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.

1. Professor Ankowski is very passionate and knowledgeable about cognitive development. However, I find her lectures a tad disorganized, and her slides not helpful for review. I understand she wants people to attend lecture, as seen in her commitment to iClicker, but the lack of information present on the slides (while it may encourage people to come to class), is not helpful for review purposes. However, she records the class, which is a helpful addition. Moreover, this may be a personal preference, but I appreciate when professors explicitly define a term before they provide examples. Professor Ankowski sometimes does not provide definitions of terms/concepts or maybe breezes through them and then starts providing example after example. While examples are helpful, they ultimately mean nothing out of context, which she only loosely gives. I have had a surplus of upper-division psychology professors who I have enjoyed, and these issues seem unique to this class. On a separate note, I found that the midterm was not equitable to the types of questions we have been given on quizzes. The quizzes are almost too easy, whereas the midterm seemed unreasonably difficult. The wording of the questions was the most abstract. Furthermore, she opened her first lecture up by saying she is unwilling to revise grades, which is fine and completely up to her, but her presentation was very stern and seemed unfriendly. Since, I have not felt comfortable asking questions or even participating in class.

I would easily take this again, top 3 classes I've taken here. She's very funny and wants us to do well. There are two dates to take each exam and she gives you the highest score. She deletes questions which less than half the class got wrong. No written essays, just weekly short and easy written assignments. So easy and genuinely fascinating and easy. She gives extra credit through iClicker which is an online poll system we use during lecture to respond (does cost money but worth it). Amazing class, DONT HESITATE TO TAKE HER.

What a PERFECT class to take as an upper div psych elective. Dr. Ankowski is a clear and well paced lecturer, the content was interesting, the assignments were easy, and the tests were straightforward. We had alternating "extension assignments" and quizzes every week, a research assignment, and two online, open-book tests during class time. There were also textbook readings I think lol. Every deadline was clearly communicated and no assignment was overly challenging. No complaints at all! Take this class!!

This class was definitely one of the easiest Psych upper divs I've taken at UCLA. Professor Ankowski is super sweet and takes a lot of time to throughly explain concepts. Lectures were recorded and participation in lecture was optional. Our midterm and final were online (which I don't think is something common for her to do) so they were open note making it super easy. The average for both exams were pretty high (I think around 90% for both). The course content is super cute too so lecture didn't get boring. There's 4 homework assignments (and one is dropped), some discussion board posts, and 1 research assignment. I'd totally recommend this class!

I loved Professor Ankowski so much. Her lectures were extremely interesting. I wasn't originally thrilled about taking this class but she completely changed my mind within a few weeks. She makes everything really clear and I truly feel like I learned a lot in her class. A lot of people didn't want to read the weekly textbook chapter, but I must say it's essential if you are aiming to get an A in the class. It's not, however, boring and redundant like most textbooks. I found the text to be pretty interesting and not too long to the point I couldn't finish it in one sitting. The tests are fair and pretty easy. The average grades on all assignments and exams were a B or above. I highly recommend this class. It's easy and enjoyable.

this prof is great and this class is great! i have the textbook ************* if you want to buy it !

Really straightforward tests, helpful professor, and easy to gain points towards your grade. Highly recommend taking this course with this professor!

I really enjoyed Dr. Ankowski's class. This is kind of how it went.
She uploaded videos for the week on ccle and you could watch them whenever you had the time. You have to write something in the discussion forum 5 times or go to at least 5 office hours to receive participation credit. There were weekly quizzes every other week which weren't bad at all. There was a research assignment where you watched a choose a research lecture by a grad student and summarized it and there were extension assignments where you write your thoughts on a topic. There was no midterm, but there was a cumulative final which wasn't bad either, but you couldn't go back to questions which sucked. I totally recommend taking this class with this professor. Best and most engaging and understanding professor I had at UCLA thus far!!!!!!!!!