This is the best class that I've taken so far at UCLA. Prof. Smurda has changed my thinking about the world.

She presents everything in an interesting, clear way and she's very patient with students. Her tests are fair, but you do need to study. Overall, I would highly recommend taking this class and really any class with Dr. Smurda.

This class was pretty interesting. I did not really enjoy the books assigned however, because I found the connections to lecture somewhat confusing. But overall, the lecture content the professor teaches is very straightforward and useful even in daily life. Like others have said, studying the content on the slides is not enough for the tests, it is helpful to rewatch the lectures or read the transcripts. This class wasn't too bad but the exams were somewhat tricky.

Overall, I enjoyed my experience in this class. Exams were largely fair although the questions could be very specific – it is recommended that you know understand each of the studies she covers, and make sure you do all the readings because questions from there will show up. The material is fascinating, but lectures are based on PPT slides and are very content-heavy (50-60+ slides per lecture, sometimes more) and can be a little dry – although most of the slides consist of pictures and graphs. I would DEFINITELY recommend writing out notes on everything she mentions or using audio to text to transcribe everything because solely studying off her slides may not be enough/they may lack important information for exams.

In replacement of a mandatory textbook, the professor assigns several social psychology readings to do that are relevant to discussion sections. The readings were interesting and I honestly preferred them immensely to your run-of-the-mill dry textbook, which probably would have succeeded in making a subject as interesting as social psychology sound absolutely boring. Sections are also useful and engaging, and help you understand the readings and prepare for exams! I really enjoyed my TA, Ben.

The professor can be accommodating but sometimes can seem to get a little irritated by students' persistent questions, which is honestly understandable.

This was essentially how the class was structured during Winter Quarter of 2021 (online):

SECTIONS: There are 6 sections, you can miss 1 without penalty. Section grade is based on attendance, thought questions, and in class participation; no curve. You have to submit a discussion seed (short, thoughtful response) for every reading, and you have to be engaged during discussions.

LECTURES: Attendance/participation is optional/recorded.

GRADES: Based on 2 exams (40% midterm, 40% final) and section (20%). Exams are MCQ, no make-up exams offered except for with thorough documentation.

EXTRA CREDIT OPPORTUNITIES: Total of up to 2% added to final grade through –
1. Research participation: Earn 1 extra credit % point by participating in experiments through Psychology Dept Subject Pool.
2. Earn 1 extra credit % point by participating in at least 70% of polls during regularly scheduled class time.

What a dope class. I've sat in the back of the class for every course I've taken at UCLA and Dr. Smurda is one of the only ones who has the energy to reach everyone in the class. She's really funny too. My bf isn't in the major but even he often sat in on her class because the material is so interesting and Prof, imo, does a great job of explaining things in a digestible form. She even has a Piazza page where you can ask questions to her and your peers... just in case you didn't catch something.

There's no textbook required, but there's like 1 or 2 reading books (I can only remember 1 but I feel like there were 2, maybe I'm crazy) that are super cheap and actually pretty cool. You def want to read the stuff because it'll without a doubt show up on the tests. The material from the books is all thoroughly hashed out during discussion section so I recommend that you go to those. Her tests aren't super easy but they're not super hard either. She's not trying to trick you but she will get you to think a little bit.

I really enjoyed this class and it opened up a lot of new areas of thought for me. I'm not even a particularly smart person and I still managed to do well bc Prof actually cares to make sure that you're learning and not just mindlessly vomiting info on test day.

I 100% think you should take this class.

This class met all the criteria I look for: material was interesting and easily applicable to my life, tests were fair, Professor Smurda's presentations were clear and easy to study from, discussion sections were informative, and Professor Smurda was very accommodating when covid derailed the final (she allowed us to skip it and make the midterm count for the entire testing category). She also gave us the opportunity to earn extra credit by participating in SONA labs. Overall, a great experience and an instructor who is very knowledgeable about the subject matter.

Taking this course with Professor Smurda was one of the best decisions ever. She truly cares about her students and is very attentive whenever one needs help with topics or is confused about something. Tests are very well-formed, as long as you study your notes and go through the lectures as well as read the chapter books that are assigned it is a very do able class to do. Professor Smurda does a great job of allowing everything to come together and make perfect sense!

Like the reviewer before me, I took this class because of good reviews and I ended up leaving the class feeling like it was pretty forgettable. Dr. Smurda is nice and her lectures were generally pretty interesting even though they seemed to be largely focused on presenting the results of studies which you really needed to memorize for the tests, although she didn't emphasize that. So many times her slides would only have pictures or graphs, and there were no words explaining them, but then the test questions would be really specific and difficult to answer only using the slides. I would highly recommend listening to the podcast of each class for any slides that don't have words (and there are many). I think people must have complained about this to her because she kept insisting in class that she always had summary slides for each of the studies, and that she never just put a picture, but that was actually not true at all.

Other the final and the midterm, your grade is made up of section, which is mandatory, and participation through iClicker. The four books we have to read for section are mostly interesting, although some are better than others. The amount of reading total isn't too bad either, and I thought all the test questions on the books were really straightforward unlike the questions on the slides. You also have to write short ~175 word discussion seeds on each book which were really easy to get full points on. My TA was Maira, and I would avoid her if possible because she didn't seem to know what she was doing or know how to answer our questions, so I never found section helpful at all.

For participation, Dr. Smurda only required us to answer 60% of the questions for the full grade which I thought was fair. So if you attend section, do the discussion seeds and answer most of the iClicker questions you should get 100% in those areas. You can also get 1.5 points of extra credit added on top of your final grade for doing psych studies which definitely helped me. Overall this class wasn't bad, but I didn't end up enjoying it like I thought I would.

This is my second time taking a class with Professor Smurda, and I can honestly say she's one of the best professors I've had so far at UCLA! Her lectures are very organized and interesting, and she does her best to engage with the class. The midterm is based on the lecture as well as some of the book chapters (from 4 books) we read for the discussion, so I'd recommend reviewing the slides/lectures (she uploads her powerpoints to CCLE and her lectures are Bruincasted) and learning the main concepts from the assigned readings. I can't speak much on the final since I opted-out (I did fairly well on the midterm), but it was focused on the second half of the course material, except for some key ideas (the five hypotheses) presented in the first lecture that carry over throughout the entirety of the course. The discussions for this class were alright, they mainly focused on discussing the book chapters we read as opposed to discussing lecture content. Participation also counts towards your grade, which was tracked via iClicker/Reef. Overall, I learned a lot of valuable things from this class and I'd highly recommend taking it with Professor Smurda!

Dr. Smurda is a really helpful professor, but I just found the lectures to be a bit dull because it was mostly reading from slides. The tests were really tricky because there were many questions that had 2 answers that could work. My biggest advice would be to go through all the lecture slides and if you have time listen to the recordings.

Honestly a pretty easy class as long as you put in some effort. Tests are pretty much based off the slides so just study those well and you should be fine. Class requires some studying but literally if you just spend a day or two reviewing the slides you will do fine