professor Firstenberg is fine, she is helpful and teaches the topics in a way that makes sense. I actually found the lecture material to be quite easy, and the test to be reflective of the practice exams. You just have to break down each question on the practice exam, see why the answer is correct, and see why the alternative choices are incorrect. Also, bring a colored pen to the exam, and for every passage locate the DVs, IVs, levels, confounds, etc. It made the test way more digestible for me, which is probably why I aced the final even before it was adjusted for the curve.
However, the lab was a completely different story. I don't consider myself to be the greatest writer, but I've done fine in all the writing assignments before at UCLA for other classes, including even some philosophy papers. But these papers were another story... the instructions are not clear, there is no rubric, and grading is solely based on your T.A. I took this course during the summer, so we would only have at most a few days to do assignments that normally take several weeks in the regular year. Due to my T.A.'s schedule though, what would happen is that we would be assigned something and receive a debrief on that assignment on one day, but in b/w the time we were debriefed and the due date of the assignment, there would be no OH scheduled, so we would never be able to talk to the T.A. before it was due. This is crucial, b/c again, the grading is very subjective, so you wanna make sure you're on the right track by verifying it w/ your T.A., which we were rarely able to do. On top of that, our T.A. in particular was very bad at responding to emails in a timely manner, so given the unclear instructions and absence of a rubric, we were essentially shooting from the hip for many of these assignments.
I think it's absolutely absurd that in a 6 unit class, our grade is so subjective to the T.A's discretion. Also, if they're going to make it like this, they should make sure they screen for good T.A.s. From what I've heard thru the grapevine from the grad students who have T.A's this course before, many of them do not want to T.A. this class, and only do it b/c they are forced to. Many of them are not really qualified to be objectively grading these papers, which leads to inconsistent grades. Also, keep in mind you are doing these assignments in a group.. so if you have one group member who doesn't wanna do anything, well tough luck. I think it's also annoying that you're forced to compete in this class- b/c it's graded on a curve, A's will only be given two the top 4-5 people in each section. So that's like one or two groups at most that will receive an A.
Basically, I wish I had taken this during the regular year instead of the summer. Sure, I would've had to juggle the extra classes by taking it in the regular quarter but I would gotten a higher grade cuz lecture is weighed heavier in the regular year (I got an A+ in lecture but below the mean in lab), and there are many more opportunities to talk to your T.A. in b/w due dates. This is the only non-A grade I've received at UCLA, and I'm graduating soon. I absolutely hated this class, but I don't have anything negative to say about Firstenberg, and unfortunately it's not like you can substitute this course for something else. Good luck on it is all I can say- start your projects as early as possible, and stay communicating w/ your T.A.s

Firstenberg is probably the best professor I've had so far at UCLA.
She genuinely cares about students and presents material in a way that is direct and clear.
LECTURE
Lecture is once a week, Firstenberg just speaks and writes down a few bullets to guide her topics. It's essential that you go to lecture and take detailed notes because everything she says will likely be on the exams later in the course. Feel free to ask questions too because her examples and explanations illuminate ideas very well. In terms of the material itself, it's not hard to understand but there may be a lot of terms you need to know. Make sure you READ THE TEXTBOOK. I was one of the few people that read every chapter, and took notes, and my grade reflected that. The textbook has topics not covered in lecture that may be on the exam. Both exams in the course were pretty tricky but if you think hard about the questions and answer choices, you will be fine. Do not overthink or second-guess your answers. They try to trick you on purpose (not Firstenberg's fault, but the department's). The exams had averages in the C range, but don't worry because a curve is applied to the end of the course.
LAB
I honestly did not enjoy lab for a few reasons. First, my group (which is randomly assigned for the quarter) did not try very hard on assignments and wanted to do things last minute. This meant that I had to edit our work heavily and stress myself out because they often messed up in writing assignments or misunderstood lecture/lab topics. Start assignments EARLY, they are very time-consuming. Second, the lab assignments towards the end of the quarter were assigned pretty close to each other which was very stressful. My TA was great at teaching and wasn't too harsh with grading (averages on writing assignments were in the C+/B- range). Once again, don't stress about your grade because the lab is also graded on a curve. Every other week there was a 3-question quiz based on lecture material. They were pretty easy, don't overthink the questions. People would complain that lab assignments were graded too harshly but honestly many things people lost points on were things that our TA, Firstenberg, and the textbook referenced. This is not a class that is unfair. I honestly think people do not put in as much effort as they should, and they complain when their results are less than optimal. Do not blame the TA for your own laziness, or for not paying attention to detail. Go to office hours if you truly feel grading was unfair, or if you're confused about assignments.
GRADE BREAKDOWN
60% Lecture
-50% Exam 1
-50% Exam 2
40% Lab
-15% Quizzes
-65% Assignments
-20%Participation (going to lab, asking/answering questions, etc)

Here's what I got for an A in the class
-Exam 1: 38/40 (Mean 31.95, SD 4.33)
-Exam 1: 36/40 (Mean 31.3, SD 4.7)
-Quizzes: 11/12 (Mean and SD not known)
-Method Section Edits: 100% (Mean and SD not known, I think most people in my lab got a B on it)
-Advice Proposal: 80% (Mean 82, SD 4)
- Project Proposal: 85% (Mean 82, SD 6)
- First Submission: 87% (Mean 79, SD 8)
- Second Submission: 92% (Mean 79, SD 10)
- Poster and SPSS grades unknown, but these are easy assignments.
- I often spoke in Lab and never missed a session, so I'm assuming my participation grade was high.
- 1 Extra credit point was applied to your lecture grade if you did a SONA study, after the curve is applied.
TIPS
- Read every chapter assigned to each week, and takes notes on them.
- Go to lecture and pay attention.
- Do not study last minute for exams.
- For each exam I would go over my textbook notes a week in advance and go over the entire practice exam given, they emulated the actual exams pretty well. I studied alone, because studying in a group may be too distracting.
- Go over what you got wrong on exams.
- Start lab assignments ASAP. Read the APA manual and re-read what you write for editing. Look at examples of writing in the textbook (e.g. the Method section, Results section, and References section are all explained in the textbook).
- Go to TA office hours.
- Don't overthink quizzes.
- Research your experiment topic well, especially for the first and second submissions. Synthesize your papers with past literature well.
- Lastly, do not blame the course for your grade in the class. I found the class difficult but I put in the work to make sure I got the results I wanted. This is not an impossible class, and UCLA is not meant to be easy. If you put in the effort and follow instructions clearly, you will be fine. Best of luck!

Going into PSYCH 100B, I was terrified after hearing so many horror stories.

Professor Firstenberg definitely soothed my worries: each lecture only focuses on a few key concepts, and she illustrates those concepts with several (often funny) examples, so there is time to grasp the content. She also incorporates a 10 minute break in between the two hour lecture, so lecture is never too heavy. She typically assigns a few chapters from the textbook to read alongside each lecture, and I found it was most useful to skim through, and then make note of the vocabulary terms from each chapter. There are two exams, one midterm and one final. They are multiple-choice, and focus primarily on applying the concepts from lecture and a few terms from the book into real-life experiment scenarios. Overall, lecture was not as difficult as I expected it to be, and as long as you review your notes weekly and keep up with the vocabulary terms from the readings, you will do fine on the exams.

In contrast to lecture, the PSYCH 100B lab was much more time consuming and difficult. The first three to four weeks of lab are really easy: you conduct a simple experiment, and go through basic exercises applying the experiment to the different parts of writing a research report. By week four/five, the difficulty ramps up as you start the group project. In my section, we were randomly assigned groups, and for the rest of the quarter, all assignments, besides the writing of your final research report, are made in your group. It is extremely important to actively communicate everyone’s duties in assignments and set early deadlines so you can all check to make sure everything is up to your standards. If not, that’s where a lot of groups start to fall apart and not score as well. The research report isn’t too difficult, you get a lot of practice in your lab, but it is time consuming so start early. As long as you do that, PSYCH 100B should not be too difficult! Good luck!

This was the hardest class I have ever taken in my life. Period. Iris is very nice and is willing to help when needed but the exam logic and the TAs really cause confusion and pain. Yes they did “rework” the class but everything is still the same where your grade is left up to RNG with which TA you receive and who you get as group members. Unfortunately I received an ex-head TA and even after sacrificing almost everything for this class, it wasn’t enough.

Advice I would give: review EVERYTHING. Sure redoing the practice exams over and over again help however there are just enough questions pertaining to the book to make you read it unless you want to end up with a bad grade. Engage with your TA WHENEVER POSSIBLE and get to know his or her specific grading style.

Good luck. You’ll need more than you’d think.

As others have mentioned, your grade/experience of this class really depends on your TA since you spend much more time in lab than in lecture (at least in the Summer class). The material itself is super easy and straightforward, Prof. Firstenberg is a great lecturer. The exams are mainly based on lecture, I didn't even open the textbook (There were a few questions directly from the book - actually marked "Textbook Questions" - that I guessed on). But, unfortunately the class and exams are strictly curved, meaning that only 20% of the class can get an A. To put this into perspective, if you are in a lab of 20 students like I was, the TA is instructed to give the As to only the 4 highest scorers. I think this is the main issue, not the actual difficulty of the material. So if you pay attention, take good notes, and really learn your TAs grading style, you'll do well. Also, TAKE IT IN THE SUMMER, it's so much easier if you can just focus on this one class.

This course honestly was not as bad as other people made it out to be. The work is tedious, but as long as you follow instructions to the T you should be fine.

I took this class along with three other classes(total of 4) and had a part-time job working around 8-9 hours per week, as well as other commitments like clubs and applying to internships for the summer.

It was manageable. I also never went to lecture after the first week because I just knew I was not gonna pay attention at 8 am. I skimmed the book merely just reading over the definitions, nothing serious. I would say your best weapon in this class is a clear understanding of all the terms, considering I noticed a lot of other people struggled to separate their definitions and mixed them up when it came to the test. This is especially important during the test as many questions are set up to trick students, and mixing up a definition can make the difference between the right or wrong answer.

Here are some of my scores I guess.

MT: 36/40 | class average: 30.7/40
Final: 33/40 | class average: 30.1/40

The lab does suck mostly because I hate the group project portion. I might have trust issues but whatever. The group can make a difference, considering I noticed my group was kind of passive about completing work, so I had to take the initiative most of the time and I hate to say this but completed most of the work. What matters in lab is to just score either at the average or above average.

My group usually scored at least within 1 or 2 standard deviations above the average, but we did have an early assignment(wasnt worth that much) where we scored a little below average.

Another helpful thing I did is looked over someone's work from a previous quarter and basically tried to see the style in which they wanted various assignments done. They usually mark up assignments so I assessed what they did wrong and what they did right and used it to tweak my work. So I'd find a trusting friend that doesn't mind you reading their work that probably got dragged and torn apart. This will make your life easier considering they often do not have specific examples of how they want work done, and its nice to see an example even if it isn't perfect.

This class is doable, you are capable, and in the end, don't let this class scare you. Cause even if you do get a C or whatever at least you passed or even if you failed that grade will not matter within a few months. Good luck :)

This class wasn't honestly so tough, not because of the lectures, but because of the lab that you are in. It really depends on the TA that you have and the group that you are put in for the entire group project. A lot of the TA's are absolutely horrible and make it their mission to give you scathing reviews and a hard quarter. They focus on all of the details that are insignificant because they want to give you bad grades. Make sure to be proactive about each lab assignment and talk to the TA a lot because if not you will not get a good grade right off the bat. Go over the lectures and textbook a bit for the midterm/final and you will be fine.

The class was a ton of work, but the curve helps a lot.

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I believe Prof. Firstenberg deserves a way better review rating. I think she has this rating mostly because the course can be pretty challenging in general, but she definitely does a great job in teaching the class. She's very engaging as she tries to use questions and humor to keep students' attention. She's also very organized with her teaching, so the content she teaches naturally falls into clear sections. She doesn't use slides but she writes on the blackboard which gives students enough time to jot notes.

*My advice is to focus on doing well on the exams because they account for 60% of your overall grade, with 30% each (mid-term + final). Even though most of the work and attention are directed to the lab, and you may feel that the lab is really important, lab session only accounts for 40% of your overall grade. Like I made a mistake of submitting my first submission of the paper late and got quite many points deducted, I still get an A+ because I did well in the exams.