There is a reason why Goff's overall rating is high and it's because she's literally the Miss Honey of professors. Her class is not only easy, but the content you learn is just so useful and fascinating. Sometimes I wish we were graded on a little bit more because one missed assignment can lower your grade, even if you do well on the midterm. However, it's not difficult to do well in this class and I would for sure take it again.

This class is really interesting, really diving into the development of infants. It was a lot more fun than I thought, and it was cute seeing videos of Professor Goff's kids as examples.

There are two midterms and one final, but the lowest of the two midterms is dropped (so if you're satisfied with the first midterm, you don't have to take the second one). Exams were open note, so they were not bad. Definitely don't take the exams completely reliant on your notes- it wastes time and you won't be able to apply concepts properly.

There is 2 points extra credit (NOT percentage, just 2 more points added to your overall points). You have to get 2 credits of SONA studies which aren't bad.
The only homework you have is weekly written assignments that are based on that week's lecture topic. Make sure you look at the rubric to know exactly what you should be writing (to avoid points taken off for a minor thing, like the number of examples you should use)

Her lectures are well organized and each example builds on the other really well. If you're confused at first when she introduces a topic, don't worry. You'll understand once she finishes.
(She does talk very fast so be prepared if you use hand-written notes.)

Because we were online, discussion sections were not mandatory, so our participation points were transferred to our weekly written assignments. I personally did not enjoy going to discussion sections just for my own preferences, but you should definitely go because they're just summarizing the lecture material.

Grading scheme for this class is: exam 1 - 40 points, exam 2 - 40 points, exam 3 - 40 points, in class written assignments (12 of 15) - 60 points total, final paper (2 pages double spaced) - 20 points. The exams were all MCQ and pretty fair, but some questions were trickily written in a way where multiple answers could be genuinely aruged as correct. Exams are not cumulative. Dr. Goff records audio only of lectures and shows a lot of videos in class that are tested on exams. She also requires attendance through a short written assignment at the end of each class meeting (I believe she also mentioned that she tracks the location of where the assignments are submitted from) so there's not really a way to skip this class and I would really recommend attending in person. She provides 10-15 minutes in class to get the assignment done. There weren't really any readings for this class. The first midterm was made online due to the LA fires and the final was online as well (no lockdown browser or proctoring.) Dr. Goff is a wonderful, engaging lecturer and I think she's really approachable/easy to talk to. This class is pretty easy and relatively interesting, and it doesn't require an insane amount of work to get an A. I would recommend taking it.

Professor Goff is truly wonderful! The only bad thing about this class was the fact that I didn't get to experience this in person. Yet, taking this class online was still a great way to do so. Professor Goff is super engaging, nice, personable, and sweet. Her slides are very well done and she even incorporated references and ADORABLE photos of her kids. I was interested in Developmental Psychology before, but this class truly helped me to delve more into the topic and learn more. Highly recommend to take this course. There were 10 written assignments (one each week) that weren't too hard to do, and part of it just asks you to list something you didn't really understand that week (WHICH the TA's would use to guide their discussion for the next week, genius.) Her tests are fair and you can drop the lower of the two "midterms" but not the final. I will say the second test and final was a bit more tricky then the first test, but nothing to bad since it was open note. Just focus on learning the theories rather then memorization. Overall, really recommend for anyone interested in dev. psych or wants a fulfilling and engaging class.

I thought this class was extremely interesting and just challenging enough to be academically stimulating but not overly difficult. There is a fair amount of neuroscience in this class (more so than the average psych upper div) but as someone who struggles with science, it was not bad/difficult at all. Grading scheme is - 6 short written exercises on course material - pass/fail, participation - 10 points, final paper on a film (500 words) - 25 points, exam 1 - 75 points, exam 2 (not cumulative) - 50 points. There are readings but exams only test on material that comes directly from lecture so there is no need to do them if you don't want to/don't have time. Exams are all MCQ. I thought the difficulty was fair but occasionally questions were written ambiguously in a way where one could argue that any 2-3 choices could be correct. I believe Dr. Goff ended up giving points back to the class for some of these questions or accepting multiple correct answers. She is a very nice, friendly, approachable person who is easy to talk to/ask questions to. Also, Dr. Goff shows a LOT of films/videos in class but only records the audio for lectures. She tests on these films on the exams, so I would really recommend going to class so that you can watch the films and don't have to seek them out on your own. There were also many issues with uploading the audio recordings (cut off halfway through class, she forgot to record, etc.) so you really should try not to skip this class if you take it. I really enjoyed this class, feel like I learned a TON about the impacts of early life adversity on brain development/structure/function, and would highly recommend it to anyone. It is not overly difficult and really is quite interesting.

Best psych class I've taken at UCLA. The lectures are so interesting and engaging, she uses her kids as examples when she teaches making it so much easier to understand the material as you get a real world example of what she is teaching. Discussion was usually just a review session and the homework was just a weekly review about the lecture so it was easy enough

Professor Goff is funny, passionate, and personable. Some material was a little confusing but if you show up and pay attention you can get an A with ease. Participation is recorded through iClicker. Midterm was slightly more difficult than final exam. Would take her class again!

Professor Goff was a very engaging lecturer. Lectures were well organized, very informative, and completely comprehensible. She clearly cares about student understanding. I think the weekly written assignments were helpful for understanding course material. The workload was great---no busy work, just work that was useful. I also liked the format of the exams and thought they were a good measure of material understanding.

I very much enjoyed this class. I have been wanting to take this class since my first year and was very excited when I actually enrolled for this session. Everything was incredibly interesting, and the professor was beyond helpful throughout. I loved the transparency with everything that was discussed, whether it was course topics or even personal information in regards to future career planning. The exams are very straight forward, readings and assignments are all relevant and helpful to gaining a deeper understanding of the topics. Everything about this class was amazing. It was absolutely amazing to learn from Professor Goff and I hope to work more with her in the future! This was one of my favorite classes I've taken at UCLA.

Dr. Goff is an incredible professor. She has really engaging lectures and has a lot of open conversations with students in class. She also has a lot of respect for her students and is super accommodating and understanding. There's a short reflection assignment after each lecture but it was really simple and usually just about relating your own experiences to course material. Exams were very straightforward and drew directly from lecture material.