NEUR305 | PlanetTerp

Information	Review
Amanda Chicoli NEUR305 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/27/2025	Listen, I'm gonna try and do a fair analysis of her teaching and organization of this class. Lectures: Her slides just don't really take on a lot of structure. It's a lot of random word dumps that she doesn't make a meaningful connection between. Yet in class, she doesn't necessarily go into detail on the slides to fill in the blanks. So often I'd go back to her Panopto recordings like 'wow she really did not explain shit about this slide.' As a couple of other people said, she will skip over slides often but they'll still be on exams. Assignments: This class has 'active learnings' you do as a group every Friday, 3 reflection assignments, 2 circuitry projects (sensory and motor), and 3 journal discussion assignments, on top of exams, lectures, and all your other classes. The density of assignments is meant to make it so that you can do well in the class without doing well on the exams, to "lower stress." The thing about these assignments is every single one of them involves a dense amount of reading and writing and often citing sources. Plus the circuitry assignments are due directly before your sensory and motor exams. So instead of lowering stress, a lot of these assignments just serve to give you something extremely time consuming to do every week, usually something largely unrelated to the current content, and subsequently give you far less time to actually study the content for exams. Side note, she is a hard ass about citing sources, to a bit of a ridiculous degree. One of our journal assignments was just to understand the different methods used in the journal article, and she allegedly reported the entire class to the student council because people didn't drop a link to whatever google or wikipedia page they used to understand some of these concepts. NO ONE thought it was that serious- I promise we were not attempting to steal intellectual property it's just literally no other professor gives that much of a fuck. She also doesn't ask us to cite in the assignment instructions. Exams: Look her exams are hard as shit. The 4-5 points of extra credit she offers before each of them really saved me. The questions are just ..... weird. Weirdly worded, not very intuitive, and then the answer choices will have SO many close answers that were just not 'the best' answer. She has a lot of application questions but she ALSO has these memorization questions about the most obscure part of certain lectures. Maybe students who have had to take BSCI classes are more used to this kinda stuff, but I don't really fuck with obscure memorization, especially because as previously mentioned her slides are not very meaningfully organized. And on some exams, the amount of short answer questions she gives is abysmal, and half the time they've got you analyzing the most grainy ass poorly labeled figure imaginable that even the TAs have to study for like 5 min before helping you out with it. This section I'll call organization of expectations and criteria: Basically, it's very hard to know what she wants out of students on any given assignment. So much of her material is clearly mismatched or outdated. She'll provide TA-made exam topic reviews, as well as practice quizzes, that are clearly outdated. She'll provide online rubrics for active learnings that don't match the actual questions asked on the worksheet. Upon going to her office hours I had reason to suspect the slides she refers to aren't even the same as the ones she puts on ELMS. As I mentioned before, how she delivers the slides makes it really hard to know what is actually gonna BE on the exam. For the motor project, apparently we had to copy-paste some of our sensory project onto it, but it's never clearly stated which parts we should use? And half the time the TAs/AMPs will explicitly tell you she doesn't communicate enough with them for them to know specific assignment instructions. So where do I think the fat can be trimmed and things can be reorganized? First of all, I think making the active learnings every other week could give a wholeee lot less assignment stress and more lecture time. Half the time the lectures feel so rushed, especially for our sensory unit where she basically crammed the whole unit into 2 weeks. Even just having one of those Fridays to properly delve into the lecture content would've been beneficial. Secondly, I think those reflection assignments can be WAYY trimmed down. Instead of asking like 4-8 questions half of which include writing and citing- just ask 2-3 questions that focus on reflecting. The content is cool, so just leave it at reading about it and giving some thoughts, instead of making us design policies and hypothetical technology. The circuitry projects could also be trimmed and maybe made due at a different time than the exams? Yeah they're supposed to help us study but they still only focus on part of the content and they are still ASSIGNMENTS that have to be done well, which only distracts from studying. And the slides... I think she just has to really look at them like 'if I were an undergraduate student with only basic neuro knowledge, would I understand what this slide is saying?' and make changes accordingly. As for her just as a person, I don't believe she's mean or condescending. It's clear that she knows the content, and that she wants students to learn. She just has a vastly different perception of what helps students and lowers stress. When you talk to her one-on-one she will help you out and explain things, it's just that on a large scale I think she sees her class as much more comprehensible than it is.
Amanda Chicoli NEUR305 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 05/25/2025	This class was rough and the exams were awful. Do not be fooled by the relative easiness of the content (I was too) but the exams were completely not proportional to what we learned. We'll spend 10 seconds on a slide and her to tell us "not to worry about it" only for it to be a 5 point free response question. The exams were so weird- whenever we would ask her about why a certain answer was wrong, she would preface it with something along the lines of "Yes, that is correct, but that's not the best answer-" what do you mean it's either right or wrong?! She would send out announcements that there should be no issues with timing because it took her only like a quarter of the class period to take. Of course it took her only a quarter of the class time to take- she literally designed the exam and has a PhD in neuro. We do have a lot of assignments to "boost" our grade, but these are not easy at all. Not to mention that one time she reported our entire class to the Honors Council. For instance, the first Active Learning we had there was a different rubric for the AMPPs vs. what we had to work with. As a result, nearly everyone got a failing grade- I wonder why?! Not to mention the huge semester long assignments which were due right before our midterm exams. This class is so demoralizing, especially it seems that no matter how hard you study, you couldn't get a good grade. I mean I've scored higher in Mamphys, Orgo II, etc. The only good thing about this class is the extra credit before every exam which certainly helps. She is more approachable for one on one, but that doesn't make up for the overall awfulness of this class. It sucks that this is a major requirement for Neuroscience- I probably would have switched to Neurophys or something to avoid taking this class. Be wary going into this class. I think it is definitely reasonable to get an A- or an A, but make sure you are not taking it in conjunction with any other challenging classes because it is just exhausting. Good luck.
Amanda Chicoli NEUR305 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/23/2025	OH MY- this was very hard. I expected for this to be like half a hard class but boy was I wrong. this class with all the little tedious time consuming assignments was so brutal. like yea they were annoting but you could do well on them if your really tried. THE TESTS were awful and so unfair I felt like. no matter how well I knew the materials the MC was IMPOSSIBLE every single question was application and she makes them so hard and confused with no regard to what she actually spent time on during class. anything she thinks about is fair game liek legit there were so many things that weren't on her slides or said in class were on the exam and I was just left their thinking like how the heck was I supposed to know this- felt liek half the students just had a common knowledge of neuro maybe idek. also the final was straight MC and no short answer which was so annoying. legit couldn't even tell you how to study for the tests since like no matter how perfectly I knew the information I still did not do well- this is the only good reason for the a million assignments so it can help your grade but they are not chill. every friday there was an active learning which is when you had to answer questions based on that weeks material but they were hard questions and you had to hand write and the answers had to be soooo specific it was actually insane but dont worry the best part is that you never get them back. overall the class was hard and it just felt like no matter how hard I studied that I could not do well on the tests so its a very disheartening feeling tbh but if ur a neuro major there is kinda nothing you can do but suck it up and take this class.
Amanda Chicoli NEUR305 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/20/2025	Horrible professor. Extremely nitpicky with grades and makes a lot of mistakes on presentation slides, quizzes, and notes. She's also very mean and condescending. She tries to act all nice and if she gets called out for something she likes to defend herself by picking unnecessary fights with students. also basically gave us a midterm on finals week. And, she is really slow with grading. she also makes us sit in assigned seats like we're children! DO NOT RECOMMEND
Amanda Chicoli NEUR305 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/15/2025	Amazing professor. Evidence-based teaching and learning. People saying she's mean and condescending are soft and just wrong. Every assignment, question, activity, and piece of content is chosen deliberately. Has learning outcomes that you can use to organize your notes. Uses the Academic Peer Mentoring program which are other undergrads who have taken the class and help out so there are basically far more TAs. Uses Piazza and very responsive! We sit in small groups who we discuss various questions with throughout the semester and on Fridays do an assignment that applies the content from the week. The exams are challenging but fair. She offered full-class multi-day extensions for various assignments. Exams are meant to be tricky because it forces you to think critically. We're in school to build analytic thinking skills... All of the assignments and projects were very meaningful and she designs the course very well. She does go quickly through the lectures which I hope she does better but you just have to take some time to go through the slides again. Dr. Chicoli is very helpful at office hours and very reasonable for accommodations. She granted all of my requests for absences. The material can be overwhelming but that's how some classes are, and the workload is a typical biology class: you don't have homeworks but you do need to study. The exams are NOT based around memorization but application. You need to recall some things but you focus on the learning outcomes and it won't be overwhelming. You can go to office hours - many many throughout the week plus you can email any of the TAs or AMPs. Dr. Chicoli is super nice and well-qualified. Highly recommend and definitely am choosing her for other classes. Now to dismantle all of the arguments from these one-star reviews: - "Lectures make no sense" She goes through a slideshow and it seems like a pretty typical lecture style. Hard disagree with this. Maybe sometimes she's just pointing but I really don't think it's bad. - "Mean" Hard disagree. She is nice. - "Passive aggressive in emails" Sometimes students ask questions that were already answered multiple times, or from a post on ELMS, just needlessly worrying, or can be answered from slideshows (if about course content). I don't think she is passive aggressive on Piazza and she is really not passive aggressive in the emails she has sent to me. - "boring" That's a curriculum thing and has to do with your interest in neuroscience. I personally did not find it boring. Overall these 1-star reviews are generally wrong.
Amanda Chicoli NEUR305 Expecting an A Anonymous 04/16/2025	Dr. Chicoli is mean for a teacher. all the reviews talking about her condescending attitude towards students are completely accurate. Theres always something new going on in her head. Earlier this semester she decided to post a feedback survey to get feedback from students. The day after she proceeded to go through each of the comments and invalidate them by saying "this is not my problem, its yours" even though she is at fault. She also reported the entire class to academic integrity office because she felt like it (maybe one student used chat- but just report the one kid not everyone). Unfortunately for NEUR majors, theres no getting around taking the class with her because shes the only teacher, I would recommend not engaging with her childlike petty behaviours and just self study the material (her lectures are disengaging). Good luck in the class.
Amanda Chicoli NEUR305 Expecting an A Anonymous 04/14/2025	avoid dr. chicoli at all costs. she is so condescending and has no knowledge when it comes to teaching. her lectures are so disengaging and have zero structure. She is so petty and aggressive in her emails when students ask questions/clarification about assignments and class structures. she also never finishes the slides during lecture and expects you to self-study half the material for the exams. also, the 90 tas/amps in the class take up half of the class list, making it impossible to get this class if you have a late registration date. she is also very late with grading - we take an exam without knowing the grade we got on the last one yet - even though she has like a million amps. she does active learning assignments every friday, where you work with your table to finish a paper worksheet within the 50 mins of lecture time. almost everyone failed the first one because she hid the rubric and didn't specify the requirements clearly. genuinely, as a neuro major this is the most uninteresting class i've ever taken. even after learning about certain topics in neur200 and psych AP in high school, she somehow gives the worst teaching possible about topics i've enjoyed learning about before. i swear chat has taught me better, if not MORE of everything in the class. if i could give her a 0 i would, but that's not possible, so i give her a 1.
Amanda Chicoli NEUR305 Expecting an A Anonymous 04/12/2025	avoid dr. chicoli at all costs. she is so condescending and has no knowledge when it comes to teaching. her lectures are so disengaging and have zero structure. She is also so petty and aggressive in her emails when students ask questions/clarification about assignments and class structures. she also never finishes the slides during lecture and expects you to self-study half the material for the exams. also, the 90 tas/amps in the class take up half of the class list, making it impossible to get this class if you have a late registration date. she is also very late with grading - we take an exam without knowing the grade we got on the last one yet - even though she has like a million amps. she does active learning assignments every friday, where you work with your table to finish a paper worksheet within the 50 mins of lecture time. almost everyone failed the first one because she hid the rubric and didn't specify the requirements clearly. I don't even know why she has almost 4 stars. genuinely, as a neuro major this is the most uninteresting class i've ever taken. even after learning about certain topics in neur200 and psych AP in high school, she somehow gives the worst teaching possible about topics i've enjoyed learning about before. i swear chat has taught me better, if not MORE of everything in the class. she also reported EVERYONE in class for cheating on an assignment to the office of academic integrity or dishonesty and was so proud to tell us too. she also gave us a mid semester quiz for feedback on the course and proceeded to email the class invalidating everything that everyone wrote down on the survey. I would not recommend her at all. if i could give her a 0 i would, but that's not possible, so i give her a 1.
Amanda Chicoli NEUR305 Expecting a C+ Anonymous 04/09/2025	She is mean. Not good at explaining information. She will explain something one way and if you don't understand she will just blank stare at you. She doesn't know how to rephrase answers to help you. She is also condescending if you do not understand. She has this look on her face like 'how can you not understand' slash 'you are stupid' She treats students very differently. Clearing because there are 5 star reviews and 1 star reviews. The exams are hard. For free-response she is looking for something very specific; if you do not put that down you won't get the point. She does the 'if u hit these ideas you get a point' not 'this is wrong I'll take off a point'... So no partial credit ever. TA are also not good (at least the ones I had). They barely give any feedback. Class is so boring compared to NEUR200.
Amanda Chicoli NEUR305 Expecting a C Anonymous 04/09/2025	She is an insanely harsh grader. She is also not a nice person. She claims to be able and willing to answer anyones question but doesn't do the greatest job. She doesn't know how to rephrase if you do not understand. She will also use certain phrases that have a different meaning than the actual meaning and if you build off that... you are wrong. The exams are so hard for no reason. I got an A in neur200 but this class is insane. Most of the grade is assignments, there are 4 exams (including final) each only count for 10%. The TAs are terrible. They just grade and barely give any feedback. One good thing about this class is there will always be a video of the lecture. The material is easy to access but the course is very fast and can get confusing. If you liked Navarro, Chicoli is nothing like her. Monday, Wednesday are lectures. Friday is mandatory in class assignment. Also those assignments suck!!!! Various large assignments throughout the course. Honestly this class has so much work for only three credits. I think if this class was taught by anyone else it would be good...
Amanda Chicoli NEUR305 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 08/07/2024	Neur305 as a class was ok. I found it boring compared to Neur200, and a little harder - definitely more fast-paced - but overall not terrible. The exams had some annoying tricky questions, but were plenty doable if you study thoroughly. Dr. Chicoli, however... my friends and family are probably delighted they don't have to hear me complain about her anymore. Basically, she is extremely condescending. She is not good at answering students' questions (she often does the thing where she misunderstands a question and answers something different than what was asked), and she frequently says things with a tone of voice and facial expression that say very clearly "I think you are so stupid." (I've witnessed this many times directed towards my classmates, not me specifically). I've never had such a condescending prof before. She was very unwilling to be corrected by students or admit when she was wrong, which led to some funny moments in class (she got very upset when the class convinced her to change the answer to one of the test questions), but overall it's just very annoying. I do not recommend her, if you have the chance to avoid her. Also, her teaching on some things (especially the paper "Creating a False Memory in the Hippocampus" by Ramirez) was questionable. I will stop ranting now, but really, if you don't want to be condescended to all the time, try to avoid taking her classes.
Amanda Chicoli NEUR305 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 04/13/2024	Dr. Chicoli's teaching approach has its advantages and disadvantages. She makes an effort to engage the entire class through discussions, which is a positive aspect. However, she seems unaware that most students prefer not to have assignments due on Fridays and Saturdays. While some assignments are brief, others are unexpectedly complex. Her exams are quite unpredictable, featuring questions that are often perceived as irrelevant. The presentation slides she uses are not very engaging, necessitating substantial external research to fully understand the material. Additionally, she holds mandatory classes on Fridays.
Amanda Chicoli NEUR305 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/23/2023	I heard a lot of horror stories about this class before and even after joining it. So, I thought to give me review of opinions, and I hope to give you some perspective through the process. First off, Dr. Chicoli is really nice as a person always willing to help, but you have to be the one to reach out to her, especially if you are falling behind. She is pretty good at learning names, even amongst about 100 students, and she tries to be as personable as possible in a larger setting. She is good at taking questions, and wants to strengthen our understanding of neuroscience. I will not lie, her exams are hard to ace with full points (I believe there was one MCQ as a part of a test where no one was able to score full points), but she gives you an extra credit opportunity of 5 points, which can boost your grade up to the next letter grade). The exams are mostly MCQ with some FRQ, and the FRQ is easy to score on. This semester, some of her announcements for new assignments were hard to reach, but she was able to listen to our feedback and changed a project to be announced earlier. Expect to work several hours outside the class, as it is assignment heavy as well. You can definitely learn lots about neural circuits, and can definitely ace the class if you have an interest toward the subject. To conclude, reach out if you ever feel overwhelmed- you should be able to get help!!!
Amanda Chicoli NEUR305 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/23/2023	Ngl was prob my least favorite class in conjunction to taking genetics and orgo. While I understand that's subjective, I think that it took quite a bit to understand what was happening in class. I think the content was pretty hefty and with good studying you should be fine. I am not great at multiple choice and her exams are mc heavy so it hurt my grade a lot. Be prepared for lengthy projects that are due around the time of an exam. Also exams are exactly every 3 weeks. It was difficult to only find out your previous exam grade just about a week from the next exam. I wish the grading could've been expedited. If you like neuroscience you'll probably enjoy this class. If not, you'll want to drop the major which is what I'm doing lol. Best of luck for those of you who take this class. You won't fail but it's not an easy A.
Amanda Chicoli NEUR305 Expecting an A- Michaelgersten 04/20/2023	Really, really good prof. She's hard but fair. She provides you with SO many resources that you should use to do well in the class. the course itself is very interesting and if you ever have any questions she's always available to answer them. Of all the professors I've had at UMD, she is the only one I can confidently say will email you back within the day or at least 24 hours, no matter what for. below are some bullet points - take notes in class and read over the textbook briefly for a better understanding of the topics. sometimes for the exams you need a little bit more of an understanding than what is on the lecture slides - go to class and ask questions. interact with her more than once or twice and she'll learn your name hands down. ive gotten to know her a lot and it truly feels like a person-to-person teaching experience. - if you are struggling on a topic... just ask her to explain it again in office hours or after class, she won't bite, and she's not mean. she will gladly explain it to you because she really does love the material. Tips I wish I knew starting out that I use now: - for content, maybe break it into categories such as... Anatomy, function of each area discussed, pathways/circuits, and pathology. these are the main groups of information she gives you. the act of active-categorization is also proven to be one of the top learning methods (just google scholar active-categorization if you want a reference) - use anki or other active recall methods like quizlet. im telling you do NOT JUST READ OVER NOTES for these exams. I did for the first one and didn't get a good grade, but did on subsequent ones by using anki. a side note if you want a leg up on some exams is to make sure you use the practice quizzes that she provides you, just do it you'll see why. - you dont need to study every single day, but several times a week is probably a good idea as you have exams basically every 3 weeks. - ASK QUESTIONS ON THE MIDSEMESTER PROJECTS AND SCHEDULE APPTS TO GO OVER WHAT YOU HAVE. I misread the rubric on the first project and got a C, it was bad. but for the second I made an appointment with a TA to review it a day before the deadline and it turned out much better. - take time to actually understand every single graph or picture she gives you, especially the ones that involve an experiment. they will be on the exam in one way or another trust me. Basically she's a really good professor, just make sure to connect the dots on your own, and do work outside of the class. it's a 3 credit class so expect to put in around 3-5 hours of work outside class a week minimum including assignments and studying.
Amanda Chicoli NEUR305 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/23/2022	Generally a straightforward class but sometimes instructions are unclear. She generally works with students but can sometimes be rude, especially over email. The main issue with this class though is the TA had no neuroscience background and graded incredibly harshly. Overall an okay class but just be prepared to know everything even if she specifically says she will not test you on it because she will.
Amanda Chicoli NEUR305 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/21/2022	I barely studied for her class because of how cohesive her lectures were. Paying attention in lecture was more than enough. Without a doubt, she is a great professor. She is a fair grader. All of her assignments are straight forward and she's more than willing to help.
Amanda Chicoli NEUR305 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/10/2022	Great professor overall. She records her lectures to make reviewing the material easy and had us read some pretty interesting articles. The midterm and final projects were a bit time consuming but since they are due before the next exam, you are really familiar with the material by the time you take the test. We also had a lot of freedom when it came to choosing our topics for the projects so that was nice! She provided a couple extensions for me when I was sick and basically said to turn it the work whenever which was cool.
Amanda Chicoli NEUR305 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 08/09/2022	Took neur305 with her last semester and it was one of my favorite classes!!! Dr. Chicoli's professionalism is greatly complemented by her positive, affable, and engaging personality, meaning (personal opinion) I was able to reach out for help when needed and engage in discussions with her. She truly wants her students to succeed, which is a big reason why she often holds discussion sections for some of her courses. Some students think that "active learning sessions" are a bit of a time-waster but it was very beneficial to my understanding of the concepts by being able to work through the concepts in a different manner aside from the lecture slides. She allotted us one hour each week to work with peers and teaching staff to answer and understand the assigned questions. If you're looking for "an easy class", Dr. Chicoli is not a very easy grader. In light of this, she comments on your submissions and provides actual constructive comments that point out areas that you (student) may need to focus/brush up on, allowing you to really build a knowledgable foundation of the course that can be used in future courses instead of just learning the material for the grade. If you genuinely want to learn and retain the information, I would highly suggest taking a course with Dr. Chicoli. If you find yourself to be struggling in the course, Dr. Chicoli is always willing to work with you and provide you the resources to succeed. If you're looking for an easy A, you might want to consider other options.
Amanda Chicoli NEUR305 Anonymous 05/18/2022	GENUINELY AMAZING. BEST PROFESSOR EVER. SHE ACTUALLY WANTS HER STUDENTS TO SUCCEED.... AND IN STEM!!!!! there are a lot of assignments so get ready to work, but it really helps your grade so be appreciative. USE THE WRITING CENTER. Her exams are pretty fair and her lectures are SOOOOOO interesting. BEST TEACHER AT UMD. you actually learn.
Amanda Chicoli NEUR305 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 09/23/2021	Dr. Chicoli is a great professor! I took her NEUR305 in Spring 2021 and was initially pretty nervous about the material and workload. Dr. Chicoli made the class engaging and manageable. She was very helpful in class and provided resources for us about academics, opportunities on campus, and support options. The semester project looked daunting but it really helped me with my understanding of the material. I met with her once to discuss getting involved in the neuroscience community on campus and she was so kind and helpful! 10/10 would recommend taking a class with Dr. Chicoli.
Amanda Chicoli NEUR305 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/08/2021	Dr. Chicoli is not like any other professor at UMD. She was constantly making sure that we were doing okay when crazy things were happening over the semester in the outside world. She was extremely understanding and caring and flexible when it came to our circumstances and even those that were not in our control. She also disseminated information that was relevant to psych/neuro that we may be interested in. She was also really organized with all of the material when teaching an online class. The way the course topics were broken up into (memory, emotion, motor, etc) also followed the order of the chapters in the book. Also, many of the graphics and information that were presented in the lecture were also taken straight from the book. For these reasons, I would recommend using the book as a supplemental resource to look at things that you did not understand from the lecture. We had three exams that were pretty easy and were not a big chunk of your grade. We had about four reflection assignments in which we had to either watch or read about something and write a short (about a page) answering some questions on the rubric that was mainly opinion based. I really enjoyed these because the topics were on things like ethics and racial issues in the field of neuroscience. Every Friday we had synchronous classes in which we usually spent the time going over a research article either in groups or as a whole class. There were low-stake assignments accompanied by these that we completed during the class. The most important thing to take note of is the semester project. There is no final exam in the class it is just your final project. This can definitely take a big punch to your grade as it did mine. Make sure to put effort into it early on in the semester so that when it comes time to your final, it will be one less thing to worry about. Dr. Chicoli has set it up in a great way in which she breaks down the project into different parts that have different deadlines. This way, you are working on it slowly throughout the semester and when it comes down to the final you don't have to stress. I had an A+ the entire semester but was so crammed during finals week that when I was working on the final project during the allotted two-hour window, I did not finish one part of the project in time. I scored a 100% on every other part of the project but because that one part was worth a good amount of points, it bumped my final grade down from an A+ to an A. So I would definitely recommend not taking three finals back to back in one day and manage your time. Overall, I would absolutely recommend this class with Dr.Chicoli no matter the circumstance. The class may sound intimidating but the way that she has structured it and the way she is as a person is definitely catered towards student success.

Amanda Chicoli
NEUR305

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
05/27/2025

Listen, I'm gonna try and do a fair analysis of her teaching and organization of this class. Lectures: Her slides just don't really take on a lot of structure. It's a lot of random word dumps that she doesn't make a meaningful connection between. Yet in class, she doesn't necessarily go into detail on the slides to fill in the blanks. So often I'd go back to her Panopto recordings like 'wow she really did not explain shit about this slide.' As a couple of other people said, she will skip over slides often but they'll still be on exams. Assignments: This class has 'active learnings' you do as a group every Friday, 3 reflection assignments, 2 circuitry projects (sensory and motor), and 3 journal discussion assignments, on top of exams, lectures, and all your other classes. The density of assignments is meant to make it so that you can do well in the class without doing well on the exams, to "lower stress." The thing about these assignments is every single one of them involves a dense amount of reading and writing and often citing sources. Plus the circuitry assignments are due directly before your sensory and motor exams. So instead of lowering stress, a lot of these assignments just serve to give you something extremely time consuming to do every week, usually something largely unrelated to the current content, and subsequently give you far less time to actually study the content for exams. Side note, she is a hard ass about citing sources, to a bit of a ridiculous degree. One of our journal assignments was just to understand the different methods used in the journal article, and she allegedly reported the entire class to the student council because people didn't drop a link to whatever google or wikipedia page they used to understand some of these concepts. NO ONE thought it was that serious- I promise we were not attempting to steal intellectual property it's just literally no other professor gives that much of a fuck. She also doesn't ask us to cite in the assignment instructions. Exams: Look her exams are hard as shit. The 4-5 points of extra credit she offers before each of them really saved me. The questions are just ..... weird. Weirdly worded, not very intuitive, and then the answer choices will have SO many close answers that were just not 'the best' answer. She has a lot of application questions but she ALSO has these memorization questions about the most obscure part of certain lectures. Maybe students who have had to take BSCI classes are more used to this kinda stuff, but I don't really fuck with obscure memorization, especially because as previously mentioned her slides are not very meaningfully organized. And on some exams, the amount of short answer questions she gives is abysmal, and half the time they've got you analyzing the most grainy ass poorly labeled figure imaginable that even the TAs have to study for like 5 min before helping you out with it. This section I'll call organization of expectations and criteria: Basically, it's very hard to know what she wants out of students on any given assignment. So much of her material is clearly mismatched or outdated. She'll provide TA-made exam topic reviews, as well as practice quizzes, that are clearly outdated. She'll provide online rubrics for active learnings that don't match the actual questions asked on the worksheet. Upon going to her office hours I had reason to suspect the slides she refers to aren't even the same as the ones she puts on ELMS. As I mentioned before, how she delivers the slides makes it really hard to know what is actually gonna BE on the exam. For the motor project, apparently we had to copy-paste some of our sensory project onto it, but it's never clearly stated which parts we should use? And half the time the TAs/AMPs will explicitly tell you she doesn't communicate enough with them for them to know specific assignment instructions. So where do I think the fat can be trimmed and things can be reorganized? First of all, I think making the active learnings every other week could give a wholeee lot less assignment stress and more lecture time. Half the time the lectures feel so rushed, especially for our sensory unit where she basically crammed the whole unit into 2 weeks. Even just having one of those Fridays to properly delve into the lecture content would've been beneficial. Secondly, I think those reflection assignments can be WAYY trimmed down. Instead of asking like 4-8 questions half of which include writing and citing- just ask 2-3 questions that focus on reflecting. The content is cool, so just leave it at reading about it and giving some thoughts, instead of making us design policies and hypothetical technology. The circuitry projects could also be trimmed and maybe made due at a different time than the exams? Yeah they're supposed to help us study but they still only focus on part of the content and they are still ASSIGNMENTS that have to be done well, which only distracts from studying. And the slides... I think she just has to really look at them like 'if I were an undergraduate student with only basic neuro knowledge, would I understand what this slide is saying?' and make changes accordingly. As for her just as a person, I don't believe she's mean or condescending. It's clear that she knows the content, and that she wants students to learn. She just has a vastly different perception of what helps students and lowers stress. When you talk to her one-on-one she will help you out and explain things, it's just that on a large scale I think she sees her class as much more comprehensible than it is.

Amanda Chicoli
NEUR305

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
05/25/2025

This class was rough and the exams were awful. Do not be fooled by the relative easiness of the content (I was too) but the exams were completely not proportional to what we learned. We'll spend 10 seconds on a slide and her to tell us "not to worry about it" only for it to be a 5 point free response question. The exams were so weird- whenever we would ask her about why a certain answer was wrong, she would preface it with something along the lines of "Yes, that is correct, but that's not the best answer-" what do you mean it's either right or wrong?! She would send out announcements that there should be no issues with timing because it took her only like a quarter of the class period to take. Of course it took her only a quarter of the class time to take- she literally designed the exam and has a PhD in neuro. We do have a lot of assignments to "boost" our grade, but these are not easy at all. Not to mention that one time she reported our entire class to the Honors Council. For instance, the first Active Learning we had there was a different rubric for the AMPPs vs. what we had to work with. As a result, nearly everyone got a failing grade- I wonder why?! Not to mention the huge semester long assignments which were due right before our midterm exams. This class is so demoralizing, especially it seems that no matter how hard you study, you couldn't get a good grade. I mean I've scored higher in Mamphys, Orgo II, etc. The only good thing about this class is the extra credit before every exam which certainly helps. She is more approachable for one on one, but that doesn't make up for the overall awfulness of this class. It sucks that this is a major requirement for Neuroscience- I probably would have switched to Neurophys or something to avoid taking this class. Be wary going into this class. I think it is definitely reasonable to get an A- or an A, but make sure you are not taking it in conjunction with any other challenging classes because it is just exhausting. Good luck.

Amanda Chicoli
NEUR305

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
05/23/2025

OH MY- this was very hard. I expected for this to be like half a hard class but boy was I wrong. this class with all the little tedious time consuming assignments was so brutal. like yea they were annoting but you could do well on them if your really tried. THE TESTS were awful and so unfair I felt like. no matter how well I knew the materials the MC was IMPOSSIBLE every single question was application and she makes them so hard and confused with no regard to what she actually spent time on during class. anything she thinks about is fair game liek legit there were so many things that weren't on her slides or said in class were on the exam and I was just left their thinking like how the heck was I supposed to know this- felt liek half the students just had a common knowledge of neuro maybe idek. also the final was straight MC and no short answer which was so annoying. legit couldn't even tell you how to study for the tests since like no matter how perfectly I knew the information I still did not do well- this is the only good reason for the a million assignments so it can help your grade but they are not chill. every friday there was an active learning which is when you had to answer questions based on that weeks material but they were hard questions and you had to hand write and the answers had to be soooo specific it was actually insane but dont worry the best part is that you never get them back. overall the class was hard and it just felt like no matter how hard I studied that I could not do well on the tests so its a very disheartening feeling tbh but if ur a neuro major there is kinda nothing you can do but suck it up and take this class.

Amanda Chicoli
NEUR305

Expecting a B
Anonymous
05/20/2025

Horrible professor. Extremely nitpicky with grades and makes a lot of mistakes on presentation slides, quizzes, and notes. She's also very mean and condescending. She tries to act all nice and if she gets called out for something she likes to defend herself by picking unnecessary fights with students. also basically gave us a midterm on finals week. And, she is really slow with grading. she also makes us sit in assigned seats like we're children! DO NOT RECOMMEND

Amanda Chicoli
NEUR305

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/15/2025

Amazing professor. Evidence-based teaching and learning. People saying she's mean and condescending are soft and just wrong. Every assignment, question, activity, and piece of content is chosen deliberately. Has learning outcomes that you can use to organize your notes. Uses the Academic Peer Mentoring program which are other undergrads who have taken the class and help out so there are basically far more TAs. Uses Piazza and very responsive! We sit in small groups who we discuss various questions with throughout the semester and on Fridays do an assignment that applies the content from the week. The exams are challenging but fair. She offered full-class multi-day extensions for various assignments. Exams are meant to be tricky because it forces you to think critically. We're in school to build analytic thinking skills... All of the assignments and projects were very meaningful and she designs the course very well. She does go quickly through the lectures which I hope she does better but you just have to take some time to go through the slides again. Dr. Chicoli is very helpful at office hours and very reasonable for accommodations. She granted all of my requests for absences. The material can be overwhelming but that's how some classes are, and the workload is a typical biology class: you don't have homeworks but you do need to study. The exams are NOT based around memorization but application. You need to recall some things but you focus on the learning outcomes and it won't be overwhelming. You can go to office hours - many many throughout the week plus you can email any of the TAs or AMPs. Dr. Chicoli is super nice and well-qualified. Highly recommend and definitely am choosing her for other classes. Now to dismantle all of the arguments from these one-star reviews: - "Lectures make no sense" She goes through a slideshow and it seems like a pretty typical lecture style. Hard disagree with this. Maybe sometimes she's just pointing but I really don't think it's bad. - "Mean" Hard disagree. She is nice. - "Passive aggressive in emails" Sometimes students ask questions that were already answered multiple times, or from a post on ELMS, just needlessly worrying, or can be answered from slideshows (if about course content). I don't think she is passive aggressive on Piazza and she is really not passive aggressive in the emails she has sent to me. - "boring" That's a curriculum thing and has to do with your interest in neuroscience. I personally did not find it boring. Overall these 1-star reviews are generally wrong.

Amanda Chicoli
NEUR305

Expecting an A
Anonymous
04/16/2025

Dr. Chicoli is mean for a teacher. all the reviews talking about her condescending attitude towards students are completely accurate. Theres always something new going on in her head. Earlier this semester she decided to post a feedback survey to get feedback from students. The day after she proceeded to go through each of the comments and invalidate them by saying "this is not my problem, its yours" even though she is at fault. She also reported the entire class to academic integrity office because she felt like it (maybe one student used chat- but just report the one kid not everyone). Unfortunately for NEUR majors, theres no getting around taking the class with her because shes the only teacher, I would recommend not engaging with her childlike petty behaviours and just self study the material (her lectures are disengaging). Good luck in the class.

Amanda Chicoli
NEUR305

Expecting an A
Anonymous
04/14/2025

avoid dr. chicoli at all costs. she is so condescending and has no knowledge when it comes to teaching. her lectures are so disengaging and have zero structure. She is so petty and aggressive in her emails when students ask questions/clarification about assignments and class structures. she also never finishes the slides during lecture and expects you to self-study half the material for the exams. also, the 90 tas/amps in the class take up half of the class list, making it impossible to get this class if you have a late registration date. she is also very late with grading - we take an exam without knowing the grade we got on the last one yet - even though she has like a million amps. she does active learning assignments every friday, where you work with your table to finish a paper worksheet within the 50 mins of lecture time. almost everyone failed the first one because she hid the rubric and didn't specify the requirements clearly. genuinely, as a neuro major this is the most uninteresting class i've ever taken. even after learning about certain topics in neur200 and psych AP in high school, she somehow gives the worst teaching possible about topics i've enjoyed learning about before. i swear chat has taught me better, if not MORE of everything in the class. if i could give her a 0 i would, but that's not possible, so i give her a 1.

Amanda Chicoli
NEUR305

Expecting an A
Anonymous
04/12/2025

avoid dr. chicoli at all costs. she is so condescending and has no knowledge when it comes to teaching. her lectures are so disengaging and have zero structure. She is also so petty and aggressive in her emails when students ask questions/clarification about assignments and class structures. she also never finishes the slides during lecture and expects you to self-study half the material for the exams. also, the 90 tas/amps in the class take up half of the class list, making it impossible to get this class if you have a late registration date. she is also very late with grading - we take an exam without knowing the grade we got on the last one yet - even though she has like a million amps. she does active learning assignments every friday, where you work with your table to finish a paper worksheet within the 50 mins of lecture time. almost everyone failed the first one because she hid the rubric and didn't specify the requirements clearly. I don't even know why she has almost 4 stars. genuinely, as a neuro major this is the most uninteresting class i've ever taken. even after learning about certain topics in neur200 and psych AP in high school, she somehow gives the worst teaching possible about topics i've enjoyed learning about before. i swear chat has taught me better, if not MORE of everything in the class. she also reported EVERYONE in class for cheating on an assignment to the office of academic integrity or dishonesty and was so proud to tell us too. she also gave us a mid semester quiz for feedback on the course and proceeded to email the class invalidating everything that everyone wrote down on the survey. I would not recommend her at all. if i could give her a 0 i would, but that's not possible, so i give her a 1.

Amanda Chicoli
NEUR305

Expecting a C+
Anonymous
04/09/2025

She is mean. Not good at explaining information. She will explain something one way and if you don't understand she will just blank stare at you. She doesn't know how to rephrase answers to help you. She is also condescending if you do not understand. She has this look on her face like 'how can you not understand' slash 'you are stupid' She treats students very differently. Clearing because there are 5 star reviews and 1 star reviews. The exams are hard. For free-response she is looking for something very specific; if you do not put that down you won't get the point. She does the 'if u hit these ideas you get a point' not 'this is wrong I'll take off a point'... So no partial credit ever. TA are also not good (at least the ones I had). They barely give any feedback. Class is so boring compared to NEUR200.

Amanda Chicoli
NEUR305

Expecting a C
Anonymous
04/09/2025

She is an insanely harsh grader. She is also not a nice person. She claims to be able and willing to answer anyones question but doesn't do the greatest job. She doesn't know how to rephrase if you do not understand. She will also use certain phrases that have a different meaning than the actual meaning and if you build off that... you are wrong. The exams are so hard for no reason. I got an A in neur200 but this class is insane. Most of the grade is assignments, there are 4 exams (including final) each only count for 10%. The TAs are terrible. They just grade and barely give any feedback. One good thing about this class is there will always be a video of the lecture. The material is easy to access but the course is very fast and can get confusing. If you liked Navarro, Chicoli is nothing like her. Monday, Wednesday are lectures. Friday is mandatory in class assignment. Also those assignments suck!!!! Various large assignments throughout the course. Honestly this class has so much work for only three credits. I think if this class was taught by anyone else it would be good...

Amanda Chicoli
NEUR305

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
08/07/2024

Neur305 as a class was ok. I found it boring compared to Neur200, and a little harder - definitely more fast-paced - but overall not terrible. The exams had some annoying tricky questions, but were plenty doable if you study thoroughly. Dr. Chicoli, however... my friends and family are probably delighted they don't have to hear me complain about her anymore. Basically, she is extremely condescending. She is not good at answering students' questions (she often does the thing where she misunderstands a question and answers something different than what was asked), and she frequently says things with a tone of voice and facial expression that say very clearly "I think you are so stupid." (I've witnessed this many times directed towards my classmates, not me specifically). I've never had such a condescending prof before. She was very unwilling to be corrected by students or admit when she was wrong, which led to some funny moments in class (she got very upset when the class convinced her to change the answer to one of the test questions), but overall it's just very annoying. I do not recommend her, if you have the chance to avoid her. Also, her teaching on some things (especially the paper "Creating a False Memory in the Hippocampus" by Ramirez) was questionable. I will stop ranting now, but really, if you don't want to be condescended to all the time, try to avoid taking her classes.

Amanda Chicoli
NEUR305

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
04/13/2024

Dr. Chicoli's teaching approach has its advantages and disadvantages. She makes an effort to engage the entire class through discussions, which is a positive aspect. However, she seems unaware that most students prefer not to have assignments due on Fridays and Saturdays. While some assignments are brief, others are unexpectedly complex. Her exams are quite unpredictable, featuring questions that are often perceived as irrelevant. The presentation slides she uses are not very engaging, necessitating substantial external research to fully understand the material. Additionally, she holds mandatory classes on Fridays.

Amanda Chicoli
NEUR305

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/23/2023

I heard a lot of horror stories about this class before and even after joining it. So, I thought to give me review of opinions, and I hope to give you some perspective through the process. First off, Dr. Chicoli is really nice as a person always willing to help, but you have to be the one to reach out to her, especially if you are falling behind. She is pretty good at learning names, even amongst about 100 students, and she tries to be as personable as possible in a larger setting. She is good at taking questions, and wants to strengthen our understanding of neuroscience. I will not lie, her exams are hard to ace with full points (I believe there was one MCQ as a part of a test where no one was able to score full points), but she gives you an extra credit opportunity of 5 points, which can boost your grade up to the next letter grade). The exams are mostly MCQ with some FRQ, and the FRQ is easy to score on. This semester, some of her announcements for new assignments were hard to reach, but she was able to listen to our feedback and changed a project to be announced earlier. Expect to work several hours outside the class, as it is assignment heavy as well. You can definitely learn lots about neural circuits, and can definitely ace the class if you have an interest toward the subject. To conclude, reach out if you ever feel overwhelmed- you should be able to get help!!!

Amanda Chicoli
NEUR305

Expecting a B
Anonymous
05/23/2023

Ngl was prob my least favorite class in conjunction to taking genetics and orgo. While I understand that's subjective, I think that it took quite a bit to understand what was happening in class. I think the content was pretty hefty and with good studying you should be fine. I am not great at multiple choice and her exams are mc heavy so it hurt my grade a lot. Be prepared for lengthy projects that are due around the time of an exam. Also exams are exactly every 3 weeks. It was difficult to only find out your previous exam grade just about a week from the next exam. I wish the grading could've been expedited. If you like neuroscience you'll probably enjoy this class. If not, you'll want to drop the major which is what I'm doing lol. Best of luck for those of you who take this class. You won't fail but it's not an easy A.

Amanda Chicoli
NEUR305

Expecting an A-
Michaelgersten
04/20/2023

Really, really good prof. She's hard but fair. She provides you with SO many resources that you should use to do well in the class. the course itself is very interesting and if you ever have any questions she's always available to answer them. Of all the professors I've had at UMD, she is the only one I can confidently say will email you back within the day or at least 24 hours, no matter what for. below are some bullet points - take notes in class and read over the textbook briefly for a better understanding of the topics. sometimes for the exams you need a little bit more of an understanding than what is on the lecture slides - go to class and ask questions. interact with her more than once or twice and she'll learn your name hands down. ive gotten to know her a lot and it truly feels like a person-to-person teaching experience. - if you are struggling on a topic... just ask her to explain it again in office hours or after class, she won't bite, and she's not mean. she will gladly explain it to you because she really does love the material. Tips I wish I knew starting out that I use now: - for content, maybe break it into categories such as... Anatomy, function of each area discussed, pathways/circuits, and pathology. these are the main groups of information she gives you. the act of active-categorization is also proven to be one of the top learning methods (just google scholar active-categorization if you want a reference) - use anki or other active recall methods like quizlet. im telling you do NOT JUST READ OVER NOTES for these exams. I did for the first one and didn't get a good grade, but did on subsequent ones by using anki. a side note if you want a leg up on some exams is to make sure you use the practice quizzes that she provides you, just do it you'll see why. - you dont need to study every single day, but several times a week is probably a good idea as you have exams basically every 3 weeks. - ASK QUESTIONS ON THE MIDSEMESTER PROJECTS AND SCHEDULE APPTS TO GO OVER WHAT YOU HAVE. I misread the rubric on the first project and got a C, it was bad. but for the second I made an appointment with a TA to review it a day before the deadline and it turned out much better. - take time to actually understand every single graph or picture she gives you, especially the ones that involve an experiment. they will be on the exam in one way or another trust me. Basically she's a really good professor, just make sure to connect the dots on your own, and do work outside of the class. it's a 3 credit class so expect to put in around 3-5 hours of work outside class a week minimum including assignments and studying.

Amanda Chicoli
NEUR305

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
12/23/2022

Generally a straightforward class but sometimes instructions are unclear. She generally works with students but can sometimes be rude, especially over email. The main issue with this class though is the TA had no neuroscience background and graded incredibly harshly. Overall an okay class but just be prepared to know everything even if she specifically says she will not test you on it because she will.

Amanda Chicoli
NEUR305

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
12/21/2022

I barely studied for her class because of how cohesive her lectures were. Paying attention in lecture was more than enough. Without a doubt, she is a great professor. She is a fair grader. All of her assignments are straight forward and she's more than willing to help.

Amanda Chicoli
NEUR305

Expecting an A
Anonymous
11/10/2022

Great professor overall. She records her lectures to make reviewing the material easy and had us read some pretty interesting articles. The midterm and final projects were a bit time consuming but since they are due before the next exam, you are really familiar with the material by the time you take the test. We also had a lot of freedom when it came to choosing our topics for the projects so that was nice! She provided a couple extensions for me when I was sick and basically said to turn it the work whenever which was cool.

Amanda Chicoli
NEUR305

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
08/09/2022

Took neur305 with her last semester and it was one of my favorite classes!!! Dr. Chicoli's professionalism is greatly complemented by her positive, affable, and engaging personality, meaning (personal opinion) I was able to reach out for help when needed and engage in discussions with her. She truly wants her students to succeed, which is a big reason why she often holds discussion sections for some of her courses. Some students think that "active learning sessions" are a bit of a time-waster but it was very beneficial to my understanding of the concepts by being able to work through the concepts in a different manner aside from the lecture slides. She allotted us one hour each week to work with peers and teaching staff to answer and understand the assigned questions. If you're looking for "an easy class", Dr. Chicoli is not a very easy grader. In light of this, she comments on your submissions and provides actual constructive comments that point out areas that you (student) may need to focus/brush up on, allowing you to really build a knowledgable foundation of the course that can be used in future courses instead of just learning the material for the grade. If you genuinely want to learn and retain the information, I would highly suggest taking a course with Dr. Chicoli. If you find yourself to be struggling in the course, Dr. Chicoli is always willing to work with you and provide you the resources to succeed. If you're looking for an easy A, you might want to consider other options.

Amanda Chicoli
NEUR305

Anonymous
05/18/2022

GENUINELY AMAZING. BEST PROFESSOR EVER. SHE ACTUALLY WANTS HER STUDENTS TO SUCCEED.... AND IN STEM!!!!! there are a lot of assignments so get ready to work, but it really helps your grade so be appreciative. USE THE WRITING CENTER. Her exams are pretty fair and her lectures are SOOOOOO interesting. BEST TEACHER AT UMD. you actually learn.

Amanda Chicoli
NEUR305

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
09/23/2021

Dr. Chicoli is a great professor! I took her NEUR305 in Spring 2021 and was initially pretty nervous about the material and workload. Dr. Chicoli made the class engaging and manageable. She was very helpful in class and provided resources for us about academics, opportunities on campus, and support options. The semester project looked daunting but it really helped me with my understanding of the material. I met with her once to discuss getting involved in the neuroscience community on campus and she was so kind and helpful! 10/10 would recommend taking a class with Dr. Chicoli.

Amanda Chicoli
NEUR305

Expecting an A
Anonymous
01/08/2021

Dr. Chicoli is not like any other professor at UMD. She was constantly making sure that we were doing okay when crazy things were happening over the semester in the outside world. She was extremely understanding and caring and flexible when it came to our circumstances and even those that were not in our control. She also disseminated information that was relevant to psych/neuro that we may be interested in. She was also really organized with all of the material when teaching an online class. The way the course topics were broken up into (memory, emotion, motor, etc) also followed the order of the chapters in the book. Also, many of the graphics and information that were presented in the lecture were also taken straight from the book. For these reasons, I would recommend using the book as a supplemental resource to look at things that you did not understand from the lecture. We had three exams that were pretty easy and were not a big chunk of your grade. We had about four reflection assignments in which we had to either watch or read about something and write a short (about a page) answering some questions on the rubric that was mainly opinion based. I really enjoyed these because the topics were on things like ethics and racial issues in the field of neuroscience. Every Friday we had synchronous classes in which we usually spent the time going over a research article either in groups or as a whole class. There were low-stake assignments accompanied by these that we completed during the class. The most important thing to take note of is the semester project. There is no final exam in the class it is just your final project. This can definitely take a big punch to your grade as it did mine. Make sure to put effort into it early on in the semester so that when it comes time to your final, it will be one less thing to worry about. Dr. Chicoli has set it up in a great way in which she breaks down the project into different parts that have different deadlines. This way, you are working on it slowly throughout the semester and when it comes down to the final you don't have to stress. I had an A+ the entire semester but was so crammed during finals week that when I was working on the final project during the allotted two-hour window, I did not finish one part of the project in time. I scored a 100% on every other part of the project but because that one part was worth a good amount of points, it bumped my final grade down from an A+ to an A. So I would definitely recommend not taking three finals back to back in one day and manage your time. Overall, I would absolutely recommend this class with Dr.Chicoli no matter the circumstance. The class may sound intimidating but the way that she has structured it and the way she is as a person is definitely catered towards student success.

Reviews for NEUR305