3.5
Quality3.2
Difficulty27%
Would Retake804
Reviews27%
Would Retake
804
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
804 total ratings5
393
4
93
3
55
2
68
1
195
What Students Say
“But don't let this fool you”
PSAY01 - 2.0 rating“I am going to be 100% fair”
PSYA01 - 2.0 ratingClass Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
9%
Textbook Required
0%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B+
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Improving
+0.25 avg changeRatings by Course
INTROPSYCH001
5.0
(3)PSYAONLI
5.0
(1)PSYC85H3
4.0
(1)PSYA01H
2.8
(6)PSY01
2.6
(9)Difficulty by Course
PSYCA01
5.0
PST01
5.0
PYSA01
5.0
PSYC85
4.7
PHYA01
4.3
Reviews (300)
Took this class with an online option. Test aren't bad , but not not easy either some questions can surprise you, Make sure to read the the textbook lectures don't help he goes off topic and doesn't really care about his students just fame and being a vegan
not a bird class do not take this for fun. talks to much about being a vegan and his band. very cocky .do now show up for class just read the textbook
His lectures overall are great, but he doesn't cover much in them. He focuses on the subjects he likes and we have to read the textbook to know the info he didn't give us which is like 60-70% of the stuff. And if you skip out on the textbook, you will FAIL the final. A lot of assignments worth little that take forever to complete. Oh and 50% Final.
Actually I am from programming background but just for fun I had enrolled his course there on coursera. After a while I literally loved the way he taught and created interest for his subject in me. though it was the longest course I ever took on Coursera I really enjoyed it and the enthusiasm was constant for all 11 weeks.
goes off topic lecture is pointless just read textbook. Very cocky prof just cares about clout and being ,knowing. Not a hard class but you have to study to pass . Just read the textbook . PSYA02 is way better Joordens does not teach it i felt like i learned a lot more
everyone says this class is easy but its harder then you think .Also dont go by his lectures read the textbook . Study for this class there's questions on the exam that are in the textbook you wouldn't even pay attention to .
i failed this class had to take it twice
His lectures are great. You won't get bored or distracted during his lectures. He did some Wikipedia experiment on us. Made us do some work on Wikipedia as a group. Was unclear and intimidating at first. Even frustrating, because there was no clear instructions. But in the end, we all got good marks. It was fair and good.
He is a nice person, but does not teach the material in the textbook which is what exams are based on. I said it is not mandatory to go to class for this reason, but there are a few concepts from class he will ask about on exams as well so try to attend. I remember him giving extra credit opportunities which were helpful.
sucks as a prof do not even go to his lectures arent worth it just read the textbook and you will do fine. He goes off topic a lot and talks about being a vegan to often or his band
Nice guy but lectures (tho interesting) are irrelevant to textbook and barely get tested on. Read the textbook for the exam! Only 1 final exam at the end and its hard, even after I attended all lectures + read the whole textbook. Bunch of time-consuming little assignments in between. NOT a bird course (unless youre neuroscience I guess)
Worst prof I've ever had at U of T!
Horrible experience taking this class , PSYA02 's prof was so much better at explaining. Literally majority of the questions on the exam will be from the textbook so you are better off spending more time reading / understanding that then the lectures. Peerscholar is absolutely unnecessary and useless I'd rather there be a midterm
You can tell he's passionate! Amazing lectures, reasonable tests. Loved this course and this instructor. He keeps things interesting!
Hes not mean and nice. He gives heavy readings, and relatively hard tests. He posts assignments close to each other that makes you so tense even cant sleep at night.
Really bad professor who talks way too much about himself and has a big ego. Seems to care more about clout than anything. Peer scholar is brutally graded and is a waste for 1st year students-who have very little experience in writing to be grading others. So class, and even worse professor. U of T students deserve better.
Expects too much from students but, never posts lectures on time, is unorganized, and seems to care more about himself and his 'rep' than his students. Very disappointed. Don't take this course unless you have to.
Lectures were unfocused, and added little to concepts already explained in detail by the textbook. Questions on mTuners and Final (which was open book) were almost exclusively from the textbook. Peerscholar is usually harshly graded and the final had some pretty obscure questions so i'd focus on maximizing your grade in the mTuner category.
Amazing prof and explains material in depth. There is a lot of reading which is the only downside otherwise it's a fairly simple class.
One of the worst profs I've ever had. More interested in using your for his research than caring about students learning. Questionable ethics. Peer scholar was brutal. Avoid at all costs.
I hated everything about this class. Especially the professor.
The rubrics for the written assignments are so vague and set you up to fail. The video lectures in tophat are long and boring and rarely contain new information, just makes the details in the textbook more complicated. The content that shows up on tests is details that get mentioned once. It was boring and content-heavy but wasn't super hard
As you can see, there's mixed reviews and I think it's because everyone learns differently. It's an online textbook - if you don't like reading this course it may not be for you. It's almost all reading and his video lectures are supplementary to the reading. The peerscholar essay was strictly marked so make sure that you start it early.
this guy legit said yes Chinese "ching chong" bro why so tone deaf
The peerScholar component was totally irrelevant. The videos embedded in the textbooks were long and could have been summarized.
Tbh if you put in the work and study, you're fine. Exam questions are now equally distributed among the chapters so study them all! If you study, you'll be fine. Also, first Mtuner results, all of us do bad. You get used to it and you do better if you continue to study for next ones. Big advice, DO NOT PROCRASTINATE, start early and you're good.
The worst prof I've had. There was no need to even attend his lectures at all everything tested is from the textbook, constantly talking about him being a vegetarian and not about the actual course. The final exam is 50 percent of your grade, never had that ever except in his class. 100 questions in 120 minutes were an insane amount of stress.
This course has interesting material, Steve's youtube videos have a lot of irrelevant information I just speed watched them before the mTuners. Keep up with the readings and maximize grade on Mtuners. Peer scholar was completely irrelevant and really hard marking was done for that assignment
The lectures were very interesting, you can still get A+ without lectures. peerScholar is fun if you like to research. Although they aren't lenient for sure, it's doable by writing a cogent, empirically supported essay, and give a VERY detailed feedbacks. 100 Qs in 120 mins (finals) are doable! It's open-booked, and very straightforward questions!
Prof Joordens is a good one, I don't know why some students didn't like him but his lectures in between our textbook chapters are pretty good and understandable. He's one of the profs that I didn't get bored with, and most of the questions on his quizzes came from the textbook.
STEVE IS A GEM!! I got a 96% in his PSYA01 course. He tries to make the heavy contents interesting for the students. your grade is made up of multiple things, including mTuners and Peerscholar assignments which are pretty easy if you're interesting in psych. mTuners are quizzes, and if you have good memorization and ACTUALLYstudy you're good to go.
Definitely read the textbook for Mtuners and Final Exam! I found his lectures okayhe knows his stuff (most of the time) and talks about additional info that will be in the mtuner quizzes, so try to watch them.
He isnt too bad but definitely over rated. His lectures does not follow or relate to the the readings at all and goes off the topic a lot. His exams are fine as long as you read the textbook. Barely anything comes from his lectures on his exams
Worst prof I've ever had. Condescending to students, tries to bully you into taking his point of view. And goes off topic talking all about himself and being a vegan and how that makes him better then you. Just AWFUL! Just read all the other negative reviews to get a sense of who you're really dealing with!
HORRIBLE. Uses useless Peer Scholar cause he claims it as his own (when it was one of his students who created it). I have never come across a professor so arrogant, self serving and just rude at time than this guy. He seems more interested in his research and using using his student pool for subjects than making sure you learn. Worst experience.
NGL, he's definitely a bit overrated. As a person, I think he's great and he's chill and everything. As a prof, I'd prefer not to take his classes. A final worth 50% and it was 100 questions in 2 hours; which IMO is a bit much. Tophat took a lot of time and peerscholar was totally marked unfairly (4% of your whole mark comes from comments you give)
Ok as a person, keeps lectures interesting. However, his projects rely on a bunch of weird outside websites that he has an odd fixation with such as peerscholar (which is ok), and trebble. Trebble is by far the worst thing I have ever used, with unclear instructions on how we are supposed to use it. I wonder if he is being paid off by these sites.
Course is easy if you read the textbook and take notes. Professor goes on tangent sometimes but explains concepts well and is hilarious. Office hours are very chill and you can discuss about anything. Easy to approach outside of class, answers emails properly. Assignments were my favourite! Final exam was identical to practice quizzes, pretty easy.
you wont be disappointed
Probably the most difficult C level course I took thus far, which is surprising since it was a history course. Trebble was very confusing to use, and it was still being developed at the time we were using it for the course. The midterm and final were difficult and had to be adjusted, and remember this is a history of psychology course...
The lecture was good but he covered 10% of the material so there is no point watching them. Best to take super detailed TB notes. Even then, the exams were extremely hard. Some questions were unreasonable and he acknowledged this, then proceeded to make the final just as hard. All other aspects of the class were fine like the Peer Scholar.
I enjoyed each lecture in this challenging MOOC. His talking style is casual, logical, easy to follow. Outside additional information sources for those who want more. His examples are often amusing, taken from popular media. He reminds us of meanings of terms whenever he returns to a previous subject. It was a favorite class of mine!
A seemingly nice guy who is definitely a decent teacher, but he is a little tone deaf sometimes. In one of his lecture videos he mocked Chinese people... His announcements are worded like a manipulative boyfriend with a huge ego, pushing the blame onto students for his mistakes. PeerScholar is not hard but a waste of time...
Very approachable outside of class and the content he teaches is easy and interesting. However, he can be a bit weird sometimes and the website the course requires (PeerScholar) could be improved more.
Professor Steven is not hard nor easy. He is easy to approach. But he gives out heavy reading so get ready for that. It is hard, in my opinion, unless you want to memorize the whole textbook. All his lectures are everything from the textbook. His marking is also weird. 10% of your essay grade is from giving peer feedback.
Professor Joordens class is one that is interesting and also easy to follow along. Although there is A LOT of reading, taking detailed notes and preparing well in advance to the midterm and final will set you up for a easy 85+ in this course. Peerscholar is a little unreliable and will either boost your average or lower it a good amount.
His retake rate is only 50%, that says it all. One of the worst professors at U of T.
Professor Joordan is an extraordinary lecturer! He is great at inspiring students and giving them opportunities to appreciate the essence of Psychology!
I thoroughly enjoyed taking PSYA01 with Prof. Joordens. The peerscholar activities occurred often, but they weren't graded very harshly as many people claim (maybe things have changed). His lectures are interesting, and they just expand on the textbook. If you have a solid understanding of the textbook, you'll do well on the exams! Good luck!
With the online format he posted wayyy more hours worth of lectures than he should have. The course is interesting and the textbook explains things really well, but sometimes his videos just made it harder to understand. PeerScholar wasn't marked hard but the group project was a waste of time and not relevant to the class.
He's not great. With regards to his class (PSYA01), ONLY TAKE IT IF IT IS ABSOLUTLY NECESSARY. It is not a bird course what so ever!
Good prof
The absolute worst experience I ever had at U of T. One person called him tone-deaf, but another word for it is racism. He is arrogant and manipulating students into taking part in experiments that they may no be comfortable doing. Does not seem to respect individual differences and circumstances. Hands down, one of the worst profs I've ever had.
I took this course in 2021 fall and he just told us to read the textbook and watch his previous videos inside the book. There are 4 optional lectures. Kinda lazy lol.
Wouldn't take again, not a bird course, very lecture heavy, lots of reading
Amazing professor. Passionate lecturer - he even makes psych history interesting! Evaluations were fair, group assignment was a good learning experience. I loved the tophat textbook. Not a bird course for those planning on cramming/slacking/not doing readings. Great experience from this course in fall 2021 :)
The worst teaching team at UTSC. They are unapproachable and cold. The professor is the least helpful professor at UTSC. Refused to help me catch up with class notes after an injury and told me that if I wanted notes I should make friends. Do not take this course.
Circus show of a course. TAs will grade you arbitrarily and refuse to admit fault.
I want students to know that this man is a superb educator! He has a relaxed and comfortable engaging manner, is articulate and clearly-spoken. He clearly loves his subject and his enthusiasm is contagious. A born communicator and a gifted teacher. Lucky U of T!
His lectures are interesting, but not necessary to attend to do well in the course. Reading the textbook is mandatory because his lectures don't cover much content info & I suggest doing the tophat questions as you are doing the textbook readings to help recall concepts previously read about. His exams are 95% textbook based- you must read it all!
His lectures are pretty much useless since all the info is in the textbook but hes pretty approachable and friendly. Just be prepared to do a lot of reading for this course. Overall, it had some interesting content!
Prior to beginning the course, I was anxious that the feedback for prof. Joordens was entirely true. However, with great dedication, I found this course highly organized and interesting. While experiences may be subjective, I do truly recommend dividing your time wisely and to not pin the professor as your catalyst for work inconsistencies.
Cancels all Friday classes and then claims he doesn't have enough time to teach the content. TopHat is an annoying platform, PeerScholar is so tedious, so much emphasis on giving feedback to others, not on the quality of your own work. Very full of himself but is funny sometimes.
His lectures are useless just read the textbook
Prof. Joordens, is a great prof. Though his lectures are pointless to say the least for PSYA01. The midterm and final are weighted so much so if you bomb them you are pretty much screwed. The test itself were based MAJORLY on the TEXTBOOK. Honestly, I would recommend bunking his lectures and focus on TopHat.
Just read the textbook, his lecture are just him waffling about concepts that are barely on the exams. Also all my homies hate peerScholar.
I love professor Joordens! He's very knowledgeable and everything is pretty straightforward. I thought I was going to bomb the course because this was my first ever lecture at UTSC, but I ended up doing okay :D
prof Jordens is amazing! His lectures were interesting, and he is very approachable. He really dedicated time to the course and had fresh ways to present the material and made the content easy to understand.
midterm was worth 24 and final was worth 45. the 2 ps activities were easy, but make sure to put most effort into the peer feedback. exams were HEAVILY based on the textbook(80-90%). wil activity is easy marks, but marks are sent back significantly slow. still, prof. joordens has amazing lectures and made it really easy to grasp key concepts.
It's really good
。。。。i hate psychology the test in mTuner contain strange questions instead of core concepts
He mad chill
Ican't believethateveryassignment from this professor is so frustrating. First, there's Peer Scholar, where students grade each other's work.Although it doesn't affect your final grade, theprofessor doesn't seem to realize that thisis anopenentryAlevelcourse. Not everyone knows how to respect others, and not everyone has a solid academic foundation
Overall, the Prof cares about his students, and is very passionate. Hes a good person, but when designing the tests, it's horrible the types of questions you see on there. Some questions compare what the textbook said to what the prof said during one of his many lectures prompting you to remember what was said and not the material.
Put the fries in the pag steve. Terrible class
Content does not relate to the assignemnts and assignments don't matter. The final exam does. Try not to fall behind in this course and do readings. Readings are important. Prof. Joordens goes on a ramble in lectures but his lectures are interesting and he's engaging. However, exam is pass or no pass, you must pass the exam as it is weighted 55%.
The only exam for this course is WEIGHTED 55%. Don't fall behind. Assignments don't relate to course content at all. Majority of your focus should be on the readings and lecture. Mostly readings. Assignments don't really matter since the exam is pass or no pass. NO midterm for PSYA01. Instructor is funny in lectures, so it is engaging.
The worst prof I met in my first year! The final term WEIGH 55%, this is absolutely AWFUL. The lectures ONLY make up 10% of the questions. mTuner quiz is torturing me, this quiz have 60 questions, the answers of some particular questions can only found in the INTRODUCTION part of textbook.
Very unique professor. His lectures never fail to make me giggle. I loved the way he explained concepts, very good professor for visual learners.
Prof. Joordens is nice and his lectures are engaging, BUT, he talks about details that are so irrelevant to the things you're tested on that lectures aren't worth going to. Quizzes are mostly copy-paste questions from the textbook that is, again, never covered in class. I predict a low success rate on the 55% final as it follows the same structure.
Good person, but a horrendous prof. His lectures are fun, but give absolutely nothing of value. He rants about finding it unethical and annoying to give people a mark or two to prevent them from failing the class, when he gives a 55% final. Assignments are online and finicky, hes insanely disorganized. Never want him as a prof again, and will avoid
many assignments worth between 1-18%. 55% final is a bit crazy to me. A lot of reading but every test/exam is multiple choice so its basically set up for you to fail. Multiple choice is fine for a small portion but 73% (55% exam and 18% mtuner) of our grade is all multiple choice.
He is my 13th reason why
55% for a final is insane. If you fail that's it, gotta take it again...
Ab exam as pass or no pass is horrendous. Absolutely horrendous. He says it's unethical to boost up a student's mark, which is fair. But isn't it quite unethical to make the exam as a pass or no pass out of this course? And, on top of all that, make it weighted 55% and give a failing grade of 45% if the student were to pass but failed the exam? :/
Would avoid him at all costs. You should too. You have been warned.
as a broke student, if I fail this course… My parents aren't gonna be happy with me…. And if I fall that god awful exam, I'm going to spiral. I'm going to spiral.
Lots of different assignments on top of tests. Textbook readings are super important, but very time consuming.
giving a FIRST YEAR COURSE an exam weighted 55% (as of fall 2024) and placing the condition that you MUST pass the exam to pass the course is insane. if you do unfortunately fail only God knows how messed up ur GPA might be for the rest of your academic career. unless this weighting changes i wouldn't even wish on my own enemy to take this course
His lectures don't focus a lot on the actual content of the course, he goes off-topic quite a bit, and even if he does, it's a really small part of a chapter in the textbook, so I would say that if you just read the textbook, make notes and understand the content from there then you should be ok. The exam is worth 55%, a must-pass. Insane.
DONT TAKE THIS CLASS!!! 55% FINAL IS CRAZY. HES NICE BUT LECTURES ARE USELESS AND BORING. READ TEXTBOOK. HE THINKS HES FUNNY BUT HE AINT. NEVERRRR TAKE THIS WAS MY WORST CLASS
Please don't believe what anyone says about this course being a bird course it is not! nothing you do through the term in worth it because the final is must pass, lectures are useless, psych department is very disorganized, studying for the final is an absolute killer having to memorize over 300+ terms and concepts just take another course
Final exam worth 55%. Next to no assignments. No midterm. No access to our quizzes (we can't see what we did wrong and use that to improve). Lecture content is seldom connected to tested content. You will need to study every aspect of the textbook including figure captions. Beware this course.
Horrible. Irrelevant mTuner questions, No point in any Peerscholar assignments, SquareCap is annoying and in the way, and the text book is fine. For a single course to need 4 secondary websites is honestly insane, feeling like just bloated garbage. 55% final exam just to make sure you hate this course as much as possible. Thank you Joordens.
i never thought i would come to dislike a psychology class, but here we are. This professor made me wanna change my major and quit psychology. He yaps unnecessarily. bro did not make studying for the final any easier considering there are 8 lengthy chapters (its worth 55% btw) and i lowk the assignments were so unrelated to psychology.
SAVE YOURSELF!!! do not take this course if you want to be doomed to failure by a 55% pass or fail final and 300 pages of textbook that you have to entirely teach yourself in order to pass the tests.
TERRIBLE RUN AWAY
cool as a person, BUT his class is very disorganized and set up to weed out students; it is pronounced loud (there are 2k students in ONE CLASS). His class is a trap to fail as many students as possible. The exam is 55 percent. To make it worse, the lecture slides are empty and teach irrelevant materials with irrelevant assessments.
im gonna cry DO NOT TAKE THIS COURSE 55% exam bro should not be teaching.
Lets be fair, if this course had a midterm. It would not be this terrible. Considering its a first year course and worth 55% is very unfair and insane. The term work was pretty useless and not helpful. He just wants to promote himself and makes us do time consuming things. Group work is annoying. He shouldve and couldve gaven a midterm. DO NOT TAKE
Shame a nice guy is such a bad prof, heard he used to be good, but like bruh a 55% final is crazy esp for first years man
Dude this guy is not it, lectures are really useless and all tests and exams are textbook based... I am paying to go to his class yet he doesn't teach in his lectures at all. He make it seems like he is a nice caring prof that cares about students mental health, BUT NOPE he absolute does not care. Prof also has a rlly weird digital footprint...
Bro a 55% final (Fall 2024 semester) in a FIRST YR intro to psych class is insane icl even if you understand the course content. Work wasn't necessarily hard, just time consuming and irrelevant to course material for the most part. Mtuner “instead of a midterm” is not as helpful as it seems. Night before the exam and only a few grades r posted.
Even if you were to pass the course with a failed final, hes giving you an automatic 45% ??? I do not mess with this class, there was also a group project and the assignments are weighed so randomly, sigh...
His exam is textbook heavy but he DOES NOT TEACH ANYTHING FROM THE TEXTBOOK IN HIS LECTURES. What am I paying for when I'm literally doing everything myself. The course would not be this bad with a midterm, but random assignments plus a 55% final, IN A FIRST SEMESTER, FIRST YEAR COURSE? Literally tanking my GPA, just hoping I pass the final.
The final exam is textbook heavy (8 chapters), 55% of our grade, and if you fail the exam, you fail the course, with no midterm. The final exam does nothing but cause stress. A midterm would split up the content, and make it easier for us to study, but no. Despite the fact that the exam is 80% textbook, the prof doesn't teach the textbook. At All.
nah ion wanna do that my exam worth 55%
in order to pass the exam we will need a 50% and If we dont get a 50% or above we fail the whole course??? what was the point of all those assignments and mtuners. This is just a joke would not recommend this course.
- pay for a bunch of random websites just so he can get research out of you - AN EXAM WORTH 55% OF YOUR GRADE (fail exam = fail course) - don't go to lectures, waste of your time because his lectures don't even talk about textbook material and the final exam is 80% based on textbook material - WE. DID. GROUP. PROJECTS. :(
This professor make the final exam worth very heavily and improve the difficulties of the exam questions.
THE FINAL EXAM IS WORTH 55% WHICH IS MORE THAN THE WHOLE COURSE MATERIALS. LECTURES ARE NOT USEFUL, ALL CONTENT IS MAINLY FROM THE TEXTBOOK. IF YOU FAIL THE FINAL EXAM, YOU FAIL THE WHOLE COURSE. DO NOT RECOMMEND.
His lectures are pointless and it makes less sense to attend when its at 9 am. Most of the tests and the final exams are on the textbook which is not used in lectures. There are group projects on a website that is hard to navigate. They also grade you on the feedbacks you give other peers which makes you write A LOT. Avoid if you can.
a yapper, doesnt talk about anything class related, exam is terrible grading is terrible, did all that work for no reason.
lectures are completely useless. expects you to memorize every sentence of the textbook and tests mainly on minute facts that are vaguely related to the topic.
55% final 💀
this ain't a bird course idk where people r getting this from. 55% final it was not easy. he was also a little weird.
DO NOT TAKE THIS COURSE UNLESS U NEED THE PREREQUISITE! his lectures weren't good and exam is WORTH 55% on textbook. assignments weren't fun for me i didn't enjoy doing it and i feel like marks were hard to get THIS IS NO BIRD. u gotta put in more work in this course than in chem or bio or any other course
buns prod shouldve dropped immediately 55% final is insane and pulled stuff outta his behind on it
final exam had many typos and grammatical errors some multiple choice answers on the final shared similar definitions and meanings course was pass fail
so basically I strongly feel Steve's intentions are for his students to fail. i studied for a solid 2 weeks and knew the material at the back of my hand. HOWEVER, the exam had terms that were not even mentioned in lecture or the textbook. This guy strictly said read the textbook so YOU WOULD THINK it would be on the book. AND A 55% FINAL? HELLO?!!?
i've got nothing nice to say about mr koala man. 50/50 pass or fail w that 55% exam dudes surely a yapper even loves to yap in emails and assignments thanks so much santa
Tease the hair a bit babes maybe try a toupee
It's a very interesting course but book and lectures aren't related. He has a very specific way of teaching with a bunch of platforms that don't necessarily work all the time. Main issue is the big percentage of the final exam (55%) and the book and lecture issue.
His lectures are hardly aligned with the textbook. The course requires extensive outside reading and note-taking, to the point where simply reading the textbook and briefly reviewing the lectures would likely suffice. Additionally, the online platforms used for the course are unnecessarily complex, and the grading system is so flawed
The exam was somewhat solvable if you have MEMORIZED the textbook inside out. His lectures say a lot of interesting things but pointless if 80% is from the textbook and 20% is what on the lecture where 10% is out of context. Don't take as bird course!! Prof adds random dates and numbers u have to memorize. And it's a pass/fail exam
55% exam, assignments that are not related to the course content, and lectures barely related to the textbook (you basically learn nothing regarding of the textbook in the lecture) but exam are 20% lecture and 80% textbook, which mean you have to spend more time outside of class time to understand the textbook content by yourself. Won't recommend
55% final don't do it
no words… avoid at all costs
Don't take this course unless you need it. Worst exam I've ever taken. And I studied so it's not like I wasn't prepared. I got good marks on the practice exams + mtuners so I don't understand why this final was made so terrible.
Very nice and friendly. General course content (stuff he should have tested) is incredibly easy. The must-pass final exam (55% weight) was not that relevant to the course. To be specific, the exam favoured picky details in the textbook that are seemingly irrelevant. What is he even testing? Prof is a chill guy tho.
nah bro what the heck was that exam if u r not a life sci student dont take this course. Exam was so goofy bro wanted me to know when the last time he took a dump at campus like bro give me questions about Psychology... Bro also got caught watching corn on a big ah screen i hope he gets caught again inshallah
Expects you to memorize the entire textbook. Test questions are so random are arbitrary sometimes. About minut details no one would remember. Even if you study hard you'll find the tests difficult. Lectures at 9am Steve's nice but tests are ass.
If you're considering PSYA01 with him, no. Do not do it please I beg.
speechless, traumatized, emotionally scarred, distraught
Worst exam I have done like ever! I wasted weeks studying and this guy wants to put questions about lectures that happened god knows when. Also his lectures are so doesnt even go over textbook and unfunny (he thinks its funny) Thank you Prof. Joordens for inspiring multiple students including me not to major in psychology! you really are the best!!
His lectures are useless. Majority of the grade comes from test (mtuners and exam) with lots of assignments that are worth 1%. All of these assignments have very little relation to actual course content. Exam questions are based off a random examples in the textbook instead of actual concepts. A 55% must pass final is ridiculous and unnecessary.
Steve primarily runs his online tests through MTuner which is a horrible experience, he released the proper working practice exam on mTuner less than 12 hours before the final and as you may have guessed, the website was super slow because of all the students trying to access it. His exams are also 55% so if you fail the final, you fail the course.
badasdfasdfasdfa
Terrible teacher 55 percent exam I can't even say what I really wanna say about him cuz it will get removed hope nothing but the worst for u Steve
never again
I paid tuition just to teach myself from the textbook (thx to the authors). Lectures were useless, teaching style was ineffective, assessments didn't further understanding, new online gadgets were useless for learning, the exam focused mostly on the textbook (the textbook he didn't go over). Also, what do bulldozers have to do with psychology?
55% exam is actually wild
“ If a teacher asks a student about a bulldozer, and the student says a bulldozer flattens materials, what type of psychology can this be applied to?”. This question on the exam is all you need to know about this course.
Steve Joordens is gonna haunt my nightmares
1. Exam was 55%; if you fail it, you FAIL the COURSE even if you are passing otherwise. - please have more meaningful assessments, not ones worth 1-6% (ie: midterm and real mtuners) 2. VERY textbook heavy, diminishes other course work. I'm a psych major & I think I passed it. I don't want to take it again and fall behind. I worked VERY hard.
For PSYA01, he used five external websites for quizzes, homework, group work, and assignments, which was too confusing for first-years used to Brightspace. There was no midterm, so the 55% final exam carried too much weight. Even with SONA and bonus mark, students who struggled on the final will end up failing.
I don't even know what to say. For starters, he's not a bad professor but his exam this year was a pass or fail. My average for his course before that was roughly a 90 and if I fail the final there's a possibility that I fail the course. I find that insane. I put over 50 hours the week before the exam and I also didn't eat. The amount of stress…
I don't understand why u would make a first year A level course have a 55% exam w questions that barely tested us on the concepts. Textbook was long too I don't understand how you expected us to remember everything. Technically I could still pass the class even of i failed the exam if you hadnt made it A PASS OR FAIL COURSE BASED ON THE EXAM:(
THIS IS NOT A BIRD COURSE, WHOEVER TOLD YOU THAT IS PRAYING ON YOUR DOWNFALL. 1. prof makes his final pass or fail even if you're already passing the course 2. the class is very textbook heavy 3. i'm so upset and angry, i have no words. just don't take it.
He doesn't teach much in class and expects students to read the whole book and memorize it for a pass or fail final exam.
Steve Joorden's lectures are useless. He constantly complains through online announcements about us asking reasonable questions about our grades, guidelines for assignments, and opportunities for more grades. The 55% final was unreasonable, and quizzes throughout the semester should count for more of a percentage to offset this pass/fail final.
you'll need to put in A LOT of effort for reading and memorizing and confusing assignments. the content is not bad but having a 55% pass or fail final without a midterm is crazy
I think my tuition deserves to go to the textbook authors for every class, but surprisingly, I can't say that for PSYA01, because Joordens decided it wasn't worth even testing us on textbook concepts. What does a kid saying "bulldozer" have to do with the 300+ pages of textbook I read and summarized...
As a person he's quite cool, as a prof he's very bad. 55% must pass final, with questions taken from single figure captions in the 350 pages of textbook you need to read. Very interesting subject with very bad ways of showing understanding, with questions being extremely subjective with multiple technically correct answers.
I am so glad I dropped out of this course when I had the chance. Lectures from most other classes summarize the textbook but this dude just teaches things completely different in his lectures (which are useless). Oh the finals is also worth 55% so if you fail that you fail the class
So this course was a waste of my life, basically his goal was to fail as much students as he can. We are not students, we are guinea pigs for his experiments (basically everything was a experiment). Exam was the most random thing ever asking questions about lectures.. couldve added a question on why he showed adult videos to a room of 500 students
genuienly dont get this course. walk in on the first day in ur first class and u find out an exam is worth 55% and is a MUST PASS or its an automatic 45 which makes no sense, cause where did all our effort from the past months go? like i can get a 40% and have a 60 smthg but no, anything below 50 means a 45. and thats not unethical apparantley
Bro teaches depth in his lectures but tests us on breadth. He's chill and the fact that he's pissed off this many people is lowkey funny. Took this because I'm in management and needed a bird natural sciences course. It wasn't as easy as I had expected, but still definitely an easy course. Tip: read the textbook captions & figures cuz he's crazyLOL
everyone is being a dramatic about the difficulty of this course. it is very easy to get a good mark if you simply do the work, and study for the final. the final exam wasn't not that hard, people just like to complain. the questions weren't even a mix of lecture and textbook based questions. he told us the exam would be hard overall a decent class
didn't prep his students for a final worth 55% of our grade. practice exam content was barely on the actual exam, and the assignments didn't help understand the subject at all. so many group assignments that were irrelevant to our course and discouraged all the students by saying most of us would fail the exam regardless of how well we were doing
Don't take this class or this prof like he genuinely sucks, ruined my gpa, like this genuinely traumatized me, you have to pay for a website and textbook and ontop of that the website mandatory since it's for marks, also the final exam is worth 55% and you automatically fail if you don't get above 50 on the final
idc abt why he uses squarecap why am i being asked why he does on the exam? like thats 1.25% of the exam. then he asks about bulldozers nd then a very specific image on the textbook? also rmbr ur "who what where why when" from third grade cause ur gonna need that too. u can do the exam without studying nd get the same results. textbooks useless atp
hahahahha 55% exam, thats funny.
the mark is mainly based on the 55% final exam and if you fail the exam you fail the whole course. the questions on the exam are poorly worded and are so random. nothing can prepare you for the exam unless you memorize the whole textbook.
The con text was really Intresting but the structure was awful.
the content was really interesting but the structure was really awful
The content is interesting and yes its a heavy course but the structure this year was awful and it almost felt like we were lab rats ( we were lab rats) because its the first time they had a 55% final exam must pass
The content of this course is interesting and at times he was very funny. I enjoyed attending lectures but his final exam was awful. The stuff in the exam are not things anyone would be studying and only about a third of it tested your actual knowledge and understanding. He's not a bad professor but the way he made this course structure was awful.
I AM CONVINCED THIS WAS AN EXPERIMENT. THIS EXAM AND COURSE STRUCTURE WAS MADE TO MAKE US FAIL. IF YOU CAN AVOID THIS PROF, PLEASE DO SO. TAKE IT LATER. ANYONE IS BETTER THAN STEVE. 55% IS INSANE AND HE KNOWS IT. THIS WAS VERY INTENTIONAL. LECTURES WERE BORING. TEXTBOOK WAS HEAVY. NO MIDTERM. STRUCTURE WAS TERRIBLE. HE PROMOTED HIMSELF 24/7. AVOID!
If you took PSYA01 and did NOT have a 55% exam, DO NOT complain, we had a 55% final with no midterm, if unfortunately you get steve, I highly recommend -- NO I BEG you, DO NOT TAKE IT IF THERE IS A 55% exam. This was my first uni experience and he made me hate psychology, the course was so content heavy and exam was not reflective of most material
Really unfair marking. Mtuners and the exam are nothing alike. Pratice isnt simmilar at all either. ATP i wouldn't be surprised if we were a research project for some memory or gestalt experiment
Although this prof is decently engaging, a 55% final on the textbook and very intricate details makes it extremely challenging for students. Even students that studied seemed to struggle a lot. Some of the questions on the exam were extremely confusing as well (on top of being on the most random topics) and didn't apply well to the course content.
It honestly felt like we were part of a psych experiment. The "must-pass" exam caused sm stress that most of us were just trying to pass instead of actually learning. Even Gestalt would be disappointed. there was no focus on the big picture, just a narrow obsession with passing. Definitely feels like there could've been a better way to handle it :(
I meant to give that a 1.0
overall, every student can attest this is by far the worst and will be one of the worst course structures to date. apparently our TA went to a concert and steve literally was apart of peerscholar which is used for self promotion basically and he doesnt even know how to use it
most def apart of a research experiment. no other justifiable reasoning to have a 55% final w no midterm ALSO past years have had finals w steve w a max of 45%. he knew what he was doing w a 55 final and he just wants us to things hes apart of like peerscholar or tophat or whatever. maybe he was better before but hes getting old and needs to retire
Definitely doable if you keep up and make notes on lectures and the textbook - you need both because they don't cover the same info. Tests were open book and he drops your lowest test mark out of the 4. He provided practice exams which were helpful for studying too.
Everyone was so obsessed with the idea of passing that everyone just memorize a bunch of terms from the textbook he wouldn't go over in the lecture. The exam was basically pick the answer that made the most amount of sense. Group projects where one person did all the work. Mtuner which had no intention of learning the material. Worst into course!!
notice how everyones giving 1 star reviews? yes, bc we are literally not exaggerating. this is a traumatic experience and my worst uni class. the exam was random and questions were so unrelated to the hard chapters, yall needa do a checkup on steve or an investigation bc he dont gaf abt students and give a 55 final and open quizzes 24 hours before.
worst intro course. worst prof in terms of teaching. time consuming work worth NOTHING no midterm, 55% final and if you fail = fail course, said he wont give us 1 or 2% and he doesnt wanna hear it. promotes his own like websites or whatever idek, groupwork is so useless steve literally no one wants to do it and was for research purposes. DONT TAKE
He made the final exam 55% bruh. You fail the exam, you fail the course…. highly do not recommend
Final was worth 55% and he made it a pass or fail
Exam was so bad, it trigged my fight-flight to flight and I ran out of the exam hall and threw up cause of how bad it was. Would not recommend. I've never felt so defeated and I studied so hard for this.
the psych final was a joke. the final being weighted 55% wasn't bad, but the fact that it was a pass/fail exam was ridiculous. the final only covered the useless stuff, most of the questions didn't even cover the content we learned in the course. he legit expected us to have a photographic memory of the textbook.
For fall 2024: Pros: - assignments were straightforward - lectures were engaging - the prof seemed to care about student experience... at first Cons: - made the exam worth 55% of our mark AND pass/fail (i.e, fail the exam, fail all) for a first year course - required students to purchase MULTIPLE online tools to complete assignments
HELL NAHHHHH
UofT Psychology is more based on Life Sciences than Social Sciences so beware if you're thinking about majoring in Psych here it's not worth it your GPA will be crying.
Having a 55% PASS or FAIL final for an A-level course is CRAZY WORK. The final didn't even make any sense no joke. Bro needs to retire.
55% final aside I don't know how this dude didn't get fired after the corn on the cob incident. I hope you sleep well Steve knowing you like to F up your students GPA's and passions.
Cant believe i even dropped money on this course, why did i buy the textbook what was the purpose?? seems like his goal is to destroy GPAs and ruin students passions of psych. Karma will come soon Steve. Keep gooning to ur fav adult stars and add questions on future exams like why u got fined 300k or why u showed adult videos to 500 students
literally have to change my major #karmasab steve when I catch you, steve WORST CLASS EVER
I am going to be 100% fair. The lectures are useless: unlike other natural sciences' courses, lectures are not reflective of the content he tests you on. I thought I had it in the bag when I went to the first three lectures because they were simple but NO the only important thing is reading the textbook and memorizing a lot. Final exam was bad.
would never take steve or recommend him. id rather get hit by a car. get a disease. literally would rather stay in uni for another year instead of take his class. if you still take it after all the negative review this sem DO NOT EXPECT to get a 80+ unless you study 3 hours every single day from day 1. final not reflective of course material
Just no...just no... 55% for a final way to much. Re doing this a second time and content wasn't even on what we practiced on. Great person but horrible professor
55% exam had questions that did not seem to relate to what we SHOULD be learning in psychology. If you're good at memorizing textbooks in their entirety (which is what seemed to be expected of us), then take this course. I never attended lectures due to a lack of actual learning experiences. The only good thing was that the prof was super nice.
Interesting content but poorly structured course. 55% pass fail final, w no mid term. Did all the tb qns + all the extra practices given, hwr the final felt completely diff. It didnt reflect most of the content/concepts emphasized in the tb. Qns on the final were poorly structured/ phrased, making it hard to understand what was asked
Probs my lowest grade, even though I'm taking bio, calc, chem and stats. Annoying how much textbook content we needed to know and the final was just really hard. You need to know like specific details that we never discussed in lectures.
Steve fails to treat his students with the same ethical values he supposedly has about animal experiments. Puts in no effort or work whatsoever and avoids all responsibility for his many, consistent shortcomings through manipulation
People need to chill with their words yes he gave us a final pass or fail exam but he did make it very clear from the beginning, this is uoft if you cant handle it then drop the class or take colouring
Lectures are pointless, does not cover textbook content yet expects students to cover everything on their own without any indication of what will be more valued with such a high stakes exam. Exam is pass or fail worth 55 with no midterm.
A 55% exam for first year is crazy, most people NEED this course to get into their program. It's also not representative of how we studied. If he really wanted to test us, he could have made some midterms IMO. Overall a great dude don't attack the guy. If you don't have anything constructive to say about his course then don't write anything.
He made his final exam 55% and didn't even cover most of the course content on the exam. I pulled 3 all-nighters studying for his exam and still found the final exam extremely hard. Also, his TAs are not understanding at all. I won't recommend this prof to any first-year student.
Prof made me hate physiology. The exam was worth 55% and most of the content covered didn't even show up on the exam. Almost cried during the exam which was hard even thought I pulled several all nighters studying. He's a nice person but HORRIBLE prof. WONT RECOMMEND to any first year student!!! DONT take his class. You have been warned.
The final exam seemed unreasonable because the content tested seemed irrelevant to the key concepts. Since the test is 55% of our grade, it should cover the main concepts instead relevant to the course. However, the professor seems caring and nice but the exam seems unreasonable.
Prof made exam 55% and expected students to know the concepts as if they had photographic memory. Won't recommend to any student. Also lectures were completely useless so don't attend.
Professor made the final exam 55% and expected us to know the material by heart. His lectures were useless and didn't reflect the content tested in the exam nor the mTurners. Don't take his course and don't fall for his manipulation!! This is the first exam that made me cry myself to sleep. No amount of studying could have prepared me for that.
His final is worth 55% of our grade; if we fail the exam, we fail the course. On top of that, his behavior feels inappropriate and unprofessional from the video shown to the entire lecture hall a few years back He is praying on all our downfalls!!!
Worst prof ever!! He made his exam 55% and hard for absolutely no reason. I spent a week studying and know I still failed the exam. I'm not exaggerating, DON'T TAKE HIS CLASS. He is destined to bring down your GPA!!!! Also, the exam was not reflective at all, some chapters didn't even show up. :(( I spent all the time studying for no reason.
The exam is worth 55% and is must pass. Instead of tests you get stupid online mTuner tests. The exam's content is almost purely book content and is just questions about random stats, experiments, facts in the book that are clearly meant to assist the core concepts not be the core concepts. Some chapters are ignored, others have tons of questions.
If you do not need A01 with Joordens for your major, stay away from it COMPLETELY. Mediocre lectures (with odd topics) that make a lot of the class uncomfortable. Exam worth 55%, and tries to gaslight students into thinking it's THEIR fault for him not having a midterm.
Insanely terrible teacher. Makes all coursework (including writing assignments and unit tests) worth almost nothing. Exam worth 55% and is pass/fail in order to pass the course. Not to mention, lectures are a waste of time to the exam, and has weird class examples such as strippers ovulating?? Horrible would never do again.
The professor with a scandal. He had a lesson linked with strippers ovulating and his scandal with showing x rated video in a lecture in a previous year. He is a mess especially with making group assignments with little to no instructions. He doesn't take accountability for his subpar teaching he #activedmyfightorflightresponse
so easy bro all the other people are complaining for no reason!! YAWNNNNNN
He is kind and provides engaging lectures, however, the course is not structured well and is very exam heavy. This is one of those classes where YOU do all the teaching. Because of this it is a class with heavy reading, and honestly it's more of a asynchronous class. Overall nice guy but course (when I took it) is a little messy.
He is SUPA passionate about psychology. His lectures are engaging and fun. The only down side was that his final exam may be harder as it's lengthy and worth lot, but if you studied well and put in the work, it is very possible that you get above 85 and even 90.
A true embodiment of why professors should not be tenured. Takes pleasure in scaring students days before exams saying that many of us could be in for a “rude awakening” on the final. The final is worth 55%, so you may have full well wasted your hard earned money, time and mental health all because of it.
Just don't. If he's the only prof, take PSYA02 first, and wait for another prof to teach this A01 course.
This professor takes pride in scaring students and saying most of us will fail and be in the 60-65% range. This will ruin everyone's GPA because of his negligence. It irritates me as he didn't do a good job teaching the content. Instead of teaching necessary topics he would rather rambled on provocative subjects.
honestly, hes not good at teaching. he gives examples but also yaps a lot (can focus more on tb material); slides are empty. has us use a few different websites- whats wrong with just using canvas? lowk mad the practice exam is on mtuner; cant revise using it if i only see it once. think bro has a high ego (read essay announcements if you disagree)
steps on what to do if u plan to take this: 1. drop the course 2. no credit the course 3. start a petition yall dont want a 55% final. 4. read tb before lecture, go to lecture, take notes on everything like everything 5. keep track of due dates and where its due theres like 4 or 5 websites 6. spend 3 hours on this course daily 7. stay sane and gl
This course felt like an excuse for him to research his students. The worst exam I've ever taken (3rd year student). He apologized but gaslit us into thinking it was our fault and tried making us feel bad by saying he worked hard on practice tests but released it only a day before the exam LOL. If you don't need this course avoid it. GG to my GPA.
Honestly, the main issue was the fact that this man barely covered the textbook in his lectures, and his exams were textbook heavy. Because of this, you had to do a lot of individual reading and note-taking outside of watching all the lectures. Maybe it'll be better next time but unlikely..
Yikes - pass or fail exam and the exam didn't cover the course content, get ready to answer mcqs like "if my student describes a bulldozer as making the ground flat what type of psychology is this" seriously did he come up with these in the shower and tell alexa to jot them down because the wording was terrible #dontteachifyoudontliketeaching
Never in my life have I had such a hater, this is someone who prays on your downfall, bro i wouldve passed if i got an 18% on the final worth 55% - but if u get a 49% on it, u fail the class, I am sick to my stomach (is that legal)
DO NOT TAKE THIS COURSE WITH STEVE Literally take it with any other prof. Final was 55% & basically none of the other course work matters bc of tht Constant assignment dates I can't even keep track of before its too late bc he uses like 3 diff websites(u gotta pay ext for) Sending all the bad energy, karma pls do ur thing As a psy mjr, im cooked
One of the best profs and probably the easiest course ever. Literally all you have to do is read the textbook and memorize it, then you will be more then okay. All those students leaving bad reviews did not study a single thing and expected an easy A but now they found out the hard way that you gotta actually study, surprise surprise!!
Finals were pass/fail for the whole course. Some of the exam questions were not covered in the practice material provided. The professor tends to ramble and doesn't teach the content clearly during lectures, so I had to rely on the textbook for self-study.
I don't know what's wrong with him... Just don't take any of his courses, especially PSYA01 (55% final exam with a pass/fail policy!!)
What a mess of a course.
55 % of the assessment is the final exam, irrelevant lectures that barely discuss the readings, always talking about promoting some kind of experiment and making them part of our assessment. lengthy reading. Avoid if it is not part of your prereq
“i could take a 55% weighted exam, whatever” is what i said to myself since i would review the textbook and use flash cards for recall from it. 55% with a pass/fail is okay ONLY WHEN the prof can teach course materials AND assign assignments that align with what students learn in the course. even the exam practice tests were easier than that exam
bro legit broadcast corn to 500 students during the first week of class in 2018 (pretty sure rmp bans you from using that word lol). ain't no way we ever forgetting that lol
This prof seemed nice in lectures but gave an extremely unfair pass/fail final exam. 2nd semester has already started and we still haven't received our marks from the Fall Semester. I'm very disappointed in my experience with this prof and absolutely terrified to finally get my final grade in the course. Don't take this class if you don't have to.
The only thing I will say is that the course content needs to be changed but I'm just glad after this hard semester that I passed with an B
Seems passionate about what he teaches, but rambles often. 80% of the exam is straight out of the textbook and he kind of fear mongers about how hard it's going to be. Unfortunately, failing the final exam means failing the entire course, so be sure to reallyy understand the course material
This dude is random guy. His final exam was very difficult, but luckily so many people did trash he curved it. That's why I got an A. Without the curve I would have gotten a high 70. So if you take the course with him, hope that majority of the class does bad. Make sure you study and memorize the textbook. Sensational.
The professor is nice, though the subject is difficult, and extensive studying must be conducted if one hopes to pass the exam. Study a lot, make a lot of flashcards, and read and note every caption and statistical information found on both lectures and textbook. This is not a light course. You will need hours per day to study.
Just no don't take him unless you want to be miserable
Alot of ppl were hating on him but im sure they will take it back after the prof did a really big curve im guessing. But anyways not a bad course but some what difficult to do well. Start studying at the very start if u want to do well cuz if u r behind in this course u r cooked. THANK YOU JOORDENS FOR THE CURVE!!! SCREW THE HATERS!!!!!!
His lectures were really fun. The final exam was extremely textbook heavy, very few questions were based on lectures. He's receiving unnecessary hate this year because of the final, I have to say he was really fair and very clear about the final and provided a practice exam. I'd say spend a lot of time studying the textbook. Overall, great prof!
Lectures are sick he really does care about his students, and is a really nice person to speak to. Exam was worth 55 must pass (due to AI, and the size of the class), which was fair cus the rest of the grade was free marks. Avrg was C+ (uoft aims for A level to be this) exam was 80 questions, removed 10 cus ppl crying.make notes, go to class, study
hilarious. gets carried away a lot while lecturing the students by fun overall. get ready to read if you want to get A or even +B and I mean really get ready to read and put efforts in it. intro to psychology IS NOT A BIRD COURSE particularly if your prof is Steve
Do I hate him? No, I think he's a good man and rather interesting to listen to. Would I want him again as a prof? No, but because the structure of the course. I wouldn't avoid him, but I'd pick another professor if possible. He loves psychology and passionate about teaching, I suppose he's just misguided in the ways to help students succeed.
I struggle to think teaching is the profession for him as he spends so little of his class actually doing it. One major issue: used an AI version of himself for questions but admitted it might lie, saying, "It's not our fault; just Google it if unsure. My grade in this course isn't due to Steve Joordens it's in spite of having him as a professor.
He was an overall good professor. His lectures were interesting, and the first assignment was fun. his exam was a pass and fail, no mid-term, and it was quite tough(irrelevant and specific questions). content-heavy; don't rely on the lectures completely since he skips a lot of concepts from the book. lecture material included in the exam.
Hes super chill. But don't let this fool you. This is an 80% self taught course with the heaviest textbook (heavier than CHMA10, BIOA01). Entire grade is based on the final exam (worth 55%). Will ask niche things from lectures/textbook. exam was hard even tho i have a strong memory. can do good but with lots of work (study weeks ahead)
I retook this course for as a SAC since I didnt take it seriously in 4th year, and I have never taken a course whose final exam's content was 80% textbook and 20% lecture content; pretty diabolical. Overall hes an interesting guy with fun lectures but he sucks as a prof; take it with someone else if u can
Prof. Joordens is an excellent professor who cares a lot about his students. In lectures, he is seen as a super enthusiastic person. He is always happy to answer questions from students and support students. He has his own YouTube channel where he provides tips on academic success. You can feel his sense of care whenever you communicate with him.
Hot, cute and pretty! very passionate about what he teaches as well as splendidly knowledgable. the course is uper duper easy uwu.
He was pretty chill, and his lectures were good in the beginning. But later it was mainly self-taught with a really heavy textbook. (I took BIOA01 at the same time and psych was harder) The exam was worth 55% and had to be passed to pass the course and had very niche, specific things. Doing good is possible but will need a lot of studying.
Ended the class with a good mark because of the exam curve but the weeks leading up to the final was the worst time of my life. Unless you're willing to memorize a whole textbook, I wouldn't recommend this class.
A lot of memorization. Tests you on random things that he's said or random sections from the textbook that don't matter to the course itself. Questions are also worded horribly, combined with the lack of sleep you will get and early morning exams, it is impossible to understand what he's asking.
His exam was 80% textbook 20% weird af questions about "steve did this."
doo doo prof. caught watching adult videos during lecture
This class stressed me out to hell and back as a first year. Joordens' lectures are almost entirely unrelated to the textbook content. Most of the work was easy and online. However, the 55% pass/fail final was DREADFUL. The curve was great, though. The stress this class caused me? Not so much. Bulldozers will haunt me for years from now.
I took Steve's course in 2022 and he was by far the best psych lecturer I ever had. Unsure why there are so many harsh comments, but I suppose majority of them are by first years that are not used to the transition from high school to university level courses. It was such a pleasure being in his class. If you love psychology, this course is easy.
I'm in my fifth year, and he's one of the worst profs I've ever had so far, his lectures are useless. It's 95% textbook. Peer scholar graded unfairly by TAs to lower average and isn't a reflection of your writing ability. Exam is pretty fair and curved up, but the course itself is so content heavy so you're constantly stressed out until the end.
Don't take a course with Steve Joordens if you want your mental health to be stable.
Lectures were pretty interesting but if you want to do well in the course, you need to comb over the textbook extensively as his tests are based mostly off that. Honestly how you feel about this class is based off how willing you are to read and memorize concepts. If you like that stuff, this course will be a breeze. If you don't, drop the course.
Entertaining lectures, but hes midterm questions are super weird. He puts "self-insert" questions like "what did professor steve found to be interesting in this chapter?"
Tests are very difficult. He did not include anything within the test during the lecture. The assignments are really strange and do not have a strong connection with classes.
He hardly ever talks about the textbook in lectures so they become useless after a while; but then he decides to test on the most random thing possible from his lecture, that's not even psychology related at all. We hardly ever get any guidance for what to focus on studying because we are just forced to read the textbook by ourselves with no help.
midterm is weird and has nothing to do with lectures, asked us to use ai to explain the concept of epigenetics bc he didn't know how to
His tests are so ridiculous and hard. If you just wanna get credits when you are not a student majors in psychology, DO NOT choose his PSYA01.
Uses so much unnecessary technology. He likes to assign the most meaningless assignments through experimental software (that he himself doesn't know how to use btw) and complicates basic tasks to the point where it takes far too much time to understand the instructions. Asks random, subjective questions unrelated to course material in the exams.
His tests are very ridiculous and hard.
Quite possibly one of the most ridiculous midterms ive ever had to study for. Im being so serious when I say that your best bet is to memorize the textbook. Not the ideas or the concepts. Memorize every example, statistic, date, and name. He actively creates test questions on obscure garbage from the textbook and lectures to lower the average.
Lectures have 0 course content, but make sure to watch them because he will bring up obscure stuff he mentioned once in a lecture on the exam, for some reason. Exams are 90% textbook. He does not actually know a whole lot about his topic, and occasionally asks his AI fairly basic questions on topics. He loves AI, is obsessed with it.
didn't really learn much about psychology, he just pushes his own childhood insecurities onto us
almost none of the stuff he discusses in lecture is actually relevant to evaluations, which are mostly textbook-based. makes us use a bunch of different sites/apps/tools (some of which are half-functional - i had to rewrite a reflection i'd already submitted). rubrics for his tedious assignments and projects are poorly written.
worst prof ive ever had his exams are useless and the course isn't about retaining information, only memorizing it and spewing it like a robot which surprisingly he loves! used ai to teach us more than half the concepts in the class and would treat lectures like a free hangout sesh to yap to students at 9 am
I actually really liked him as a professor, however his midterms and finals are mainly based on the textbook!!! So be ready to study and read the textbook! Overall great guy and his lectures were pretty entertaining.
Don't take his courses. Honestly I took it just because I'm a psych major but I should have waited till summer. Please save yourself
BEWARE THIS COURSE. This teacher is horrid. Worst professor i have ever had. Tests every crevice of the textbook. Got a good mark but because I had good memory, I learned nothing. Do not take this course. If you are majoring take it in the summer and save yourself. Review reddit and Google, this teacher is well known as horrible. Id give a 0 rate
If you like to listen to someone who is extremely obsessed with themselves and thinks an introductory Psych course is the place to test hundreds of definitions and has no recognition for the fact that his course is not the only course students are taking, it's absolutely great!
Both exams were 80% of the textbook (focusing on the most irrelevant details) and 20% of lectures (often his personal experiences and examples were tested). Please read the textbook in detail and start studying from day 1. Lectures were sometimes interesting and funny, which was the only thing that made this course bearable. Good luck!
you're so lucky you made tenure ya freak. should've gone into your favourite exploitative industry rather than higher education.
If you're online, make sure you watch the lectures cause he puts random things he says on the exams.
I took this course fall of 2024 and when I say it was a disaster. The lecture slides are all pictures so you genuinely have to rely off of the textbook to go back or rewatch lecture videos which I hate doing. The final exam was a pass/fail condition for the course and it honestly made no sense but I did well on it somehow. Beware of this course.
Who needs opps when you have a prof like joordens? Honestly, I paid 500 dollars for this course and somehow instead of learning from joordens himself, Im spending over 60 hours reading the textbook. He uses Ai for basically everything he does and somehow he can't even do that right either. Whatever you do, dont take a class with him!!
so many ppl are super harsh on him, prob bc theyre all 1st years adjusting to the change (im also 1st year). exams r 80% textbook, which WOULD be fine if he didnt ask the most non-psychology questions ever. why should i memorize what percent of the population will be a senior by 2030, instead of what clinical psychology means!? overall *okay*
Avoid taking any class with him. His midterm and final exam were not for the weak, he focused on every little detail and crevice from the textbook. On the exams, he asked what HE thought of certain aspects he brought up in lecture. Overall, some lectures were okay but he needs to reevaluate his exams. Also way too reliant on AI that doesn't work.
hes really nice and fair people just rate him low cuz they didnt follow instructions hes very clear
This course is challenging as a first-year student, but worth it! Your textbook is your best friend. Do every mastery quiz; they don't count toward your grade, but some questions from them appeared on the midterm/final. Focus on understanding, not memorizing. You'll gain crucial skills for upper-year success, so go for it :) Good luck!
only took this class because it was mandatory for my major, i'd rather eat drywall than be in his class. NOT A GPA BOOSTER
Easy course if you just memorize everything in the textbook. However, useless lectures.
This is a 100% textbook based class. In his lectures, he covers about 2% of what we actually need to know. The only lecture questions on the exams are "Steve talked about..." You've got to completely consume and memorize the entire textbook to do well. Terrible prof. Only here for the research opportunities
he teaches pretty good but the course in general is hard
The final exam was pass or fail and the questions made no sense so... just dont take this course if you dont need to
His exams are based 75% on textbook 15% on lectures. I feel like that's tedious as he quite literally makes questions that are DIRECTLY from the textbook. When I would study it felt like I was just trying to memorize rather than learn. His lecs are kind of entertaining he says the most out of pocket stuff sometimes. Don't go out of ur way to go tho
He's not a bad prof but not the best. He really does try but his lectures are a little useless since the whole course is textbook based. Very easy though. Keep up with textbook work because the chapters are pretty long and don't skip the random blurbs or examples, he likes to use those on his tests. The course is super easy though.
The exam and midterm were very textbook heavy. The prof tries his best to make the course interesting but his lectures are not very important. He relies to much on Ai/technology that doesn't even work sometimes which is really annoying. The course content is interesting but the very few assignments were not interesting at all.
the course is so textbook heavy, the 'lecture' questions that showed up on the midterm and exam were actually insane. He does give you several chances in the forms of easy assignments to boost your grade up though, really study and understand the textbook and you should be fine for this class.
A very straightforward course, as long as you complete textbook readings, which undeniably are quite a lot, you can do well on the exams. Lectures are fun and engaging, and the prof tries to make it enjoyable. Understanding the material isn't hard, but heavy memorization. Steve's interesting use of different resources was also inspiring!
He really cares about his students. He is very kind and always welcomes questions. Although assignments are super random I didn't mind them. He is very passionate about his work and its reflected throughout his course.
Prof is very entertaining in lectures, but he only covered like 5-10% of the textbook material. And that's an issue because his midterm and exam is 90% textbook and like 5 lecture Qs. Very possible to cram the whole TB in a week (or 4 days, which I did) but it really is not worth it. He also likes to use his experimental softwares for assignments
DO NOT listen to the people saying to "understand" instead of memorize. This course is pure memorization and the students saying it's bird are the life-sci zombies who spend their entire major memorizing in lieu to understanding material given to them. He does seem kind but not enough to make me want to take this class again. Good luck freshies!
Joordens is a good lecturer. He talks very smoothly and it is easy to understand everything he says. The only thing about his class is that he teaches surface level things in lecture and expects you to memorize the textbook in depth explanations for the midterm and final. This makes the class textbook heavy. Tests are fair and he curved the final.
Ignore the negative reviews; you won't know Dr. Joordens' style until you're in the class. I was in the online class, never watched lectures, and still earned an A+ just by reading the textbook closely. He tests on specific details, so study the text carefully and don't procrastinate. If you stay on top of the work, this course is an easy A+.
This professor is good at delivering material clearly and he teaches in a story telling way which makes it easier to grasp material plus his exams are pretty straightforward.
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9%
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