Bill Prinzmetal - University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA

Professor: Bill Prinzmetal

Department: Psychology

College: University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA

Rating # 1

Overview:

• Course: PSYC120
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

ABSOLUTELY CONFUSING LECTURE; very disorganized, not coherent with textbook. POOR EXPLANATION OF MATERIALS! hard for non-CogSci major to understand what he is saying! unfortunately, he also has GSI named Joseph Williams who CANNOT EXPLAIN THE MATERIALS! worse than the prof! matching POOR QUALITY TEACHING both GSI & Prof!

Rating # 2

Overview:

• Course: COGSCC100
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Go to class. Listen. Take notes. It's pretty straight forward as long as you do the reading and go to class. He's really passionate about Cognitive Psychology and is very helpful if you need any additional help outside of class. One of my favorite courses I've taken at Berkeley.

Rating # 3

Overview:

• Course: PSYCH120
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Prinzmetal's lectures are a mixture of whimsy like a TED talk and of technical nitpicking. Lectures more essential than reading. Textbook is tedious. Have a good GSI. Professor can be cranky but also kind (get on his good side, not his bad). Capitalize on grade padding as tests difficult (for psych). You have to work for an A. Fun but unclear LEC.

Rating # 4

Overview:

• Course: PSYCHC120
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 1.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Got an A but I was completely turned off of psychology and cognitive "science" by him (more like pseudoscience). The book is terrible and you pretty much need to learn it all yourself,the weekly assignments are easy. Do yourself a favor and take a real science class where technical knowledge and intelligence is needed if you want to learn anything.

Rating # 5

Overview:

• Course: PSYCHC120
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.5
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

The lecture were very well-structured and engaging--similar to Presti's. Tests were fair, but you HAVE to read the book. Buy lecture notes, bc he edits all the info out of his slides on bspace :/. Overall, if you actually put the effort in, you're guaranteed to do well :).

Rating # 6

Overview:

• Course: PSYCH120
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Enthusiastic teacher and the subject was interesting. Lecture slides don't help unless you were actually there. not always clear in explaining topics. Tests were fair.

Rating # 7

Overview:

• Course: COGSCC100
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.5
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

The reviews are true. I had great expectations coming in but his teaching style misled me. While some of what is taught in lecture was covered on the test, the majority of it was not. And the book. The Book! It is terrible. Worst Book I have ever had. Plus, there are too many annoying weekly tasks to do. And a paper. And 3 exams.

Rating # 8

Overview:

• Course: COGSCC100
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.5
• Course Difficulty: 1.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Terrible professor. He takes a fascinating subject, Cognitive Psychology, and dumbs it down so far that the entire subject feels stupid. His lecture slides are so full of backwards grammar that they are completely unintelligible. His teaching style is so caught up in gimmicks and form that he neglects Learning entirely. A waste of my semester!

Rating # 9

Overview:

• Course: PSYCHC126
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.5
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Great Prof. Tells you exactly what he expects on the first day of class. Tests were easy enough. minimal homework and only a short paper.

Rating # 10

Overview:

• Course: PSYCH126
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

He is an enthusiastic, vibrant, informative, and passionate teacher.He conveys the subject matter in an ok manner, though a bit dryly. In order to ace tests, you must know all lecture materials (on slides) and read. Its an average class.

Rating # 11

Overview:

• Course: PSYCH126
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

(same poster from below) On tests-- there's a lot from the book or details from the lecture, but they're the kinds of things you'd be able to recall if you just did the reading or attended lectures, so it's not as bad as it sounds. Often the the things that I'd call 'details' were things that made me stop during the reading and test out or think.

Rating # 12

Overview:

• Course: PSYCH126
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.5
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

The content itself is awesome, and a lot of things make you say, "Wow that's really cool." I'd say tests are fair. He can go pretty fast with the slides (and I typed my notes). Group-studying helped a lot. Also, there's a lot to cushion your grade, like 8 article summaries, going to the exploratorium, and a paper where you regurgitate 3 articles.

Rating # 13

Overview:

• Course: PSYCH126
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

overall it was a good course. i suggest you go to lecture because the demonstrations are pretty cool and he does test on them. the tests are fair but some questions are challenging.

Rating # 14

Overview:

• Course: PSYCH126
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

talks like a fifteen year old valley girl. gives nit-picky weekly assignments. questions his students intellect despite making mistakes himself. avoid if possible.

Rating # 15

Overview:

• Course: COGSC100
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

This professor uses nothing, but power points. His lectures consist of him reading experment results to the class. Too many stupid assignments, he is one of those professors that just loves attention so he puts the lecture notes online, but removes key information from them. Unless you memorize the book and all his lectures the tests suck.

Rating # 16

Overview:

• Course: INTROTOCOGSCI
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: N/A
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

pluses: bill is enthusiastic about the material, he discusses many studies in detail, and the textbook is much less "fluffy" than in most psychology classes. minuses: bill seems to try too hard to make the class fun. i wish he would focus more on the material, which is inherently interesting. a physics major friend found the class "subjective."

Rating # 17

Overview:

• Course: PSYCH120
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.5
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: N/A
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

I thought he was a great prof. he was funny, made the class intersting and gave assignments that helped pump up your grade. his exams were tough unless you figured out what he was going to focus on (ehich if you have brains, you can do) then they were pretty easy. nice guy lots of fun!

Rating # 18

Overview:

• Course: PSYCH120
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.5
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: N/A
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

i like how he gets excited about the subject. and he seems like a nice down to earth guy. i really hate the text book though. there is a lot to buffer your grade, which is what i like about this class.

Rating # 19

Overview:

• Course: COG100
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: N/A
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

This guy is a horrible professor. His lectures are boring, often misleading, and he acts like he knows more than he does. He also looks disturbingly like George W. Bush. Cog100 (aka. Psy120) has annoying weekly assignments and a very poorly written textbook. Not recommended if you have a choice (I didn't).

Rating # 20

Overview:

• Course: PSYCH120
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.5
• Course Difficulty: 1.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: N/A
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

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