Psych!
In an interesting twist, I’ve been too busy to do much of anything but school. I’m writing this in the break between the Spring semester and Summer school, drawing my last real walking breath before plunging back into a run.
But I took Intro to Psych this past semester, and I have a request for anyone who thinks this back door into Harvard is a piece of cake: PLEASE COME HELP ME WITH MY HOMEWORK.
I showed the syllabus to a mental health professional at the beginning of the class. She asked me what kind of Undergrad class would be that intense. I assured her that this was not that unheard of. She looked at me. Then she asked me if I wanted to talk about this on the couch instead.
No. I’m not crazy. I didn’t realise, when I began, that I would be taking a class from a guy who used to go to movies with Skinner. Or that our prof actually writes the textbooks used in other psych classes. They won’t tell you this, but I will: Go to your textbook outlet and get his book on the six perspectives. It will make class much easier.
The evaluations always ask us: What would you tell people going into this class?
My response is always the same. It’s hard. Set aside study time. Pay attention. Don’t skip any classes. Don’t count on your brains to get you through.
That last is a big one. One thing that the 1% of student who take a course at the extension school and later graduate have in common is intelligence. (Oh, you didn’t know it was that low? Most who attend won’t apply. Not all who apply get accepted, even if their grades are good. Not all who get in, graduate. And yes, by that point, we’re talking one percent.)
So the ones who get in, they are the ones for whom brains have been fun. Didn’t do college the way other people did, and have therefore probably had to manage to get to where they are without the pieces of paper. But once you get there, no amount of plain brain power is going to let you coast. You’re in with sharks just as hungry as you, and you have to fight to keep up.
Those brains that have gotten you to the top of the heap of the uneducated, up into the ranks of the educated, they aren’t enough without the study habits of a Harvard student. So when they ask me, “What would you tell a student considering taking this class?” the answer is always the same:
Brace yourself. This is gonna hurt like mad.
And you’ll love every bleeding, biting, brain-blistering minute.
For the record, I loved psych class. LOVED it. It was awe-inspiring. There were many bad jokes and constant attempts to operationally define. Everything from athleticism to alcoholism to true love. There were stories about clever hans the horse that made us all feel like dull donkeys. We actually looked at a floor plan of Freud’s house. And the class moves FAST. They know how little time they have. Which is where my one piece of advice unique to this class comes from-attend the review sessions and write down every single thing they say. All of it. It will be on the exam. Everything you learn in class will be on the exam. It takes memorisation. It takes study.
I loved the class. A lot of people took it for fun and not for credit; it is a good intro to other courses at Harvard Extension, because people going in for a nice fluffy psych course get hit with exactly how interesting, and how for real, these courses are. It’s fascinating, it’s wonderful, and it’s very, very shocking how much material there is. Professor Fernald is wonderful. He has a genuine appreciation for the work that we put in. It must be neat to teach people who are giving up their spare time to come in and learn.
So I’m in for Psychopathy and delinquency in summer school; who’s with me?
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