I have never done well in math classes (only got C's and D's in high school) so I was very scared of this class. This was also my first quarter as a transfer, so I had no idea what to expect.

Professor Montoya is AMAZING. I generally have a really difficult time paying attention in class but Professor Montoya was extremely engaging and clear. It is also very obvious that she actually cares about students' success so I highly recommend going to her office hours if you're struggling. She is also super understanding about personal issues.

The homework was a lot but it's graded on completion not correctness so you can just click random answers and then go back and actually do it when its time to study for the midterm/final. There is also a TON of extra credit. The quizzes and exams were extremely fair and she does a lot to make sure you're prepared for them.

A lot of people in my class blamed their bad grades on her which is ridiculous. The class average on the final was 86% so the professor is definitely not the problem. Also, to the person who said she "dipped out on the final and won’t respond to emails probably because she knew everyone was going to be mad", what??! she had a personal emergency. she's a person too yaknow so chilllllllll

Montoya was cool, but you definitely had to use the book (online built into Canvas) and do the homework to know what was going on. If you like to learn from the person speaking to you, you probably won't get a lot out of lectures. If you do all the work from the book before going to class, her lectures help clarify things for sure.

One thing I liked is that she was super receptive to feedback. A lot of students were complaining about things like content difficulty, and she listened and in some cases changed what she was doing.

My opinion might not be the same as other students (who didn't like her), but I did, so here's my review:

Professor Montoya cared about helping her students learn psych stats using R. She was very responsive to the student concerns, giving us deadline extensions for homework and sending out emails to clarify her grading scheme. She also discussed everything related to the test during class so we wouldn't have concerns about what would be covered. I don't understand why other students don't like her; she actually tried to help us learn. Overall, she was a nice professor.

The textbook was free, and you need to use it to succeed in this course. Disclaimer, though, I might have had an easier time in this course because I knew a little bit of coding in other languages and got a 4 on the AP Stats exam 4 years ago in high school so I still had some stuff stashed in the back of my mind.

The textbook had problems and activities integrated into it, which I liked, because that way you could use what you learned as you learned it. It was free and online on Canvas.

Extra credit: the professor offered points for participating in psych studies and for filling out the course evaluations.

Emails: responsive. People in the class were freaking out because she said she would use 2 grading schemes based on our grades on the quizzes but after a couple students emailed her she sent out a mass email saying she will use whatever scheme gives us the highest grade. She also ended up giving 2 homework extensions.

Quizzes: lowest one dropped. I got A's on the first three quizzes and a B (85, lowkey fell asleep a little bit during that one) on the fourth, so it was dropped. Cheat sheet allowed and she gives you an R cheat sheet so no need to memorize codes.

Midterm: like the quizzes. Studied by reviewing past quizzes and textbook, cheat sheet allowed, got a 95.

In class: fell asleep most of the time (it was an 8am). Poll Everywhere questions used for participation, the website is free. 2 total group activities that were collected, they were simple worksheets. Kind of fun.

Discussion sections: fridays. Every other week we had a quiz, and the ones where we didn't were review sessions. Didn't attend last 3 review sessions because the 2nd one was kinda useless. Heard some drama went down during the 3rd review sessions because TA's couldn't solve midterm problems in 1 minute but students were expected to.

As of right now I have a 95. The final is next week, so we will see what my final grade is, but with extra credit it should hopefully stay as an A.

Overall: nice class, didn't understand why people thought so negatively of her, didn't attend office hours because I didn't need to. Her overall grade dist. was higher than the other professor's section for 100A. Take it with her if you can :)

Even though I got a good grade in this class, I wouldn't recommend taking it with her unless you had to. The homework was a lot each week, and most of the time didn't really relate to what she was lecturing in. In addition, the quizzes were worded really bad. During the weeks that we had quizzes, she'd cover material that wasn't going to be on it the day before, which sucked because I never wanted to listen since it would only confuse me, and thus would put me behind. I did okay on the quizzes but studied a lot for the final and ended up doing really well on it, which is why I got an A in the class. If you go to her office hours she can be helpful, but her explanations of things is always a lot more complicated than it needs to be. This being said, this was only her second quarter teaching this class, and I'm sure she'll get a lot better as time goes on!

100A is pretty doable. Basically you needed to understand and apply the concepts from the textbook (free, canvas) for the assessments. There is extra credit on quizzes/tests & also you could do the SONA experiment and get an extra 1%. Two mark schemes, so if you don't want to go to class and get the participation points as long as you do well on the exams/quizzes you'll be fine. Professor Montoya is super nice, she started to give more extra credit on the quizzes and made it so we could skip two questions and generally seems to really care about her students and their grades. I would totally take her if you're good at learning on your own from reading and practice problems. I personally find that listening to her lectures just makes me super confused about the material and I do much better when I just learn from Canvas and glance through the slides she uploads to see what to focus on.

Professor Montoya is not a bad professor, she shows she cares and accommodates with the student's needs. Her classes were very boring and the fact that it was an 8 a.m. did not help it. The workload of this class is crazy, for the amount of time you put for the material in this class, it would easily get you 7-8 hours to finish the homework with understanding the subject. The homework is not graded for correctness, but if you want to learn the material I recommend do the homework right to understand the material. Her grading scale is really good and it does the maximum to not hurt the student. The midterm was very hard and I failed it, but I ended up with a B in the class because of the quizzes, homework, attendance, and Final grades. But you have to study really hard and a lot for the final and the midterm in order to receive an A in the class.

I took this class in fall quarter 2019 with Professor Montoya. Besides the fact that it was dreadful to wake up and get to campus for an 8am 2 times a week, it was a pretty good class. She uses poll-everywhere in lectures for participation so you don't have to purchase an iClicker or reef subscription. The textbook for this class is also provided for free on Canvas. She starts off the quarter with a pretty heavy workload, for week 1, we had to work through the homework for Chapters 1-4 which is due by the Monday of week 2 and the schedule goes on but the load does get lighter, maybe about 1-2 chapters for the rest of the quarter. She has 4 quizzes throughout the quarter, one midterm and one final. The wording was a little tricky but nothing you couldn't get used to. She does open up all past quizzes towards the end of the quarter and if you do those and just get used to her wording or question style, everything is pretty bearable.

She was also very accommodating to the class as a lot of people were complaining that her quizzes were too hard, in the end she included 2 skips that we could use if we didn't want to answer that question. The class was also a little hostile towards the 2 poor TA's during lab section when they've tried explaining countless times.

Overall tips would be to work ahead of the homework, redo the practice quizzes for each chapter and then take down things that you get wrong and turn that into your cheatsheet which you are allowed for your quiz. Get well versed with R too, the tests aren't too R heavy but it comes in handy when she asks for the input for extra credit questions!!

Please do not take 100A with this professor. You will struggle unnecessary and you will cry your eyes out. I took this in my first quarter as a transfer, and it was so horrible. She assigned HOURS of homework and her quizzes were meant to trick (although she said otherwise). Psych 100A is not supposed to be difficult but she made it very difficult. The other professors for Psych 100A are supposedly good professors so you should take it with them. I neglected it my other classes for this class and I didn't even get a decent grade. DO NOT TAKE IT WITH HER PLEASE! You will at least do 8 hours of reading every week and you will teach yourself every concept. She barely goes over anything in class. She only offers 1% of extra credit so don't depend on that too much. Additionally, SHE DOES NOT ROUND UP GRADES. You could be at a 79.87 and she will not round. She does not provide any study guides and does not emphasize what's on the quizzes, she basically says "Study everything." Imagine that, 30 hours of reading all onto a 25 question quiz and she does not even tell you what to focus on. She places a huge emphasis on programming and we learn so much R programming that it's very very difficult to tell what's important and what's not. Of course, she doesn't tell you what to focus on because she wants you to know everything. For your sanity, take it with another professor. She made my first quarter at UCLA unbearable.

Easy A if you're a good self-studier. After I found that lecture didn't really do much for me, I stopped going to class and only studied the textbook (Canvas material) and got good grades on both the quizzes and tests. Montoya's extremely kind and accommodating. If you nee help though, go to her directly and not the TAs, they're more unsure of what they're doing. Her grading scale is super fair as well. Participation doesn't count if you score high enough on the quizzes and tests and she offers extra credit. Just study the canvas material well, pay attention to the practice tests, and you'll be solid.

Prof. Montoya is very clear and if not, she is always open to answer your questions after lectures or at the office hours. She is very friendly and hears you out. She is understanding and sometimes extends the deadline for homework if needed. (she did it twice in my class because the students asked her to)
The lectures are engaging and participation MATTERS. However, when it came to the exams, I never read the slides she went over in the lecture. I'd only master the textbook, which is online and you need to read it thoroughly for the homework anyway! If you read the textbook while doing the homework and review it a few days before each exam you'll be out of this class with an A/A+.
The homework is heavy. You need to read at least 1 chapter every week and do every single question embedded in the chapter. (you won't understand a single question if you don't read the chapter first).
There are quizzes every other week, but the lowest quiz will be dropped (5 quizzes in total). One midterm and a final.
Overall, the workload of this class is heavy, but if you actually read the book, do the homework and understand the material, you will be more than fine!
MY ADVICE: understand the first 4 chapters well, because that's the base you'll need for the rest of the course.