I took this class with an open mind and went in just wanting to do my best. And in the end I feel pretty mixed about the professor. On one hand, it's obvious that he cares for the subject and does want you to learn , but on the other hand his teaching leaves a lot to be desired.

He lectures with a ton of run on sentences - which is fine - except when it completely messes with your understanding. I took psych 135 Smurda at the same time and both teachers have a similar amount of content and weekly structure. Smurda was clear, concise, and gave lots of relevant details. Whereas, Lee went on and on during confusing lectures.

For example, *pulling up my notes* he says and I quote, " the gender that has the lower base rate, meaning it's less prevalent and that gender, often times they have worse outcomes than the other gender who has the same disorder. " This sounds fine at first, except when I heard it, I had to think about it three times to actually understand. I don't know if I'm just slow but I feel like too much of what he means could have been said so much more concisely: the disorder is more severe for the gender that has it less.

At first, I didn't mind it but as the concepts get more involved I spent so much time deciphering what he meant instead of studying. Instead of explaining something, he will give two or three synonyms for a word and ends with "or whatever." ie. from his lecture: "[the relationship] has improved, but it's consistent with the idea that children who are maltreated, abused, victimized, whatever you want to call it." Maybe this is helpful for some people, but his confusing way of talking and surface level "explanations" made this class super frustrating even though the content is so interesting and relevant.

I heavily relied on my amazing TA, although towards the end, there was a section of information that even both the TAs struggled to review because the lecture on it was so unclear. They just brushed it off because it wasn't on the test. And at that point, I also ignored it too.

Speaking of tests, several questions are weird. He does stats on his results, which I really appreciate. However, there were many times multiple answer choices could be true, as in I can point to where to find the answers in the lecture or power points. It's a case of what is most true or more marginally accurate. And these specifics are NOT made clear during lecture. I'll use Smurda again as a counter example - Dr. Smurda always made sure to highlight or reiterate those kinds of weird specifics. It becomes very clear which details are important.

So, Dr. Lee being a great dad (it seems) and a great researcher doesn't necessarily mean being a great teacher. An interesting class with a professor who is definitely knowledgeable but without the clarity I needed.

Also, he has a weird drop policy where you can drop an exam score as long as you get at least 65% on all three exams. I always thought drop policies are for when you mess up badly once but this drop policy says to me it's fine to mess up except you can't mess up THAT bad.

Thank you for reading this rant. Ironically, it isn't very concise, but this class took so much of my brain power even though I was taking two other upper divisions. For context, I got As in those and a B in this class despite the time invested.

All in all, a doable class... but be warned. Good luck!

I really enjoyed Professor Lee's class, especially with his child guests! I think he really knows his stuff and he can make it interesting, especially with relevant media clips to form connections - I wish we had more of those! My only issue was the density of the course, the textbook chapters were so extensive and long it would take 2-3 hours to complete whereas his assigned articles were the right length. Ironically, taking this course made me realize I have had undiagnosed ADHD since like... the age of four, but those long chapters were hard to focus on for my classmates without as well. His slides where often blocks of text that were hard to get down, while listening to the other points he was speaking, and for filmed lectures there was so much content so fast. I wish he could slow down his bullet points when filming lectures ahead of time, during live lectures he often got behind bc of people asking to go back or needing more clarification because they didn't get everything down. I liked that we got the textbook for free and also that there weren't a bunch of other assignments or busywork. Sections were great and the classwork was definitely both helpful and easy. I also think the exams were a bit difficult even when you felt you mastered the material. However, I think finding a good researcher who is also a good teacher in this department is rare, and he really cares about his students! Kelsey expanded on the material in an interesting way and was super understanding when I forgot an assignment. I'd definitely take his class again!

Possibly the best psychology professor I had at UCLA. Professor Lee is very clear and straightforward in his lectures. He also has a very good sense of humor too. The subject material was fascinating.
I also liked how well he can project his voice, especially since we were in the Haines lecture hall, a very large one .

You take three exams, he drops the lowest grade. Very fair grading scheme. He runs stats on all his questions so he's quite aware of which questions had faulty wording or skewed choices.

Abnormal Psych is an interesting, scratch-the-surface type of class. Expect to be basically memorizing parts of the DSM and integrating research with it. I love the integration of research and its application. However, the material itself can get pretty dry because there's a lack of depth but much ground to be covered. But that's not his fault. He tries to keep you engaged as much as possible. Definitely recommend him!

Not sure why there are so many negative reviews. I literally took notes in class and reviewed the lecture notes the day before the test, skimmed the book throughout the quarter, and I got an A in the class. Half of my class got an A. Either his tests were harder in the past or people are getting smarter...