The first time I attempted to take this class was summer quarter out of my freshman year. I lasted less than two weeks before losing it over a mediocre grade on the first midterm and immediately dropping the course from my schedule. I think I got it into my head that if I avoided signing up for it again long enough, the psychology department would take pity on me and wave the requirement, but it remained a bright red no in the audit of my degree until I finally mustered the courage to try it again the Winter of my junior year. Up until this point, I had been on a misguided mission to make it through college without "giving in" and going to professor's office hours or review sessions for help. I had it in my head that if I couldn't study hard enough to understand everything on my own, it meant I wasn't smart enough to be in college or that I was being lazy and just needed to work harder. However, by the end of week one, I knew that if I wanted to avoid a repeat freak out and course drop, I was going to have to put my pride aside, admit that I was out of my depth, and start utilizing the resources that were available to us outside of class. I became a regular attendee of weekly study sessions with our professor and peer TAs, frequent Piazza question asker, and connected with a couple of girls in the class who I could study with for upcoming tests. Miraculously, I made it past week two without dropping, started to actually enjoy the class, and most importantly, figured out that you learn a lot more when engaging with classmates and instructors than you do when staring at the pages of massive textbooks alone for hours at a time.
Below are some of the in-class notes I took during the first half of the course: