I absolutely loved this class a lot. The professor is super clear about the content, not to mention that the content is extremely fun and fascinating. Every week, we have a maximum of two hours worth of lecture, and usually a lab or video assignment, article analysis, quiz, or some combination of these. The labs are usually pretty simple; as long as you watch the lectures and look at the lab slides, they should be pretty easy. The video assignments are a bit more annoying, because she wants you to follow specific guidelines, but still stay within the allotted time. The article analyses were a bit more challenging for me, because they involve reading actual scientific papers and noting down certain aspects of them. The quizzes were pretty easy, and focused more on application than pure memorization. The midterm was very similar to the quiz, but differed in that there was a written portion to it. However, it was easy nonetheless. We also had a group lab project two times the whole quarter, which involved designing a study, running it, and individually writing about it.

Overall, the class is an easy A if you stay on top of your work. It can be a lot of material and assignments, but nothing too complicated. The professor is also very accommodating, and made the final optional.

I would highly recommend taking this class with this prof. Smith's slides contain a lot of info, but they are easy enough to follow and as long as you take good notes, you're set for the exams. There was no textbook for this course, and all of the exam material is covered on her slides. She is super engaging, kind, and understanding if you have any issues regarding the group projects, video assignments, homework, etc. The workload is somewhat heavy but pretty easy if you pay attention during lecture. Smith is arguably one of my favorite professors !! If your not a psych or neuro major I would still definitely recommend taking this course since it's a pretty easy GE!

Definitely my favorite class I took my first year of college. I highly recommend you take Psych10 with Smith if you can! Especially in your first year, because I actually got a lot of good study habits from her class :) I found myself always looking forward to her class and not falling asleep during it surprisingly even though it was so long lol. Usually the first half is regular lecture, a 10 minute break, and then the lab with your group.

Since I took it winter 2019, she made the final optional due to covid. I think at least her midterms are fair, because she really means that everything discussed in class can be on the midterm, particularly questions in her outlines. There is also a midterm review that was really helpful! So even though there is a lot of content for the class, she gives you guidance on what topics to study and expect to see on the midterm. There was also a group midterm, which was short and not difficult, and can only help you by a small %.

The workload wasn't overwhelming, maybe tedious since multiple assignments could be due in the same week. Such as short multiple-choice quizzes (timed, if I remember correctly), article analysis, and lab reports.

I really loved how straight-forward the class was. Because of this class, I decided to major in psychology because Smith made it very interesting and engaging :)

I took this class to fulfill some pre-reqs for some classes and graduate school, but I honestly thought the course material was pretty interesting! It's basically like the AP Psychology course you took in high school––so if you previously took that course this class can seem repetitive––but overall I enjoyed my experience in this class. Paquette-Smith does a great job of explaining the concepts, and everything you need to know for the quizzes/exams are in the lectures. I didn't go to her office hours, but from attending live lectures, she seems really sweet and is very patient with her students.

We didn't have a midterm, but we did have a few quizzes throughout the quarter, so I would advise to stay on top of all of the weekly lectures and classwork. Work can definitely pile up if you leave everything at the last minute, so I would advise you to spread everything out during the week. There is some group-work for labs, but the labs were pretty easy and were not worth a lot of points. Overall, I highly recommend taking Psych 10 with Paquette-Smith!

*I took this class during the COVID-19 era.
This class was amazing! Professor Paquette-Smith made it very easy to understand and be interested in psychology.
All of our lessons were pre-recorded so we attended the live zooms to work on the labs. Our quizzes and final were both 20% of our grade. The lowest quiz grade was dropped. There was no midterm. We had to do lab reports which were fairly easy. We also had video assignments.
Overall, the professor is super nice and the class is pretty easy as long as you try. I would recommend going to Office Hours if you need help. Also, attend the live zooms if you can.

I took this class Fall 2020 during the COVID pandemic. The class was formatted so that each week we had 2 lessons posted on CCLE which each included about 1-2 hours of material. We also had live lectures on Monday that sometimes were mandatory. There was no midterm in this class, but there was a final. Every couple of weeks we had a lab which sometimes were a little challenging because the graders can be specific and quizzes which also could be a little tricky. However, it is not that hard to keep a high grade in this class as long as you take notes from the lessons. The final was not that difficult and was mostly multiple choice and had a small short answer section. Overall, Prof Paquette-Smith is a great lecturer and her lessons are very interesting. I would recommend this class.

Absolutely love her. You can tell she cares about her students and she is very passionate about what she does. This class was basically memory. Write down notes on the lectures and you’ll be fine. I probably would’ve had a better grade if it was in person and I was a little more focused. I loved this class though! 100% recommend

I took this class asynchronously, and it was pretty easy in this format, since exams/quizzes were open note and lessons could be completed at any time throughout the quarter. The professor adapted this class well to an online setting - the lectures were engaging and designed for learning; Melissa was a great professor and super helpful. I will say, however, that the workload can sometimes be too much, but it's not very difficult. Overall, I liked the content of this class, especially the focus on learning/studying techniques.

Melissa is the best, the setup during the online year has been really conducive to learning and student success in my opinion and she makes it really clear what our assignments are, when to do them, and what is going to be on exams. Loved this class!

Psych10 w/ Paquette-Smith was such a great class w/ a professor who seemed to genuinely care about her students. First of all, the professor showed support to her students by changing the course work grading scheme (basically made final optional for me b/c I did great on the midterm) during the ongoing racial / civil rights movement which I highly appreciated. Also, she dropped one lowest lab, video assignment, and quiz scores and three video assignment which really removed the pressure of getting everything done perfectly. I guess the workload often could be heavy if you procrastinate til the Sunday when all the assignments are due like i did, but they were definitely manageable and easy, Also, you had to watch the lectures and complete the questions between lecture videos (counts as video lecture participation) by Sunday, which was kinda annoying but helpful in long-term for me b/c the questions between the videos and watching lectures that counts as grade really helped me pay my full attention to absorb the lecture materials and do well on my midterm. The professor gives out a test bank which was helpful when I studied for my midterm which was easy as long as you paid attention during the lecture and took some notes down (you don't even have to technically cuz she gives out powerpoint notes, but you will miss out on some details), The video-assignments, where you have to record yourself explaining the answer to the question professor gives out for a minute without looking at a script, was sorta weird, but the grading was pretty lenient as long as you followed the prompt. Labs and article analyses were super easy along with all the reports you have to write after completing 2 easy group "projects" (you basically just have to make 2 simple psychological experiment / surveys); you only had to go on 2 discussion sections your entire quarter to discuss with your group about your projects which was great cuz I really hate discussions, and I was in a totally diff time zone. Honestly I can't really find any flaws with this class b/c as a person who has never taken a psych class before, this class explained the basic psych concepts throughly. Some assignment took more effort and time to complete, but they do connect with the ideas you learn in lectures and help you understand the material better. I enjoyed this class a lot so TAKE IT!

Course Grading Scheme:
Quizzes - 10%
Video Lecture Participation - 5%
Labs - 10%
Video Assignments - 6%
Survey Lab Report - 5%
Experimental Lab Report - 5%
Mini-assignments - 1%
Article Analysis - 3%
Higher exam score - 40% or 50% (you can choose)