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.

Bonnie Goff is one of the best professors I have ever had at UCLA. This class was super manageable! She made the class so engaging and fun for everyone. There were three exams in total and four overall homework assignments. The exams and homework assignments were pretty simple. Overall, I totally recommend taking this class as a psych upper division elective. It has been one of my favorite classes I have ever taken at UCLA.

Take this class!! Not only are there no readings but the professor makes the information super digestible and she is engaging and clearly cares about her students. She drops your lowest midterm and gives extra credit for I-clicker questions. She is super fair and makes any question on the exam that over 50% of students got wrong extra credit instead. One of my favorites at UCLA, looking into taking more classes with her in the future!

TAKE THIS CLASS! Dr. Goff was one of the most helpful and engaging professors I have met here at UCLA. During lectures, she would provide a variety of examples from her personal life in addition to several real-world concepts, in order to give us a better understanding of the material. While attendance for lecture was lenient, I definitely suggest to show up as sometimes when lecture ends early she provides additional review for exams or like at the end, a Q&A session! In addition, during lecture you can get participation points through iClicker (this is also how attendance was taken).

Discussion sections for me was also really helpful (you are allowed one free absence). I had Erjing and while for the most part our discussions were pretty dead, Erjing always went through the previous weeks lecture thoroughly and implemented polls in order to see where our understanding was which I thought was really nice because if the results of the poll weren't in agreement - she further explains it! (Dr. Goff does this as well during lecture)

You have 3 exams - 2 midterms, 1 final. The lowest grade out of the two midterms gets dropped but the final is MANDATORY. I thought the exams were fair and pretty easy as long as you put in the work for it (i.e., really understand the slides and how you can apply it to other scenarios). Referring back to the final, it was not cumulative however, you need to be able to understand the basis of the course as you might find yourself answering questions regarding how earlier concepts relate with the later ones.

There are no additional materials required for the class. Only lecture slides!

Professor Goff was my favorite professor of Fall 2023. She was funny and caring and so smart. I learned so much from this class, but it was never hard or unfair. The workload was very manageable, no take home assignments, only in class work. The tests were really fair. All based off of the slides. She took off questions if the majority got it wrong or if someone told her it felt like a trick question. She was super approachable and very understanding.