Shams managed to make an interesting topic into a boring one. Her slides lack organization, making it very confusing and non-compatible for note-taking. She often discusses topics in a roundabout way, making things very unclear and giving the impression she is unprepared. She fails to make the class engaging, despite efforts to encourage class participation, due to her lack of organization and clarity when giving lectures. She also spends too little time on slides with important information, glossing over what I believe are the most crucial details in the subject so she can move on to visual examples, when she could incorporate both the important information and the visual examples together. Her slides are visually boring and lack any educational engagement, that is neither compensated for in her oral lecturing skills nor adapted for class participation purposes. Her demos at the end of lecture are somewhat interesting, but she definitely needs to find a way to integrate them within the lecture so that we can see examples as we're learning about them rather than see the examples all at once at the end of the lecture.

You would literally be an idiot if you didn't wait for Castel (Psych 120A). I have major regrets taking this class. Take my advice. This class is INSANELY difficult, and you have to read the books super closely and take good notes. You also must know everything from lecture. Everything is fair game, whether it's covered in lecture, discussion, or the readings. 0/10 would never recommend this headache again

I feel as if it's my moral obligation to leave a review for Shams because it would have been nice to read an honest review before taking her class. Almost all I saw were negative comments about how awful she was so I went into the class cautiously. In reality it was the OPPOSITE. I don't know what students left those reviews but by the end of the quarter I was legitimately upset that I had been fooled to think Ladan Shams was a bad professor.

The reality: Shams is a kind and caring professor. She actually wants her students to learn the material and her interest in what she teaches is wildly evident. She's soft spoken, yes, and that can translate into a boring professor. The topic is difficult. If you don't have in interest in it to begin with you probably won't like the class. That's the truth. I'm minoring in cognitive sci, so each lecture fascinated me beyond belief. I soaked it all in, but i won't lie, I studied my ass off. The material is NOT EASY.

She video podcasts all her lectures. That said, I didn't attend class that often, I enjoy the comfort of learning in my pjs at home. Use these podcasts to your advantage and WATCH THEM. Minor details are key in this class. A lot of people say that she's not organized with her slides, and that's half true. But I honestly don't blame her. The material can get convoluted sometimes, where she has to teach one part, then go back and teach a different portion of it. Utilize office hours and your TA for help.

Discussion sections were OPTIONAL and you didn't have to attend. This was odd to me considering the difficulty of the material sometimes. I attended all discussions, and there were never more than 3 students who would attend (including me). I'm curious if this was a norm for other discussions too, but I got essentially one on one time with the TA to ask all the questions I had about the weeks material which was SO HELPFUL. If I could give one advice for this class it would be TO GO TO THE DISCUSSION. If you don't, I don't feel sorry for you and honestly I believe those who left bad reviews for this class were the lazy ones.

For my class there was a midterm fiasco where we all came in prepared to take the test, but it was printed incorrectly. Shams freaked out, canceled the exam, and gave us all 100% on the midterm. As far as I know, this is unheard of. She's extremely strict about her tests because of how many cheating scandals her class has had. Therefore, our grades were then only based on the final, paper, and weekly "mini-lab" assignments. Most think that these weekly assignments are boring and annoying, but I would advise you to PAY ATTENTION TO THEM. They help you grasp the material. Anyways, I was super scared for the (non-cummalitive) final knowing that most of my grade would be based on it. Studied my ass off. Got a 96%. Was straightforward, but you absolutely had to know the material well. There were no twists to the multiple choice questions like some professors like doing (looking at you, Professor Monti). Side note: you have to read the textbook. There's no escaping it. She takes some questions directly from the reading in the book. It's really not that bad, though it's all sciencey, it just reiterates what she taught in class.

I would have ended up with a A+ in the class but I got marked off some points on the paper. Lastly, she offers CRAZY extra credit. The most I've ever had for a class. It was something like 3%, honestly unheard of.

TL;DR Shams isn't bad, you're just lazy. Attend the optional discussion. Video podcasted lectures. Read the book. Straightforward tests. Lots of extra credit.

It is a pretty simple class if you know what stuff to study from. Honestly, all you have to do is review all lecture material for the midterm and final exams. I unfortunately focused my attention on the book and got a D on my midterm. Once I studied only the lectures and listened to the podcasts, I managed to get a B on my final exam (which is not cumulative btw). Overall I got a C+ in the class and I felt like I could've done better if I had studied the lectures more for the midterm but it was a really interesting class to take with really cool information about our visual and hearing senses.

I don't know why some of students think Shams is a boring lecturer. I think she is pretty good!

Shams is definitely a boring lecturer. Her slides are so unorganized it bugged me. I went to every single lecture before the midterm, and stopped going to any after it. I just went to every single discussion section because i found the TA explained the material MUCH better with more organized slides and information, and they cover basically everything that Shams covers in lecture.

The articles for the paper were hard for me to understand. I dont know if anybody else struggled with it but i didn't like it at all.

she does offer extra credit though, and the midterm and final are multiple choice, so that's a plus.

Overall, class is definitely doable if you HAVE to take it with her, but not ENJOYABLE. and you don't have to show up to class at all.

Despite the interesting name, this class really is extremely boring like others have said. I've taken other classes that are also "heavy" on science, but Shams somehow makes a class that should've been interesting into one of the most boring classes at UCLA... even my LS 1 class was more interesting. But the class is easy though, I managed to pull off a B even when getting C's on the multiple choice exams (I did get full credit on everything else and got extra credit).

Minilabs were very easy and you get the points just for doing them. The article critique (around 3 pages) isn't too bad either, especially if you've taken 100B and have experience with research articles/making experiments.

Easy class if you have to take it. Otherwise, I'd recommend looking into another class if you're looking for a more interesting experience.

Looks like the evaluations below are on point. Prof. Shams is incredibly boring, and I suggest that you sit in in the front few rows if you want to be the least distracted and bored. She does go in circles sometimes and the powerpoint slides are incredibly plain and boring (although she does provide a few cool demos at the end of the class usually). She podcasts herself but listening to her podcasts is even more boring than being in class. Her tests are actually not too hard if you do the reading and pay attention to every detail in class, although there are a few tricky questions. She gives 5 extra credit points and her grade is based on a midterm, final, and a 2 page research review paper (you just basically answer questions about a paper they assign you). You also have 8 minilabs, which are assignments (about 1-2 pages worth of questions from that week's lecture topic/chapter) that the TAs e-mail you every week and you have to submit through Turnitin. Overall, she is doable, you just have to prepare yourself for the most boring lectures ever. Bring candy, it definitely helped me.

Professor Shams is incredibly boring. She talks herself in circles during lecture and is extremely confusing. Don't go to class, it's a waste of your time...just listen to the podcasts and read her slides and you'll do fine. At least the information is somewhat interesting, which helped to maintain my sanity during the quarter.

One of the easiest classes ive taken at UCLA. I went to class a total of 4 times during the quarter. I did not bother buying the book or even watching the podcasts. I studied the slides really well for like 5 hours before midterm and final. The paper took me 2 hours to write. And i only did 1% of the extra credit. Grade: A-