Woolf is a very boring lecturer, especially at 8am. However, her curve is VERY fair. I bombed the midterm, making it impossible to get an A without the curve but studied my butt off for the final, and still pulled off an A-. I would even venture to say that going to lecture is not necessary if you are willing to read and study off the text. It is a lot more interesting than her lectures!

I have never had a professor whose lectures or power points were this disorganized. She is also a terribly monotonous and dull lecturer. Just read the book and study from it for the midterm/final. Or better yet, don't take this class.

First of all, I am NOT a science person. I want to be honest about this. I got a B+ in this class which was a lot lower than what I thought I deserved. She is a nice person with average lecture skills. But I did not enjoy this class at all. I skipped around 10 lectures which was actually not that bad. But I read all the readings and looked over the lecture slides and studied, and I still got a B+. If you are at all good at science and memorization, you should be able to do well. To get an A (these are just my suggestions): read every single word in the book beforehand so you can follow her lectures, print out lecture notes, lectures are optional but if you don't read then going to lectures and paying full attention will get you an A also. The TA was no help so don't rely on that. Overall, it's a fairly okay class. The midterm and final was 50 multiple choice questions plus a very generous curve. You just have to pay attention not sleep in every 8AM lecture like I did. Good luck. It's not that bad. I'm just a little bitter.

Professor Woolf is a good professor. Her lectures contain detail and examples about concetps in the course. The only problem is that your whole grade depends on your Mid-term and your Final. Each worth 50pts for a total of 100pts in the class. The tests aren't so bad, but you must memorize a lot! This isn't an easy GE but if you're thinking about Psychobiology, definately take the course.

Her lectures and class are extremely boring. If you are a science major or really interested, and I mean really interested, in science then you should take this class as a GE. I got a B in the class, my only B at UCLA, but had an A on the midterm. You have to go to lecture and read the book very specifically in order to be able to to do well on the tests. There are two tests, a midterm and a final, both count for half your grade. Both are 50 multiple choice questions and not too bad, but you have to know details and not just the main ideas. Don't recommend as an easy GE.

She's probably a nice person, but man, don't take a class with her unless you have a lot of patience. First of all, she has a LOT of annoying habits, like asking pointless questions of the class endlessly. "Has anyone here ever been in an elevator?", "Has anyone here ever felt mad?", etc., at least 20-30 questions per lecture. The worst is that she actually waits to see if people raise their hands! Second of all, there's her voice, but others have already covered that. Most important, though, it really felt like she was just phoning the class in. The lectures were just a bunch of facts from the book plus a few pictures from the book. It really didn't feel as if she had put any effort into creating her lectures at all, she was just going through the motions. I don't mind if a professor asks us to memorize a lot of stuff (which you have to do for this class), but I'd like to think they're putting a little effort into their end as well.

I thought Prof Woolf was very enthusiastic and excited about the material (despite teaching an 8am class). The class itself was very easy. There were two multiple choice exams (the second not cumulative), both straightforward. There is a lot of memorization, but she posts the notes and the CD you get with the book is really helpful (do the practice tests, she sometimes takes questions directly from them). Going to lecture is really not necessary (esp not at 8am) as long as you memorize before the exams.

Here are some things to consider before taking Psychobio with Woolf.

1) If you do not like waking up before 8 AM, then do not take her class. You will only end up complaining about it on bruinwalk.

2) Do not take the class if you have trouble with science; this is not the class to take for "an easy A." If you suck in science, stick to the astronomy and atmospheric sciences.

This being said, Woolf is not a bad teacher, nor is she exceptional, but I would consider her a good teacher. Sure her lecture slides are online, and sure her lectures do not contain information on the final which cannot be found in the book. Her lectures, on the other hand, do help you understand certain subjects.

Psychobio is perhaps the most interesting subject I have studied in school, although certain neuroscience chapters seem to drag on. The book she assigned in Fall 2005 is a fantastic text book containing knowledge and interesting tidbits I have already used in my every day life.

I made the mistake of not studying the practice questions on the book's website for the midterm. Had I known of its importance, I would have probably gotten an A on the midterm instead of a B. For the final, I pretty much only studied those questions and got a high A bringing my grade to an A-.

The class is easy in that your grade is only based on two tests, both of which are 50 mc questions. The only hw you have is reading about two chapters a week, maybe 4 hours of close reading. Do not take the class if you are not going to read because you have to. Do not take the class if you are bad at multiple choice questions. If none of these are a problem for you and you want to learn something new and interesting, then take the class.

dont go to lecture, its a waste of time...read the book and do all the online questions and workshops. One midterm and one final, each worth 50% of ur grade. She is really really boring but u should take this class because its not difficult and if u read the book, a lot of the subject matter is really interesting.

Lectures are unnecessary. Do the reading in depth. Interesting material if this sort of thing interests you, otherwise not recommended. 2 exams (not cummulative.) Each one is half of your grade.