She was a really nice and engaging professor throughout the quarter. She modified the class set up halfway through the quarter but it made it more manageable as you could drop one exam. I had a good experience every time I reached out to get help. The midterm was very clear and easy and did not require reading the textbook as everything important was already mentioned in class. The only downside was how little of compassion she showed for students impacted by COVID-19. We were all required to take the final online but she gave no attention to some of us who did not have a reliable internet or were moving/traveling internationally. I personally had an A+ all throughout the quarter but her mandatory, ambiguous final dropped my grade by a large amount. The fact that all 100 questions were T/F made it more confusing and unfair. Many professors allowed students to opt out of the final if they were happy with their current grade but professor Ankowski did not seem to care enough. Though I enjoyed her class very much, the way she handled this particular situation made me leave this course extremely upset.

This was my 3rd time taking her, she was my professor for Research Methods and Language Development, however, I would never take her again after taking her Cognitive Development course. She messed up my GPA by giving us a tricky online final that consisted of 100 T/F questions that were supposedly "simplified." She could've had more compassion for students that were going through things because the COVID-19 is very stressful for everybody. Professors were even given the choice to make changes to their final exams and she didn't do anything.

If you're looking to take an interesting and engaging class, take this class. Her work load is relatively light with only weekly quizzes and extension assignments that are due by the end of the week. Even though her quizzes are open-note, they aren't something you can finesse because they can be challenging if you don't read the question carefully or if you overthink them like me. That being said, you can only miss 14 points to get an A in the class! This made quizzes even more stressful to take because it felt like there was little room for error. Nonetheless, her lectures are really engaging and insightful, so if you pay close attention to her lectures, you may/may not need to read the book (some questions came from the book, but mostly from her lectures). Her final was just like the quizzes but also included an essay question. In then end, after my lowest quiz grade was dropped, I only missed 1 point in the entire class! That goes to show how if you put in the time and effort, you'll do well in the class and enjoy it too. I wish I took her class in person!

I took this in Fall 2020 online.

The grade breakdown is pretty simple. For participation, you need 5 points. You can get a point every time you go to an office hour with her or a TA, or when you make a post to the forums about something related to the lecture of that week. You also need to complete "Extension Assignments" and a "Research Assignment" (that is just answering 5 basic questions about a grad student presentation you watch sometime). These are all just really easy as long as you write something related to the prompt; basically most people get full points just for completing them.

There's also 5 quizzes with the lowest graded one dropped. 10 questions each that relate to either lecture material, the book, and grad student presentations. All the answers could basically be found in one of the 3 and it's open notes. The final is set up the same way with 30 questions and an essay question but is about as easy.

My only gripe with this class is that sometimes the lectures were recorded poorly and the audio got distorted, and that there was too much of the lectures and grad student presentations to watch every week. We also were assigned to read chapters of the textbook corresponding to each week's lecture to prepare, but I never did that and instead just used CTRL + F for keywords on my quizzes and exams. You can find the textbook online somewhere; it's still important for the quizzes and final in this class.

All in all, the content in this class and the way it is setup is really easy. Most students ended up with an easy A this quarter. If you've taken Psych 130, be prepared to see 80% of the same things over again because I took Psych 130 at the same time as this class and I was literally seeing the same slides twice a lot.

Dr. Ankowski is one of the best and fairest professors at UCLA. This class was super easy. I never read the book or took notes in class. A lot of people are crying about taking a final with 100 T/F questions and they need to get it together because that final was super easy! What I appreciate about this professor is that she goes out of her way to be fair which is more than I can say for some other professors at UCLA. Plus, she is like super adorable and funny.

Due to the fact that this class consists only of lecture and has no discussion sections, "participation" counts as completing an in-class written assignment (usually just answering a couple of questions) and turning it in at the end of lecture, so it's a fairly chill class.

The exams are not that difficult, though our "simplified" final (due to COVID-19) of 100 T/F questions was a bit trickier than our midterm (which was 50 MC questions, if I recall correctly), but not too bad, especially since the final was open-book, open-note, while the midterm wasn't (I got 94 on the midterm and 88 on the final).

The two paper assignments were fairly straightforward and simplified from their earlier requirements, so as long as you put in some genuine effort on those and don't make up some completely random b.s., you should be okay.

Amber Ankowski is known for her Psych 100B. She kept her exam practices from 100B to other courses like 133B, such that some exam questions are framed rather ambiguously. Besides, her lectures and slides may not always be helpful. One thing worth mentioning is that even though the final was made online and consisted of 100 T/F questions that she claimed to be 'significantly simplified', the median score was still lower than the midterm and I personally thought some of those questions were trickier than multiple choices. I know that reviews on Bruinwalk might be biased, like mine and the one who scored an A+, but most of my friends who have taken Ankowski's courses left extremely bad impressions on her. In my opinion, she's just trying everything possible to kill your GPA.

Professor Ankowsi is an absolute angel. She is one of the best lecturers I've had and considering this was an 8 AM class it made a huge difference. She is clear and engaging in the concepts she explains. The class is very straightforward and I could not recommend is more. 2 paper assignments, fairly simple, just had to formulate a paragraph response to 4 distinct questions pertaining to analyzing some outside material and related to cognitive development. The exams are pretty straight forward in my opinion. I just listened closely to the lectures and took diligent notes and I got an A on both exams. Of course it helps to read the textbook if you're confused but I found it to be time consuming and not worth it as long as you pay attention to every word Ankowski says (the slides posted aren't enough).

This is an enjoyable and interesting class. The content is really interesting the professor clearly cares about what she is teaching. Your grade is made up of participation points (iClicker), biweekly extension assignments/quizzes, a research project, one midterm, and a cumulative final. The assignments are all straightforward and not time-consuming at all. Your lowest extension assignment and quiz is dropped. The exams are online, open book, and consist of multiple choice and short answers. The questions are not difficult as long as you take some time to study. The professor is kind and her lectures are engaging. The only downside of this class is that you need the textbook for assignments and it’s difficult to find online, so you will likely have to buy it. If you need a Psych elective that won’t stress you out too much, this is a great class to take.

Overall this class was fairly easy and had a very manageable workload. Both the midterm and final were online, open note, and not proctored. The final is cumulative. Lectures were recorded on bruin cast, but Prof Ankowski has iClicker questions that are required for participation points. Personally I did not read the textbook and still did well in the class, and almost every answer to questions on the exams could be found in the lecture slides insted of the textbook. I do not think that you need to read the textbook for this class, and you can definitely get an A without reading it. Prof Ankowski is a great professor with clear, interesting, and easy-to-follow lectures, and she is super open to answering student questions/encourages people to come to office hours. The assignments for this class consist of 4 10-question multiple choice online quizzes, 4 short written assignments, 1 written research assignment where you basically just summarize and relate an existing study to class material, iClicker participation, and the midterm and final exams. This is a fairly manageable and easy class that doesn't require a ton of effort, and should be mostly review if you've taken a developmental psych class before.