James Calkins

School: Drexel University
Department: Psychology
Location:Philadelphia, PA
Overall Rating
rated by 8 students
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Easiness
Rating Comment
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 To do well in ANY of his classes, you need to memorize not only the content of his handouts, but the locations of items on the page. Yes, he will white out parts of a handout and then give the thing back to you and expect you to fill in what's missing on an exam. If you can't do this, don't take. Honestly, I'm not sure how much I actually learned vs. memorized without understanding, but it worked. *shrug*.
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 Cons: horrible! avoid
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 Though he is very intelligent, he is a terrible teacher. His lectures can be entertaining at times, but they usually do not have to do with the material for class. He goes on tangents that do not have to do with class material. He also does not teach much about how drugs effect human behavior ex) does not teach side effects of cocaine use, or side effects of LSD. but rather he teaches the neuroological effects but only of a select few drugs (mainly nicotine and nerve gas).
People say if you attend all his classes any pay attention you will get an A. I attended all classes and took detailed notes but his discussions were not relevant so the notes i have for them were not consistent with what he put on the tests. I would avoid taking a class with him if you can.
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 He is not an easy teacher because you have to attend every class and pay attention (hes a very smart person - comes from a pharma/ neuro background (bio-based).
In order to get an A in class- all you have to do is always attend every class (his exams literally cover everything that comes out of his mouth/ YOU DO NOT NEED ANY TEXT BOOK WITH HIM) Ex. One day for about 1 minute he brought in a rock to talk about how old it was, this random question was on the exam (What period was the rock from....)
He also curves a shit load (typically if you score in the upper 15-10 percentile you will get a guaranteed A.
P.S. If you are a Psych. Major (be prepared, because he is one of the most "challenging" professors - but to be honest hes easy because Psych. overall was too easy of a major)
Remember: Attend every class and just pay attention (it is very difficult to meet up with him outside of class/ he is also very weird about following up with emails).
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 1.He focuses strictly on the science of the drugs- there is no psychology involved and it is very complicated
2.He goes off on random tangents and does not teach
3.He does not reply to emails or show up for scheduled test reviews
4.He never remembers who you are- I talked to him numerous times because I was concerned with my grades and he because he never returned any of my emails, but he was not helpful at all since he had no idea who I was.
5.For an elective class, it really sucks
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 I loved Calkin's class. Although his lectures could be boring at times, he always had a joke or two in each class to amuse his students. I don't understand why people were annoyed by the fact that he taught this course like a Bio class... I am a Psych major, but I realize that with topics such as this you must understand the biological aspect of it. The biology affects the behavior, and if you pay attention, you will learn how.
Anyway, in a nutshell, this class entails a lot of studying and memorization, but is definitely a possible A. Calkins is a caring professor and teaches very interesting material.
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 Interesting guy. Likes to tell stories and dry humor. However, instead of teaching about psychological experience of taking drugs, he teaches drugs implication on the nervous system. His test are from his hand outs, and his hand outs does not make any sense when you miss his class. Yes it feels like you are taking a biology class since we are dealing with how enzyme and neurotransmitter behave when induced with drugs.
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 it sounds like an interesting course, but if it was taught by someone who actually knew how drugs affect u, then it would be awesome. calkins teaches the class more like a biology course than an experience view. u don't have to come to class but u do have to sign in. he teaches from his handouts. for the test, u just have to memorize the handouts. not a fun class. very boring. u dont learn about drugs. u learn about how the drugs travel in ur body.

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