I was afraid to take this class, but since being restructured, this class is a breeze. It was very interesting too! Who knew research was so complicated. This class has genuinely made me a better consumer of all kinds of research. With that being said, there are a few things I wish I knew before taking this class:
1. Take the practice exams. Do every single practice question. I strongly believe one of the reasons I performed well on exams was that I took every practice exam, annotated every question, and wrote rationales for every right answer. This helped me to understand how exam questions would be structured, what I was expected to know, and what kinds of tricks would be written into the questions.
2. Go to discussion sections. Although they were optional, I think that going to discussion sections helped me tremendously on my homework. Some of the homework assignments were graded on completion, but for those that were graded on accuracy, it was helpful to go to discussion to know what, exactly, I was expected to do on my homework. The assignments graded on accuracy were graded by a rubric, and it was sometimes not too clear what was expected of us, but discussion sections literally provided us with an example of exactly what we needed to do on our homework to receive a good grade.
3. On the homework graded on accuracy, the more detail the better. Seriously. Include pretty much every detail you think might be relevant when designing an experiment.
4. Watch the ALM videos. I'm gonna be honest. I often skipped the ALM videos & went straight to the assignments because ALMs are graded on completion. However, when I actually watched an ALM video once on a topic I was especially confused about, I found it to be extremely helpful-- ALM's are essentially deep-dives into the exact topics that will be tested on the exam. Don't take these for granted, they are a valuable study resource.

OKAY, forget all the past reviews because this professor redesigned this course. I was so scared to take this class bc of its reputation but I SWEAR THIS CLASS IS EASY (and I am not a psych genius or whatever). So for the assignments the ALMs are based on completion and are super easy took barely any time to complete & were helpful for the exams. There are somewhere around 4 labs that are participation based so super easy. HOWEVER, for the labs that are graded for accuracy, you need to be as detailed and specific as possible bc those are graded harshly. But, the assignments are relatively easy bc there are so many resources given to you and the lab helps you a lot. The exams are super easy too literally all you need to do is do the practice exams she gives you and if you understand them then you are good. For reference, I only studied the lecture slides and did the practice exams and I got a 97% on both the final and the midterm. The exam questions are meant to trick you, so you must read carefully and annotate the questions. The exams are online and open-book so...easy A. Going to lab is optional and tbh missing them isn't that big of a deal. I promise you guys this class is an easy A, like it is crazy how much they have changed the course so don't stress!!!!

Professor is great- funny, intelligent, thoughtful, prepared.

Good luck on getting a good TA- disc/lab isn't really mandatory but they grade your homework and can be very weirdly strict. Try not to get Gillespie!

Everyone makes this class seem super hard, and I was really nervous before taking it, but it is honestly one of the easiest classes I have taken. All of it is common sense or memorization, so if you're doing poorly in the class, then you're probably just not working hard enough.

as a psych major, i was mortified to take this class, i was so mad that i didn't take it while they were allowing us to use pass/no pass for this course. i am by no means a student who gets good grades without studying and i have never studied more for a class than i did for 100b. first off, i want to say professor firstenberg is not the scary, mean, psych lady everyone made it seem. she is so willing to help and is always open to answering students' questions. every time i dropped in for office hours, it was always empty, so please utilize the resources you are given to succeed. i literally went into office hours and told her how anxious i was for her exam and she stressed to me how important it was to use the practice exams she provides and i really do believe those practice exams are largely why i did well on the exam. the class material is really different from what we see in other psych classes which is why the exams are also difficult in comparison, but i promise with an appropriate amount of studying it is manageable. the material is very straightforward, so you cannot simply trust the fact that you understand it when listening to lectures, you really have to practice the scenarios they provide that emphasize the application of the concepts. the teaching assistants are also very helpful and make the material a lot easier to digest and they provide so many tips and tricks on how to read the information provided during the exams. this class is nothing like it used to be, i was so scared but luckily was pleasantly surprised. although the course was slightly heavier in the summer, i really do recommend taking it in the summer because it is compiled to the bigger, more important topics, making it easier to do well.

please do not let anyone scare you in regard to this course, i did not think i would do well. i spent the entire week leading up to the exam crying because i was so worried i wouldn't do well. all of us have different gauges of difficulty and i promise if you go in with an open mind, ready to learn you'll get it!

don't hesitate to ask for help because all of the instructors were so ready to help and promote success within the course.

also, i cannot stress this enough DO THE PRACTICE EXAMS, THEY HELP!

Professor Firstenberg was incredibly kind and engaging during her lectures! The course is relatively simple, but the exams are definitely more difficult than Firstenberg's bubbly personality lets on. Going to lab is not required, but I found it so essential for preparing for the tests. IF you are a psych or psychobio major, there is no wait out of taking this class, but it definitely is easier than now compared to how it was structured in past years.

Take this class with a helpful and caring professor, not Firstenberg. She does not make the class manageable for people to succeed. I understand this class is meant to be tough and the workload is excessive, but the professor is not helpful. We had a formatting issue on the exam, which displayed incomplete answer choices, and you had to select among the faulty choices. Due to the nature of the sequential exam, you couldn't go back to the question. People emailed during the exam and were told how to fix it, only after they already answered faulty questions. The professor was made aware of this issue with a class email, and gave us the option to double down points from the final exam before even taking it/knowing our score on it. We took this issue to the department, and only then she decided to say she would keep the best score that benefitted our grades at the end of the course. She was not understanding until the department intervened, which demonstrates her lack of care for students' voices. This issue made the class more stressful than it already was, during an already stressful Winter quarter (plus the school threat and omicron online transition). I was able to pass because I scored better on the final exam and completed the labs well.
Lab assignments are graded on a strict rubric, so make sure you read that carefully. Missing one sentence/component means you will lose points. Going to the lab discussions will definitely help you complete your lab assignments so try not to miss lab. Lecture is clear and gives you many examples of the concepts and terminology. ALMs are easy and help you understand what you don't really know from content. Review all the material for the exams, and try to do as many of the practice questions.

This class was absolutely horrible in the sense that none of the tools given to us including homework assignments, practice quizzes, and lab assignments actually helped us succeed on exams. The formats were tricky and the wording of questions was even trickier. The harshest thing was also that the Professor was not willing to help us and we were only able to fix a test formatting concern after we sent numerous emails to the department since she did not care at all. If you can, TAKE THIS WITH ANOTHER PROFESSOR. Try taking this course with a professor who gives easier exams, cares about their students, and actually teaches. I really don't understand why they make this class so difficult. Many psychology majors need this class to declare majors and some students were not able to pass which is very sad. I was barely on the cusp of not passing but am so glad to be done with this awful class. Many aspects of the class were made to seem like they were beneficial to us but the exams just slapped us in the face. While the professor is okay at explaining topics, the format and system of the class is a nightmare. Also, for all the smart A students, be prepared to receive your first B or lower grade because this class is impossible even for all of us A students. Good luck and make sure to really evaluate the teacher who offers this course as it really is a make it or break it grade for most UCLA majors!

I really loved this class – definitely one of my favorite I've taken for psychobiology pre-reqs at UCLA. Professor Firstenberg is one of the best lecturers in my three years at UCLA – everything is super clear from lectures and exam questions are drawn from them directly. Practice questions are definitely a really good resource towards doing well, as well as taking notes from lectures and reviewing them.

I was terrified going into this class because of all the bad stuff I heard about it. Luckily they redesigned the class to be easier this quarter, and boy it's now one of the EASIEST classes at UCLA. It's now very comparable to Psych100A. Very easy I think a monkey could get an A in this class.