4.0
Quality3.2
DifficultyN/A
Would Retake144
ReviewsN/A
Would Retake
144
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
5
88
4
14
3
22
2
10
1
10
What Students Say
“she hates the class average to be more than 70-71%”
PSYC3N03 - 3.0 rating“She does, however, give a great example of what a FAKE person is like - right to the dot”
PSYCH3N03 - 1.0 ratingClass Info
Attendance Mandatory
100%
Textbook Required
100%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.71 avg changeRatings by Course
PSYCH3N3
5.0
(4)PSYCH3N0
5.0
(1)3N03
5.0
(1)3N3
5.0
(1)3NO3
5.0
(2)Difficulty by Course
PSYC3N03
4.7
PSYCH3CC3
4.5
PSY3NN3
4.0
PSYCH3NN3ABNO
4.0
PSYC3CC3
4.0
Reviews (144)
Amazing! Head & shoulders above the rest. Engaging, inspiring, fun, and hot!
A real cool prof. Young and hip. Funny too.
fun lectures - fair tests - great sense of humor - tries hard to satisfy
Dr V is fine with me.
keep up the great work
Psychology's newest and best professor
Dr. V Rocks
No Comments
aweseom prof with easy midterms and finals
Entertaining.
I can't believe someone posted rude crap about Dr. V. Abnormal (I and II) are the best psych classes I've taken at Mac. Good work Dr. V!
DA BEST!
No Comments
No Comments
No Comments
One of the best prof's i've ever had!
One of the best professors I've ever had. She's VERY intelligent and an extremely good professor!
BRILLANT, DEDICATED, FUN AND V.COOL! THE KIND OF PERSON I COULD CALL MY B.F. SHE MAKES UNI A BLAST AND PSYCH A TREAT!!!
Dr. V, We Love ya!!!
The nicest prof at mac. very interesting lectures. great prof
No Comments
She is simply the best....super amazing teaching!great person... Dr.V Rocks!!
The best prof EVER!
overrated. anyone teaching abnormal seems interesting.
very funny, caring and smart
BEAUTY WITH BRAINS
Dr. V is awesome I'm studying for the final now and it's so easy to remember everything
Dr.V is the best prof I have ever had in university. She is incredibly intelligent...and obviously loves what she does. I would recommend her to anyone.
Amazing prof, best one I've had a mac by far...she knows what's she's doing and knows how to teach it!
Most good looking professor at McMaster University. A very good professor too! Very smart and cool
great!
No Comments
Awesome prof! Makes everything so clear and easy to understand. One of the best profs I've had at McMaster....that should explain how awesome she is. TAKE HER CLASS!
I don't think anyone can teach Abnormal Psychology better than Tracy. She's great.
Dr. V is amazing! She makes you think, and obviously passionate about what she does! Top 2 profs I've had in my 4 years at MAC! Highly recommend!
Excellent professor
Does her job as a prof, but can be really ****y when you talk to her outside the classroom......but knows her stuff well overall.
great prof. wish every class could be like hers.
Good prof. Interesting lectures. Exams are fair, but she marks hard on the paper (atleast that's how I found)
Amazing!
Dr. Vaillancourt is a great teacher. Enthusiasm and humour resound. REALLY READ YOUR TEXT. Always laugh at her jokes. Set yourself apart by talking with her-her marking isn't unbiased. She is completely meticulous re assignments-ATTN 2 detail will help.
Tracy is amazing!!
Tracy is a captivating speaker, but comes across as rather narcissistic and self-absorbed. Fairly shallow, as well..
Interesting last comment considering she is not even teaching this term. It is unfortunate that she is trying to do someting good for others (B vs B)and this is what you write!
Excellent...very nurturing and smart!
Good class, even better prof!!!
Dr. V should be commended for her hard work and dedication that she has put forth in both her lectures and commitment to b&b. Mac is lucky to have such an amazing prof!
Best course I ever took...way to go Dr. V!!!!
Excellent...simply the best.
The term essay was really hard
Good stuff
No Comments
Great prof! really enthusiastic, personable and fun. Essay is hard, but she expects alot from her students and i completely respect that, it challenges us to improve. Test were reasonable, and she tailored the course to what we wanted to learn.
She seems nice but she really needs to post the lecture notes online. It's stressful trying to copy down all notes from the overhead and listening to what she's saying at the same time (Only one thing can be done properly) Copying down notes makes lecture less enjoyable than what it could be.
very good lecturer
Seems like a really nice lady, but a bit of a dissapointment as I used last semester as a yardstick to guage this one. Will see how I feel after the grades come in.
Seems tough
midterm was really tough...why do i get the feeling she is trying to knock us down from last term. and stop bashing Ms.Owens, just because she was structured and followed through with her promises doesn't make her an easy prof!
Essay was marked too hard. Honestly though, who knew we had to APA the title page and that it would be marked out of 5? That was ridiculous. This is a third year class...not a PhD class. Great prof...but needs to take it down a level.
Best prof in 3rd Year, I thought I did better on the essay than what I expected. She actually raised my mark from what the TA originally assigned. She is really helpful, replies to your email the very same day!
An overall great prof. She's very clear in explaining stuff plus she's nice, pretty, and she has a sweet and sexy voice.
Very cool prof. For sure one of the best. Makes things easy to understand.
She seems interested in the material but has an awful time getting the main points across to the class. Answers redundant questions from the same people every class, which is why people get distracted!
Great course to take (esp. to bump up your mark)..class is very interesting!!..prof is funny and enthusiastic....BUT outside of class, it is a little hard to get help from her..probably because she is so busy..she seemed a little more nice in class than when we went to her office..
No Comments
she is a fantastic prof, class is very interesting and eay to undrestand, she is very easy to follow and very interested in her work. Her tests and essays arent easy, she is very fair but dont take the class for increasing your average. she is funny and help ful outside of class. way to go
I think Dr. Vaillancourt is one of THE best proffessors at Mac.. she is such a good teacher.. i enjoy her class.. and she makes the material seem soo interesting...her jokes are great! i commute for three hours to get to her class and i would hate to miss a single class... she makes all the effort a
What an awesome prof. It's inspiring when a prof is passionate about what they do and actually care about their students. Going to night classes always seemed like punishment to me but I actually look forward to going to this one. She seems like a wonderful person (inside and out).
Dr. Vaillancourt makes her 2 1/2 hour evening lecture enjoyable to attend. Sometimes things get a little off-track, but that's part of what makes the class interesting.
One of the only profs that looks as good up close as she does from the back of the lecture hall :) I love her stories, they really make the material relevant to real life...incredibly smart, looks at things from lots of different perspectives. Great prof.
Dr. V really makes her lectures interesting. I really enjoy the real life examples. This class is great!
My fav prof by far
She's the BEST!!!
Very Enthusiastic and funny, but that´s often her problem. She gets off track and just tells you about her private stories. A bit more facts, like Dr. Roberts gave in his guest lecture would be good. Papers were delayed, admission should be limited.
Interesting class, interesting material, lecturing is a bit scattered and she is not easy to follow when taking notes. She seems nicer in lecture than she really is when you meet her outside of class, and no I am not narcissistic!
For whatever reason she didn't even attend the exam to answer questions that badly needed to be clarifed as a result of a multiple choice exam that appeared as though it had never been reviewed for errors. Kind of disappointing. I lost a lot of respect for her. Even some questions of moral nature.
Her lectures were really great, and definitely made class interesting enough not to sleep through, however they got off topic WAY too easily, and her exams were not really fair...if you expect me to memorize the textbook teach more from it and not personal experience, and students papers were lost!!
The material was very interesting and the prof has quite a lot of knowledge on the topic, with good stories. However, tests do not cover that material. Was also not present for the exam to answer questions...which would have been helpful for many questions which were confusing.
Very good teacher, great at explaining concepts and getting individuals interested in abnormal psychology. Essay was fair. Test were terrible. Too much reliance on memorizing relatively insignificant details and not enough testing on concepts. Test were poor indicators of understanding.
She is an excellent lecturer, and obviously intelligent, however needs to stick to lecture material and not her experience since that's what she tests on. terrible attitude towards students outside of class. too many cases of lost term papers and that's unacceptable.
Interesting material. Intersting lectures and stories but yet test do not reflect anything taught. Would be an fun class to come to on your own time but not if u r looking to do well
No Comments
One of the greatest profs at Mac. Nice and easy going. She made Abnormal Child Psychology in summer school a fun and enjoyable class. The course was seminar style, but I liked it. Just read every chapter atleast 3 times and you'll get a good mark in her class. I strongly recommend everyone to take any class taught by her
Awesome prof!!!
No Comments
I hate most of my profs, but I don't hate her at all. That tells you something about how awesome she is! She is always fair, never out to get students, and is super nice and personable once you get to know her. Dr. Vaillancourt is the only fair (or perhaps, the MOST fair) prof in the psychology department. Wish she taught every course.
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No Comments
She's the most helpful and nicest prof. Prompty answers emails and tests aren't that difficult. Her course evaluations are higher than any of the other profs in the Department of Psychology, Neuroscience, and Behaviour. Just check under "Course Evaluations" on MUGSI. You will see her teaching performance is superior to all other faculty members.
Best abnormal psych prof ever! A+++++! As long as you do the readings weekly, and enjoy learning Abnormal Psych, you're pretty much guaranteed a 10
One of the best prof's at mac. The only thing is her tests are quite tricky. As long as you know the text book inside out, and her notes, the tests are fine, but she tends to ask a lot of detail questions from the text. Overall she is a super nice prof, and very enthusiastic.
She's an amazing prof...makes the lectures really interesting...but if you think this is going to be a bird course, you're in for a surprise...it's not easy simply because there is so much material (this is advice from someone who got an A in the class, believe me). Anyway, one of the best profs at Mac by far.
She was extrememly helpful and knew how to dress well!!
No Comments
I would rather be impressed by what a prof can teach me instead of their knowledge of celebrity news. I dont think providing horror story examples are an effective way to teach students about sexual disorders. I did not find Dr. V to be very intelligent or articulate.
No Comments
I don't think her sense of humour is funny :(
She cant teach. Tries to get brownie points by telling us which celebrity broke up with whom. Not needed, Dr. V. Get back to what we need to know.
Good teaching ability, but very poor response to helping students and to emails.
Great prof. the test was tufff though, but still the class average is high. study hard for her tests!!
Good teaching ability, but not very helpful to students
Good prof. She gets 5/5 for clarity, that's for sure.
incredibly patronizing and condescending... wouldn't take a class of hers again just because of that, despite the fact that when focusing on lectures, he makes a good prof.
Excellent course. NOT at all cndescending but is actually really nice and seems to care a lot about her students. Not sure what the idiot below is talking about (BTW the prof is a she NOT he).
Great speaker! I really enjoyed her lectures and she brought in some amazing guest speakers. Very helpful to her many students. I highly recommend this course.
Best prof ever!
Really fun class. I highly recommend it. Dr. V. makes the class interesting by linking the material to clinical cases.
Excellent prof. Take this class.
Loved Dr. V and loved the course!
Great prof, take abnormal psych with her and no other prof. Her exams are straightforward if you read the chapter multiple times, she explains very good and is funnny. But READ THE TEXTBOOK carefully and study all the lecture notes. No problems then.
This prof is really hard I dont recommend anyone to take her section, she likes the class average to be around 70. She gets pissed if the class average is high. She says they'd kick me out if the clas average was 80's. This shows she got a bad attitude towards teaching and students! It's only PSYCH, Psych is NOTTTT a Science. It is an Arts program.
I highly recommend Abnormal. Great lectures, fun professor although she is pretty tough!
Her so-called 'SHORT answer' questions on exams are so disgusting EWWWWWW. This prof is way too serious. She jokes around in class, tells funny stories but don't let that fool you. She's tough as nails. She's very impersonable when answering emails. When you write Hi Dr.Vaillancourt, she replies like this "Hi," (???????) What is Hi,?I have a name!!
Love her. She is tough but seems to really care about her students. Be sure to read the textbook several times before the exam.
excellent course. so interesting. the prof has alot of clinical strories that she shares. i recommend this course highly.
She was someone that was very dynamic at first and then by the end of the term you realize that her door is not always open and she had given you a lot of false promises.
Nearly an entire lecture of her outfit not matching is not what I call higher education. She cared so much about us liking her that she forgot to teach - her narcissism went too far!
Very unresponsive to students
Very nice, makes learning fun....always has helpful hands-on learning examples due to experience. Would take any class she was teaching.
great class.. interesting lectures and a great prof. Her class was one of the best psych classes at Mac and shes one of the best profs! New stories and great energy every day.
This prof is really tough. AVOID HER.....Her SHORT answer questions are nasty.
She is an amazing lecturer. Stories are highly entertaining not to mention she has more jokes than chris rock and larry david combined. She knows the material very well and cares alot about her students. Overall one of the best classes ever. The tests are tough but fair.
Don't know where to start...this prof REALLY REALLY SUCKS. She has a bad attitude. When the class average is high she says things like "Good Job", but she gets PISSSED from inside...she hates the class average to be more than 70. If the class scored high on one test, just watch you, she will throttle all of you in the 2nd test. Bad attitude!!
She was very easy few years back. She NEVER ASKED short answer questions on any of the exams and her exams were entirely multiple choice few years back. Her exams were NEVER CUMULATIVE, they only covered second half of the course. Now she has changed and become tough as hell!!!
Dr. Vaillancourt is a very good prof. Profs are told by the university what the class averages should be. If a prof's class averages are consistently too high, their employment is terminated. So she should get fired so that you get the A+ you don't deserve?
I totally agree with some of the comments people have posted --- She does not like the class average to be more than 70-73. Last year I took Forensic Psych with her and the average on both midterms was high (76-80) so she gave a deadly final with very specific multiple choice and brutal short answers. Not every psych prof has her type of mentality.
She is a nice lady but her tests are kind of tough. Still her multiple choice are way easier than Dr.Day's multiple choice so quit complaining!!! Just read the book multiple times. Dont know how bad her short answers will be since didn't have the final yet. She always answers emails and is helpful if you talk to her after class.
What a great prof, and a really interesting class. She cares about the material and is a very engaging speaker.
I took both 3CC3 and 3N03 with Dr. V. I received an 11 in both. You can get an A in her class and I don't think she is any different from other profs when it comes to grades. She is just up front about what is going on at the university. Loved her classes. Take them if you can!
VERY HARD SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS ON THE FINAL EXAM TAKE IT EASY ON MCMASTER STUDENTS PLEASE. STOP ASKING SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS IF POSSIBLE. THANK YOU.
Great prof!! She was helpful, understanding, clear, and the tests were very well organized. Learned alot!
VERY Impersonable. She replies to emails like this "Hi,", I have a name alright....what is "Hi," ?? She is soooo tough...she hates the class average to be more than 70-71%....she will kill the whole class on future tests and exam if the class average is high. Terrible attitude towards students. It's only a garbage PSYCH course!!! get a life!!
She used to be nice many years ago but not anymore!!!! One of the toughest profs around now. Avoid her otherwise you will regret it.
She makes Lame Jokes and is SOO TOUGH!!!
Worst professor ever. If you can't see through her fake skin, then university hasn't taught you to be critical enough. She is deceptive, selfish, narcissistic, and could care less about the success of her students. She does, however, give a great example of what a FAKE person is like - right to the dot.
mean, arrogant, selfish prof. Never keeps her promises. Overall sad combination
She was clearly the worst professor ever. She told us once that if the class average was very high she would lose her job. I guess she already has even after the class average being low. She often made false promises and her finals were always very hard.
Tests were hard but OK still. Final exam was brutal.
Useless worthless experience. Donot recommend her to anyone ever. Her final was brutal. She doesn't like the class average to be more then 70
She is not the best prof I've had. Though she was entertaining and seemingly an easy going prof, she was actually very difficult and borderline unpleasant because of her attitude towards the class. Her tests were tough to say the least. Her personal experience in psych makes her an interesting prof but it's not quite enough to redeem her I think
Dr. Vaillancourt is quiet beautiful. I think her husband is so lucky :)
Possibly opposed to the use of fertilizers to treat clinically depressed foliage herba. Seemingly opposed to the use of soap to wash cars, but undoubtedly a capable professor.
Truly skilled professor! I wish she taught all my classes! Expert information, personable, clear expectations. All the negative comments came from students who thought uni would be easy..Not so.always available for questions and easy to relate to. Thanks Dr V!
Definitely very knowledgeable, had good anecdotes and helpful videos. Also very good at addressing questions outside of class. However, a very tough grader, and frequently unclear criteria for assignments. Dr Vaillancourt is also the kind of prof you're likely to butt heads with if you, like her, have strong opinions.
Class Info
Attendance Mandatory
100%
Textbook Required
100%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.71 avg changeRatings by Course
PSYCH3N3
5.0
(4)PSYCH3N0
5.0
(1)3N03
5.0
(1)3N3
5.0
(1)3NO3
5.0
(2)Difficulty by Course
PSYC3N03
4.7
PSYCH3CC3
4.5
PSY3NN3
4.0
PSYCH3NN3ABNO
4.0
PSYC3CC3
4.0