Swenson, Leland  

Professor Leland Swenson is an incredible teacher. I am currently taking the class (almost over, have an A right now) and have had nothing but good experiences in this class. He has vast experience in the field with three PhDs (I believe.. could be master's.) and has published many articles/conducted many psychological studies. More relevant to most peoples' interests: He has a VAST store of extremely humorous tales of his career, and every single example can be related specifically to the topic at hand. He is always willing to clarify for students. The material can be thick in certain cases, but this class is an easy A or B if you study enough. Every test is from the book, and he gives practice quizzes online with sample questions (many of which are on the real quizzes). Class consisted of 4-5 quizzes and a final. Take this teacher if you can.

Swenson is an awesome teacher. He knows what he's talking about INCREDIBLY well and can answer any question you can think of on the spot. His lectures are informative, and you pay attention to his lectures, and then do the practice quizzes he gives you, then you WILL get an A. He bases your grade on 2 easy assignments and 5 easy quizzes. There is no final tests, just two of the five quizzes are taken on the day of the final. Very interesting class, and not hard either!

Such an awesome professor! His quizzes are not difficult as long as you study vocabulary and important details. He is kind of a boring speaker..as his lectures come directly off of power points.. but he seriously knows his stuff. He loves the subject, it is obvious. As long as you do well on quizzes and the tests (final has many previous quiz questions) and you do well on the two essays he assigns (which are not hard at all), the class will be enjoyable and a breeze!!

Professor Swenson seems like an eccentric old man, but he is a rather laid back professor. Overall, he presents information decently, has fairly easy quizzes and tests, and doesn't ask for a lot of time. You could get by without reading if you wanted to, but that would make it harder. But if you read, and do the practice quizzes (~15 questions that go right onto the tests)then the class is super easy! The only downside is that, while helpful and friendly, he sometimes has issues addressing questions that he is asked, and sometimes seems like he's never used his powerpoints before, which makes the class rather droll some times. Definitely recommended for an informative class, and a good time.

This class is really interesting. He takes attendance, which is 20% of your grade, so I would recommend going unless you can find someone to check the attendance sheet for you. His quizzes are pretty straight forward if you pay attention to the lectures, which are also online. There are three quizzes which are all worth 15%. He gives practice quizzes online, and some of the questions are on it. There is also a research paper, which is fairly simple, you just fill in this data form he gives you and turn in the articles you found online to support your work (20%). The final (15%) is cumulative, but a lot of the questions are from the past quizzes. Overall, the lectures are interesting (on most days; sometimes they are very dull) and Swenson does a really good job at explaining the topics and clarifying any questions or confusion. He is very chill. If you just pay attention to the lectures and read over the chapters, you can easily get an A.

TAKE HIM! He is honestly the best! He comes to class well prepared and his main goal is to help you understand the material. I freakin luv this man! He will keep you awake by the way he teaches his material and he's so lenient with projects and tests as well. He's the main reason why I'm now minoring in psych. This man is awesome. Yasss

Take him!!!! 1. He cares about the students academic wellbeing and have never seen him pull a sing douche move. He is not looking to jip you in anyway and has a transparent teaching style. 2. Great man. Ive had some funny talks with him and he feels like that Uncle your Mom isn't into. Not a bad bone in his body and I have a great deal of respect for his empathetic and slightly erratic approach to his students. 3. Tests are actually hard, but read the book and you'll be set. I only studied the notes and I pulled B's and C's on the tests (so an A is definitely doable). He also hooks it up with a super easy research project (only 2 pages long!!!) worth 25% of the grade. And the projects rubric garuntees you an A if you abide it. You won't regret taking this class

He's Not Ballin. - But read on for more info. Even though I'm surprised I got a B in the class, I didn't enjoy his class lectures. I was looking forward to learning psych, but he killed my interests for it. Other students liked him, so it's mostly personal preference. However, I do think this course shouldn't have been the work load of information for an intro course and GE. It was definitely a lot of information to retain, so study hard. I tried my hardest in this class than any other class, and I got a D on the first test, C on the second, and I don't know how I did on the final, but whatever I did, I somehow deserved a B. The final is all questions from your previous tests, so save them. He tries to get the students attention by using sexual references, and its definitely not cool. Its pretty gross hearing it from an older man let alone your professor. Overall, I would recommend finding a different teacher who is easier on the information (less info to memorize)and could deliver a better lecture, because his lectures didn't click with me.

super genuine professor who wants his students to succeed!!! i honestly wouldn't recommend taking notes. just make notecards for all the vocab words in the book, and study those. then do the practice tests that he gives and the practice tests in the back of the textbook and you'll be super set for the quizzes. there is also a paper, but it's super easy!! it took my like an hour to complete, and i got an A. there is no outside work. i only studied the day before the quizzes/final for about 3 hours and got an A in the class

Swenson is such a funny guy. You can tell he really wants the students to learn, but sometimes he goes off into tangents that are sort of hard to pay attention. If you do the two papers and study by doing the practice tests online and in the book and read the chapter and go through his powerpoints you will do fine on the tests. Not my favorite class, but not bad at all either!

Professor Swenson is a cool guy with lots of knowledge in the field of psychology. My favorite times are when he mentions his past experiences with drugs casually, under close inspection and in an experimental and legal environment of course. The class gets a bit dry because he lectures for the whole two hours without breaks and this class is not a place to socialize as there are no group projects and again, he lectures the entire time. Overall, his class is very manageable, the tests are reasonable if you read the lectures and textbook, and he is very lax about the course. Attendance is also taken every day, so there's that. If you want a sociable psychology class where you can escape your major to meet other people, this isn't the class. Overall, 9/10.

Prof Swenson is a funny dude with a lot of great stories to tell about his experiences and the people he knows. I overall enjoyed the class material, even though lectures weren't always the most exciting. For an upper div class, there wasn't too much work. The two research projects were pretty fun for me and totally manageable. Lectures were very similar to the book, so reading wasn't hard. tests are very reasonable. Honestly, I recommend this class.

This course wasn't a complete waste of time, but I do feel like I could have bought the book and taught myself. The lectures were unhelpful to the exams because you have to read the chapters no matter what. I did better when I skipped the class and read the chapter on my own. He does count attendance. A really nice man, but a waste of my psychology support course for the major. I've learned a lot, but mostly by myself through studying. The class had its moments, but I wish it was more interactive and conversational; we could have learned so much more from each other and sharing stories.

Swenson is intelligent and knowledgeable, 5 degrees don't come easily. However, he is getting old, and it has a serious impact on his teaching ability. He speaks too loudly (hearing aids) so that it's sometimes almost painful to sit in the front row. He reads straight off the powerpoints plus a few additional notes about the aspects that he knows a lot about (which is a fair amount). I could easily have never attended class and just reviewed the powerpoints myself and gotten at least a B on every exam. You do need to read the book if you want to ace every exam, but I got an A overall without even buying it. Four exams, two papers, two of the exams are at the time of the final, one 3rd exam and the other a cumulative final. 80 questions each, 5 are bonus, such that if you get them wrong, it doesn't hurt you, but if you get them right, they replace wrong answers (out of 75). He knows a lot about drugs, but it seems to be mostly practical experience with serious addicts/criminals, and his knowledge is a bit dated. There have been updates in the realm of drugs that he doesn't seem to be aware of, though some he's very familiar with, like the opioid epidemic. Psychedelics lecture was disappointing and lacked detail. If you already know a lot about drugs (e.g. familiar with all the different classes - stimulants, opioids, sedative/hypnotics, antidepressants, psychedelics, etc. - and the effects of many specific drugs) then this class will be mostly a waste of time, or at least just a review. If you aren't that familiar with drugs, this class is informative and interesting.

I have never gotten a B at Cal Poly and this class gave me just that. His tests are random since he uses the textbook company's pre-made tests *Like questions that were 2 sentences in the textbook type of random. He uses the textbooks company's power points and just read directly off them. I don't really see how he is qualified to teach this class. I feel bad saying that because as a person, he is a nice older man. However, he never knew the answers to student questions. Or, he would have to go back a couple slides because he couldn't "remember" the information he just lectured us on 3 slides ago. He didn't know how to pronounce certain chemical names and was asking the CLASS if anyone knew how to pronounce it. No study guides for tests because he said you should study/know EVERYTHING. There are 2 writing assignments and he's the type of professor that just gives everyone 90% of papers because he doesn't actually thoroughly read them. Overall it was a difficult class. Attendance is a good chunk of your grade.