Professor
Idan Blank
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Most Helpful Review
Spring 2020 - I really enjoyed the classes themselves, but the assignments were dreadful. About every other week we had to read 2-3 extremely dense, often verbose, scientific papers on a new, but related topic and complete an assignment based on them. Four of these assignments were graded for completion and two (of your choice) were graded for content. I totally bombed the first one but did much better on the second. Also, we were put into random groups to create two faux scientific research posters based on a topic in cognitive science. I didn't get the best groupmates but the projects weren't that hard. I found it very difficult to gauge how I was doing in the course so I ultimately switched my grading to P/NP. However, the final was fairly easy since we had a week to do it and it was an open book exam. I did okay on the final and if I hadn't switched to P/NP I would have ended up with a B+. I can't say this was my favorite class but I learned some cool stuff and Idan is very sweet and an amazing lecturer.
Spring 2020 - I really enjoyed the classes themselves, but the assignments were dreadful. About every other week we had to read 2-3 extremely dense, often verbose, scientific papers on a new, but related topic and complete an assignment based on them. Four of these assignments were graded for completion and two (of your choice) were graded for content. I totally bombed the first one but did much better on the second. Also, we were put into random groups to create two faux scientific research posters based on a topic in cognitive science. I didn't get the best groupmates but the projects weren't that hard. I found it very difficult to gauge how I was doing in the course so I ultimately switched my grading to P/NP. However, the final was fairly easy since we had a week to do it and it was an open book exam. I did okay on the final and if I hadn't switched to P/NP I would have ended up with a B+. I can't say this was my favorite class but I learned some cool stuff and Idan is very sweet and an amazing lecturer.
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2021 - Psych 124A is incredibly interesting, but also incredibly difficult. I would be cautious when enrolling in this class because the workload and the course material really pile up. I believe I spent 18+ hours a week (outside of class) on writing assignments / problem sets. And I still barely scraped up C's on my submissions. Despite the difficulty and workload, the material itself is fascinating. Topics ranged from phrase-structuring to developmental cognition to Bayesian inferencing. Overall, take this class if you're really interested in the intertwines of linguistics and cog sci. But if you're just looking for a good grade, this class is definitely not for you.
Spring 2021 - Psych 124A is incredibly interesting, but also incredibly difficult. I would be cautious when enrolling in this class because the workload and the course material really pile up. I believe I spent 18+ hours a week (outside of class) on writing assignments / problem sets. And I still barely scraped up C's on my submissions. Despite the difficulty and workload, the material itself is fascinating. Topics ranged from phrase-structuring to developmental cognition to Bayesian inferencing. Overall, take this class if you're really interested in the intertwines of linguistics and cog sci. But if you're just looking for a good grade, this class is definitely not for you.
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