Cosmides was a very hard professor to understand. It was obvious that she was very knowledgable in the subject of cogn. development but she did not present the material well. Prof. Cosmides is not available outside of class and never answers emails. Her grading is very confusing and she does not let you know what get on the final.
Alright, professor Cosmides is very HARD to follow, she is a terrible lecturer. She is taking 5 minutes to explain a concept that can be explain much faster with less details and more being concise. She seems sometimes confused of what she is explaining. Basically she has NO structure in her lecture. DO NOT RECOMMEND TO TAKE HER CLASS.
Im surprised with all the negative ratings. Yes, Cosmides does go off topic sometimes but she is a great lecturer. Final is worth 100% of your grade but if you go to lecture and actually listen, youll get an A. The questions on the final were obvious if you listen in class. You dont even have to do the readings.
She's very knowledgeable and established in her field, and she earnestly wants her students to learn. However, she is not an eloquent lecturer, she is often long-winded in her explanations, not clearly organized, and can get bogged down in the details. The only grade for the entire class was a multiple choice final - make sure to keep up !!
DO NOT take this class with Cosmides. It is extremely hard to follow what she is saying. She stumbles over her words and becomes very confusing. Final is cumulative and 100% of your grade.
Worst professor I've ever had. She is a terrible speaker and takes forever to explain something that should be quick and easy. The entire grade is the final, which is terrifying since there's so many vague things she says that could potentially be on the final. The audio lectures helped only a little bit. Would not recommend at all.
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!
Lectures start of slow then pick up with momentum. (fuzzy to remember, make more sense with more content) Funny and nice professor. Empathizes w students about too many readings. Attend lecture if you want to pass WELL. (if not familiar with some philo material, readings may be tough) Study hard and ALL OF IT! Grade riding on final!
For some reason she likes to schedule classes to be once a week in 2.5 hour blocks and she tends to talk like everything she is saying is an aside (sometimes making it hard to figure out what's important) but other than that she's cheerful, knowledgeable and ready to help. Take plenty of notes, don't count on the fact that she posts slides.
Never went to class. Studied by listening to the audio files she gave out before the final while following along with the lectures she posted online. Got a b+ with this tactic. Never read any of the books
Once you get passed her nonsense off tangent rambling seshes that she has with herself....really awesome professor! Extremely smart and knowledgeable, it was cool to learn from someone who has done so much research
I enjoyed this class a lot. Prof Cosmides is so smart and she has so much knowledge to share. Sometimes she gets a little off track or gets so excited about a topic that she stumbles on her words. But if you sit through the lectures, you will learn from her. She posts the slides but you will miss a lot if you don't attend class.
If you want to sit in a class filled with chicks while a nerdy soccer mom babbles for 2 hrs...take this class. The class met once a week and let me just say...the entire course couldve been taught in ONE SESSION considering how much the teacher BABBLES on nonsense! hated this class with a passion...not difficult...just POINTLESS with outdated text.
Interesting class, BUT the material tended to get a little confusing (after the midterm)which didn't count for anything. I lived at the TA and professor's office hours and managed to pull off a B+. Grade is based on final which is scary but if you understand the notes you WILL do fine.
Great Professor. Material was pretty hard to grasp, but if you ask questions she is really helpful, and you don't need to read the books (but they DO really help you know the material). Whole grade is based on a Final, but as long as you attend lectures and understand what shes talking about, it should befine.
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!
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