Does not explain lecture material very well, often felt lost in the class. Presents a few graphs and points on slides without adding much detail to them. Exams are pretty difficult.

I would say this class has sort of mixed reviews from my perspective. As a class, it’s a good class. It covers most, if not, all the psychology topics from many of the courses offered at UCLA so if you take this class in your junior/senior year, you should be able to remember most of the topics. The professor however is a different story. Professor McAuliffe is a great person but honestly, a pretty bad professor. In the beginning he said that he had more haters than supporters and I now see why. As a professor, he tries to incorporate jokes and personal stories into his lectures, which side tracks him a LOT. He can’t stay on topic for more than 7-10 minutes without bringing up his wife and daughter which isn’t a bad thing but sometimes the stories don’t relate to the topic at hand. His exams are horrible which only consist of a midterm and final. He gives you a study guide a week before each. The exams are basically what is on the study guide, however they are slowly tweaked a bit. What was most confusing is he would tell us to study one thing but then would leave out a lot of other crucial information that we should’ve paid attention to as well. His labs are pretty self explanatory, just him going over or expanding on the information from the lectures which ranged from slides to videos. If you’re looking for a class that has virtually no work with the exception of a midterm, final, and presentation at the end of the quarter, then take this class. However, it is advised that you take every little thing he says seriously, even if he makes a joke out of it because it will most likely be on the exam. Even if he brushes past it, review it and get is stuck in your mind.

I feel like he's a nice guy (kinda weird, but nice) but also, his tests are kinda difficult. I think my biggest tip if you're taking the class is to remember the answers from the study guide he gives you because many of the questions that were on the test were pulled from there verbatim. I say that the tests are kinda difficult because besides that aspect, it's basically a toss-up of what the rest of the questions on the test are gonna be. You kinda have to know a bit of everything, even small details that he might've discussed during his lectures and labs. If you're looking for a lab where you actually learn something useful, I probably wouldn't recommend this one.
I will say however that there are no homework assignments except for a presentation that you present during either week 9 or 10, and attendance is optional, which is a huge plus. I don't know what my final grade is yet but I know he said that he's probably going to have to curve final grades so even if your class does badly, just know that he probably will curve. Anyways, wanted to give you a more devil's advocate perspective bc I know a lot of people in my class aren't happy with him (which is valid cause the tests are just weird), but I don't think the entire class is terrible.

I've never left a review on a class and likely never will again. If you can help it AVOID this class- at all costs. Prof is a sweet guy, but an absolutely TERRIBLE teacher. Extremely unclear and unorganized, exams do not reflect what we go over in class. Just... don't take this class.

Biggest asshole ever. Don't take him if you care about your grade. The class itself is not a difficult course but he MAKES it difficult on purpose. He has this ridiculous idea that formulas shouldn't be given to students so you'll basically send your whole time memorizing stupid formulas and trying to remember what order to do all the steps for problems. He makes his tests difficult with a number of questions that are meant to trick you - and he has no qualms about relishing in intentionally doing this. In fact he gloats about it.

Anyone who says this guy genuinely cares about his students are deluding themselves. He doesn't actually care about the students - he's probably just sick of all the negative reviews on Bruinwalk (he gives away on the first lecture that he reads through these reviews).

Anyway, I hated this course and him as a professor. He's not funny and he thinks his attempts at humor (especially on the tests) makes things less stressful but really they're just irritating. Save yourself a quarter full of tedious memorization/sucky jokes and take the course with someone else.

Professor Mcauliffe was one of the best professors I've taken at UCLA! I came into the class unsure but the material was really interesting and he said that he has changed his testing methods. I was really nervous about taking the course but I didn't have any regrets at all. TAKE PROF MCAULIFFE! you won't regret it.

DO NOT TAKE HIM, HE IS HORRIBLE. His lectures are incomprehensible and i had to teach myself everything. Save your gpa, do not take him.

I was worried about this class after I heard how difficult Prof Mcauliffe was for 100A. But for 120A, I cannot say that he is unfair or difficult at all. His lectures can be a bit scattered and difficult to follow if you 'space out' for a second but all in all they are enjoyable - he actually makes it fun! The practice tests are VERY helpful to get a feel for his testing style. Take the practice tests - they provide you with a few 'freebies' for the exams. His questions are pretty straight forward and not too tricky at all. Very fair. I got an A in the class. Another great thing: NO BOOK! Just based on lectures and slides.
Definitely recommended.

This professor is not the greatest for psych 100a. He is confusing and his lectures are incomprehensible. His explanations of simple concepts are dragged on and would make even the best student confused. His tests are not super difficult but there are some questions which require reading it more than once. While he is friendly and tries, that does not mean his teaching methods are at all good.

Professor McAuliffe shows up to class dressed like a bum, sprints through the lectures leaving many confused, and wastes time with bad jokes. His lectures, as well as his website, are riddled with errors (mathematical and grammatical) that students like myself had to correct him on. This is a DETAIL ORIENTED class so his apathy towards detail tripped up many students. Be warned, PAY VERY CLOSE ATTETION to everything and be critical of what he writes because he usually isn't paying attention to the details. I got an A- so I'm not complaining about a bad grade, he's just a horrible teacher in every respect and makes the course more difficult than it really is.