you don't really need to go to class if you don't want to. for the first exam, read the book!!! his slides have so many typos that it could make you crazy. if you learn the material for the first exam from the book (ch. 1-8) you should be fine on the test. after that, don't read the book. the formulas in the book are different from the ones that he gives you, and his are the easier ones to understand. he isn't as bad as people say he is. do the practice exams!!! if you do the practice exams, you should get at least an A- on the tests

It's very hard to describe this professor without swearing like a sailor, but I'll try. He is, by far, the WORST teacher/professor I've had in my entire life. I got an A in my previous stats class (and I had a difficult professor in that class too), but I seem to have unlearned everything from my previous class because of McAuliffe.

The way he lectures is very confusing because he switches between powerpoint slides and the website with pre-solved problems at the speed of light. If you are like most people, and don't have a mind that works faster than the speed of light, you will get lost very fast. He didn't even go through the steps of solving the problems in class. Wait, maybe he did, but I just couldn't understand anything because he went through them too quickly and sloppily. It's also very confusing because he doesn't always use the same terms and symbols the book uses--he also uses the terms from the website, which makes things unnecessarily complicated.

In fairness, he does provide a lot of practice questions with solutions at the end, and some of the questions show up in the test verbatim. BUT in my experience, those nasty things hurt more than helped. They had a lot of typos and errors in calculating, so you'd actually be better off just doing the problems in the book. Oh, and don't bother showing up to class--I showed up to EVERY single class except one when I was really sick, and it did absolutely nothing for me. What an absolute waste of time. I should've just stayed at home and studied on my own, or with a tutor. Except, y'know...being a self-supporting student, I have no money to pay a tutor.

If you ALL of the following--lots of time, endless patience, a mind that works at the speed of light, no distractions at all, a penchant for understanding confusing things, lots of money to pay a tutor, and a solid background in stats--then you will do ok in class. However, if you are missing more than one of the above traits, for heaven's sake take someone else for psych 100A. Your GPA, your brain, and your stress-levels will thank you.

He is the WORST teacher I have ever had in my entire life. He attempts to teach statistics using a website. He never even gets up from his chair to write anything on the board. He does not explain the steps on how to do the problems. And this makes it especially hard, especially if you are not very good in math. He would constantly just skip over how to do all the steps for each problem and would rely on this website that had all the problems already answered. I have taken a statistics class before and I received an A and the only reason I am going to even pass this class is because I hired a private tutor to basically teach me the entire class. Whatever you do...do NOT take psych 100A with this guy.

I only had him for half a summer term, but the he lectures well. With his booming voice and added jokes, going to lectures was worth your time since the stuff from the midterm were pretty much from lecture. He had powerpoint slides that he lets you print out before class, so those were helpful. The exams could get tricky, and they make you think in multiple sides of the problem (like they are fill in the blank, and you would have to put the answer as not available). Overall, he was a good professor so I would recommend him.

The professor knows his stuff, no doubt...I think though that he could explain better and make better use of his powerpoint slides. He sometimes seems to be all over the place. We had a great TA though (DAVID LANGER IS AWESOME) and he made the material easy to understand. At one point, he was teaching the class for a week while the professor was out, and that week I understood the material the best. Both professor and TA was around at their office hours, just make sure you go over the slides and book by yourself and make use of the office hours. If you took Stats before, it should be easy.

I enjoyed the class. McAuliffe is funny. He answers e-mails quickly and thoroughly. He seemed very concerned about student learning, asked for our feedback, and posted many review questions. I thought he was an easy professor. His class didn't require much studying. The exams weren't that difficult and many of the questions were exactly like the review questions he posted. He wrote a song about psychological stats, sang it for us while playing the guitar, and passed out candy. So yeah, when he wasn't talking about the dry course material, lecture was pretty lively. I did feel that he wasn't very good at explaining things during lecture and kind of moved very quickly. I didn't read the book or pay much attention in lecture. I would say just know his powerpoint slides and do the review problems.

Hardly ever went to lecture. Studied -ss off for midterms and final, got A's on all. His lectures(the ones I went to) were not really efficient, since he uses powerpoint to lecture. Although Powerpoint is EXTREMELY useful when catching up on ditched classes, it's simply not a easily understandable way to learn math (which is much of 100A). Key thing: if you can understand the concepts and visualize problems, you'll be fine. Not a great course, but again, not the worst either.

Oh god, the horror, the horror. DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT TAKE MCAWFUL!!!! He is pompous, uncaring and breezes through the material. Harsh grader, unfair and RIDICULOUS!!! McAuliffe is insensitive, callous and ineffective. He truly is one of the worst professors to grace this campus. Did I mention that you'll also fall asleep in class?

He also tried to save his arse by playing the guitar at the end of the quarter with some cheap song. Had absolutely no effect on my evaluations.

DO NOT TAKE HIM. SAVE YOURSELF FROM THE PAIN.

USE the lectlets on the disc with the book. The book was heinous, the professor was worse and they TAs were even worse than he was. I have NEVER had problems with Stats courses, but this one was nearly impossible, just try the lectlets, they were what got me through.

Horrible! Just plain horrible! I don't see how you can teach math by just clicking on a powerpoint presentation and never actually showing how a problem is done. This subject matter is best to be self-taught by reading the book because he never actually teaches anything. Also, don't expect to get much help from the T.A.s because they refuse to do any complicated problems - only the simple and quick ones that everyone can do. The exams are complicated and hard to understand. Do NOT take this professor unless you want to go through a tough time like I did. And if you want to endure lame and corny jokes, too.