought the book and never used it. It did not help me in the course at all. I had a copy of someones notes from a previous year in 1X03 that I just modified them slightly with the course changes when I'd watch lectures. The material is pretty straight forward as long as you understand the theories and ideas behind concepts.

Do the research experiment, it will help your mark a lot. Especially if you don't do as well as anticipated on the midterm (if they still have midterms).

Tutorials are a good way to get extra marks and go over what's unclear about any theories/concepts.

I've never taken 1A03, but I'd definitely recommend 1X03. Its interesting and although I did exceedingly better in my college psychology courses which I took prior to 1X03, the course isn't exactly a bird course. The way multiple choice questions in this course are worded are completely ridiculous, but not impossible. Most people do quizzes together, and practicing quizzes together gives you a better idea of how confusing some things are to you, but then you usually have the person who knows the right answer explain why.

I'd still recommend psych, but ONLY if you're actually going to put effort into the course because it's more independent than most courses.

Too much negativity about psych1x03 in here. Without commenting on workload (because I haven't taken ENGLISH 1A03 so I can't compare) I'd suggest going with the one that really interests you. Personally when I came out of high school I thought I really liked english classes. When I got to university, intro psych blew me away because there were such interesting things in there that I'd never been exposed to and hadn't known about. Joe kim is the kind of man who... hmm... I guess you could say you either love his course or hate it. Personally I find him to be a very clear teacher, the handbook was extremely useful and the course overall is organized in a way that seeks to maximize learning, not to make your life more painful.

A lot of people complain when they find that Psych 1X03 covers most of the "social psych" aspects of psych (those who are more into the biological/neuroscience will need to take 1XX3 after), but really, there were some really interesting things in social psych and just having intropsych as prereqs opens your options up when you go into upper years and are interested in taking other psych courses (which are all taught by amazing professors and yes, I am absolutely biased coming from PNB, but trust me; it's true. )


I did not make this post solely to show off my new avatar and username style. noooo siree.

Most people did the psych quizzes with others , and 1A03 got annoying even for me as much as I loved the readings , and I'm an english nerd

Originally Posted by shes-a-diva*

The book isn't much different from the web modules aside from the fact they contain more sample questions to practice... There haven't been any major recent changes to major psychological theories that I'm aware of, to be that important to modify an entire first year course completely.

I bought the book and never used it. It did not help me in the course at all. I had a copy of someones notes from a previous year in 1X03 that I just modified them slightly with the course changes when I'd watch lectures. The material is pretty straight forward as long as you understand the theories and ideas behind concepts.

Do the research experiment, it will help your mark a lot. Especially if you don't do as well as anticipated on the midterm (if they still have midterms).

Tutorials are a good way to get extra marks and go over what's unclear about any theories/concepts.


I'd still recommend psych, but ONLY if you're actually going to put effort into the course because it's more independent than most courses.

it doesnt seem like you took psych this past year. the book is needed for the quizzes. quizzes contained many questions the lectures could not answer, and 10-20% of the exam was based on book alone even though dr kim said we werent gonna be tested on the book. 2011 fall was the first time we used this book since dr kim just published it. and the new book contained zero sample questions to practice.

Originally Posted by Silver

it doesnt seem like you took psych this past year. the book is needed for the quizzes. quizzes contained many questions the lectures could not answer, and 10-20% of the exam was based on book alone even though dr kim said we werent gonna be tested on the book. 2011 fall was the first time we used this book since dr kim just published it. and the new book contained zero sample questions to practice.

I took psych 1X03 in September of 2010. The book was absolutely useless for me. The lectures were sufficient enough, as well as the tutorials. I got 52% on the midterm which was worth 25% of my mark and ended up with a B+ (9) in the course.

It's kind of pointless to comment on specific things like the usefulness of the textbook because the course changes every year (unless you're taking it in the summer and are asking based on the previous year).
ex. in 2010 the quizzes were bi-weekly and we had a midterm, as opposed to last year when they scrapped the midterm and made the quizzes weekly/worth more. so as you can see, it's hard to make comparisons from one year to another.

Originally Posted by ooburii

It's kind of pointless to comment on specific things like the usefulness of the textbook because the course changes every year (unless you're taking it in the summer and are asking based on the previous year).
ex. in 2010 the quizzes were bi-weekly and we had a midterm, as opposed to last year when they scrapped the midterm and made the quizzes weekly/worth more. so as you can see, it's hard to make comparisons from one year to another.

I agree however for the most part, like I said much before not much content changes. I'm sure I could assume that major theories are still included, which is the bulk of that class (ie. classical & instrumental conditioning, the black box, Freud's theories). Yeah I do remember some questions recalled specific examples and stuff but if you actually understand the theories it shouldn't be any problem to even guess an answer.

And if the quizzes this year are worth much more then I'm pretty sure since EVERYONE does them in groups there should be even less of an issue. I've bought books for first and second year and did find them somewhat useful but my marks didn't drastically differ when I didn't really use any of my books for courses second year vs. first year

you need the book now >_>. this was the first year it became mandatory to have the book to do well on quizzes.

ya psych is definitely a lot of work. when they tell you to start studying AT LEAST a week before DO IT! and if you're in science you already know they way they word questions can trip you up. You can do well or at least okay if you put in the work. I've never taken English 1A03 but I heard mixed things about the course load.