The course was fine. You 100% need to do the readings, otherwise you will not do well on the tests. Lectures are skippable but you NEED to look at the slides. Exams are not super hard, I did well when I studied hard and took comprehensive notes. I recommend flashcards! Mazurek is funny but lectures can be kind of a drag sometimes.

I personally found this course very enjoyable, but don't go in expecting an easy A. This is a deceptively challenging introductory course that a large portion of UVA students take. Your grade is entirely based on four exams and one final, with the lowest midterm being dropped. There's also an extra credit syllabus quiz that boosts your grade by 1.25%, which isn't that much. Point being, you have to do really well on exams to get an A in this course, as the cutoff is a 95%. Anything 90 or above is an A-, which is what I finished with. If this is your first psychology course at UVA, you will also have to do a participant pool assignment, which involves either participating in psychological studies or doing quick online surveys. I would recommend completing this aspect of the course sooner rather than later, as if you don't, your grade will be dropped by an entire letter (b+ turns to b).

You'll have to do a lot of reading in this course, even more than in some of the upper-level courses. It's imperative that you read every little detail, as anything in the textbook is fair game for the tests. Sometimes it felt as though Professor Mazurek was pulling from the deepest material in the text, which is pretty annoying for an introductory course. The tests are straightforward and fair, with 32 multiple-choice questions and about 12 fill-in-the-blank questions. Averages tended to be around 80-83 after a no-cheating policy was implemented halfway through the semester.

Professor Mazurek is incredibly enthusiastic and loves talking about things outside the realm of psychology. He made lectures incredibly enjoyable. Unfortunately, it was very difficult to squeeze any sort of extra points out during test corrections. Mazurek is insistent that his choices are correct and will often give snarky responses to emails that suggest otherwise. I boil this down to more of a personality quirk that's developed as a result of pre-med students begging for higher grades. Mazurek emphasizes that everything about the course is laid out in the syllabus and that he won't make any exceptions for missing an exam or the participant pool requirement.

Other than that, I really enjoyed this course. It's a great introductory course for anyone who hasn't taken a psychology class before. However, I would hold off taking this until your second or third year, as the reading and grade breakdown can be a bit offputting for first years.

Mazurek is a very engaging lecturer and super knowledgable about psychology. He shares many interesting case studies and even has some personal anecdotes and experiences that help you understand the content. There is a lot of overlap with AP psych, so I would say you can skip this class if you did well in that. I did all of the readings and took in-depth notes on the readings and the lectures, and I found the tests quite easy. I also met with a study group the night before every test to review. There were a few questions here or there that I missed or did not understand, so I would email Mazurek, and he would get back to me quickly and often return points to my grade. I ended with an A pretty easily and really enjoyed the class.

Prof. Mazurek is a great guy and an amazing lecturer. The material itself is not too tricky, but there are a lot of readings and content to manage. That being said, if you struggle with fill-in-the-blank-style questions, DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS. Roughly 1/3rd of all the exams were this format. I think I got 2 of these questions right over the entire semester, and there were 5 exams... If you know you struggle with this kind of recall, DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS. Granted you will learn a lot, but you will not do well. Learned it the hard way, I did very well on all other parts of the exams, multiple choice and short response, but I still ended with a C+ because I could not do fill-in-the-blank for the life of me.

Professor Mazurek is so fantastic. He's a very engaging lecturer and his topics are pretty interesting too. I didn't take any kind of psych class in high school but my friends said that his content is pretty similar to AP psych. If you attend lecture and study the terms, you'll do well. The exams are very reasonable. Overall, I really enjoyed taking it and would recommend. It's a pretty easy A but make sure you put in some effort. #tCFS25

I loved professor Mazurek! He is very kind to his students and he is very passionate about psychology. His lectures are engaging and interesting. The class is strictly based on test grades, so if you are not a good test-taker you may want to think twice before taking. He does let you drop one text grade (not including the final) which is nice. He does not record lectures, you don’t necessarily need to attend lecture but he sometimes mentions things that are not in the textbook and will be on the tests. You do need to read the textbook to pass the class and you’ll need to memorize upwards of hundreds of terms for the exams. If you are not good at memorizing I honestly wouldn’t recommend the class because thats basically the only way to do well. The tests aren't very challenging and if you memorize all the terms you will get an A. Overall, it is a great class but it is not an easy A and you will need to dedicate multiple hours reading the textbook and studying for the exams depending on how efficiently you can memorize.

I really enjoyed this course, but especially liked Professor Mazurek! He is very engaging and understanding of personal challenges and willing to work with you to overcome them. I frequently attended his office hours and found them to be very useful. He never takes attendance in class. There are 4 exams and 1 final. You are able to drop 1/4 of the regular exams. He also offered some extra credit. His exams were consistent in format (multiple choice and fill in the blank) and grading was fair. At times, the content can feel overwhelming, however, it was manageable! I would absolutely suggest this course.

I really enjoy this class. Past reviews said that the exams have open endeds, but now they are all multiple choice and fill in the blank. He is an extremely engaging lecturer and genuinely enjoys teaching. His examples strengthen understanding and the textbook is super easy to follow. To manage an A or A- in this class you do have to do all the readings, and they do become a lot, but you can get away with just reading the week prior to the exam. I find that missing a lecture per exam time hasn't really effected my performance, and it is overall a great class. I recommend, but it isn't an easy A, there is work that needs to be put in.

This class was not too hard. I went to every lecture and read the textbook and got an A. You'll have 4 exams, he lets you drop one, so each is worth 25% of your grade and then the final is worth 25% of your grade (you can't use your exam drop on the final). His lectures weren't that boring, and he definitely goes through the material that you need to know for exams. The average exam grades would usually be Bs or B-, but I did fine so if you go to lectures, read the textbook, and then for exams: use the study/notecards feature of the online textbook, read over your class notes and make sure you remember stuff from the textbook, then you'll be fine. He's a super nice guy and makes his lectures as engaging as possible. The exams are usually like 25 MC, 8 fill in the blank, and 1 short answer (you can't exceed 140 words for short answer or he'll take points off), so the exams really aren't that bad! Would recommend this course - it's what made me want to major in psych!

This class is a great introduction class if you are interested in psychology. To continue, I really liked professor Mazurek but that opinion is not shared amongst all students because he does spend a lot of time answering questions and sometimes going over things that were already in the reading. On the other hand, I still find his lectures to be very interesting, he is clearly passionate about what he teaches. Moreover, the book is super interesting and easy to read. The only problem is that sometimes the reading that is required for class is very long. They are 4 main exams and a final. Each exam covers 2 chapters and the final covers all learned chapters plus an extra one that he goes over the weeks before the final. The exams are not hard if you study sufficiently for them. You mainly need to remember special vocab words and you will be more than fine.