Hey all! I'm trying to decide between psych 3B03 (special populations) with Dr. Hall or Psych 3CC3 (forensic psych) with Dr. Day. I'm interested in the one that is lighter but more importantly will lead to a higher mark. Both of them have the same marking scheme (2 midterms and an exam) but how are Dr. Hall's tests compared to Dr. Day's?

Thank you!

Hey! I've had Dr. Day before and he is a GREAT prof! I also found his tests to be fair, 80% of it is based on lecture material (they are podcasted, and he provides a question bank with VERY similar questions on the midterm), and 20% of the questions are on textbook readings. The textbook readings are probably ~ 100 pages per midterm, so you have to take good notes, but his tests are very fair.

I don't know about Dr. Hall so I can't comment on his course.

To provide a counterpoint, I hated Dr Day's testing style. He's good as a prof, but frankly I have better things to do with my time rather than spend hours memorizing test bank questions and random details. I learn by understanding, not memorizing random statistics that even *he* says are useless. I'd rather sit in on a class of his than actually take it, and after taking one of his courses, I made it a point to avoid them in the future. Having said that, I ended up taking forensic psych at UTM (since I wanted to avoid Dr Day) and I thought the material was really interesting, and I definitely preferred the testing style used by the prof at UTM.

Originally Posted by starfish

To provide a counterpoint, I hated Dr Day's testing style. He's good as a prof, but frankly I have better things to do with my time rather than spend hours memorizing test bank questions and random details. I learn by understanding, not memorizing random statistics that even *he* says are useless. I'd rather sit in on a class of his than actually take it, and after taking one of his courses, I made it a point to avoid them in the future. Having said that, I ended up taking forensic psych at UTM (since I wanted to avoid Dr Day) and I thought the material was really interesting, and I definitely preferred the testing style used by the prof at UTM.

To be fair, I actually did find his tests to be more about understanding than memorization (at least for the in-class lecture questions). You didn't really have to "memorize" the quiz bank answers, it was more about understanding why that answer was right and the rest were wrong because he does change them.

I agree that his textbook questions tend to be more memorization/recognition with exact phrases from the textbook and silly statistics questions which can be very hit or miss.

If you are looking to get a good mark, Forensic Psych is a good option. Dr. Day is a great professor and although that specific course does involve memorizing/understanding the results of studies, the vast majority of test questions are available in the quiz bank (either identical or similar to what you will see on the midterms and exams). Ya, some people don't have time to go through the quiz bank 100 times, but that shouldn't be necessary anyways. If you go to class, review the material and study beforehand, you should only have to go through the quiz bank a handful of times to test your knowledge and get a feel for the questions. I would typically study the day or two before the midterm, and just spend an hour or two going through questions when I was done. Although this might be time consuming, it basically guarantees you a good mark in the class and it was worth it for me. For Dr. Day's courses, that little bit of extra effort is worth it (in my opinion) because the questions (and answers) are essentially given to you.

Thank you guys
Any input on 3B03?