//professor//
- Professor Shirinyan is kind of psycho, but in an endearing way. (and I say that after taking a class on schizophrenia with him).
- He is clearly passionate about the course material and the neural mechanisms by which certain drugs affect the brain. He's so passionate about this that he told our class that one of the ways to truly study this material is to actually take the drugs we discussed in class, which he admitted that he'd done (weed, molly, meth, etc.). A+ for dedication for this mans.
- he genuinely cares about student well-being which is refreshing so if you talk to him about any issues you're facing, he will accommodate you.

//grading//
Class is worth 130 points total with a light curve if needed.
100 points - midterm and final exam (non-cumulative, 50 points and 50 questions each). The exams are fair and generally pretty straight-forward if you've studied his slides, which generally contain all the information you need to know.
25 points - paper. A fairly easy 3 page paper that you have to write on a specific sub-topic within schizophrenia research. You email your proposal to the professor so as long as you put in minimal effort and produce a decent quality paper, you should get full credit.
5 points - paper presentation: You are put into groups and each member writes about a something related to the overall sub-topic (the paper described above). For example, if the topic is stress and schizophrenia, then one member might write about stress/schizophrenia in adults, another in teens, and another in the elderly. As a group, you present about your topic and your individual papers to the class. If you have slides and decent public speaking skills, you'll receive full credit.

//material//
Course material is pretty interesting. Each lecture basically covers how a drug can model the effects seen in schizophrenic brains (animal and humans). So each class you basically discuss a different drug and how it can model schizo symptoms.

//overall// cool/nice professor, low/easy workload, and interesting course materials makes this a good psychobio elective.

I really loved this class not only because the subject matter is fascinating but professor Shirinyan made it easy to understand and enjoyable to go to. His lectures were funny but informative and he has a lot of real world experience. The class is not easy but, he makes you want to learn and doesn't sugar coat what we know and don't understand about the neuroscience of psychotic disorders.