Basic Information

  • Course Code: HS 303
  • Course Name: Psychology
  • Course Offered In: Autumn 2022
  • Instructors: Prof. Pooja Purang
  • Prerequisites: None
  • Difficulty (on a scale of 5): 3

Course Content

The content was divided into several distinct modules, each one of which covered one particular aspect of psychology. The modules were, namely, Introduction to Psychology, Learning, Memory, Emotions, Motivation, Personality, and Social psychology. Each module went sufficiently deep into their respective domains, and were rather interesting to study. Each module consisted of 1-2 slide sets which were all eventually shared on moodle.

Feedback on Lectures

The lectures were simultaneously the most interesting and the most annoying part of the course. The best way to describe the atmosphere of the lectures would be a traditional “don’t mess with me unless you want to get destroyed in front of the entire class” English teacher. The instructor highly valued discipline in lectures, and any misbehaviour (including and especially talking to a friend) was punished with the utmost of severity. The instructor threatened to withhold lecture slides if the attendance fell below a certain threshold, but didn’t really follow on her threats.

That being said, the lectures were still pretty interesting, mostly because the content they covered was pretty interesting.

It is highly recommended to attend all lectures since the instructor covers nice and relevant examples, and also clears most of the doubts rather effectively. Additionally, it is very important to pay attention to other’s doubts since the content can, at times, seem deceptively obvious costing one marks in the very punishing exams.

Feedback on Evaluations

Standard course evaluation policy, consisting of

  • 1 Midsem (30%)
  • 1 Post-midsem quiz (20%)
  • 1 Endsem (50%)

All exams were objective, with all questions being either MCQ, FIB, or one word/sentence answers.

ALL questions (even the non-MCQs) had negative marking and any answer with even small deviation from the expected answer were ruthlessly awarded a negative score.

Study Material and Resources

  1. Feldman, R. S. (2004). Understanding Psychology. Tata McGraw-Hill, New Delhi, India.

  2. Morgan, King, Weisz, & Schopler (7th Edition). Introduction to Psychology. Tata McGraw-Hill, New Delhi, India.

Follow-up Courses

Human cognitive processes (HS418), Managerial psychology(HS 635)

Final Takeaway

The grading was not too harsh, not too easy. The course, while does not demand much time outside lecture hours, does demand respect. As long as one attends lectures religiously, they can pass the course with a good grade with relative ease.