Although our grades depended solely on 3 exams, Yuri was a great professor. He explained things quite well, and didn't pack a bunch of information in his lecture slides. As long as you attend lecture, you should do well on the exams. He cares more about your learning than grades.

Yuri is a smart, caring man who has lots of passion for the subject. Psych 454 is graded on strictly three exams which are not difficult, but you must study all the lecture material that is posted online. Very fun guy and makes the lecture seem interesting, with genuine care for all his students.

Give me 100% for the final because of interruptions. Professsor Saalmann is the best.

Yuri was fun and his office hours were very helpful. Lectures pack in a lot of information and it can be hard to focus but all lectures are recorded which can be useful for review. Final grade is only based on 3 exams but definitely manageable if you take the time to study. All the info you need is on the lecture slides, don't focus on textbook

THE GOATTTTTT

Only graded by 3 exams…awful technical issues with final grades affected and no make-ups. Professor's teaching is good.

Lectures were helpful but hard to stay engaged- all the content already on the slides. LOTS of content to remember BUT if you study ALL content you can maybe do well. Memorize every word of the slides. Lectures are recorded, but it's easier to get through them in person. His accent is awesome. Not super fun unless you're nerdy. Overall, great man.

Yuri is fun but I did find him easy to tune out. There is a lot packed into each lecture so you have to really study for the tests (no last minute cramming - found out the hard way) but manageable. It's a little scary to only be graded by tests.

Grade was divided by 3 exams, which worried me, but they were all easy if you REALLY studied. Yuri is amazing at explaining difficult concepts, and is extremely knowledgeable in neuroscience. His exams weren't written to trick you, but to actually test if you understood the concepts. I recommend rewatching lecture recordings as a study tool!!

The class is only 3 exams, meaning lectures should be the focus of your studying. Reading was unnecessary, all info could be found on the slides. It is A LOT of info, so it is best to start studying early. I struggled to get the A, because while I got a 91 on the first two exams (68/75 on both), I would've needed a 74/75 to get an A, too hard to do

The topic was interesting to follow, but most of the time it made me feel inorganized throughout the 75min lecture because too many things were covered. Recordings & slides are given which are somehow :( helpful for the exam preparation. VERY test-heavy, only based on 3 exams. As long as you memorize all the notes, you can get an A for this class.

Lectures very well organized and he knows what he is talking about. Manages to make the lectures okay to go to when it is a rather dry material just because of the subject. Exams are the only grade but honestly if you memorize the slides, specifically the summaries, you should have no problem passing with a high grade.

Fantastic lecturer. Lectures are not mandatory; records and posts online. 3 midterm exams, no final. Reading textbook not necessary but interesting. To prep for exams, recommend Anki. Memorize as much as you can within reason, start studying 1 week out from exam. Exams are very straightforward but a ton of content. Any questions post to piazza.

One of the best lecturers I've had on campus. Class is 3 exams each worth 33% of your grade. If you watch the lectures and memorize all of the information on the slides you can get an A for sure. Exams are fair, mostly based on anatomy. Know each term and it's function or role within a circuit. GREAT professor.

He's a nice guy but lectures are fast however he does record them. There aren't discussion sections. You have 3 tests and nothing else to be graded on. The class is fascinating. Read the textbook if you are struggling. Memorize all the slides for exams, unfortunately I found this difficult due to the sheer content volume. This was a hard class.

Yuri is a great lecturer. He was very organized and structured his lectures well. The class itself was tough because there is so much content. It isn't his fault that the lectures are dry and dense- it's the content. I went to his office hours many times and he is so nice and helpful! It's unfortunate that the only grades in this class are 3 exams.

Professor Saalman is really knowledgable, making lectures fascinating, but also waters the concepts down enough that they're easy to digest. Exams are really fair as long as you put the work in and know the general takeaways from the material. I'd definitely recommend taking a class with him!

Professor Saalmann was great! No final, instead, the overall grade was based on 3 exams regarding lecture material. As long as you study the slides, you will do just fine! He was also an incredible lecturer and explained neuro concepts in a way that made so much more sense than previous classes I've been in. Highly recommend!

The professor is amazing and being silly and having interesting content. That being said, it is ONLY 3 exams. That's it. No homework, no nothing. It's 33% each. Also the lectures are a bit dry since it's purely memorization of 100+ slides per exam.

Great lecturer and class is only based on 3 exams. Textbook not required. Exams are multiple choice and based on the slides. Not difficult but expect lots of information to memorize.

The tests are all completely based on memorization of the slides. It's not that difficult to do well, but it's a lot of memorization. The grade was also solely based off of 3 exams and it took almost a month to get our grades back on them.

Yuri is a very nice professor but you are only graded off of three exams. The exams are reasonable but expect to memorize A LOT of material. Everything you need to know is on the slides but the questions can be very specific .

Lectures were pretty dense and the course depends solely on exams. So long as you take good notes and pay attention, the class isnt remarkably difficult or boring.

Professor Saalman was one of the best professors I have had at UW. He gives clear and concise lectures. You know exactly what is expected for the exams. If you listen and study the material you will do fine. Textbook not needed.

The class is only graded off of 3 exams. That said, this class is very straightforward and you only need to memorize the slides. Simply make a Quizlet or Anki deck and you'll be good to go. I spend minimal time on this class, not very stressful at all. Readings are not necessary, don't buy the textbook.

Grade is made up of 3 exams, but if you study the lecture materials thoroughly, the exams shouldn't be a problem. Little to no questions from textbook/reading materials, so just make sure you understand lecture materials well and you're good to go! Yuri is a nice guy, and really tries to make the lectures interesting & easy to comprehend!

Contents are poorly organized. The professor is vague about many crucial points (mechanism for resting/action potential, LTP/LTD, brain anatomy, etc.). TAs make mistakes about facts during review sessions (EEG has better spatial resolution than fMRI). Exams are only about memorizing slides. Overall horrible.

I am not a psych major, so I'm not sure how difficult this is for Psych Majors, but I found this class to be quite difficult. With that said, Yuri is great. He does a good job explaining difficult concepts, and he tries to make things as enjoyable as possible when he can. With that said, you are only graded by three exams, so if you bomb one...

Yuri was an alright professor, but his lecturing was difficult to follow. At times it was so dense that I couldn't write everything down and other times he would spend 15 minutes explaining the setup of a study that we weren't even tested on. The class is graded on 3 multiple choice exams which range from easy to impossibly specific.

DON'T GET THE TEXTBOOK. Yuri is very clear about what is going to be on the exams and he even includes summary slides at the end which cover at least 50% of the test questions. He posts the slides before class and even posts the recording of the lecture, so if you wanted to you don't have to go (no attendance either). Tests were very fair.

- Fairly difficult material if this is your first neuro class, but the testing format and questions make it very easy to get a good grade - Lectures are all online - Criteria for tests is pretty clear - Organized slides (includes summary slide at end of all lectures) - Funny but professional teacher

Dry, but ridiculously easy IF you know the lecture notes BACK & FORWARD. Don't just assume easy A. Everything you need to know is in the notes, but not specific details (i.e. outcomes, significance). Memorize ANYTHING anatomical. Gives interesting perspective of Neuro approaches. Wish there was more depth, and less breadth. Inquire if interested.

Lectures consisted of Yuri reading slides off the board. I did not attend class after the first unit and managed to get by reading the slides (the summary slides at the end of his powerpoints outline well over 50% of test questions)

I expected more psych/behavior material, but this was purely a memorization-based neuro class. Yuri is hilarious but I found lectures very dull. Eventually I started just taking notes from the posted lecture slides and did just fine. 3 straightforward and fair multiple choice exams. Overall not a bad choice if you need the credit but it was boring.

Yuri was a great guy and ran a very organized class. The grade was based on three multiple choice exams that were all pretty fair. This class could have been a lot more interesting (the material was very cool) but the way that Yuri lectured and how it was tested made it very boring. Just a pure memorization class, zero problem solving involved.

I wanted to like Yuri, but the man was honestly so boring and his lectures were so dry. There is no explanation for things and it ends up being just memorization of A LOT of stuff. The grade comes down to just three exam scores.

Great professor who always went into a lot of detail in his lectures. It was clear of what he wanted you to know. Tested only on what was covered in lectures. Exams were always fair, questions were usually more about broad topics rather than specific little details. Learned so much from this class, and it was very interesting. One of the best at UW

Professor Saalmann is super nice. His lectures are really well organized and easy to understand, and gives out many supporting resources. He is very available to students, and the one time I had a technology issue, he was very helpful. Spent almost an hour trying to help me figure it out, he totally didn't have to, it wasn't even office hours.

Great professor, only bad things is that there is only 2 exams and he does not reply to emails nor is willing to meet outside office hours.

Professor Saalmann was great! He seems really nice and the exams were very fair. However, the only grades for the entire semester are a midterm and a final. I would definitely recommend Yuri's class.

Course content is definitely very interesting and relevant. I think Yuri is a really nice guy, and he shows some personality so lecture is never dry to me. Your entire grade in the class is based off of two exams so try to not save the studying for the night before the exam. It is manageable content if you go to class and study a bit

Yuri's class is incredibly dry, but incredibly easy. You really don't need to go to class or do the readings as long as you study his slides, particularly the summary ones at the end of every lecture. He's a nice guy but the material is definitely not substantial enough to be a power lecture.

great teacher, super helpful

I don't exaggerate when I say Yuri is likely the best Psych professor UW has. The material is always interesting and you can tell he goes the extra mile (a marathon if you make contact first) to reach out to students. All-around great person. Behavioral neuroscience (454) and Neural basis of cognitive control (411) come highly recommended.

Great class, phenomenal professor.

Yuri was the best professor I could have asked for during my first semester at UW-Madison. I had never taken a neuroscience course before, and he took the time to go over things with me to calm my anxiety and help me enjoy the course's content. I would recommend him to anyone!

Yuri's Behavioral Neuroscience course was the best class I've taken at UW. His lectures were always really well planned out and tests were extremely fair. His lectures are always really interesting and sometimes even fun (yeah, I said fun). I definitely recommend him.

Yuri is honestly the best professor I've had thus far at UW. He is incredibly fair and tells you exactly what you need to study in order to do well on the tests. There are only two tests though so make sure you prepare for them sufficiently. He really wants everyone to succeed, and it shows.