Behavioral Neuroscience · Psychology
she is extremely rude and arrogant. her lectures are terrible- you can follow nothing- and the style of this class is bad. she makes you memorize useless diagrams THAT YOU NEVER HAVE TO DO IN THE REAL WORLD and stupid bullet points. overall, worst class I have ever taken at columbia.
On the first day of class you will realize that you are recieving strange vibes from Dr. Horovitz. It took me a while to realize what those vibes were...I was listening to a lecture being given by someone who is actually excited by what he is lecturing about. Dr. Horovitz's enthusiasm is refreshing, and rubs off on his students. Lectures are very interesting and range from involved philosophical discussions to biological terminology presented in a straightforward manner. Inviting, happy to give personal attention if it is sought out. Exams are not terribly difficult, but not easy either. The grading system is one of the fairest that I have ever encountered. All in all one of the best classes and the best professor I have ever had.
Fundamentals of neuroanatomy (ex: action potential, neurotransmitters, etc.) as well as topics in behavioral neuroscience such as motivation, emotion, mental illnesses, and sleep. We also covered the methods of behavioral neuroscience pretty extensively.
Four exams, including the final - lowest grade is dropped Online quizzes, re-take until you get the grade you want Two short papers (about one page each)
One of the best courses the Psychology department has to offer. The professor is engaging, funny, and always willing to help. He comes to class very organized and usually has a PowerPoint presentation to supplement the lectures. The workload is tolerable and the tests are straight-forward.
If you are looking for an interactive professor who comes up with creative teaching methods to help students better understand the subject at hand... keep looking! I took this course during a summer session, and each class was a 3 hour lecture crammed with material, which NEVER included a scrap of audio-visual aid (weird for a science class, right?). Sometimes he will draw a picture of the board and tell us there is a better one in the book, and often he will sprinkle the board with various names and terms (I think for spelling). "Is this clear by the way?" becomes a common theme (just nod and read the textbook). Your knowledge is assessed on 3 exams, which are quite difficult and require loads of memorization. Several instances have convinced me that he is also a nit-picky grader. Prior knowledge of the subject will make it much easier to get a good grade in this class. I wish I had a different professor :(
I learned a lot about neuronal activity in the brain and its relation to the various illnesses as well as different activities conducted by the body.
Overall, I liked Professor Taylor's Behavioral Neuroscience class. However, a few things to keep in mind: she's transitioning into a clinical career away from research, and is very busy, making her less accessible except for just after class. She's a good lecturer, but it's hard to interpret what she wants you to really know versus the flood of information that we got in class. The importance of some concepts were lost in the shuffle until we studied long and hard to connect the dots. She adds a lot of humor in her lectures and answers questions, even if they're based on an incorrect premise, and explains the answer she's giving. The way her tests are constructed force you to problem-solve through the mechanisms and why certain systems work the way that they do, which honestly is good overall. The tests are not easy--all short answers, and this can be both bad an good depending on which TA grades certain portions of the test (each section is graded by a different TA). It can be challenging to get the hang of it at first, and most students did not do well on the first exam. I really recommend recording her lectures and re-listening to them when you study, because most of what she explains in lecture could be exam fodder, but this isn't always reflected in the slides. Having said that, her exam questions are already basically laid out for you via questions that she posts at the…
Behavioral neuroscience --> a lot of brain systems, memory, etc.
15% online quizzes 5% Research review paper 5% Neuroscience Seminar Summary 75% Your Top 3 Exams (3 Midterms, one Final. You must take the three semester exams... if you are satisfied with your grade, final is optional...Make sure you work your ass off so you don't have to take that final)