2.5
Quality4.0
Difficulty28%
Would Retake86
Reviews28%
Would Retake
86
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
5
8
4
13
3
21
2
27
1
17
What Students Say
“If you're trying to get an easy A don't take take her class”
PSYCH101 - 1.0 rating“By far the worst class I have ever taken”
PSY1250 - 1.0 ratingClass Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
50%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
A-
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.33 avg changeRatings by Course
PSYCH
5.0
(1)PSYC100
5.0
(1)PSY277
4.0
(3)PYS100
4.0
(1)PSYCH249
4.0
(1)Difficulty by Course
PSYCH
5.0
PSY1250
5.0
PSYCH101
4.8
PSY2150
4.7
PSY100
4.3
Reviews (86)
intelligent and very respected in her field. the lectures are engaging and based around powerpoint, experiments, displays.careful tho cuz shes irked by the fact that vandy kids do well and wants to keep the average grade as low as possible with impossibly detailed tests and difficult thought papers.
lectures are interesting, but she makes the MC tests really hard, all answers look right, she can be rather snappy if you ask her for help on something one-on-one and just refers you to a TA for the matter
No Comments
No Comments
awful class, one of the worst i've taken...waste of time - classes are completely unnecessary b/c the powerpoint slides are posted online and the lectures dont contain any important info that isn't already found in the book...i'd never take this class again and i like psych. to begin with...
Prof Gauthier seems like a nice lady, but her class is REALLY boring. Each class seemed like the same never-ending slide show with her narrating in a french canadian accent (that was kind of hot, i'll admit). The T.A.'s were horrible and , unfortunately, ran everything besides the lectures.
This lady is the devil. I made a B+, but only because I made an A on the first test, which everyone did well on. She then decided to make the MC tests extremely complicated and wordy. Plus, her accent really blows.
She was hardly in class and left all the work to the TAs who were horrid. She was not helpful outside of class and did not have much contact with the students. The tests were very confusing and unfair.
No Comments
this woman is awful. avoid her class at all costs. her tests are confusing because her diction is totally messed up.
Tried to cover way too much in lecture so ended up actually communicating nothing. Tests were poorly written and impossible. Turned me away from my intended major.
Wonderful professor. Really knows her stuff, and I loved learning from her. Yes, it was hard, but it's not meant to be easy. She was excellent.
No Comments
ms. g is a very nice lady. but her tests are very confusing. how can u answer a question in degrees? which one is most correct? it depends on how u feel about the subject. very difficult class to get a good grade in if u have not already taken psych. lectures are crowded with too much information and u generally have to teach urself.
Hard class for intro, tries to cover too much material in her terrible French Canadian accent. I wanted an easy intro to get some CPLE out of the way and jumped into a terrible class.
Great Teacher. Great Lectures. Very Hard Tests. I learned a lot but got a C. Not good.
No Comments
What an awful human being.
Hard and confusing tests. Which are not curved.
this was one of the easiest classes i've taken at vanderbilt-yeah, she doesn't curve her tests, but she always ends up taking out whole bunch of questions, so it actually ends up better than curving. besides, you get to drop a test!
avoid her like the plague. if you already have the plaugue, please give it to her.
Dr Gauthier is not an evil human being, nor does she deserve the plague; she is a very sweet person. She genuinely tries her best to lecture to a large class and explain the material the best way she knows how. However, most of the material you have to teach to yourself for hours and hours just to get a C on the tests, but you do get to drop one.
Prof. Gauthier taught class very well, but if you can't learn everything on your own, you're screwed. Also, her 'practice questions' in class are so simple, yet her test questions read like crazy French-Canadian speak.
No Comments
This is the most amazing professor ever! I do think she is afraid of bear though.. Her test are difficult but its all word for word from the test. Makes for a very interesting class
I couldn't ever stay awake with this lady. Her lectures were boring and just restated information from the book. I thought psych was cool before, but now, it's whackarnolds. Good nap time in class because I was put to sleep, but that didn't work out too well on tests, which had some crazy jargon.
Very boring class! Gauthier reads off of her lecture slides the entire time, which can be found online. Her tests are difficult and confusing, but manageable. Read the text, dont bother going to class.
This is by far the worst professor I have ever had. She has no interest in the caliber of her class or the welfare of her students. Her TAs are no help, and it seems their only job is to produce multiple spelling errors on each typed test. I was very interested in taking this class and this teacher shot down my interest in majoring in psychology
This class is very hard. I really didn't like it. The lectures are boring and don't explain very much. Dr. Gauthier seems like a very nice person but she does not lecture well to large groups. I had to kill myself outside of class to teach myself most of the material. I didn't really like this class and I wish I had taken something else.
You either hate her or you love her. I was in between because she made the class really interesting, but then again, her tests are crazy confusing. You really have to understand the concepts cold to do well on the test. I dunno. She's cool, but after all was said and done....C for me :(
Class was soooooo boring. I didn't learn anything in class. I had to teach myself pretty much everything. She takes attendance, and if you miss too many classes, it hurts your grade. You have to do a certain amount of experiments too. Don't take the class unless you plan on majoring in PSYCH.
Terrible at lecturing. I had to teach myself the entire book outside of class. Plus the accent makes her difficult to understand in a large lecture hall. Everything in the book is fair game.
Gauthier's class isn't that hard. Yes, she has an accent, and yes, her test questions can be random, but she curves them, gives students opportunites to get points back, offers extra credit, and gives students an opportunity to drop their lowest grade. If you read (you don't have to go to class, lectures are all online) then you should be fine.
Pretty hard to understand, both her and her TAs had english as their second language. Horrible review sessions, and her exams had a lot of really badly worded questions. However, her lectures were interesting with many video clips etc.
Used an experimental class format that was a disaster. Only one of three days are lecture, the rest are useless but required attendance. The case study is a crapshoot; avoid this class.
She's a very fair teacher. Read all the required assignments in the textbook, and know all of the highlighted vocab. That's pretty much the whole test right there. She also throws out questions if many people get them wrong.
By far the WORST professor I have ever encountered at Vanderbilt. Do NOT take this class with her. Gautier is absolutely miserable. Tests were all multiple choice and extremely difficult. Class is boring and you cannot understand her English.
She seems like a very nice professor - she tries to be funny and engaging in class. But I wouldn't recommend this class to non-majors. It's very difficult for an intro class. It might as well be a weed-out class like Gen Chem. If you do take it, read the book carefully and prepare for detailed exams.
Prof. Gauthier is a very kind, energetic professor. HOWEVER, I would not recommend taking this class. The majority of lecture is spent answering questions on the "clicker" rather than actually learning/discussing the material. The tests are all multiple choice-- make of it what you may. If you do take the class, memorize the text book... all of it
Stay away from this class at all costs. The tests are extremely difficult for an intro level course. If you take this class it will be a huge mistake, seriously avoid. This is my worst class and I hear complaints about its difficulty on a daily basis, all these people aren't wrong. AVOID AVOID AVOID
I really don't think she's that bad at all. It's not really an easy class, but she tells you what you need to know and she lets you drop you lowest test grade. I also think she explains things really well and she doesn't mind students asking questions at all and will take the time to answer them until you understand.
I'm sittingin this class, wondering why I am here! She has buchered my desire to major in psychology. Can't understand the testa at ALL! French Canadian is not my language! She doesn't answer questions at ALL! I despise this class now. And have plans to change my major because of her! AVOID THIS CLASS BY ALLLLLL MEANS!!!!!!!!
horrible class. going to class is pointless unless you are one of the 4 people that talk. attempts to make a discussion based class with 300 kids in it..tests are impossible-no matter how much you study
I'm sure Professor Gauthier is a very nice woman, but she should NOT be teaching an introductory course. Her lectures are long, boring, and incomprehensible, her tests are all multiple choice and absolutely impossible if you don't know concepts - which she is terrible at explaining - down cold. DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS WITH HER.
Ugh. Ok, no this class is not the worst one at Vanderbilt. But it's not a good one. Professor Gauthier is a nice woman who is definitely extremely intelligent, but it's obvious that she should not be teaching an intro course. The tests are picky, long, and convoluted. She makes easy concepts difficult. But her accent isn't that bad.
absolutely awful. i studied 25 hours for her final and got a 76. that shows how impossible and stupid her tests are. do not take this class, if you are signed up for it, drop it. you dont learn anything from her, its all the book. i gained nothing by going to class, you might as well just buy the book and read it if you want to know about psych
This class is not impossible. If you study the book and the lecture powerpoint (that she posts online for everyone), you will do fine. She makes the concepts more confusing than they really are on the tests, but if you study enough, you will be fine. Attendance is manditory though.
she may be a great psychologist, but she is the worst teacher ever. her impossible tests might have to do with the fact that she writes them in french first and then translates them. class is boring and worthless, just have somebody take your clicker to class
I dunno what you guys are talking about. Sure she has an interesting accent, mentions bears alot and in general requires students to do work outside the class but she is great. One of the nicest professors ever. If you don't think so then you have never gone and talked to her one on one. Plus she is HOT
She changed her class recently sot that here are no tests at all. However, the class is only out of 100 points, so each point deducted is a percentage off your grade. The material is SUPER interesting, but it actually is a decent amount of work. There are weekly clicker quizzes that are questions from students, which makes it difficult. Nice Lady.
Thoroughly enjoyed having this professor. Responded to emails quickly, never failed to take the time to answer any questions I had about the subject matter and had no problems meeting outside of class to help with the group project we had for the semester. It is a class that weeds out those who shouldn't be in this field, though.
The cutest little Frenchy I've ever seen. Her accent is just adorable. Class is hard, though. Read the textbook thoroughly if you want an A.
Studying for this class is HARD. She gives a study guide for exams but the info on the tests is primarily conceptual.
Enjoyed this class. Tests are hard but you can self-correct for points. Must go to class to understand the pp.'s. MUST READ THE ENTIRE BOOK. if you don't read you won't understand the tests at all. If you already read, this won't be hard. She's nice. You can get extra credit thru psych experiments. I recommend her & this class
She's adorable. It's not hard to do well if you show up to class.
she's ok. lectures are super boring. writing assignment in class every monday (30% of your grade) = sucks. exams are hard, even with self correct. she has a drop1exam policy if you meet certain requirements which is GREAT cause the final covers so much material i can't imagine getting a decent grade. reading is key but it's not enough for an A.
she's foreign. her tests are all multiple choice, but are often difficult to understand because of the language barrier. long textbook readings. tough tests. she gives you chances to save your grade by dropping lowest scores, but the tests are still hard and it's a lot of work. don't recommend it unless you're a smartypants
very very difficult class. tests are needlessly wordy. i studied my butt off and got Cs on both. not looking forward to final exam.
She is not the clearest lecturer, but she is passionate about the subject matter and does try to help students outside of class. Keep up with the reading in the textbook and the tests are not too bad.
PSY 277 is a very interesting class set up that is engaging and interesting. There is only 1 lecture a week. One day is MC that students write (work hard writing these- it's not easy to get a 33 points), 1 lecture, and 1 day of talking about our brain damaged patients. Highly recommend.
If you're trying to get an easy A don't take take her class. She is extremely unclear in her lectures and just plain boring. Her tests are also unclear and impossible to understand. The effort it takes to pass this class is beyond the scope of an intro class.
Professor Gauthier is a decent professor, but there is a language barrier on her tests. The questions can be incredibly poorly-worded. Coupled with a bizarre grading system, this class can be hard to get an A in. She does offer test corrections and 2 extra credit points though.
Dr. Gauthier is a nice person and all, but her methods are a bit unusual. For instance, she tries to make a lecture-type class a discussion-based class. She also has these special days at the start of every week called Thinking Days where you are compared to your peers--they are graded harshly in my opinion. Tests are hard b/c she is bilingual.
Gauthier was very down to earth and fun to get to know! Her Brain Damage and Cognition class was great because there are no tests, just a semester long project broken down into chunks. I found it manageable, as long as you started EARLY you had plenty of time to ask for feedback and get a decent grade. Class participation is technically required.
Fair and generous grading policy. She's normally upbeat and funny in her lectures, which makes them interesting, even early in the morning.
Defeniteily take this class! Dr. G is a funny woman and the class is super interesting and super easy. There are three exams in all (including the final) and you can drop one so the final doesn't matter. She lets you correct the exams and you take a practice exam before, too! She's the best.
DO NOT take this class. It was incredibly difficult for an intro level class, the multiple choice tests had two right answers for every question and were completely arbitrary, she is terrible at explaining anything in lectures, and barely tests on them but rather on super obscure facts buried in the textbook.
Gauthier's reviews are dismal at best, but I thought this class was okay. Thinking days are hit or miss, but there are extra credit opportunities to drop your lowest ones. And there are test corrections and extra research credit. If you show up to class, pay attention, take notes, and read the book, you'll get an A.
Dr. Gauthier's first language isn't English, so sometimes the wording of her test choices is difficult to understand. The class itself isn't hard to do well in. There are 2 exams and a final, 10 short writing assignments, and required research studies. She posts all of her lecture slides online and offers a lot of opportunities for extra credit.
Class was pretty interesting and covered all the basics of psychology. The grading criteria made it pretty easy to get an A since you could do test corrections on each test and drop your lowest grade. There were also some simple completion aspects to the grade. The tests werent meant to be tricky, but you have to keep up with the class to do well
This is the worst class Ive taken. The way the class is structured really ruins the content of the course. This class takes so much time and she is a really hard grader. One of my favorite things that prof G said was that she was very generous in grading class participation but the mean for class participation was a 76...
By far the worst class I have ever taken. Dr G has no passion for teaching. She says "there are no stupid questions" but if you ask her questions, she is condescending. She tried to turn a lecture class into a seminar. The workload is incredible and most of it is wasted on pointless assignments. Her instructions are unclear, and she grades harshly.
Hands down the worst professor I've ever had at Vanderbilt for Principles of Experimental Design. She has her students act as her personal TAs, gives zero rubric or guidelines for papers until AFTER they're graded, and completely demeans her students when they email her giving her feedback or asking questions. Completely inconsiderate during COVID.
Worst professor ever. Unclear grading criteria & an insane amount of busy work that has nothing to do with the class.
I learned, but only through working blindly on my own. The chapters in the books were not gone over lecture AT ALL. You learn by doing quizzes and writing MCs that receive confusing feedback. It's a lot of unnecessary work that other profs for the same class do not require.
If you are a cognitive studies major, heads up: Take PSY-PC 2170 as opposed to PSY 2150 with Dr. Gauthier. Avoid Dr. G at all costs. If you are a psychology major and can wait another semester to see if a different professor is teaching this course, do. Words cannot describe how awful this class is. It destroys and demoralizes your soul.
This was the most ridiculous course Ive ever taken in my entire life. The workload was out of this world, the grading was harsh, and there was such a consistent lack of consideration. If youre a Psych major and have to take this class, Im praying for you. Be ready to have more work than you ever have in a single class.
Multiple large assignments per week. A large portion of the class is graded by consensus of peers and curved based on these peer grades. Assignments she actually grades had unclear directions and were graded harshly. Would not recommend if it is at all avoidable. Incorrectly calculated course grades and did not receive a correction for weeks.
Cannot agree more with former comments! She assigns readings and assignments for self-study only, and seldom gives lectures! She turned a lecture-based class into an asynchronous self-study class. I think her job is totally unnecessary for this class since we have to learn everything on our own. Her class doesn't deserve the tuition fee we paid.
Multiple writings/week on Peerceptiv. The grading is partly based on your peers' review, which is not always objective. She breaks down the big assignment into small sections, but she grades on every draft so you have to be intense every day. There are 4 tests plus a final, 3 big reports, more than 20 completion quizzes, and more than 20 writings.
This is the worst professor I have ever had. It seems like she wants her students to fail, assigns pointless assignments every 2 days (literally), and pits students against each other. The course was online this year so she never actually teaches you- just made us do countless quizzes and HW. This class crushes spirits and makes you hate learning.
She assigns way too much homework and throughout the semester there are constant projects and tests. The work load was absolutely ridiculous and she showed little concern for her students mental health. If you have to take this class, please do it with another professor.
Gauthier made it out of her way to make this class a hellhole of an experience. Not only did she grade our assignments unbelievably harsh, but she was unreceptive to the challenges that students were navigating during COVID, assigning us up to six different assignments (quizzes, projects, tests, peer-reviews) in just one week.
I hated every waking moment of this course! It was the bane of my existence! Very tough grader and unnecessarily strict about participation. There's so many assignments too... I could scream. If you've got a busy schedule, DO NOT TAKE THIS COURSE.
Although she's definitely a harsh grader, Prof. Gauthier made up for that by being available outside of class, providing extra credit/hw and quiz drops, and listening to students' thoughts on the difficulty of quiz questions (dropping many of these if they were too hard!) She seems scary at first but an A is attainable if you put the work in!
don't listen to other reviews! prof. g puts so much care and intention into her lectures-- while the class isn't easy, it's because she truly wants students to grow. if you put the work and the dedication that this class deserves, it is SO worth your while. these accent comments are insane, she's absolutely comprehensible. i've never had an issue.
Class Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
50%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
A-
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.33 avg changeRatings by Course
PSYCH
5.0
(1)PSYC100
5.0
(1)PSY277
4.0
(3)PYS100
4.0
(1)PSYCH249
4.0
(1)Difficulty by Course
PSYCH
5.0
PSY1250
5.0
PSYCH101
4.8
PSY2150
4.7
PSY100
4.3