Sandra Hale
4 courses · 18 reviews
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She was nice but very scatterbrained and unorganized. This resulted in the attendance of the class being drastically lower later in the semester than earlier in the semester. She did not remember whole lectures she taught and would go back and reteach the same slides—until the TA or a student stopped her.
3/17/2026
Only midterms and final project are counted for grade, so there is no redemption opportunity. The test is very specific and memory-based; but Professor Hale uses anecdote in her lecture, so it is very difficult to know what to study for. She is a nice professor, but overall, I would not recommend taking this class for credits.
4/18/2025
2 or less hrs/week
Hale is crazy and says a lot of stuff out of pocket, but it’s sometimes actually kinda fun to listen to her tangents. She opened the first lecture with “let me tell you about the time I found out I was Bisexual.” Lectures were hit or miss: sometimes useful, sometimes very boring. As long as you can put up with that, then this class is not very difficult. If there’s a TA then you’re golden.
12/18/2024
Sandra is very interesting to listen to, you will learn literally every corner of her brain. You will know her family, her childhood, but all of this makes it very difficult to actually understand the information you need to know. I would love to have her as a friend however a teacher she makes it a tad difficult.
12/8/2023
Personally, I love Dr. Hale as a professor. I think she's super sweet, her lectures are funny, and our conversations have always been super interesting. But, her class structure does make it difficult to do well. It's hard to tell what is going to be important and what is a tangent. But, once you get used to her style, it gets much easier.
10/12/2022
Dr. Hale is clearly a knowledgeable researcher. She's also very kind and tells great stories. That being said, class was pretty disorganized. The textbook material was incorporated into lectures seemingly on a whim & the slides were hard to read. Preparing for exams (on which almost your entire grade is based) was consequently an absolute gamble.
12/24/2021
Great professor and researcher, less great lecturer. Although she is greatly respected and I enjoyed her class a lot, she goes on a lot of tangents. Her grading was not hard and based almost entirely on midterms, with one major essay for our final.
12/11/2021
A kind, warm-hearted, and talkative grandma-like professor. But too old to teach. Incessantly got stuck on technical issues. Gave random off-topic interesting anecdotes but have no use on the exam. WashU should make sure professors are technology savvy to a certain extent.
11/20/2021
Professor Hale is a very nice person but she always seems to be unprepared when giving lectures. I took this class online and asynchronously and she would also post the video lectures a few days late. It also seems like she doesn't use her own slides because she spends a good amount of time trying to figure out what is going on in the slides.
3/25/2021
1) professor clearly communicates her expectations for students, including when they should refer to the textbook, what types of essay questions to be prepared to answer on exams, etc. 2) professor will accommodate your needs (empathetic)! 3) AMAZING powerpointsthey are organized, illustrated, and highlight key points 4) TIP: attend Q&As!
11/25/2020
definitely the most difficult class I've taken at wash u. not an easy a, but definitely the most I have learned by FAR in a psych course. she is adorable and obviously very passionate about teaching. the averages on our tests were low B's - high C's, but you CAN do well if you go to class, pay attention, and do a bit of memorizing. def recommend.
12/4/2019
One of the sweetest professors I have had and definitely an expert in Dev Psych. That said, lectures are very fast paced (even hard to keep up with notes if typing on the computer) and you have to memorize a boatload of psych studies for the tests (# of participants, type of study, etc) which is time consuming. If you study a lot, you can do well.
4/5/2019
She is definitely a very nice person, and she is definitely passionate about what she is teaching, but she wasn't the best at conveying the information to everyone. She does tell a lot of good stories though that pertain to what we are learning, which kept class entertaining. Tests were very hard and a little unpredictable.
12/21/2018
Professor Hale is a lovely, lovely woman. Her impressions of little kids are so cute. Her big flaw is that she speeds through her slides and one can't copy down all of the information in time and the complete slides aren't online. At times, she puts up graphs with no labels and no explanation. Her tests are hard, but she is always helpful.
1/24/2016
Experimental Psych with Hale was honesty the worst class I have taken so far. She doesn't use PowerPoints with her lectures, and just speaks in a very haphazard way for the two hours of class. She seems to care about her students, but is impossible to follow and can't explain concepts in a succinct or clear manner.
2/22/2015
The tests are more challenging than you might expect, but Prof. Hale is always available for questions and outside help. Papers for this class are a bit challenging as well.
3/6/2008