[sinthusized]

Psychology 1XX3 is the second psych course you would normally take in first year after 1X03. In this course, we focus on development, evolution, neuroscience and behaviour.

There was one midterm which covered Development and Evolution and Neuroscience 1 and 2. In my opinion, Development and Evolution were extremely easy and Neuroscience 1 and 2 was very interesting and so the midterm was overall, a good one.

Things went downhill from there though. The material became extremely overwhelming. We covered topics like Vision to death and there was a lot of biology to memorize. The material was challenging and so took up a lot of time. I found it hard to summarize some of the biology parts in my own words and so often I just copied the notes from the screen.

For the exam though, we were allowed to bring a cheat sheet and though Dr. Kim went into so much detail during the lectures, the actually biology stuff was minimal. The exam was 'cumulative' but I don't recall anything from the midterm on it. I only referred to my cheatsheet 5 times.

This course involved an ongoing group project where you would work together to produce a journal review article and a presentation regarding the topic for your review article. 30 %.

This course required a course ware which was poorly designed. For each module, the course ware some background information (which I think is not necessary to understand the concepts taught in the course) and lecture outline which is biggest waste of paper. There is one cm of space between each topic for you to take notes but you could hardly take notes in that space let alone replicate any of the visual aids used in the lectures. Actually, it would be better if there were pictures in the text. Anywho's this term, the Dr. Kim included 5 (or 4) /38 questions that were only from the book on the midterm. Though we were warned the courseware contained testable material, people did not buy these otherwise useless books because they did not rely on them so much last yera.

Some people did not find any use in the course ware during first term and so did not buy the one for this term.

Dr. Kim was ok but he liked to use monotone voice when he was going over the tedious stuff.

Oh some hints, don't procrastinate with watching lectures. It really sucks having a bunch to watch before midterm or exam. Also, lectures are still online when they are "removed". The URL remains the same so just copy and paste it when you open up the lecture into word document and you can rewatch it until the internet dies. Dr. Kim reposted the links at the end of the term though.

I never actually ended up listening to the lectures. I found that if you hit the notes tab on the side of the screen you could just take notes from the transcript.

This class is pretty easy if you take Kin 1A03/1Y03 because you come into the course with most of the neuroscience, half of the vision and the majority of the hearing knowledge already.

The way it worked for us is that your exam was worth 40% but if you did better on the weekly quizzes (4 questions - pretty easy) then your exam would be reduced to 30%, and it could also be reduced another 5% if you get 2 experimetrix questions.

Basically if you put in the work watching the lectures, going to tutorial and review classes you should do fine.

That big group project, was it especially hard and were you individually marked? (I absolutely hate depending on other people or having other people affect my marks.)

No the group project is not hard, if you have good members, writing the essay is easy and not very stressful. I would say that the group project helped boost our marks for sure even though the TA's scare you saying that they would fail you blah blah blah. You aren't marked individually, if your group complains about a member, they get deducted.

for the group project
in the presentation does every person have to talk?
i just have anxiety and that project is freaking me out
thanks

I don't recall if it was required for every group member to talk, but I believe every person did in my tutorial group. I wouldn't worry too much about that though. The tutorial groups are smaller than a high school class, it won't be too difficult. If you do have severe anxiety issues, talk to your TA about it. They might give you an exception. Or you guys might not even need to do it- the course does change from year to year.

I'm going to repost this here from the Psych 1X03 thread, since it applies to both equally. (But slightly changed where necessary. )

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The thing I liked about the first year Psych courses was that you would ALWAYS get more out of it than what you put in. You can take the route of not watching your lectures, missing review classes etc and still do very well.

Or, you can go above and beyond and do things like actually meeting Dr. Joe Kim during his office hours (and he usually has snacks!), participating in experiments (rewarded with bonus marks and cash!) and reading your textbook (which you may or may not be tested on). Follow that route, and you'll get bonus goodies to go along with your high mark.

The only things that are really necessary to get a high mark in the class are:
ATTEND THE BIG REVIEW SESSION, do a good job on your group project, and to a lesser extent, go to tutorials.

The BIG REVIEW is a 3 hour lecture run before midterms and exams, where they go over, well, pretty much everything you've done so far. You can easily get a 90 on the exam and midterm, just based on the info from this review. They do go fast (especially if your note taking skills are as bad as mine!) but don't let them slow down or you might not cover everything. Just suck it up for the three hours, and write till your hand falls off. It fills up quickly, so I recommend going 45-60 minutes early if you want a good seat.

The group project involves you taking a psychological phenomenon- like differences in susceptibility to addictions, circadian rhythms, memory's being tied most strongly to scents, etc. and completing a research paper on them. Its 10 pages long, and each point you make must be tied to at least 2 levels of analysis (you'll learn those in 1X03 ). The general consensus seems to be that these were easy marks, I don't know many people who got below an 80 on these. That said, you should definitely put a lot of effort into them. Unlike PBL, you do not get any freedom in picking your groups. But basically, apply all the skills you learned from PBL and you'll do fine.

Tutorials are a great way to learn concepts, and the TAs are pretty good. But the main reason to show up is for attendance marks.

In terms of buying the course ware, I wouldn't recommend it. I didn't buy it for 1X03 or 1XX3 and did fine. HOWEVER, for 1XX3 we were actually tested on concepts from the courseware, that were not covered in lecture or review. Rumour has it that this was brought on by poor sales of the 1X03 courseware. The questions from it seem to be pretty basic, reading over the course ware once on the day of the midterm should be good enough. Borrowing a friends book to read over before the midterm might be the best solution.

Tests and exams were, in my opinion, very easy- pretty much at the same level of 1X03. However, it really depends a lot on your background. Students used to the multiple choice style of Bio or Chem will find these a walk in the park. Students who haven't had much experience with multiple choice might struggle a bit more. A guide on how to take multiple choice tests online might help if you fall in the latter category.

Overall, I highly recommend this course to everyone. When you are struggling to study for Chemistry and Calculus in the same week, a course with a flexible lecture schedule helps a lot.

For the group project, are you able to choose your own group members?

Originally Posted by pdpd

For the group project, are you able to choose your own group members?

It depends on the TA. In my tutorial we were able to pick groups but I know in others they got assigned to groups.

Edit: I just realised this is Pysch 1XX3. I was talking about Psych 1X03, but I'm sure it's the same. It should depend on the TA.

I was able to pick my group for the project in 1X03, but my group for 1XX3 was assigned. I'm relatively sure this one had only assigned groups, although it is quite possible that some TA's let people pick their own groups.

There were a lot of problems with the groups in X03 so I think it was decided that the groups would be picked in XX3 (what my TA said anyway)

my ta let us pick.. it was kind of random anyways because no one knew anyone.. i liked my psych group a lot though, they were all kind of interesting and funny in a way. I guess there could be problems but i found that most students in university want a good mark and will work for it.

That's a good point. Everyone really is looking towards getting a high average especially in first year.

You'd think, but my group definitely had some under achievers in it :(

It wasn't too bad though, the assignment isn't exactly hard so it doesn't kill you to pick up your group's slack.

Sigh, I had to survive the "picking up the group's slack" thing in highschool, I thought it was the end of it.. :( Oh well, I prefer doing that than getting a bad grade anyday