Karen Spikes is a Psychology professor at Northeastern University rated 3.73/5 by 1730 students, with 2.97/5 difficulty and 52.0% who would take them again (TRACE + RateMyProfessors + Reddit, updated July 2026).
Karen Spikes professor reviews and ratings: 3.73/5 from 1730 student reviews at Northeastern (52.0% would take again). TRACE + RateMyProfessor + Reddit.
Her quizzes and tests sometimes reflect the opposite of what she says during her lectures. However, she is amazing and you can sacrifice a few points for her teaching.PSYC3402 2026-01-09 02:35:32 +0000 UTC
If you just takes notes you'll do good. Just go to class and pay attention.DEVELOPMENT 2025-11-19 15:03:30 +0000 UTC
Are you breathing? Do you have a pulse? Then you can get an A in this class. Spikes rambles quite a bit, but the material is there as long as you go to class and take good notes. And if you want another thousand points added to your grade, ask about Mattie Jo.PSY3404 2025-04-30 23:05:11 +0000 UTC
VERY easy A. Showed up to class twice. Lots of extra credit. Exams are open note and pretty self explanatory.PSYCH3402 2025-04-02 14:42:55 +0000 UTC
This was my 2nd class with Spikes and she's amazing, the class is based on a group project you complete throughout the semester and all of the assignments build to a final presentation about an organization you built with your team and how you implemented the various assignments from before, it sounds like a lot but it is fairly easyPSYC4505 2024-12-17 16:07:37 +0000 UTC
Easy A. All of her tests and quizzes are online and take home.Lecture slides are incomplete so you MUST attend class and take notes because her exams are based off lecture and the textbook. You don't really have to do the chapter readings because exams are open note/book. She does play a lot with the wording in her exams. Exams are multiple choiceDEVELPSYC 2024-06-25 17:55:28 +0000 UTC
she's great at keeping you engaged in class but sometimes lectures can get carried away. I didn't show up to 2 classes and fell extremely behind. Tests and quizzes are all online but solely on the content she says in class (no on the lecture slides), so you have to show up. Gave easy extra credit and little homework, and one presentation.DEVELPSYCH 2024-04-25 15:18:32 +0000 UTC
Tests are basically only on her lectures and you can't find the notes outside of class. Besides that, there were 2 exams and 2 quizzes all online, 3 applied learning assignments, extra credit, and no final exam. Not too hard, just annoying when you miss class. I'd take her again just because the class will be better now that I know how she operatesPSYC3404 2024-04-24 03:13:56 +0000 UTC
This is a pretty easy class. Professor Spikes is organized, lenient, and luvs using her daughter as examples (srry if I spelled that wrong). Lovely person who gives out online open note quizzes which u can take at home. Assignments aren't even that difficult, just some SAR to the video she makes you watch. There's also no final exam for this class.PSYU402SOCIAL 2023-12-06 20:56:39 +0000 UTC
I never went to class and got an A+! Interesting lectures from when I did go and the quizzes/tests were based on what she said in lecture so make sure to go sometimes! She gives tons of extra credit!! Great professor, relatively easy class!DEVPSYCH 2023-12-05 16:31:15 +0000 UTC
Professor Spikes is a good professor. She gives good lectures, and exams are online and open notes. Still, she can be confusing at times, and exams are weirdly worded. She seems passionate about her job but can be too much at times. Still, it was a very easy class.SOCIALPSYCH 2022-12-20 05:56:58 +0000 UTC
She has zero consistency in anything that she does. Test questions are poorly written and open ended assignments are graded on imaginary criteria.DEVPSYC 2022-03-07 04:37:59 +0000 UTC
I have learned NOTHING in Psychology of Women. She gathers her "lectures" 100% out of the textbook, and doesn't provide anything deeper than the surface level knowledge. Her tests are poorly worded. On our test, the majority of the students got many questions wrong because the answer was simply wrong, but she refuses to admit that she's wrong.PSYC1200 2018-03-23 10:38:16 +0000 UTC
Shes really nice&funny. She has already made the outline for you and you just need to go to class and fill them out as shes talking. WARNING! Write notes down word for word, on the test shell use what she said on the outline, and in order to get full credit on the test try write things as SHE said them.DEV401 2016-02-10 15:35:02 +0000 UTC
Come to class and take notes because exams are lecture-based. She's a very entertaining person, but the class lacked depth and inspiration. She would hand us all of the information and explain things with silly examples... And yet I couldn't expect an A because the quizzes were so poorly worded! Really dampened my interest in psychology.PSYC1101 2014-12-15 17:24:15 +0000 UTC
Karen Spikes has an average rating of 3.73/5 from 1730 student reviews. 52.0% of students said they would take them again.
Karen Spikes's classes have a difficulty rating of 2.97/5 based on student reviews.
Karen Spikes has taught PSYC3402, PSYC3404, PSYC4505, PSYC1200 at Northeastern.
Data updated July 2026.