Not sure why some people didn't like Fansleow. His curve is extremely generous. I did about average on the first midterm and freaked out but then got a "curved" A on the final and ended up with an A in the class. I think like 40% of the class got As and A-s so it's very doable. The tests are tricky but you just need to do well relative to your peers. I would re-listen to some of his lectures that you have trouble with but not all. You can just skim the textbook because TAs make the textbook questions on the test.

Dr. Fanselow is a pretty solid lecturer. The concepts in this class are fairly straightforward, and he definitely is of more help and provides more clarity than the textbook. That being said, it is vital that you record the lectures and listen to them over once through since he does not podcast and tests you on ANYTHING that he may have mentioned in class. The tests (which combined comprise 90% of your final grade) are pretty tricky. It is very possible to come out of the test not feeling confident about any of your answers, which is slightly discouraging, but he grades based on a normal bell curve (according to his grading rubric this quarter) so it's fair. In retrospect, I wish I had known to relisten to lectures earlier (scored below average on the midterm, 40% of grade) and then completely changed my study approach to this class by relistening to lectures and scored well on the final. Class is doable but be ready to put in hours of listening (at 1.5-2x speed b/c he's a slow speaker).

The material itself isn't hard and Professor Fanselow is a pretty nice guy. His lectures are clear and often entertaining.

That said, his tests are incredibly ambiguous and in my opinion, does not properly reward you for your study efforts. All of his tests are multiple choice. Half of the questions have multiple answers that are "technically right" and you really have to think hard on which is best option. Each point on the midterm/final is worth more than 1% of your total grade, so there's no room for error.

Go to his office hours and not the TA's (I didn't find my TA's to be particularly helpful.)

He does give you a big extra credit boost though. 4 SONA points.

If you want to protect your gpa, please don't take this class. I now wish I had taken other people's advice seriously when they warned against Fanselow' class. Nothing against him personally, but that class is just too hard. Fanselow lectures well but when it comes to the exams you're left not knowing what to study. His questions are ambiguous, which means you literally need to know absolutely every concept for the tests. Midterm is 40% of your grade and final is 50%, with a 10% essay. Good luck to those of you who signed up for his class. Please take this review to heart because it'll save your gpa.

Professor Fanselow is a very interesting professor, his lectures are actually interesting and engaging. The way he teaches and explains the material is very straightforward and comprehensible. He doesn't use slides or podcast the class, so you'll have to attend the lectures, listen and take a lot of notes.
I had 2 tests: a midterm and a noncumulative final of 30 questions each. They are worth 90% of your grade. I think it's very unfair to base that much of the class grade on such a little number of questions. The tests are extremely hard, and the questions are very ambiguous, so make sure to memorize and understand absolutely everything in the book and in his lectures.
My advice is not to take that professor unless you really have to, and if you do, make sure to give it most of your time: do the readings the day they are due, outline them, study the lectures thoroughly, go to discussion and you might get a descent grade.

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Fanselow was a great prof. His material is presented in an interesting and engaging way, and his exams were super EASY! This might just be because I'm a science major, but I found his multiple choice tests to be a piece of cake. His questions make you think, and are not simply regurgitation of facts like many other Psych classes. But in the end understanding concepts and applying them is much more important than spitting out a random statistic. Take Fanselow. He's South Campus approved.

Fanselow is an enjoyable professor but his tests are tricky. Some of the wording on the tests is ambiguous and there's a lot of all of the above/none of the above questions. He really emphasizes applying concepts to unique situations. They cover his lectures, the book, and discussion section so be sure to study all three. His tests only have 30 questions which doesn't give much leeway. I thought the material was interesting and all of the TAs are really helpful. It's a hard class, but in terms of the other psych-core classes you have to take, it's pretty good.

After reading the reviews, I was already dreading this class before it even started. However, it was not as bad as I thought it would be. Took this class last spring, 3 multiple choice exams - 2 midterms and a final. and also a paper. The lectures were interesting at times and Fanselow would make everyone chuckle/laugh sometimes. The material--it's just basically memorizing all the experiments and understanding them. Fanselow definitely knows his stuff and he explains things pretty clearly. You can't fall asleep in this class cause there's no lecture slides! So I had to take all notes by hand. I was semi-caught up with the material throughout the course, and ended up with a B- after spending a couple hours a day or two studying before the exam. Definitely not impossible to get an A (but obviously much more difficult than other psych classes). Understand the material and remember the experiments!!

I took Fanselow last spring and I'll admit the class was pretty difficult. You can understand and learn the concepts he teaches, but the key to getting a good grade is being able to apply it to different situations. He's a good teacher and explains theories well, but he makes the tests really abstract and difficult. There were 3 tests if I remember correctly, and on the first two I averaged about a B so I assumed the best I could do in class was get a B+/A-, but on the final I somehow did well and I ended up with a solid A for the course. My guess is if you do really well on the final then they just end up giving you the better grade.