[Juicebox]

Fall 2010 with Dr. Day

Breakdown
- 30% midterm
- 30% midterm (non-cumulative)
- 40% exam (cumulative)

The midterms were 40 multiple choice questions, the exam was 80. Questions can be tricky if you do not know your material, lots of "A, B, and C", "none of the above" and other such options.

Professor
- the best lecturer I've encountered at Mac
- has a cool beard, looks like Santa

Lecture Material
- each theory of personality is presented as if though the prof subscribes to that theory up until the end of the unit where a criticism is levied
- psycho-dynamic, humanist, cognitive-behavioural and biological schools of thought are covered
- the first few lectures are very important in my opinion as Dr. Day explains how the course is going to be presented and the way in which these theories are to be treated; I was going in expecting to be given a spoon-full of pseudoscience or poor-science at best, finished the course with a greater understanding of the evolution of personality psychology
- lecture material is posted as an MP3 online after lecture, so you can catch up if you missed a lecture for whatever reason

Advice
- dont take notes, buy the 2B03 handbook which is written by Dr. Day and has all the important information from lecture
- do go to lecture and pay attention, don't just go home and listen to the lecture recordings, you will probably pay less attention
- do buy and read the textbook from which 20% of the material comes, it is an easy and interesting read
- don't slack on the 2nd midterm, make sure you understand the confusing humanists which seem easy at first
- do the practice quizzes online, and lots of em; a big portion of the midterm/exam material comes directly, word for word, from the same question bank, plus it is a great way to test your understanding
- Read his handbook, read the assigned readings, do some practice quizzes and you'll get an A

Content-wise, how interesting/valuable did you find the course? I'm debating between this course and Abnormal Psych as one of my electives, and am looking for value and useful content over a "bird course."

Originally Posted by tatski-p

Content-wise, how interesting/valuable did you find the course? I'm debating between this course and Abnormal Psych as one of my electives, and am looking for value and useful content over a "bird course."

personally, i found abnormal psych to be much more valuable and interesting.

Originally Posted by tatski-p

Content-wise, how interesting/valuable did you find the course? I'm debating between this course and Abnormal Psych as one of my electives, and am looking for value and useful content over a "bird course."

It depends on where your interests lie. Dr. Day's courses get filled up real quick so you might not be able to make the choice you want.

However, Abnormal was more interesting to me, but more difficult because there was a lot more memorization instead of understanding type questions when compared to Personality.

Also Personality is a pre-req for Positive Psychology, and Abnormal is a pre-req for Special populations in 3rd year.

Would you suggest taking psych 1e03 or psych 1b03?

Originally Posted by sgera

Would you suggest taking psych 1e03 or psych 1b03?

I'm guessing you mean 2B03 and 2E03? I know a few friends who've taken either or both and it all depends on what you're interested in. Also, for Dr. Day, most people really like his lecturing style, however, with Dr. Ullal, it seems to be divided between those who do and those who didn't at all.
(2E03 review here:http://www.macinsiders.com/showthrea...3.html?t=21703)

I absolutely LOVED this course! I would definitely recommend anybody to take this course with Dr. Day, however I would suggest not to take the second midterm lightly because even though the material seems easier, people seem to do worse than the first one. Most likely it's because people seem to think it's easier so they don't study as much as they should. His online test bank was extremely helpful in studying, but just make sure to complete all your studying first, then go through as many practice questions as you can because quite a number of them show up on the actual tests. Amazing lecturer, very useful resources (he's often very quick in replying to forum posts, the handbook of notes was handy in taking notes and studying, and the recordings of his lecture came in handy when you missed something in lecture while studying too) and extremely interesting material. I had a friend who took both Personality and Abnormal, and said that Abnormal was definitely harder but she still enjoyed both!

So how hard is it to get a 12 in this course? And how many questions are there per midterm/exam? I'm worried that because they are worth so much, if I screw one of them up, I won't be able to bring my mark up anymore

Originally Posted by Bernard

So how hard is it to get a 12 in this course? And how many questions are there per midterm/exam? I'm worried that because they are worth so much, if I screw one of them up, I won't be able to bring my mark up anymore

There are 40 questions on each midterm and 80+ on the exam.

Is there Experimetrix like in 1X03 or 1XX3, where the final exam will be worth less? Or like if we do better on the exam than on the midterm, the midterm will be worth less? Anything like that?

And how are his lecture styles? Does he post notes before/after class? Or is everything just in the handbook? If I just studied everything from the handbook and textbook, would that be sufficient to get a 12? Because I usually take notes during lectures, but I found that very annoying because profs talk pretty fast and you have to figure out what's important and what's not.

Doesn't look like there's any Experimetrix involved (never heard about it from friends who took the course either). Here's the course page : http://intropsych.mcmaster.c a/psych2b3/

Originally Posted by Bernard

Is there Experimetrix like in 1X03 or 1XX3, where the final exam will be worth less? Or like if we do better on the exam than on the midterm, the midterm will be worth less? Anything like that?

And how are his lecture styles? Does he post notes before/after class? Or is everything just in the handbook? If I just studied everything from the handbook and textbook, would that be sufficient to get a 12? Because I usually take notes during lectures, but I found that very annoying because profs talk pretty fast and you have to figure out what's important and what's not.

There is no experimetrix from now on in psych, other than for 2H03 but for a different reason. I didn't answer your question about getting a 12 because that is a non-question. I dont know your intelligence or study habits.

He is arguably the best prof at mac. I already mentioned in the review that you can buy a handbook that has all the notes. The PDF or PPT talking points are available on his website year-long. Also all his lectures are available as MP3s online.

I greatly enjoyed this class. I only took it as an elective and thought going into it that I may learn a few things about how people view and break down personality. That initial interest was not disappointed. Dr. Day teaches in such a way that he emphasizes that there is no true understanding of personality even to this day but pin points the major theories that have contributed to helping us understand it a little more within each century. I think the main lesson of this course is not really anything to do with personality. It taught me that no one theory is correct, in this subject, as well as all subjects that I have learnt and will be learning. Understanding something is being able to mesh together a whole slew of different approaches and theories and make it into something that makes sense to you.
After all this, I hope you can see that this is a good course for anyone in any stream. You will enjoy learning about the history of personality and how it came to be understood to what it is today.

Would anyone like to comment on the importance of textbook readings with Dr. Day?

Originally Posted by britb

Would anyone like to comment on the importance of textbook readings with Dr. Day?

On top of the page:

- do buy and read the textbook from which 20% of the material comes, it is an easy and interesting read

20% means new material not covered in lecture, you decide on the importance of that...