Cosmides has a great understanding of what she's teaching, but she does a very poor job at clearly conveying that during lecture. The grading is confusing as there is a midterm and final, but the grade is determined by the final. Her lecture slides are very confusing so if you miss class, good luck. Worst professor in the Psych department by far!

Shes a really, REALLY, intelligent lady but not a very good professor. Her lecture styles are 3hrs once a week which I'm normally okay with but not with her... something about the way she lectures, I couldnt pay attention for the life of me. Midterm wasnt worth anything then our final grade was 100% of our grade, ended up getting a B.

During Leda's teaching, she yelled at her door that 'what is your background?' 'what is your background?' 'what is your background?' 'Know now.' 'Same level?' Don't know why suddenly introducing this content in the lecture and its origin. Professor's special psychological need can't be easily guessed at will.

Professor Cosmides gave really interesting lectures! She is really knowledgeable and patient. Reading load is very heavy, but everything on final would be on the ppt and lectures, so I didn't finished reading any of the assigned readings. The total grade relies entirely on the final, but fairly easy at least you studied!

Professor Cosmides is absolutely brilliant but is an appallingly bad speaker. Luckily her TA is equally intelligent and capable of effective communication - take this class for the interesting content and go to TA's office hours!

I took both Psych 142 and 155 with Cosmides. Lectures are long, and it's hard to stay for the full class. I never read any of the readings and ended up with an A-. With 142, she will upload audio lectures for all lectures before the final. For 155, she doesn't do this. If you know the lecture slides by heart, it's easy to get an A. Great professor!

She does 3 hour lectures and they are painfully long. I also think that she does not explain things in her lectures clearly. It seems like she talks in circles and could explain things in a much easier way then she does. You better be interested in the topic

Interesting topic, great knowledge of subject matter and takes time to answer questions thoroughly. Watch out for the 3 hour lecture time, its a killer! Very tempting to leave at "half time" and catch up with lecture slides. Also, books are not required but "The Selfish Gene" is a great read if you're interested at all in bio!

Cosmides is a really sweet lady but I had lots fo difficulties in her class. After getting a D- on the midterm, which had no effect on my grade because it's based all on the final, I went to office hours every week till the final. All that work made no improvement on my grade. Future students: be interested in the subject and study.

It was a real honor taking a class from one of the pioneers of evolutionary psychology. Although sometimes it seems like she has a hard time articulating her thoughts for lectures, she is a wonderful creatively brilliant professor. Having her as a professor, in my opinion, increased the value of my education. Definitely take this class!

As most people have said, the class is based entirely on the final. For this class it was around 120 questions but nothing to difficult. Most of the lectures I attended I just ended up lost or she just ran through them because she was out of time. If you are not really interested in Evolutionary Psych don't bother taking this class

This class has so many interesting topics. A lot of the experiments discussed were designed by Prof Cosmides and her team but she is the expert in the field so it didn't seem too biased. Grade is 100% based on final which I found to be trickier in this class than in the other class she teaches but if you study, you'll do fine.

This class is alright. I think there are better psychology classes out there though. The material wasn't bad. The idea of having your grade based on the final is scary. Just study the lecture notes read when you feel lost and you'll be fine. I got a B.

She seems to love teaching. She was always laughing while lecturing (not too sure at what) There was a bunch of random interesting things discussed but she does tend to read off her notes. You can definitely ace this course without the text everything is in her lecture slides she provides online. There was a long cumulative final but it wasnt hard

I agree 100% with what was said below. She is great, the class is great, her lecture could have been more smooth, but she is insanely brilliant and awesome. Study lecture notes HARD for final*...didn't do any of the readings but knew the notes by heart and got an A.

Very interesting class! Reading is not explicitly tested. It is just to help you understand the concepts. Fair exams. If you go to class, and ask questions/do reading when confused, you should get a good grade. Also, Prof. Cosmides is really nice!! :)

I thought she was great! Really passionate about the subject and really nice. If you are interested in the topic, you will probably enjoy this class. Definitely worth taking :)

This class was alright. I think her lectures are confusing. Some of the material was intereting. But honestly I liked all my psych classes except evolution.

Professor Cosmides is very enthusiastic. Yes she wants us to know about her research-UCSB is a center for evolutionary psych and her research, as well as her colleagues, has a huge presence in the evolutionary psych field. Tests were fairly easy, material interesting, and class is a good window into the different domains of evolutionary psych.

She's a very smart person, and a good researcher. However, she is a horrible, incomprehensible lecturer. It is clear that she does not prepare for class, and often times she will end up reading to us from her own textbook...the only benefit of this is that you don't have to do any reading, or really pay attention in class to get an A. Incompeten

she really wants you to know about her resaerch

Ok, she is an amazing researcher and has groundbreaking ideas, but not the best "lecturer", but to be able to hear what she has to teach is neat. The information will amaze you. Class based soley on the final. The book WILL help, but I think you can get an A without reading if you completely understand the lecture and the concepts. Cool overall.

Ok if you are an undergrad at UCSB and you do not take this class, you have failed to complete your education. Best class I've ever taken. Went to every class and left everyday with the feeling of bewilderment and inspiration. Take this class it is AWESOME!!!

Her research is incredbly interesting and inspiring. It made me completely reevaluate my perspective on certain issues- including racism. Granted I periodically attended lecture, this reevaluation of perspective occured largely because of her articles- which are well written and well supported.