I think Dr. Blaisdell is really effective. He tries really hard to make the class worth while. You can tell he puts in a lot of time and thought on the Powerpoint slides, and he doesn't rush into anything. He also shows short video clips in his Powerpoint slides that are hilarious!! Students feel VERY welcomed to asked questions, and the professor always has a smile on his face. He makes jokes and sometimes acts out animals' behaviors (like the way a rat presses a bar to get food or a pigeon walks/pecks or the way a monkey walks, or even the way a character from Star Wars played out a scene). It's really funny and it makes the class worth it. I make it a point not to miss a single lecture. Also, you want to attend lecture since some questions on exams come straight out of lecture.

His exams are VERY fair! There are 3 multiple choice questions, each made of 30 questions, and they are mostly straightforward questions. There are some questions he pulls out staight from the book, but the reading is not bad at all. Some questoins were difficult, but a lot of the questions are remembering a simple fact he listed in his Powerpoint slides, or what the book said about something, or interpreting how to read a graph and it's data accurately.

There are also two short papers to write based on an experimental paper we had to read. The instructions said to write about 500 words in answering 3 questions he gave you, and that comes to about 2 - 2.5 pages. It's hard not going over 500 words cuz you have so much you want to say in your paper, but it's not that bad.

I personally think Dr. Blaisdell is one of my favorite professors at UCLA. He is VERY considerate and VERY approachable, and he has a cool way of keeping you awake and you find yourself always paying attention even with the lights dimmed. He definitely made this class worth taking. I love the guy for all his effort and just his general personality.

If Professor Blaisdell is reading this, thanks for everything man, you rock! Don't worry I'm annonymous so I can't suck up, my words come from the heart. :)

He is a pretty good professor. He tries to acommodate students with powerpoint slides online. He lectures in a very organized manner, which is usually easy to follow. When it isnt, its b/c the material is hard. Tests are not as awful as they seem. There is a lot of material but managing grades B and higher is definetly possible. You just need to put some time into reading the textbook carefully and understanding lecture notes.