PSYCH 115
Principles of Behavioral Neuroscience
Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Requisites: course 100A, Life Sciences 2 or 7A or 15. Not open to students with credit for course M117A (or Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology M175A or Neuroscience M101A or Physiological Science M180A). Designed for juniors/seniors. Nervous system anatomy, physiology, pharmacology, and their relationship to behavior. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 4.0
Units: 4.0
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2021 - This class is not nearly as hard as the reviews make it seem!! I took it Winter 2021 (online) and just finished the final and got a 108%. Although the lectures contain a lot of information, I HIGHLY recommend typing up very thorough notes. Then, for the quizzes, midterm, and final, you can just search through your notes and find all of the answers easily! Seriously not bad and Professor Adhikari does not deserve this low of a rating!
Winter 2021 - This class is not nearly as hard as the reviews make it seem!! I took it Winter 2021 (online) and just finished the final and got a 108%. Although the lectures contain a lot of information, I HIGHLY recommend typing up very thorough notes. Then, for the quizzes, midterm, and final, you can just search through your notes and find all of the answers easily! Seriously not bad and Professor Adhikari does not deserve this low of a rating!
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2019 - The reality is that PSYCH 115 is a difficult class. Students complaining about detailed slides, difficult exams/quizzes, and heavy memorization strike me as somewhat delusional—behavioral neuroscience isn't meant to be easy and neatly curated for consumption and naturally will involve memorization and lots of work. For instance, yes it may be a little monotonous to memorize parts of the neural circuit responsible for the vestibuloocular reflex, but how else are you going to understand it on a meaningful level? A vague understanding like "your eyes account for motion to focus on an image" is simplistic and even contrary to science. Anyone who has worked in a lab knows that research is conducted at a very fundamental, detailed level; you can't do this type of work unless you understand the details. As for the class, I do have some critiques. I felt that Dr. Blair lectured far more efficiently than Dr. Adhikari, who often took twice the amount of time to cover the same amount of material—this would result in monstrous review sessions over 4 hours long or poorly paced lectures (however, I am certainly grateful that Dr. Blair/Adhi would often stay the duration of these review sessions to help students with questions). Readings are also somewhat excessive. Tip for future students: unless it is for the weekly quiz, there is no need to do the readings as exams will predominantly test on lecture material. In general, make flashcards from lecture, review them frequently (Anki is helpful for this) and you will do well. With that being said, I feel that describing Dr. Blair/Adhi as "horrible lecturers" gives future students the wrong idea. The class is hard and that means detailed, dense lectures—that doesn't mean Dr. Blair/Adhi themselves did not do a good job delivering this information. It was clear from lectures and how they answered students' questions that they cared about student learning and DID do a good job conveying this information. Take everything you read on Bruinwalk, especially for more notoriously difficult classes, with a grain of salt (including my review of course).
Winter 2019 - The reality is that PSYCH 115 is a difficult class. Students complaining about detailed slides, difficult exams/quizzes, and heavy memorization strike me as somewhat delusional—behavioral neuroscience isn't meant to be easy and neatly curated for consumption and naturally will involve memorization and lots of work. For instance, yes it may be a little monotonous to memorize parts of the neural circuit responsible for the vestibuloocular reflex, but how else are you going to understand it on a meaningful level? A vague understanding like "your eyes account for motion to focus on an image" is simplistic and even contrary to science. Anyone who has worked in a lab knows that research is conducted at a very fundamental, detailed level; you can't do this type of work unless you understand the details. As for the class, I do have some critiques. I felt that Dr. Blair lectured far more efficiently than Dr. Adhikari, who often took twice the amount of time to cover the same amount of material—this would result in monstrous review sessions over 4 hours long or poorly paced lectures (however, I am certainly grateful that Dr. Blair/Adhi would often stay the duration of these review sessions to help students with questions). Readings are also somewhat excessive. Tip for future students: unless it is for the weekly quiz, there is no need to do the readings as exams will predominantly test on lecture material. In general, make flashcards from lecture, review them frequently (Anki is helpful for this) and you will do well. With that being said, I feel that describing Dr. Blair/Adhi as "horrible lecturers" gives future students the wrong idea. The class is hard and that means detailed, dense lectures—that doesn't mean Dr. Blair/Adhi themselves did not do a good job delivering this information. It was clear from lectures and how they answered students' questions that they cared about student learning and DID do a good job conveying this information. Take everything you read on Bruinwalk, especially for more notoriously difficult classes, with a grain of salt (including my review of course).
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Most Helpful Review
This guy is a good teacher. I want to give out my scores because I hate how other people don't tell u what you need to get an A. The average on the midterm which is out of 60 points was a 45/60. I personally got a 49. Butcher said between 50-60 was an A. On the quizes which are 50 points they are extremely easy and I got a 49/50. The final has about 10 detailed questions that unless u know the book by heart you will not get. It is out of 90 points, however Butcher gives an extremely generous curve. I got a 74 out of 90 on his final and got a solid A in the class. He even was nice enough to tell me I got the seventh highest grade in the final out of the class of 94 students. Therefore, if u want to do well in Butchers class, you have to do the reading and go to lecture but especially do the reading. He's a easy teacher if you read but don't except him to be the type of person who will change your grade if you don't do well. He's not like that.
This guy is a good teacher. I want to give out my scores because I hate how other people don't tell u what you need to get an A. The average on the midterm which is out of 60 points was a 45/60. I personally got a 49. Butcher said between 50-60 was an A. On the quizes which are 50 points they are extremely easy and I got a 49/50. The final has about 10 detailed questions that unless u know the book by heart you will not get. It is out of 90 points, however Butcher gives an extremely generous curve. I got a 74 out of 90 on his final and got a solid A in the class. He even was nice enough to tell me I got the seventh highest grade in the final out of the class of 94 students. Therefore, if u want to do well in Butchers class, you have to do the reading and go to lecture but especially do the reading. He's a easy teacher if you read but don't except him to be the type of person who will change your grade if you don't do well. He's not like that.
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2020 - The professors (izquierdo and Avi) for this class do not care about you AT ALL. The night before the final they chose to make the exam optional, but were complete unclear about how your grade would work without it. When students emailed them for clarification, they sent out a mass email that they will not be answering emails anymore and to post on the discussion forum, instead of just getting it together and coming up with a grading scheme. They are COMPLETELY disorganized and straight up ignored the discussion forum, so everyone pretty much went into the final blind. I only took the final because I had a borderline A-/A, but instead I got f*cked by these professors. After the final, I emailed them for clarification on the final and i was IGNORED again. These professors are not cut out to teach a lecture as large as this one. They are disorganized and clearly cannot handle it. Also, they made extra credit based on how well the TA’s remember you, but my TA DIDNT SPEAK FLUENT ENGLISH. I don’t have a stereotypical white name, so of course she didn’t remember it, despite asking her questions several times outside of discussion. I feel that I did not have the same opportunity as my peers to get the same grade. Moral of the story: if you’re not white, don’t plan on getting extra credit.
Winter 2020 - The professors (izquierdo and Avi) for this class do not care about you AT ALL. The night before the final they chose to make the exam optional, but were complete unclear about how your grade would work without it. When students emailed them for clarification, they sent out a mass email that they will not be answering emails anymore and to post on the discussion forum, instead of just getting it together and coming up with a grading scheme. They are COMPLETELY disorganized and straight up ignored the discussion forum, so everyone pretty much went into the final blind. I only took the final because I had a borderline A-/A, but instead I got f*cked by these professors. After the final, I emailed them for clarification on the final and i was IGNORED again. These professors are not cut out to teach a lecture as large as this one. They are disorganized and clearly cannot handle it. Also, they made extra credit based on how well the TA’s remember you, but my TA DIDNT SPEAK FLUENT ENGLISH. I don’t have a stereotypical white name, so of course she didn’t remember it, despite asking her questions several times outside of discussion. I feel that I did not have the same opportunity as my peers to get the same grade. Moral of the story: if you’re not white, don’t plan on getting extra credit.
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Most Helpful Review
Dr. Jentsch is by far one of the best professors out there. Psych 115 is a difficult class but if you have to take it then definitely take it with professor Jentsch. He is VERY clear and presents difficult concepts in ways anybody can understand them. This class has A LOT of memorization but if your a science major your used to this and if your a psych major just be sure to go to class and listen to his podcasts and you will do fine. His midterm is very straight forward although the final is a bit harder. Overall, he is an excellent professor!!!
Dr. Jentsch is by far one of the best professors out there. Psych 115 is a difficult class but if you have to take it then definitely take it with professor Jentsch. He is VERY clear and presents difficult concepts in ways anybody can understand them. This class has A LOT of memorization but if your a science major your used to this and if your a psych major just be sure to go to class and listen to his podcasts and you will do fine. His midterm is very straight forward although the final is a bit harder. Overall, he is an excellent professor!!!
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2020 - Don't be fooled by the positive reviews- Kennedy is the worst professor I've had throughout my four years at UCLA. She posted her video lectures late, and her lectures were dense and often went over the allotted class time. There were also random beeping noises in her lectures, but she would argue that not many students complained about it so there must be no issue on her end. Each lecture had over forty slides filled with information, and everything was "fair game" so you had to memorize every single slide to do well on the exams. She was blatantly condescending and rude throughout the entire quarter and even rescheduled office hours three times to avoid student concerns about the second midterm, with the final date being the day after Thanksgiving when people would be with their families. She refused to budge on her testing format; every exam and quiz was sequential (meaning you can't go back to a previous question) and used Respondus. She always argued that her testing format was supported by "many experts" even though it is stricter than in person testing and ALL of my other professors thought it too harsh. She does offer up to 2% extra credit (1 for SONA and 1 for class evals) and 1 extra point for the Respondus check on the midterms and finals, but the class averages were still low and most students averaged a C+ according to my TA. The breakdown for her class was as follows: 25% 8 Discussion Sections: (7 points each- 1 for attendance, 6 for quizzes) 42 points in total because the lowest 2 weeks are dropped 25% Midterm 1 25% Midterm 2 25% Final Exam She let students choose if they want 2 of the exams weighted 30% and 1 exam weighted 15% because the averages for the second midterm were so low. Overall, avoid taking this class with Kennedy unless you can devote most of your time to studying for this class. She is also a tenured professor, and she clearly has not nor will be receptive to student concerns because she has no reason to. She lacked transparency and decided to take a stricter approach to teaching during the pandemic. At least there was no required textbook for this class.
Fall 2020 - Don't be fooled by the positive reviews- Kennedy is the worst professor I've had throughout my four years at UCLA. She posted her video lectures late, and her lectures were dense and often went over the allotted class time. There were also random beeping noises in her lectures, but she would argue that not many students complained about it so there must be no issue on her end. Each lecture had over forty slides filled with information, and everything was "fair game" so you had to memorize every single slide to do well on the exams. She was blatantly condescending and rude throughout the entire quarter and even rescheduled office hours three times to avoid student concerns about the second midterm, with the final date being the day after Thanksgiving when people would be with their families. She refused to budge on her testing format; every exam and quiz was sequential (meaning you can't go back to a previous question) and used Respondus. She always argued that her testing format was supported by "many experts" even though it is stricter than in person testing and ALL of my other professors thought it too harsh. She does offer up to 2% extra credit (1 for SONA and 1 for class evals) and 1 extra point for the Respondus check on the midterms and finals, but the class averages were still low and most students averaged a C+ according to my TA. The breakdown for her class was as follows: 25% 8 Discussion Sections: (7 points each- 1 for attendance, 6 for quizzes) 42 points in total because the lowest 2 weeks are dropped 25% Midterm 1 25% Midterm 2 25% Final Exam She let students choose if they want 2 of the exams weighted 30% and 1 exam weighted 15% because the averages for the second midterm were so low. Overall, avoid taking this class with Kennedy unless you can devote most of your time to studying for this class. She is also a tenured professor, and she clearly has not nor will be receptive to student concerns because she has no reason to. She lacked transparency and decided to take a stricter approach to teaching during the pandemic. At least there was no required textbook for this class.
Most Helpful Review
Dr. Krasne is obviously someone who knows what he is talking about, but his organizational skills are lacking and it really hurts his teaching effectiveness. Exams are based on lecture not the textbook, so you have to be extremely persistent in trying to understand what he says. I learned a lot in his Psych 115 course, but you have to be patient and ready to bust ass.
Dr. Krasne is obviously someone who knows what he is talking about, but his organizational skills are lacking and it really hurts his teaching effectiveness. Exams are based on lecture not the textbook, so you have to be extremely persistent in trying to understand what he says. I learned a lot in his Psych 115 course, but you have to be patient and ready to bust ass.
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