PSYC W2235

- Attendance (have to participate in polls during class using an iClicker remote) - 2-3 short (~5 minutes) videos and a short quiz (online, open note, has 1-2 questions, worth 2 points, can retake many times) due before each class - Weekly problem sets (graded on completion) - Short paper analyzing a decision you made (very easy, can be in outline format) - 2 midterms (lowest is dropped, you can bring a double-sided handwritten cheat sheet) - Final exam (2 double-sided handwritten cheat sheets)

Two exams. Midterm material is heavy but the test was fair. The final took 3 hours to complete and I had to go walking for one hour to forget about it. 2-3 lttle essays and one 3 min video about an environmental topic

2 (fairly easy and straightforward) 4-7pg. papers on a topic of your choosing, with re-write options for both if you're not happy with your grade. If you're a decent writer, don't worry about it. 3 non-cumulative exams. Attendance is not at all mandatory.

Great class and professor! I learned a lot about how people think and make decisions, and I definitely found myself applying it to the real world. Lectures are pretty interesting, and slides and audio recordings are posted after each class (the class is very well-organized on Courseworks). The professor is kind and keeps class engaging with interesting topics and jokes. The assignments might seem like a lot of busy work, but they really don't take much time, and I honestly found them to be a very helpful way to stay on top of the material, which made studying for exams feel a lot easier since I was already familiar with the concepts. You can bring cheat sheets for exams, but they have to be handwritten, and I found that making the cheat sheet is actually a great way to study! Exams and grading felt fair. This is not a zero-effort class, but I also definitely wouldn't call it a heavy workload, and it is truly structured to help you succeed and learn the material well.

Unfortunately this class is a mess because you can see the teacher putting a lot of energy into it....but it does not work for her. First of all the teachers slides seem organized but if you compare them to what is coming out of her mouth you will be very confused. Her thoughts move faster than what she can talk about so even note taking is confusing if you are trying to follow her. It does not have any requirements but you have to have a heavy background in Economics to understand the first month of class. Even the TAs were trying to help us but they seemed even more confused.Don't even mention the little math that you have to use. So confusing. Then, you have to have a good knowledge of Social Psychology in order to at least have a moment of breath in this class and understand al the biases humans have. Only then the topic starts. Desicion making is a very open, subjective topic. She makes it boring , confusing and the book is a horrible companion. I ended up not reading it. Everyday you have to sit in the class, thinking it is going to get better or clearer but....false! It just gets worse and worse. Its like a sinking ship. The video project is useless but I met great people and less than 3 hours were enough to film it. Many people just read from a paper to the camera....boring. I threw my notes away as soon as the semester ended.

The phrase "bored to tears" has never seemed to apt. On the (very) few occasions I dragged myself into this class, I fell asleep nearly every time. Krantz's slow and labored monotone doesn't help matters either. But that said, this class is probably the EASIEST class I've ever taken at Columbia. The class is divided up into 3 sections, with a non-cumulative exam for each section (the 3rd exam takes the place of the final). Plan your attendance per section as follows: go to 2-3 classes to get a feel for the material, then peace out until the class before the exam, where he'll review everything (ask questions if you missed something), read the slides/review the practice exam for an hour, proceed to ace the exam. Rinse and repeat. Going over the practice exam is crucial! The class before the exam is a review day and he'll go over about 90% of the practice exam--it will tell you everything you need to know and how you should think about/answer the real exam questions, which will be similar (if not some of the same) as the practice ones. As for the (very) few classes you have to slog through in order to get the easiest A of your life, bring coffee and a laptop and you should be set. He reads pretty much right off the slides, but he also tends to throw important graphs and tables on the slides without any captions/explanations, so listen for those. Finally, a general note about the…

I did not find that my work was graded too harshly. Honestly, I found the grading to be pretty generous. I'm wondering if the people saying that maybe just... thought they were more correct than they were? The answers seemed to have pretty objectively correct answers to me, at least. She provides so much scaffolding and gives you so many opportunities to mess up while you're learning with almost no real penalty (a literal pedagogical unicorn)... I honestly think anyone could do well if they put in a standard amount of effort. She has a mix of grad and undergrad TAs, and all of them seemed perfectly nice. No one seemed to be frothing at the mouth at the idea of giving out low grades, so I don't know what that one review was talking about. Workload: iclicker questions for in-class participation grade (5 free absences), weekly problem sets graded for completion (lowest dropped), short pre-class quizzes that you can attempt way more times than you'll need (worth literally 2 points each and get 5 late passes), two midterms (lowest dropped), one super easy paper (you can literally write it in bullet points), and one final exam.

Two short written assignments (1-3pgs; 20%), Video project (10%), Midterm (25%), Final (45%).

Oh wow, I'm surprised about the negativity of these reviews! Thinking and Decision Making is my absolute favorite course I've taken in my time here. The course definitely asks a lot of its students, but she has it structured so that it is very, very manageable. If you're looking for a class where you can zone out and skip most of the lectures, this is NOT the one for you. There are a lot of little assignments, but they force you re-engage with the material at key junctures in ways you probably wouldn't otherwise and give you SO MANY opportunities for points. Like, the whole course is structured to help you succeed. And she's really funny! She uses humor in a way that makes even the toughest topics approachable. No doubt, it's not the easiest possible course you could choose, but I think it's one of the most fun! And I actually use the things I learned in this class like all the time! Don't be put off by the workload!! And Prof. F-G is in a league of her own! Someone else said that her mind goes a million miles a minute, and they're so right. She's brilliant! It feels like there's very little she isn't at least broadly knowledgeable about, but her expertise in decision making research is clear. She is clearly invested in her students' success, and it's obvious that she's there because she loves to teach. Prof. F-G is a literal treasure, both as a lecturer and as a person, and t…

Yes, this class is ridiculously boring. The first half of every lecture is spent going over what we talked about last lecture. Popping into class a few times a month is enough. If you go more than that, at least bring your laptop. You and everyone else will have to flip to Facebook every once in awhile to stay awake, which is sad considering how sweet Elke is. The assigned book chapters are usually only barely connected to what we are currently talking about. The TA's are very disorganized and can't even agree on which lessons/book chapters will be on the midterm. And, the group video project was the most ridiculous, waste of time high school project EVER. But, despite all this, is it hard to get an A is this class? Not really. The average on the midterm was an 85. The study guide Elke hands out before the midterm and final basically are the the midterm and final. If you do it and memorize it, review the lesson slides and have a bit of common sense you can get an A- on the exams. The writing assignments are a bit harshly graded, but if you put effort into them and throw in a bunch of psych words you'll be fine. The video project was the dumbest thing ever and hopefully they get rid of it by next year. This class also turns into an Econ class after the first semester, just FYI.