From the beginning, I loved Professor Perry. She was so kind and helpful during the remote instruction quarter and battled horrible internet connection and her limited technological knowledge to still provide us with the best class experience possible. Every week we would have a quiz and in the end, we were able to drop three of our lowest quiz scores which was more than generous. I do have to admit that the quizzes were a bit tricky and some of them asked about specific details so you do really have to know your stuff.
Other than that, she replies to student emails really quickly and really cares about students' mental health and learning as she provided us with alternatives if we were unable to purchase the course reader (which I do not recommend purchasing anyways because I did none of the readings and got an A) and even posted recipes and resources for students that need help cooking during the stay-at-home order. Definitely take this class if you love animals (monkeys in particular); not only will you learn about their lifestyle but also how their behavior is paralleled in humans and other species.

In terms of course structure, it is based only on one midterm and one final, being 40% and 60% of the grade respectively. Conveniently, there are 40 questions and 60 questions on the midterm and final respectively. Lectures are recorded and there are outlines, basically a bullet point list of the slides given.

The class definitely feels unstructured and Professor Perry is not the greatest lecturer, although she is clearly an expert in her field. If you're interested in primatology I would highly recommend. As other reviews suggest there are not too many direct connections to human evolution or human behavior.

In terms of difficulty, I thought the exams were really not that difficult. I did only a few readings, but did attend most of the lectures. If you have taken some other biological anthro or EEB class the content is pretty self-explanatory. There are some questions on the exam that are more niche to the class, which would require knowledge from the lectures or reading.

Overall, I would say this is an easy anthro upper div, did not need to put much time into this class at all. Both exams are curved and the curve is quite generous. Top third of the class gets an A, second gets a B, third gets a C so no one fails.

If you want an easy anthro upper div I would recommend. But stay away if you don't want to learn about monkeys.

If you want to be a primatologist, Dr. Perry is an amazing professor and resource for you. If not, do not take this course. I took this class as an elective, and as someone who is interested in human evolution, I thought it would center around non-humans AND humans, as the name suggests. However, this class is entirely focused on monkey taxonomy and the day-to-day activities and methods used by primatologists, with very little conversation about how this is connected to humans. When asked what would be on the exams, Professor Perry responds that "It doesn't matter, you should just learn as much as possible", and that we shouldn't be focused on the grade, but rather how the information helps us grow as a person. As someone trying to go to grad school, I did not appreciate that response.

the only thing good is manipulative monkey. DONT TAKE THE CLASS. read everything and got a "C" you might not pass depending on how they feeeeeeeeeel. it's a monkey world grading system.

I like her as a person. However, it feels like her teaching style is an afterthought to having her true passion, the research, funded. She does not vocalize what will be on the two tests (the only assignments) and infodumps for the entire lecture. There is no real way of knowing what to prioritize. If you don't have a passion for primates (as there is no human aspect to this class) and this course is not required, steer clear. You can expect dragging lectures, unclear directions, and a professor that is extremely passionate on the subject matter but out of touch with the student experience.

I was not really a fan of this class, but Prof Perry was super enthusiastic and the content was interesting. However, it was difficult to study for the midterm and final (which are the only things you really do, besides readings) because the optional hw assignments which function as the study guides aren't that great. You really have to know application of the concepts you learn about for the exams. She curves quite generously which was nice.

Dr. Perry is the MONKEY! get it... but seriously this class is so fun, I really recommend it. Some of the things I learned in this class really stuck with me after graduation - I find myself contextualizating human behavior all the time with our ape and monkey relatives and the fascinating things Dr. Perry taught us. The tests aren't easy, but the material is definitely a manageable amount. My biggest recommendation is to study in groups, because the tests are almost logic-based and practicing quizzing each other really helps. Dr. Perry really cares about her students - if you meet with her outside of class, she will be so helpful and thorough and really excited to meet repeatedly. She has spent honestly most of her life with capuchin monkeys and really knows her stuff. She can speak monkey also, which she'll demonstrate at some point. Anyways, fascinating class, and not bad of a work load, just sort of difficult tests if you're not a good test taker - most points are via test so keep in mind.

I took this class to fulfill my UD requirements. I felt that at first, her class was really easy. She listed the recommended homework on the syllabus and it was adequately spaced out. I never spent more than 3 hours on the readings each week, which was nice and she helped me overcome my fear of monkeys. I will say that some parts of the class covered really sensitive topics such as SA or Infanticide and that made me uncomfortable, but other than that the homework load was fine, all lectures were recorded, and attendance was not mandatory.

Now on the other hand her class can be boring! It is not interactive, so for 1 and a half hours you sit there watching her walk around on stage and answer one question for 25 minutes! At one lecture I attended, somebody fell asleep! Also, her slides provided a lot of information, but none of which helped on the test. I would seriously recommend skipping lecture notes and just trying to come up with your practice questions or contacting her for some. The practice questions or study guides she handed out (via Canvas) for the math or her book were not that helpful, but the ones discussing other articles were.

In terms of tests and grades, there are only two assignments you have to worry about: the midterm(40%), and the final(60%). The midterm was not for the weak, I underestimated what the class was about and didn't study much other than the day before. I felt that the study guides did not help and I should've come up with flashcards and analyzed the texts days before. However, the final was easier because I studied a lot and reviewed the articles. I recommend looking for the hypothesis of the research, the materials and methods, and the conclusion.
She grades weirdly. It isn't the usual curve method she uses, she puts everyone's grade as a percentile and she decides ok the upper percentile is "on its way to an A" and the middle percentile is "one the way to a B" and so on. In the Fall, the lowest possible grade to get was a C-, and the only way to fail was if you got a 0 or were completely guessing, which I assume she can tell people try to guess the whole test through because some questions are only A/B or basic.

There's a lot to cover, but I would say I would take her again because she seems sweet and I feel like I underestimated the class the first time. Also, I would recommend her class to anyone interested in animal behavior and psychology.

This class was probably the hardest anthropology class I've taken as a 4th year anthropology major. Like others have said, your grade for this class is only based on a midterm (40%) and a final (60%), and is curved so the top 1/3 of the class gets an A, middle 1/3 get a B, etc. but you won't really know your grade until after the final. The fact that your grade is comprised of just those 2 components make this class really stressful and had I known that from the beginning, I probably would not have taken the class. The exams are difficult since you need to know basically everything there is to know about primates and the questions are structured in a way that feels like they're meant to trick you/throw you off. The lectures are also a bit boring and hard to follow since the notes she posts don't exactly match up with the corresponding slides she uses during the lectures. Overall, I wouldn't recommend this class to anyone.

TLDR: Class is just a multiple choice midterm and a multiple choice final. Curved so 1/3 get an A, 1/3 B, 1/3 C. Lectures are recorded and notes are posted.

This class is pretty mellow if you watch all the lectures and take notes or annotate the existing notes. I basically just had to study for a few hours in the days leading up to the exam and got a 30/40 and a 46/60 which I like to think was mostly due to poorly worded questions. However this curved up to an A surprisingly so happy with that.

The class is mildly interesting but definitely dry at times. If you can power through the lull you should have no problem succeeding. I personally think monkeys are crazy little critters so it was cool learning about them.

As for Professor Perry, she is lovely. Very soft-spoken yet incredibly passionate about what she does. Her lectures are pretty clear but it is sometimes difficult to deduce what she wants you to know come exam time. Sometimes the studies she presented had contradictory results and she acknowledged that but when we were faced with an exam question it was difficult to know what study we should apply. Other than that I have no complaints. Lovely professor, solid class, nice curve. I’d recommend.