Overall, taking Psych 120A with Professor Monti was enjoyable! The content is relatively interesting, and the courseload is reasonable. You have weekly reading assignments, 2 exams, weekly quizzes, and 1 group project. For exams, I recommend following along with lectures and actually doing the readings, and creating a study guide before each one to review all the relevant content. The group project could be troublesome if you have a bad group since there's no way to evaluate your members if they're not doing their fair share, but not unmanageable. The weekly quizzes were all open-book so it's very easy to do well if you look through the slides.

I was kind of scared to take this class but Monti presented everything in a way that was super easy to understand. The lecture content and readings basically provide the exact same information, so you don't HAVE to do the readings but you do have to answer some questions within the textbook for credit. In spite of this, I would really recommend keeping up with lectures and doing the readings, then maybe going over the readings again as an exam approaches. This is all the "studying" I did and I was able to get an A- on the midterm and an A on the final. Both exams were fairly easy since all the questions are T/F, but the super-specific questions can be a pain if you don't care to memorize all the details. Overall, this class was pretty low stress and very interesting. The worst part (in terms of stress) was probably the group project (they need to be abolished) because I had some group members that were being uncooperative at times but they eventually came around and we did wayyy better than expected. I imagine you'll stress out too but bear in mind that the TAs definitely seem to consider these things when grading so you'll probably be fine. Good luck!

I never give Bruinwalk reviews, but I absolutely feel the need to give Professor Monti a great review because of how phenomenal of a lecturer he is, and how much I like the format of his class.

Textbook:
The digital textbook on TopHat is absolutely necessary for this class, and is quite pricey but worth it. Monti is able to edit the textbook so that you only need to read the information pertinent to his lectures, which is great because you know that you aren't just reading a bunch of unnecessary information. There are super easy MC questions embedded into the textbook (unlimited tries) and you have a week to do them. This counts for 5% of your grade and is essentially free points.
His lecture videos were also embedded into the textbook, which I really enjoyed because I could watch the video and then read the textbook information that went along with it.

Lectures:
Monti is one of the BEST lecturers I have ever heard. He is extremely engaging, gives great examples, and really encourages class participation. He always welcomed questions at any point in the lecture. He's also a pretty funny and lighthearted guy, and has a cool Italian accent.
Because we started off the quarter remotely, the first four weeks he uploaded pre-recorded lectures and gave you several options to view them. After we went back in-person, he was really accommodating and continued to make his pre-recorded videos available while also giving in-person lectures (I believe these were also Bruincast, audio only). No attendance required.

Quizzes (21%):
There are weekly quizzes: open-book and unlimited time. These aren't tricky at all and as long as you utilize the textbook, should be easy points.

Group Project (20%):
Groups of 5 students have to read a research paper and record a 10-minute presentation of it. This was a little confusing because it didn't have much to do with our class material. My group mostly drew from our 100B experience to analyze the paper, and honestly the hardest part was keeping the video under 10 minutes. Otherwise, as long as you have a good group, it should be fine and it was graded fairly.

Extra Credit:
You have the opportunity to earn up to 2 extra credit percentage points (added on top of your final percentage score) through participating in SONA studies.

Exams (54%):
One midterm, one final, worth 27% of your grade each, non-cumulative. It was a mix of T/F, multiple choice, and matching terms to definitions (previous Bruinwalk reviews say that it is all T/F but the format has changed since then). It's closed book and administered on Respondus with your webcam on. He really emphasized that if you get flagged by Respondus for looking up at the ceiling, etc. he can easily review the the tapes and see that you weren't doing anything wrong, so it's not a huge deal.
He provided a 48-hour window to take the exam, and you had 2 hours to complete the exam once you started. For the final, he polled the class on how the midterm went and then decided to extend the 48-hour window, which really speaks to how understanding and aware he is of his students and what they're going through.
His questions can be a bit tricky, especially when it comes to the wording of T/F questions, and there definitely is a LOT of material that you're tested on. The midterm had a mean of 91% and the final had a mean of 84%, so don't let your guard down for the final. Also, go to his office hours! Extremely knowledgeable and down-to-earth guy, and super passionate about the subject of cognitive psychology.

10/10, would recommend! The only downside I can think of is that you have to spend $80 on this online textbook but he is able to edit it so the only stuff that's in there is relevant and going to be tested on. Lectures are entirely asynchronous so you can do it at your pace. Quizzes are the Tuesday after the week of content that is tested. They were a great source of study material for the final, along with the in text questions from the online textbook. Lectures were highly organized. You NEED to do the 2% EC in the first week or two of the quarter bc it's sona studies and they book up really fast. The exams are respondus with camera, which was annoying but the exams weren't that bad. The median for the first one was like a 94%. I think more people got wrecked on the second one (non cumulative exams) bc the material was trickier and people let their guard down from the easy first exam. I think the average was a low B or something. The group assignment wasn't bad, I think the TAs try to grade well. Overall, a good class with a good professor!

This class is very straight forward. Prof Monti is organized, clear, helpful, and accommodating (will meet you halfway). The exams are not bad, even though they were on respondus they were super straight forward --> right out of the textbook and not too in depth. Knowing the definitions to everything and reviewing notes is a pretty good way to study.

Don't be afraid of the exams in this class, as long as you take the time to read the questions, people I know did really well, even if the questions are all T/F. He gives you extra questions on each exam because he knows that some questions can be unclear. With the extra credit and the extra questions on exams, it is fully possible to do well in this course without committing that much time to it.

As much as I like Dr. Monti as a lecturer and as a person, his way of teaching is very detrimental in a sense. He would spend long periods of time discussing specific examples and reiterating ideas without representing them on the test and gloss over details that would be helpful for his exam questions. I mainly say this because the vast majority of your grade will be based on exams only. Not only are they very tricky, they are also T/F format which usually means that if you overthink or under think a question, you are more likely to get a wrong answer due to different interpretation of the question. Thankfully, Dr. Monti offers extra buffer questions for both exams and the 3% FINAL GRADE SONA extra credit really shouldn't be overlooked. Despite him saying to focus on concepts, the test questions really are mostly you trying to regurgitate which studies cover which concepts and how they tie into the overall scientific view of a specific topic.

TLDR: great person, average lecturer. hard tests, make sure you have those studies memorized in terms of concepts and what they support/go against, and go to TA or his office hours for clarification

Monti is an amazing professor. He truly cares about student learning and he's also just funny and cute and makes lectures very engaging. The 2 exams are all True or False. There is a weekly paper analysis, but its usually just reading a two-page article and answering one sentence questions (very easy!) The material for the first half is 'easier' than the second half, but professor Monti and the TA's want each student to succeed so they do everything they can to make things clear and to help. If you are trying to figure out if this class is good or bad, i say it was very good!! I would take it again with Monti for sure.

It's a very difficult course since the exams are true/false questions. If you don't know the material well, you won't perform well. However, Professor Monti is extremely knowledgable in the subject and it's obvious he wants his students to succeed. If you pay attention in class and relisten to his lectures through bruincast, you'll be in good shape as long as you understand the concepts. Go to class since his bruincasts are only audio and he references slides during his lecture as well which are important.

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