Professor Parkinson was wonderful! She was super engaging and attentive to students even though her class was online. She was super patient and understanding, and she makes the textbook feel worth reading as well. Highly recommend!

I can't imagine why anyone would dislike this class. Professor Parkinson uploads her lectures in a timely manner, and her exams are basically based on her lectures and assigned readings. The only assignments that you get in this class aside from exams are weekly minute papers, in which you write literally a half-page summary in single-space and an 11-pt font of what you learned from the past week's lecture. The minute papers compose 10% of your grade, so the class is very exam-heavy, but her exams are pretty fair. They're not necessarily easy, but if you studied well and did the readings then you should be golden. Just put in your best effort, do the extra credit, and you should be getting at least a solid B, if not an A-. Highly recommend this class!

Overall, I would take a class again with Professor Parkinson! She was very clear and accommodating of students, and genuinely listened to feedback and implemented changes. In Fall 2021, her course was based on the following:
1. Weekly one-pagers (short and simple, based on the lectures/readings)
2. 3 exams
The class was entirely asynchronous, which is probably the biggest downside as it was slightly disconnecting, but I knew what I was getting into when I signed up for that. Attendance is optional, and the workload was very reasonable.

Take this class!! I took this as an elective for my neuro major and got an A+. Took it during covid so it was 100% asynchronous except for the 3 exams which were non-cumulative over zoom.

The professor is extremely clear and her slides are well made and have all the text on them covering what she says. I would sometimes watch the lecture while I did something else, and 90% of the time could follow along everything she says. The content was actually very interesting! There were only a handful of more technical terms, the rest was just straight up info you could be watching on a netflix documentary on the brain and psychology. Even if you're not a 'science person' I think you'd find the lectures interesting and easy to follow along.
There were 2 lectures per week that you watched at any time. I sometimes would watch them in a row and at 1.5 speed, and would still catch all the info.
The textbook is helpful to get some extra details, but if you skip it you can still answer like 35+ of the 40 questions on the exam. If you choose to read it, you get it done in maybe a few hours for each exam.
The exams are 80% taken individually and then 20% taken as a group. I got 100% on all of them and really did not have to put in that much effort. during the group section the other 3 people in my zoom also had the same answers as me, so I'm assuming getting 95-100 was a common thing for the tests. I would watch lectures every week (didn't even take notes), and then a couple days before the exam I would read the ppt slides one more time and skim the book. Our groupme even made a shared doc where people added their notes form the book, so if you do that, its even faster to read the important parts and you can study for an A in one day.
There's no discussion but you must submit a minute paper every week. I got full marks on this and took less than 10 minutes each week to complete.
The professor then reads them and clarifies any concepts that the students found confusing in her next video.
She also releases study outlines for the exams and is just overall the most understating and sweet professor.
Seriously, look no further and take this class. You will most likely get an A, you will actually learn cool and interesting information about the brain and how we communicate as humans, and it will feel like a breath of fresh air compared to other Neuro core classes.

Honestly, I loved this professor and the class! She's young and I think that makes the class more entertaining just because she has energy and you can tell that she loves what she's doing. She gives amazing examples that help you remember the material and the vocabulary words. The tests are very straightforward, no surprises. In discussion, just make sure to participate a LOT because it will really help your grade and TA's are really anal about participation. I got an A-, and I actually enjoyed coming to class. You also do part of the test in groups, which will help your score in the long run. Take the class! She actually brings in real world examples that will keep you interested.

Overall, I would really recommend that you take this class! Prof. Parkinson is very reasonable + accommodating, and the workload is manageable:
- 1 minute paper based on anything interesting in lecture/readings each week
- 3 non-cumulative exams with a group re-test that can improve your individual score
- Asynchronous
The exams were also reasonable if you watched the lectures and reviewed your notes beforehand. I took this as an elective for Psychobiology. If you would like the notes for free feel free to email me and I'll be happy to send them over :)