I took this class online during Spring 2021, and Prof. Wikenheiser was truly a breath of fresh air after a whole year of online learning. He was super great at explaining difficult (and somewhat boring, at least to me) material and making his lectures engaging despite them being recorded. His exams were multiple choice and T/F exams on CCLE and I thought they were really fair- if you studied, you should do well! His exam review sessions before the exams were also really helpful- pay attention to what he says to focus on/review because he's dropping a lot of hints about what the test questions will be on. He was also really understanding and reasonable with test questions that were confusing in the wording and/or had low performance- he dropped a few questions that we did badly on because he said it must mean that he didn't cover it well enough in class (I've never had any other professors do this before and was genuinely moved T___T). Overall, I thought he was a great professor and would definitely recommend taking the class with him if you have to take this class!

I came into this class scared that it would be all memorization and learning experiments. But the Andrew made the content super accessible and took his time whenever he went through slides. He never rushed any content, and we were often behind the whole quarter. However, he made the 3, 30 question quizzes very easy to manage, and was very accommodating as I was out sick for the first quiz. There is 2 versions of each test, and it is scantron, but the test questions are so similar to the practice questions that he gives you. Overall, I would definitely take this class again with this professor. He's a really good guy and his slides clearly have all the info that will be on the test. Just put everything on your index card cheat sheet!

To start off, let me explain how the class is graded. There are three quizzes worth 30 points each (90 total), section reaction assignments worth 36 points (6 out of 8 are kept, and they’re pretty easy), a Rescorla-Wagner problem set worth 12 points (not too bad and very helpful for quiz 2), and a conditioning proposal worth 12 points (very straightforward and easy. It’s just half a page, single-spaced, and as long as you understand the concepts like Pavlovian conditioning, you’ll be fine). Altogether, the class totals 150 points.

Now that grading is out of the way, let me tell you how the class went for me. Before enrolling, I thought this would be an easy A based on the reviews. I expected the quizzes to be online through BruinLearn, as some comments suggested. To my surprise, we were told the exams would be in person. I was a little worried but figured it wouldn’t be too bad since the class was just about learning. Well, it is, but not in the way I expected. The professor does clarify this at the beginning of the course.

When the first quiz came around, I reviewed the material and thought it would be straightforward. I was wrong. I did really poorly on the first quiz and thought I had no chance of getting an A. But since I now knew what to expect, I worked hard for the second and third quizzes. I took detailed notes, did practice problems (especially on the Rescorla-Wagner Model), and rewatched every lecture from week 1 to week 7 to prepare for quiz 2. I did really well on that quiz, and it was basically what helped me secure an A.

It might be different next time, but I felt like a lot more content was packed into quiz 3 (five PowerPoint decks) compared to quiz 2 (only three). Quiz 2 was easier to digest because of that. Still, getting an A is very doable. Just don’t underestimate the content. The average for quiz 1 was a low B, but by quiz 2, once everyone had a better idea of what the class expected, a lot of people did much better.

Make use of office hours and really go through the practice exams the professor provides. I found the material interesting and would recommend Professor Wikenheiser. He was very understanding and supportive throughout the quarter. I had a personal issue during week 6 and wasn’t ready for the second quiz, so he let me take it during finals week instead. Overall, don’t underestimate the material. Exams are in person, attend office hours, and Professor Wikenheiser is a great instructor for this course.