I initially enjoyed this class, because it was not hectic. For the most part, you need to look at the weekly videos and take good notes. I would watch the videos every week and copy every little word. Trust me you need to do this, because his exams are complicated. For the first midterm, most people got D's or failed. He was generous enough to drop the lowest test score, but I don't know if this was a one time thing. The last two exams were somewhat easy, but still complicated. I wouldn't recommend this class unless you need to take it or love psychology. There is no extra credit or make-ups. Good Luck if you decide to take this class.

The perfect GE. Tests were extremely straightfoward and the content was very interesting and pertinent to our lives. Professor Shirinyan talked about drugs, sleep, the nervous system, existentialism, and a bunch of other genuinely fascinating topics.

Tests were open search engine open note timed quizzes. A word of advice is to digitally type lecture notes as Q/A style flashcards for everything the professor says, this way you are guaranteed 90+. I would take this class again 100%

I could teach this class, I knew and completely understood all of the key concepts. I took extremely thorough notes (over 60 pages, single-spaced, typed), watched the lectures multiple times and read/took notes from the textbook. I am by no means a bad test taker either; I am a very good test taker. That being said, I did not do well in this class. I could not dedicate any more hours to studying to this class and even if I could there is nothing more to study. The tests are insanely hard, someone even said the questions asked were questions that maybe PhD students would be expected to know and answer. Also keep in mind that this class is a lower division, intro class, and designed for non-majors. The professor also does not hold office hours. The syllabus says he does by appointment, but that is just a straight up lie. The only way to contact this professor is by posting on the class discussion board or emailing him. However, more times than not he does not even respond to email, he just blatantly ignores them. I was so excited for this class when I signed up and I ended the quarter completely uninterested making me never want to take another psych class and under no circumstances would I ever take this professor again.

Dr. S is one of the BEST professors I've ever had. I've taken class with him in person before the pandemic and online during the pandemic. He is kind, funny and engaging. He REALLY cares about his students understanding of the material. There is a lot of material covered in this class and the exams are tough, but if you work hard and an A is doable.

Selling my textbook Physiology of Behavior 10th ed. Dr. S. doesn't want his students to break the bank for textbooks and doesn't care which edition you have. $40 (includes shipping). Email alexnashton@gmail.com if you want it.

Professor Shirinyan was kind enough to drop a midterm grade and calculate our final grade based on two midterms with the best grades, but his exams were very dumb. Many questions were very trivial and derived from something he mentioned in lectures very briefly, and I didn’t feel like they accurately tested what I knew. Our grade was completely dependent on two midterms, there’s no homework or required readings, and the test questions are all multiple choice. I’d say the class is somewhat easy if you watch his lectures repeatedly before the exams and take very thorough notes, but I personally wouldn’t recommend it

Professor Shirinyan is a great professor! He is very charismatic and cares deeply about his students’ learning. I took his class while everything was online due to Covid and he was one of the most accomodating professors I had. His class consists of 2 midterms and 1 final and they were all multiple choice and all weighed equally. There were no discussions and no assignments. Professor Shirinyan was very understanding when it came to finals scheduling and very generous when it came to his test questions. Take this class! He does a great job at expanding your worldview on how we ought to think about the mind. I thoroughly enjoyed this class.

Selling the textbook required for this course: The Physiology of Behavior 10th edition by Neil R. Carlson. Published 2010. Slightly used condition. $40 + shipping. To purchase, email peoniachan@g.ucla.edu, thanks.

Professor Shirinyan is definitely one of the best parts about this classes and I appreciate how he uses his personal experiences to further the significance of the topics taught in class. I also appreciate how empathetic he is to his students and making the class as passable as possible.

I personally didn't think the class was that difficult, but maybe it was just because it was online. There were only 3 grades for the whole class which were just the three tests we took and I also liked how the final wasn't cumulative. Everything was multiple choice but be careful because a lot of people failed the first test because they just assumed it was going to be easy. I personally got a 86 on the first test and then a 96 on the second one because I studied a ton more and I also felt the information got easier.

Our TA Lindsay was super helpful in basically reteaching the information of the lectures every single week in office hour so definitely attend those or just listen in for efficient reviewing. I recommend skipping the textbook and just rewatch the lectures over and over again and taking good notes you can use during the open-notes test. The youtube lectures were good bc of how concise they were and straight to the point. I do feel like the content of week 1-3 was the hardest and then it got easier but take that with a grain of salt.

ALSO reminder that this class ins't about psychology at all. It's more about neuroscience so we learned a lot about neurons, chemical reactions in the brain, sleep disorders, drug abuse, and consciousness.

//professor//
- Professor Shirinyan is kind of psycho, but in an endearing way. (and I say that after taking a class on schizophrenia with him).
- He is clearly passionate about the course material and the neural mechanisms by which certain drugs affect the brain. He's so passionate about this that he told our class that one of the ways to truly study this material is to actually take the drugs we discussed in class, which he admitted that he'd done (weed, molly, meth, etc.). A+ for dedication for this mans.
- he genuinely cares about student well-being which is refreshing so if you talk to him about any issues you're facing, he will accommodate you.

//grading//
Class is worth 130 points total with a light curve if needed.
100 points - midterm and final exam (non-cumulative, 50 points and 50 questions each). The exams are fair and generally pretty straight-forward if you've studied his slides, which generally contain all the information you need to know.
25 points - paper. A fairly easy 3 page paper that you have to write on a specific sub-topic within schizophrenia research. You email your proposal to the professor so as long as you put in minimal effort and produce a decent quality paper, you should get full credit.
5 points - paper presentation: You are put into groups and each member writes about a something related to the overall sub-topic (the paper described above). For example, if the topic is stress and schizophrenia, then one member might write about stress/schizophrenia in adults, another in teens, and another in the elderly. As a group, you present about your topic and your individual papers to the class. If you have slides and decent public speaking skills, you'll receive full credit.

//material//
Course material is pretty interesting. Each lecture basically covers how a drug can model the effects seen in schizophrenic brains (animal and humans). So each class you basically discuss a different drug and how it can model schizo symptoms.

//overall// cool/nice professor, low/easy workload, and interesting course materials makes this a good psychobio elective.

2 midterm and 1 final. Drop 1 midterm.
I'm not a science person at all but he made it interesting. Lectures are funny, prepare for an existential crisis.