this is one of the most useful classes i've taken at ucla so far and im pretty surprised at how well this class went for me bc i was absolutely DREADING it based on what others have said. as you probably already know, your experience in psych 100b will mostly depend on who your TA and who your group members are. the quizzes were about every other week and only consisted of 3 MC questions; they were like a mini version of the exam. the lecture content itself was pretty straightforward and there were only a few concepts i had trouble understanding at first. dr. ankowski is a great lecturer imo. she's so bubbly and presents the material using easy to understand language and examples. i've never gone to her OH but she seems really approachable. in lab, you'll be going over how to write a research paper in addition to reviewing and practicing concepts from class.

tips i have for taking tests and quizzes:
- sounds obvious, but do the practice tests and work on them as if they're the actual exams. give yourself a time limit, annotate the questions.
- look at the question, and try figuring out things like the IV, DV, confounding variables, etc BEFORE looking at the choices. most of the questions are basically formatted like a scenario, and you have to answer questions based on this.
- rewatch lectures if things are still unclear. one useful tip they gave us was when watching lectures, jot down the time stamp of topics so that you can just rewatch that portion if you still don't understand fully
- this depends on your own studying style, but give yourself enough time to study before the exams so that you're not studying last minute. the exams and quizzes were at 8am </3 so definitely get a good night's sleep before
- i didn't have any friends in this class </3 but it might have been helpful to have someone to discuss concepts and test questions with

tips for lab:
- i got really lucky and had an amazing TA and group mates. go to office hours, even if it's just to ask a few clarifying questions. you don't have to be besties, but make the effort to go talk to them
- if you are already a decent writer, the odds are in your favor. but if you're not, you can improve! start on your writing assignments early, and use the writing guides and resources provided. what i did was just outline the day it was assigned, and then worked on it each day leading up to the due date. i found the resources on transition words and research sentence structures really helpful.
- participate. ask questions, answer questions, add on to your classmates' points. but don't be the annoying one that hogs up all the participation opportunities. it was much easier to participate online because people could just type in the chat, so definitely put more effort into this if discussion is in person
- communicate with your group mates. even if you have to pick up the slack, delegate roles. (e.g. _______ is going to turn this in, _______ will write this section, _______ will make these materials). we were assigned our groupmates, and i think it was based off on our individual work styles.
- start on your final paper ASAP. just outline and write as you go.
- have someone read your paper! whether it's your roommate or a student from the writing center. it should be able to be understood by anyone, even if they're not a psych major

i did not use the textbook at all, so there goes my $60 down the drain. don't buy it. just focus on the lecture material itself. i referenced the workbook a few times when writing, but your TA will most likely give you the necessary pages. the workbook was sort of like a guide to writing each section of your research paper.

good luck in this class besties!! you can do it!!

I still cannot believe that I got an A finally. You can see how terrible and unreasonable the class structure is from other reviews, but I still wanna say: don't panic when you mess up with one single assignment. I was really frustrated and uneasy when I found that I got a very very low grade for my project proposal--in fact I believe our group got the worst grade in the section. However, I didn't give up and tried my best to do other assignments. I think my participation grade should be high because I contributed to the discussion every time, and my other assignments are fair (even though for the last assignment I scored below the mean). That's why I got an A in the end I think. Also, don't forget that you have the lecture part to boost your grade. The materials are fairly easy to understand, and the professor is a good lecturer. I scored over 97% for my lecture part. In conclusion: don't panic; don't freak out; try to talk to your TA about your grade and what's on your mind when doing the assignment (sometimes they would change your grade if you really persuade them); do well on your lecture.

This class really is not as hard as its made out to be. For lab, I would say just stay on top of your assignments and make sure you get ample feedback from you TA. For the lecture, watch all the lectures and do the practice exams. If you do the above, you will be fine!

100B is overall an unpleasant class to take, but if you're gonna take it with anyone it should be Ankowski. Her lectures are pretty straightforward and she uses good examples to make everything clear; the exams aren't that bad. The only heavy and challenging part of the course is the lab and the amount of group work you have to do, but that mostly depends on your TA. She also offers some extra credit and lots of resources to practice course concepts.

I'm sure that by the time Professor Ankowski teaches this class again everything will be in-person so your experience will likely differ.

Professor Ankowski's 133c class is extremely interesting and is very straightforward. Professor is caring and always sends us reminders about deadlines/weekly lectures.

I thought the quizzes and assignments were straightforward. Highly recommend as an elective.

Overall: 5/5

This is a great introductory class to Psychology as a subject. It's almost like a jack of all trades, where it takes you through different areas and disciplines within Psychology, but never goes really into detail about an area. I actually learned a lot from this :)

Prof. Ankowski was a really great and approachable teacher, and she relayed information very effectively. However, I felt like she didn't prepare us enough for the midterm and final - even though there was the Psych test bank (WHICH YOU SHOULD TOTALLY USE), there weren't really any exercises or study guides to aid students. The midterm did have a 2% group score, so that was its saving grace.

iClicker in this class is honestly very manageable; you only have to answer half the questions, and the answers will come to you if you at least pay 50% of your attention to the class.

In the class, you will be assigned to a lab group, with which you will be working throughout the whole quarter to complete the group assignments. They were really manageable too, and if you just put in sentences that make sense and have the TAs review them after, you'll get full grades. If you don't like your group, you honestly can opt to completely skip the lab days (but you would still have to participate in iClicker + the latter half of the day is still for lecture).

Overall, pretty nice class. I would say it being 2 hours long and starting from 8 am led to a somewhat dead audience though. I recommend it if you want a class that doesn't take up too much of your time :)

Tip: the lectures do come with their pre-built notes on BruinLearn so you realistically don't have to take them in class, but you should still just in case. The exams also ask stupidly niche questions from the textbook, which (mostly) isn't covered at all in the lectures so do read it once you need to review for the midterm/final.

I loved Professor Ankowski so much. Her lectures were extremely interesting. I wasn't originally thrilled about taking this class but she completely changed my mind within a few weeks. She makes everything really clear and I truly feel like I learned a lot in her class. A lot of people didn't want to read the weekly textbook chapter, but I must say it's essential if you are aiming to get an A in the class. It's not, however, boring and redundant like most textbooks. I found the text to be pretty interesting and not too long to the point I couldn't finish it in one sitting. The tests are fair and pretty easy. The average grades on all assignments and exams were a B or above. I highly recommend this class. It's easy and enjoyable.

For a psych elective, this is a harder class. I personally found the material to be incredibly interesting and lecture was - for the most part - engaging. The grading scheme is pretty generous, but the difficulty is that the exams are harder than they need to be. Many electives I’ve taken don’t feel like they’re trying to “trick you” with questions and generally don’t require hyper specific knowledge, but this class leans more toward that. I definitely recommend taking this class because the content is very interesting, but it is bogged down by classic psych major story time dumps during class time and the difficulty of the midterm and final. I would take it again, but just know it’s not going to be the easiest A you could possibly get in an elective. Even an A+ in the class is a 99%+ which is irregular, but I was able to manage it with normal amounts of study time and keeping on top of the weekly assignments.

Overall this class isn't bad and the material covered is relatively easy to grasp and understand. However, I felt the exams were very unfair. I spend so long studying everything from every slide and using the test yourself resource we had. The questions were so tricky and would go over something mentioned one time in class that wasn't even important. In the final I had studied every concept and every slide and turns out one topic had like one question. I just felt it didn't really test you properly and the questions were unfair even though I knew everything I still didn't score well on the final because it was 60 questions with the smallest topics on each. I don't thinks he was a bad professor because she explained stuff well but I wish her exams were formatted in a different way

awwwwww this class was so cute!!!! the material was so interesting (as someone who wants to work in communication sciences) and the professor was so sweet! tests were honestly a little tough, the final especially was way harder than it needed to be?? like average was -10 points which is a lot for a psych elective i think...but as long as you study and do the extra credit and turn in your weekly quizzes and assignments on time, you'll be fine!! i recommend!!!