3.3
Quality2.7
Difficulty38%
Would Retake120
Reviews38%
Would Retake
120
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
5
37
4
28
3
21
2
17
1
17
What Students Say
“Minimal work, fair grader”
PSYC101 - 4.0 rating“If you are looking for a challenge dont take him”
PSYC227 - 2.0 ratingClass Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
45%
Textbook Required
48%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
A-
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-1.38 avg changeRatings by Course
RESEARCH
5.0
(1)RES
5.0
(1)COGPSY
5.0
(1)PSY
5.0
(2)RSCHMTHDS
5.0
(1)Difficulty by Course
102
5.0
RESEARCHM
5.0
PERC
5.0
RES
4.0
COGPSY
4.0
Reviews (120)
A good man, but a little tough, but he knows what he's talking about, funny guy, lots of labs, old psych dean, very very nice man, he'll help you understand psych! a little hard though, but he will help you out a lot
took him for research methods, hard, but a cool grader
rough, but good
Do the extra credit..he'll give you an A!! Gives open book quizzes and tests!
very nice man but a little boring... you need to take him when u are wide awake because he will put u to sleep
cool psych teacher!
what was this class about? nothing to do w/psych. gave us 5 papers due in the matter of 4 weeks talk about crazy. very boring bring coffee and good luck
Becklen, although a very nice guy is the most difficult teacher. If you see him, run, run fast. He gives an insane amount of work in an unreasonable amount of time. % lab reports and a research paper in a matter of weeks!!
Am in this class no. Must say that he is a nice man, but not an effective professor. Focused on one topic for over a month, then decided to assign 5 papers due in only a few weeks. I believe the word you are looking for is INSANITY.
has a severe case of ADD. although he will use an hour to make one point has trouble focusing on 1 project @ a time.he has unrealistic expectations,he has made my life a living hell.don't take this class unless u are a masochist.
I want to have his love children, he is the peak of all that is man! He can measure the speed of my nerve impulse anytime. oh yeah uh huh.
nice teacher!talks A LOT(so if your are tired you are going to fall asleep),open book quiizes (every week-but be careful some are a lil hard), extra-credit,no test except for final-which is open book (but close book essays - which he gives 1 week before)
I like Becklin a lot. I think he truly cares about the students learning and will go to any length to make sure that you understand. Sure, he expects a lot, but he'll help you through it.
Hey I love the nerve impulse!! It rocks!! riiight, but hey class is hard, but he graded us on our hard work, not our real grades, if he graded us on our project grades i would've failed, but i got an A- and it rocked!
One time he had to pair our class off and the way he did it was he stood in front of the class, closed his eyes and turned around in a circle. Whoever he pointed to was your partner. I'm not kidding. It wasted an hour. Soooo cool.
talks about random things so I basically never took notes, part of tests are take home, essays he gives you ahead of time, a little unclear because he's off in his own world but allows redos, nice guy and easy
Nice guy. Midterm and final were paritaly take home. Never knew where we were in the book. Impossible to take notes. Videos were helpful. but never really learned much from lectures...got a B+ though
Very nice man, the fact that he's from Sweden explains a lot...loves to point out that he's in the textbook...easy grader, gave us part-take home exams and let us revise labs (he gave us 15 to do!) I felt the class could have been a lot more interesting
WORST. CLASS. EVER.
very smart, genius type, and a nice guy.
Very good professor, too smart for most ramapo students (I think he's from Cornell!).
he is very good, but you have to keep up to follow him
Cool dude.
Really good professor, nice guy too.
I have him for a 3 hour class. It's very boring and i want to fall asleep. I kinda enjoy the subject, it's jsut not fun to take it with Becklen. I think i just failed the super hard exam.
deep dude if you listen to what he says
He is such a great professor. He wants his students to learn and will help you with anything you need. Very friendly too =)
He has a slight accent, class is boring, but he is very knowledgeable and has a friendly personality. Good videos, 2 or 3 take home tests (its hard though)with in-class essays. Tough to stay awake and comprehend, but doable. I'd still reccommend it, even though its boring.
Nice guy but boring. Hard to pay attention for 3 hours twice a week. Needs to learn to talk in simpler terms but he is really passionate about teaching.
very nice and really cares about his students, will do anything to help you. not hard. although, while trying to explain material, he overexplains, complicates, and gets behind. had 3 major projects to complete in the last 3/4 weeks, and like nothing due before that
No Comments
very good professor if you listen and pay attention...very very helpful if you go to him...
nice guy but if you understnad stats already you will be bored because if someone doesnt understand then hell keep going over it
nice man but difficult to understand what hes looking for take home multiple choice sections for the test are nice but no page numbers so youre searchin for all the answers
I'm usually really kind for these ratings, not picky, But he is SO BORING! DONT TAKE CLASSES W/HIM ITS NOT WORTH IT!!!!!!!
The work itself isn't that hard as it is tedious. He tends to ramble on, so you gotta tune him out sometimes. If you know what you're doing in terms of Stats and Exel you'll be fine. The projects are gonna be long, but they have to be in order to cover all the stuff you gotta put in. He's a nice guy, but i wouldn't take this class with him again.
great professor...he is really interesting,you have to work pretty hard to understand the material. Nice guy too.
cool guy, easy class. he rambles on a lot and more or less lectures the whole class so it can get a bit boring but it's not bad. the two midterms and final are take home open book. gives you projects/experiments to do at home that take time but are usually pretty interesting.
very nice guy. very smart and he is a good teacher.
becklen is sooo boring. he rambles on the entire class about topics that arent covered on his quizzes. His quizzes aren't difficult, they're open book, i got a B+ in the class.
I liked this class very much, specially the way the prof connected science with philosophy and arts. He really knows his stuff and if you pay attention you'll learn a lot. Projects are hard but interesting once you do them.
He's a nice guy and he's really interested in the topic. Very knowledgeable in the subject. The class can get kind of boring, but pay attention and take good notes and you'll do fine. The tests are open book and he gives you ten small projects to do. Overall not bad.
He's a nice guy, helpful, and a fair grader. The tests are open book, but it's easy to lose a lot of points on the essay sections. The 10 small projects aren't too bad, especially if you do them when they're assigned. The textbook he chose doesn't have good chapter summaries for quick studying. It would be nice if he had more formal notes in class.
Great class, great professor!
Very smart/deep thinker and a very nice person.
Very helpful and caring professor. Only problem is that he tends to teach and reteach the same thing in the next class. Can be boring but overall a good professor.
He's alright. But he's pretty boring, and tends to say and resay the same things a LOT. All his tests are open book though. Which is nice.
nice guy but seems clueless sometimes. very meticulous, detailed. text not referenced much/often, MUST pay attention in class (even if he repeats himself). goes to great lengths to ensure students understand lessons.
I thought this guy was soooooo sweet. He is from Sweden and so nice. We learned about some very interesting things, and things that were not in the book. He carries everything around in a cardboad box, instead of a breifcase...i would recommend him for intro to psyc!
kinda boring, quizes are every other week open book, but questions are confusing, pretty much no work in class, all lecture
awesome professor. no homework except for some activities on a cd.. they're really easy. all tests are open book. DEFF TAKE!
Def. an interesting course, the prof is really nice and extremely knowledgable. Highly recommend taking him. Open book biweekly quizzes on 2 ch. at a time and some work from a CD program, other than that no homework! Class is mostly lecture-style
This prof was interesting, a nie guy all around. He's extremely knowledgable about his subject is brings up some interesting discussions for class. His quizzes are open book, but if you don't do at least some outlining, be prepared to get a C or lower. Becklen is a nice guy all around, and definately interesting.
lectures every class, pretty boring. quiz every other week open book, but confusing. really no outside of class work, very helpful and caring
Becklen is VERY nice, but be warned, Psych of Percep is VERY boring. There's a lot of optical and neural anatomy stuff, and the professor tends to ramble and go in circles a little bit, which makes it hard to follow. You have to stay really focused or the lectures turn into white noise. Also, the ten perception projects? Yikes.
i took him for into psych. great guy!! like most ppl have sed he really cares about students and provides extra credit if you feel like you can do better. all quizzes/tests are open book but somewhat difficult. def. read over the chapters bfore the quiz! recommended!!
this guy's real easy, open book quizzes. I never read and used to learn the material as i took the quiz
Professor Becklen is so nice. He cares about how students are doing in class and is willing to give extra credit if you feel you need it. The finals aren't bad. The quizzes are all open book, but challenging. He likes to talk and tell strories so stay focused or you'll start to daydream a little bit. Overall, a great professor and really nice.
I took him for Perception.. very easy A with pretty minimal effort. And he's an absolute sweetheart! If you show the slightest bit of interest, he will notice it and remember you. I wish I could take him again...
GREAT Prof!!! Absolutely the nicest prof. Willing to help at extremes. Very Knowledgeable. 1 long final, and 2 long papers due all at the end of the coursE. Althgh some people might think he's tough, if you read a little and pay attention you will get a good grade. One bad thing is that he gets into psych so much he forgets what time class ends.
I find him very sexy! I like his slight accent
Worst professor ever. I had him for research methods/data analysis, and it was horrible sitting through his classes. So Boring, all we talked about was google and excel. DO NOT TAKE HIM!
Best ever. A true gem at Ramapo. If you really want to expand your thinking take this guy for your research methods class! Love him.
Great Professor! Fairly easy for Research methods/ Data Analysis (with regards to work load). Extremely nice , helpful, and fair!
Best professor ever, expands your thinking. Truly a remarkable class. Read the chapters, and you'll do fine because all of his tests are open book. Curiously, even with the open book policy, you still come away from the class having learned all the required material and more.
HORRIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i loved this man. all the quizzes were open book, and the final was made up of questions from the quizzes. very easy to pass. you can bring your laptop and basically BS around the entire class and still pass with an A... or you can really learn a lot from him. he's brilliant and funny. class can seem to drag on, but it's really not that bad.
Excellent Professor, always had interesting things to say though he did go off topic a lot. Class was entertaining for the most part. Work load is also very feasible. I expected research method/data analysis to be awful but it wasn't accept for when he went off on how excel works than it was boring but truly an excellent professor to take.
By far one of the most brilliant professor at Ramapo. He gives out a LOT of work and makes you THINK a lot! Overall, he is always willing to help out and an easy grader.
great professor
took him for psychology of perception. class is lecture format with very little homework aside from 10 projects you do over the course of a semester. two exams and one final. he is a very animated speaker and fun to listen to. exams are open book, skin the chapters the night before and you will ace it.
Research meth/Data Anaylsis. Lectures the ENTIRE time and is almost incomprehensible. Barely learned anything, except for what I looked up online. Midterm, final project, & oral defense final. Easy grader. If you want to learn the material take someone else, if you want to do absolutely nothing all semester and pass RM/DA take becklen.
In-depth reading is absolutely essential for this class if you want to have any clue what's going on. He has a tendency to go off on tangents. You may get lost along the way, but he'll be glad to help you out. Really nice guy, but some students take advantage of it.
He is possibly the most boring professor I have had and just talks the whole class.His quizzes are open book but they are not easy even when you have read the chapters. The chapters are really long. If your are looking for an easy grade and easy class this is not it. there are better professors and classes you can take
Professor Becklen is a nice man but awful teacher. All of his quizzes are open book, but the chapters are so long that even with reading you don't have enough time to find what you're looking for. Going to class is practically useless, his exams are entirely book-based. You learn a lot, but on your own, and your grade doesn't show it.
becklen is a really nice guy. i can tell her caresut his students and the subject. but a terrible teacher! rambles on and is really confusing! if he sees you try hard and pay attention, he'll give you a good grade. exams are open book. 1 big paper. and 3/4 reaction papers. didnt learn much about research methods or data analysis. try to avoid!
Becklen is a nice guy, BUT not a good teacher. He's not very clear in his notes, or what he wants from his students. You basically have to teach yourself the whole semester because his lectures are terrible. If you want to save money, and actually learn- don't bother wasting your time taking him...It's not the easy way out.
Horrible, just horrible. He is a nice guy, but he is the worst professor i have ever had. All he does is talk the entire class, doesn't give a break for a three hr class. Very unclear, on tangents all the time. Extremely boring subject with extremely boring teacher. Should NOT be teaching. Ramapo needs to do something.
Very nice and smart guy, but overall thought this class was very confusing. Open-textbook tests but you do need to read the chapters prior and take some notes. Gives you essay questions in advance.
This professor really knows what he is talking about and is passionate about the topic but he is not a very good teacher. He is a really nice guy but I didn't learn anything in this class. The final was oral which was the dumbest thing I've ever heard of. The only things that made up your grade was midterm, final, and a project.
Took him for perception and adv topics: memory. He is EXTREMELY intelligent and REALLY nice! He cares about your progress and is extremely passionate about everything. He goes on a million tangents but if you reel him back in he'll get back on track. He tells you exactly what will be on tests and is open to changing due dates.
At first I thought what many of you have said - long lecturer, goes off on tangents... However, I have received the best feedback on my work in this class. And although he is sometimes difficult to follow because of his utter brilliance, he's dedication shines through. Struggling in this course? Speak up, and you'll see what I mean.
Great professor. Granted, the lectures are long, and he gets off topic, but next to no participation was required. Minimal work, fair grader. We only had around 4 short papers (each about 2 pages long). Biweekly multiple-choice quizzes, based on the textbook, but he lets you use notes. Gives you the essay questions ahead of time to prepare. Easy A
His Cognitive Psych class was a joke. His lectures are unclear and he goes on tangents. His exams are random questions from quizlet. Yes, he's a very sweet man but I learned close to nothing from his class. My class convinced him to give a take an online take home final. Overall recommendation- if you actually want to learn, don't take him
If you are looking for a challenge dont take him. His class was so easy; he basically gives you the test before hand and its open notes. He takes attendance for about half of the semester, after he stops dont bother showing up. He let us take the final online and all the answers were on quizlet just like the other exams. His class is an easy A.
Becklen is a great man in general. I respect him as a person, but as a professor he wasn't good. He cares for his students. He gives a mid term and a final and 2 presentations. One is on a journal article that you need to research and then one is on a person in the innocence project. Fairly easy concepts. If you just do the work, you'll pass
I really enjoyed his class. Yes, he goes on random rants all the time but i enjoyed everything that I learned. mid term and final exam, and 2 presentations. One on this journal article that all you needed to do was summarize and the other is you choose a person from the innocence project and tell the class about that person. no homework.
Dr. Becklen is an intelligent, helpful professor and a caring, enjoyable man whose passion for sharing knowledge is inspiring. He is willing to listen to his students input, does everything possible to assist us, and goes out of his way to make himself available. I have taken two of his classes already and would absolutely take him again!!!
Becklen is a really nice guy, he is very caring and wants you to do well. He just goes off on long tangents, and most of the work is based out of the textbook which you have to read on your own time. It's a very boring class overall, but all quizzes are open notebook which helps your grade. Never any homework.
Definitely not an easy class.. If you're a procrastinator I do not recommend. He gives you chapters to read which consist of at least 100 pages, you can have notes but only 5 pages and he chooses small details from the chapters and my notes helped little. He is very nice but overall not the best teacher. Never lectures about what we are learning.
I can't believe that there are actually people that don't like Professor Becklen. He is honestly one of the best professors I have ever had. He always strives to entertain the students. He is always so cheery and I would take him for all the classes at Ramapo if I could. He is intelligent and worldly, and easy to get along with and talk to.
Would have 80 slide slideshows, and talk so much about literally nothing that we would get through two maybe three slides a class. Allows 3 pages of notes on tests but it doesn't even matter because the tests have no relevancy to the course BECAUSE HE DOES NOT TEACH. Literally did not go to class more than I did go.
He goes on a rant throughout the whole class and no one knows what he is talking about most of the time. If you want to actually learn, do not take this class. I don't know how he hasn't been fired yet. Tenure is a powerful thing I guess.
The guy is awesome as a person. Becklen cares a lot about psychology unfortunately I hate to say his teaching style is poor. Not a hard professor. Basically if your limited on options he's not awful.
Sweetest, most genuine man. He is extremely intelligent and knows something about everything. Really cares about his students and is flexible with due dates/test dates. He doesn't seem like the type to fail anyone. However, he doesn't do much teaching. All scattered rambling. I would not recommend taking 303/304 with him if you really want to learn
Assigned three essays, none were graded by finals. Take him if you want an easy A, but don't take him if you actually want to learn, I got an A and know nothing. I feel bad for anyone who has him for 303/304. He is nice and cheerful as others say, but makes no effort to know students and didn't know names even by the end of the semester.
This man rambles for two hours with zero organization and nobody knows what he is talking about. Even when reviewing for a test he finds a way to go off the rails and barely talks about the test. His monotone Swedish voice will put you to sleep faster than the textbook you have to read hundreds of pages of to have any idea of what is going on.
How could anyone not like him? He's really nice, he's interesting, and he doesn't assign much. Sure he goes on long ramblings and goes on tangents, but he does take the time to learn your name, if you take the time to take his class seriously. Honestly, Prof. Becklen is just really quirky, and funny, how could you get bored?
This Prof. is not good at his job. His powerpoints have mistakes that he will point out but won't actually correct, doesn't have clear grading criteria, doesn't actually teach just rambles, and doesn't use moodle. He does allow notes for tests, but thats the only good thing. He super sweet, but an awful teacher.
if you want to actually learn don't take him but he gives almost no work just what is required to give by the school. he tries to make the class entertaining but just readds off the slides and gets distracted easily. honestly for attendance people just wrote their name down and was able to leave.
Hes a nice guy but its a real shame he doesnt know how to do his job. He talks about everything BUT cognitive psychology and Im paying thousands of dollars to teach myself the subject. If you actually want to learn PLEASE take someone else. Only if you want to waste your time and money and not learn a single thing, this is the class for you.
Mixed thoughts. Really nice guy, not the best at teaching. Open note quizzes, but they still are pretty hard (he curves though). He doesn't really teach, instead goes over slides a little but mostly talks abt what he finds interesting whole class(but isn't relevant 2 study). I only go for attendance. Has EC opportunity. No essays. Rlly sweet tho
He's a nice man & interested in what he teaches. But for virtual, it can be frustrating. He doesn't really teach. It took many emails to receive grades and when you ask a question he'll go off to diff topic. I wanna give the benefit of the doubt since this is still new but I thought I should let future students know
Great professor, very nice and definitely passionate about psych
He's very lecture heavy with a ton of slides throughout the chapters. The lectures can get really boring but he tries his best to make it entertaining. He's a really nice guy that is super helpful if you are confused about anything. He also tends to get distracted and goes on tangents a lot. 3 major assignments, 2 tests/quizzes. Not much work tbh
The class is very lecture heavy and he gets off topic easily. We were supposed to have 5 quizzes and a final but we are so behind schedule we only got to 1 quiz so there aren't many opportunities to raise your grade. He has little assignments not worth much compared to the quiz and final. He's very passionate about psychology but grading is awful.
Professor Becklen is a wonderful person. He is very intelligent and has a kind, quirky and unique personality. You can tell how much he cares about psychology and he literally lights up while talking about it and his happiness rubs off on you. I have a lot of respect for this professor :)
By far the least organized class I have ever taken. No clear assignments, no lectures or powerpoints, he only rambled and showed videos over zoom that were poor quality and hard to follow. He also did not grade any assignments until days after final grades were due. This class was a mess and I learned nothing. Nice guy, but stay away if you can.
I had Prof. Becklen Fall 2021! What a lovely man! He was super unorganized, but that wasn't much of a problem for me. His class is one of those classes where you have to be independent and work at your own pace. He is so funny and loves Cognitive Psychology! I recommend getting organized and planning your own due dates for this course. Love him!
sweet old man, but needs to retire. lectures on chapters twice because he forgets where we left off. does not respond to emails for months and forgets students' names. teaches us like we are graduate students. Three exams, but students used phones because they were so hard and he did not pay attention to what we did during the exam. nice man tho.
This class was nearly impossible to follow from start to finish. He was incredibly disorganized, constantly confused over what he was assigning, when he wanted it done, and how. The lectures were also useless as he constantly went off topic & oftentimes was not able to cover all material adequately. Be prepared to teach yourself everything.
he is a great professor although the topics are pretty boring .. we only had a final and presentation due at the end.. zoom classes were also allowed due to covid
He is a very sweet man, I would love for him to be my grandpa. BUT! He is an awful--and I mean terrible--professor. He is extremely disorganized, is confused by his own grading system, and will change things last minute. I taught myself in this course and used prior knowledge to get an A. Other people were not so lucky. Steer clear if possible.
such a passionate person, but he is extremely unorganized. class seems hard because its so confusing, but if you just keep up with your "diary", he will like you. tests are wild because he barely teaches, but sometimes you can convince him for it to be open notes. does not use canvas and is bad with technology, so hard to reach out of class.
if you want to learn in research methods, take a different professor. he repeats the same lectures over and over, but there is little to nothing he graded us on. supposed to be a hard class and we did nothing.
he's a nice man, but such a bad teacher. he doesn't remember where his class is after a month into the semester. were supposed to have 5 quizzes/tests and have had 1 and everyone did horribly and he has not said anything about another test. all he said is "when we are ready" and there's 3 weeks left in the semester. take someone else if possible
He is a nice person but not the best teacher. We went over the same lesson so many times and only had 2/5 quizzes which most people failed. The final was based on all the chapters we did not cover
Becklan is so sweet but my god is he disorganized. If you show up and pay any attention at all, you can pass with a good grade. He goes over the same 3-5 lectures the whole semester, no matter what class you take with him. I took him a few times and even different courses teach the same thing. tests are impossible, he curves so much tho!
Avoid if possible. His lectures are just tangents that make absolutely no sense. Should not be teaching anymore, for a guy teaching cognitive psychology he's losing all cognitive abilities. Very nice, but painful to sit through his class. Entire class bombed our first exam and he didn't curve it. AVOID!!!
The professor is a nice person, but the class can be a bit disorganized. Lectures are heavy on slides, with occasional tangents. Quizzes are challenging, but the professor curves grades. Unstuck AI helped me prepare for the assessments efficiently.
Class Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
45%
Textbook Required
48%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
A-
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-1.38 avg changeRatings by Course
RESEARCH
5.0
(1)RES
5.0
(1)COGPSY
5.0
(1)PSY
5.0
(2)RSCHMTHDS
5.0
(1)Difficulty by Course
102
5.0
RESEARCHM
5.0
PERC
5.0
RES
4.0
COGPSY
4.0