This class wasn't honestly so tough, not because of the lectures, but because of the lab that you are in. It really depends on the TA that you have and the group that you are put in for the entire group project. A lot of the TA's are absolutely horrible and make it their mission to give you scathing reviews and a hard quarter. They focus on all of the details that are insignificant because they want to give you bad grades. Make sure to be proactive about each lab assignment and talk to the TA a lot because if not you will not get a good grade right off the bat. Go over the lectures and textbook a bit for the midterm/final and you will be fine.

The class was a ton of work, but the curve helps a lot.

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I believe Prof. Firstenberg deserves a way better review rating. I think she has this rating mostly because the course can be pretty challenging in general, but she definitely does a great job in teaching the class. She's very engaging as she tries to use questions and humor to keep students' attention. She's also very organized with her teaching, so the content she teaches naturally falls into clear sections. She doesn't use slides but she writes on the blackboard which gives students enough time to jot notes.

*My advice is to focus on doing well on the exams because they account for 60% of your overall grade, with 30% each (mid-term + final). Even though most of the work and attention are directed to the lab, and you may feel that the lab is really important, lab session only accounts for 40% of your overall grade. Like I made a mistake of submitting my first submission of the paper late and got quite many points deducted, I still get an A+ because I did well in the exams.

I don't know why everyone is complaining, and apparently they took it in the same quarter I did. I was so scared to take this class but it ended up being just a class with a lot of busy work to do. Everything is dependent on your attitude. I had an AMAZING TA (Sandra, it was her last quarter TAig), and a great, hardworking group, so that may have made the difference for me. I had a really good experience with this class. To earn an A, here are my grades:

Exam 1; 37/40
Exam 2; 33/40
Final Paper: unknown, but must have done well
First submission: 72/100
Proposal: 83/100
Quizzes: 12/15

I honestly thought I had earned a B but the curve and extra credit helped me. Firstenberg uses the chalkboard to write and lectures are not recorded which was annoying, but she was very clear and helpful. Practice exams and quiz questions are structured EXACTLY like the exam questions. Those are your best study tools. Dont stay up late cramming because it wont be helpful and you really need to be alert for the exams. Exams were worded in a tricky way, and questions were very very nuanced, but this is the class that distinguishes your GPA from everyone else's for psych majors. Every UCLA psych major can't graduate with a 4.0, then it wouldn't mean anything.

Just have a good attitude, and dont be so scared. It's just a class. For me that made ALL the difference in my experience.

Everything you heard about psych 100B is semi right. The exams are extremely hard and no matter how much you think you get the material, you probably don’t. I got a 80% average on both exams (64/80) and did average on the practice first submission which is worth 20% of your lab grade so do well on it! I’d say that the exams for this class were a lot like LS 7B and I received the same grade in both. Therefore, if you did well in the 7 series then you will probably do well in this class. I was lucky to have an amazing TA who is unfortunately retiring so there’s no worth in putting their name. My group was also great, the best thing to do is just assign each member different parts of the project. In the group review you have at the end of the quarter, you can write how so and so did this part which is why it’s horrible and shouldn’t impact your grade. Overall, I am happy to receive a B+ in this class and it is achievable for everyone. It will be pretty hard to get an A but if you did in the 7 series and love multiple choice exams then it is totally doable.

I wouldn't say 100B is hard as much as it is stupid, poorly structured, bureaucratic, and lazy.

The point is you need this class to get into the major, so it's a stupid class you are going to have to get through nonetheless. Buckle up, don't be a wuss and go in with a wavering fist. There are 2 exams for the lecture component, and for lab there are: a couple written assignments (mostly group), and 5 quizzes with 3 questions on each.

The exams are downright difficult. You can read the book and study the notes, and I think that is enough to get you at a performance of a C level if you are an average student. If you know how to apply yourself and a little above average, a B is obtainable on the exams. And if you know how to really read questions with small nuances and rip apart the answer choices, you can get an A. They are those annoying all of the above, c and d answer choices to questions that you will NEVER be asked in the real world or in an interview. I seriously do not understand professors that go out of their way to be sneaky like this. At this point in education, there is an unfathomable amount of competition. why go out of your way to drop pre-majors gpa in a 6 unit class when they are in double digit debt? Whatever. These exams are told by the professors and master TAS that they are not meant to trick you, but they ARE. They add in irrelevant information to throw you off, and get you to pick the wrong option so budget your time wisely, DO NOT STAY UP STUDYING (you need to be alert as hell during the exams), read carefully, bring a highlighter, and know your shit and always interrogate the crap out of all the information that is given to you in review and in lecture. Ask questions and try to mimic the way the instructor/ TAS think and approach concepts. Pro Tip: Go to review sessions, sometimes they will share helpful examples or things that are likely to be on the exam. Always go and come prepared with questions on your mistakes on the practice exam. Take those opportunities seriously.

Quizzes in lab are easy and straightforward. I nearly got a perfect score on every single one of them. Really, you have to be sleeping to not know a majority of the questions. The written assignments in this class, as everyone else mentioned, is dependent on your TA. Some TAS are nitpicky and hard to reach. Some won't get back to you for days and are extremely vague, unhelpful, and half the time dock you for experimental design flaws that they don't even know how to fix themselves. Some TAs are angels, they are reachable and want you to succeed. Again, interrater reliability in this class SUCKS. how's that for my application of my knowledge? Take that.

At the end, they say they are going to curve the labs overall so you can't compare across labs- but I have not found one person that was overjoyed with their lab section. Your group really matters in this class, but guess what? You don't get to choose your group or your article, so if you're in a shit situation, being assertive won't get you your way. Save your breath and be a sheep, because if you speak up- remember they are the red pen on your paper. If your group members don't work or seem disengaged, you better work (like by Britney Spears) otherwise you will go down in the dumps with them. God forbid you have to repeat this class. Be strict with your group from the get go, you don't have time to play nice guy with them. We are all legal adults and need to honor our commitments, but you'd be surprised how many upper class men have not learned that yet. Your TA most likely won't do anything, but keep track of everything your group member did you dirty on so you can make sure you have evidence when it comes time to write the group evaluation and you can accurately pinpoint what they did and did not do.

The professor herself has dry humor, but she's funny and extremely knowledgable in class. She is extremely attentive via email, and responds quick. Although, your TA's judgement is more important than hers in terms of your lab grade. Also, she seriously needs to stop writing on the chalkboard. That just doesn't fly with a lecture of 400.

Overall, this class is extremely poorly designed. There needs to a better delegation of group work, or just have everyone have individual submissions for everything. Groupwork sucks especially with free riders (there's always one in a group) and creates a lot of problems that TAs/Professors are not willing to address or pay mind to. Therefore, they shouldn't have it at all. If you are going to run a class a certain way, and a conflict comes due to your system, you must be willing to discuss it. Otherwise, don't have it at all. The rubrics for the grading criterion are not shared at all and are hidden by all the TAS/ not given to them until it is time to grade by the instructor. This is probably the most idiotic part of the class. Why would you not set expectations and share them with the students that are supposed to be meeting them? What do you think you are accomplishing besides setting a shit average like a D or F on certain assignments? And then they say, we cannot call them D's or F's because it depends on the mean. The point is, the mean shouldn't be that pathetically low in the first place. It says something about the class and the fact that students are not comprehending the material- TOP TIER STUDENTS that have been accepted over 100k other applicants are not doing well in this class. That says something. WAKE UP UCLA. There should be way more students coming out as better researchers, not failing ones. This class can do better. I expected better UCLA, truly dissapointed.

I think everyone has covered the structure of this class in the reviews so I won't be repetitive.
The class was HARD, I have only ever gotten A's and I got a B in this class because it was essentially two classes in one.
The exams are very tricky, I did not expect to get such low scores on both of them.
The lab portion was great because I had an amazing TA (Billy Cho) and an awesome group for the final project but again, that's a matter of luck.
Be ready to put in a lot of time and work because this class IS NOT EASY!!

I really don't know how to feel about this class but there is a good chance you will take multiple L's. RIP to your self-esteem.

First of all, let's talk about STRUCTURE
You spend 4 hours a week in lab going over how to create a research paper and taking a weekly quiz. You learn guidelines, research examples, rubrics, formatting outlines (APA), and other things you need for your final paper. You also spend a 2 hour long monday 8am lecture that teaches easy information repeated over and over through examples. There are no slides so you have to be there or have someone take notes for you. She explains concepts and draws out graphs on the black board so just pay attention.

MATERIAL
Honestly the stuff is easy to learn and I'd describe it as psych 100A and the scientific method having a demon baby called psych 100B. "But wait" you asked. "You just said the material was easy, why is it a demon baby class?"

TESTS/QUIZZES
Well the information is easy and firstenberg is a reasonable lecturer BUT the class is a demon baby because quizzes and tests are meant to make you suffer. All quizzes and tests are multiple choice. But you get like 3 answer options (A,B,C) with another "all of the above" option and another "only A and C, C and D, etc" option :'-). Maybe you're really good at multiple choice tests... but how about a suprise kicker? The tests are created TO TRICK YOU.. ON PURPOSE. I had to go review my answers to find out some questions were asking for something different than what I first thought.

GRADING
Grading is 60% lecture, 40% lab and is switched around if you take it in the summer I believe. In order to get a good lecture grade, really learn and I mean REALLY LEARN how to apply material. Go over practice exams and quizzes. Knowing the information is good, but your grades depend on how well you use the information to decipher each question on the test. For Winter 2019, I think the average for both midterms was around a low to mid C grade. As for lab, this is all based on luck. Lab grades will be decided by the TA and they are curved in each lab class and between all lab classes. I was lucky to get a chill TA but you may get screwed.

Overall, this was not enjoyable. Remember this is BORING and everyone will be BORED. Even my TA said that she's sorry we had to suffer from this class but it's BORING rite of passage into your psych major. I'd recommend to pair this 6 unit big boy with other classes that aren't workload heavy.

Okay I'll break this down into the two parts: Lecture and Lab

Lecture is 60% of your grade. And that percentage is basically from two tests: a midterm and a final exam. The final exam is not cumulative, but you should have the basic knowledge from the first half of the class to do well. Also, you know how in high school, your teachers told you "this multiple choice test is not to trick you blah blah blah", well prepare yourself, because Firstenberg and the Master TAs created a multiple choice test to TRICK YOU.

So to prepare for it, just really understand the concepts because you just apply those points to finding the small nuances in the answer choices. Personally, I got tricked pretty badly on the midterm, I scored 15 % below the mean, which is one standard deviation below. But then I paid closer attention and it really paid off for the final, where I scored 10% above the mean.

I will admit, this class may feel very stressful, especially if you do poorly on one test, but given the current revision of the course, you will always have a chance to bump up your grade.

LAB: The lab is really based on your TA. My TA was TRASH, like my lab created a group chat to basically react to certain grading rubrics or random things that our TA said that just baffled us. Just be prepared to have low scores on assignments, but don't worry, your grade in lab is only compared to the grades of your specific lab group.

To do well here, it is about being proactive and following the smallest of details, from APA formatting, to understanding what your specific TA wants to see in your assignments, and especially final paper.

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Overall, this class was pretty crap. Definitely a lot of work and definitely a lot of stress, depending on how well you are doing during the course of the quarter. But I will admit, this class has given me such useful knowledge towards actually creating proper psych research and just general knowledge about experimental methods. I really took a lot away from this class.