The professors (izquierdo and Avi) for this class do not care about you AT ALL. The night before the final they chose to make the exam optional, but were complete unclear about how your grade would work without it. When students emailed them for clarification, they sent out a mass email that they will not be answering emails anymore and to post on the discussion forum, instead of just getting it together and coming up with a grading scheme. They are COMPLETELY disorganized and straight up ignored the discussion forum, so everyone pretty much went into the final blind. I only took the final because I had a borderline A-/A, but instead I got f*cked by these professors. After the final, I emailed them for clarification on the final and i was IGNORED again. These professors are not cut out to teach a lecture as large as this one. They are disorganized and clearly cannot handle it.

Also, they made extra credit based on how well the TA’s remember you, but my TA DIDNT SPEAK FLUENT ENGLISH. I don’t have a stereotypical white name, so of course she didn’t remember it, despite asking her questions several times outside of discussion. I feel that I did not have the same opportunity as my peers to get the same grade. Moral of the story: if you’re not white, don’t plan on getting extra credit.

This class was one of the most problematic courses I've ever taken. There is a quiz every week, and depending on your TA you will either have simple definition quizzes or incredibly complex, not worth studying for quizzes like myself. The professors do not care about the discrepancies and ignored all emails and discussion posts asking if the quizzes would be curved within TA's.

Additionally, the manner in which the professors handled the cancellation of classes was heartless. Some of the students took the quiz Week 10 and others didn't due to the remote classes, so they removed the quiz grade from students who had taken it. I received my best grade on that quiz and pleaded for some compromise to include the quiz grade, and the other professor teaching this class denied any other option because his solution was "detrimental" - yes, he said detrimental - to the smallest group of students (including myself) as most students had not taken the quiz.

Finally, the professors were incredibly unclear about grading when making the final optional, leaving many students stressed the night before trying to decide whether or not to take the final. The final included information from neither the lectures nor the textbook (which I read every page of) and it took everyone in the class 3 hours.

Overall, Professors Izquierdo and Adhikari do not care about their students or their wellbeing. Avoid this class at all costs.

The amount of work you have to put in this class to answer a mere 10 questions correctly every week is insane. In addition to 40-50 lecture slides twice a week (total of 90 detailed slides), students have to read about topics in depth in the book which consists of about 60 pages a week just to be able to answer some of the tricky quiz questions given out every week. My TA's first language was not English so I often had a tough time understanding what she was saying and the quizzes were often worded in incredibly tricky or vague ways. I got an 81% quiz average and scored one point above the average final grade which was a 76%. With perfect participation I ended up with a solid B. When I talked to other TA's they said their class quiz averages were 70-80%. So how is it that in a class with 421 students that the quiz average is 70-80%, yet the grades are not curved higher than a B if they participate 100% and even score above the class average on the final? It seems to reflect the professor and TA's issues more than the students.

This class could probably be really interesting, but the lack of guidance from Professor Izquierdo made it really tricky. In the summer, her grades were based on 50% midterm and 50% final, both multiple choice exams. The midterm was only 25 questions, so each question essentially was a full 2% of your grade. The questions weren't unbelievably hard or anything, and they were all somewhat covered in the powerpoints, but they were very ambiguous and tricky. For instance, answer choice A would have something, and then answer choice C would be "answer choice A+something else" and both of those would seem valid. But it's so tricky to decide between one or the other, and it feels like there's justification to go either way, so it was really frustrating that it would be a whole 2% of your grade if you chose the wrong one, even if it was somewhat correct. Since we took this online, it was open note, and we got a sufficient amount of time, but I truly don't think studying would help at all. It honestly just felt like a guessing game about what Dr. Izquierdo wanted. And if you messed up on her guessing game a couple of times, your grade basically tanks. She does offer a curve at the end, but it still feels like you're not in control of the end result – it's just a matter of luck on what you end up choosing on multiple choice. I felt like I never got a chance to redeem myself after being stuck on a few questions and having my grade knocked down from that. She's also extremely cold and unhelpful in office hours, like she won't go out of her way to help you or guide you to do better in the class. I don't think she took our concerns into account much. I personally think even if you study a lot and make an effort, that doesn't pay off in this class. It really just comes down to which decisions you make on the ambiguous, tricky answer choices, and if you go one way, you'll get a good grade. If you go the other way and get a few wrong even though you understand the material, you've basically lost all chances of getting an A in this class. Content wise, it's basically about NT signaling and different drugs.

I was very nervous to take this lab but I'm so glad that I did! If you are looking to take a lab definitely take it with Dr. Izquierdo. The assignments were graded very leniently (unlike 100B), were easy to complete, and were actually fun. I passed the class with an A while putting in minimal effort, would've gotten an A+ if I actually put more effort in.

Dr. I was an incredible professor and lecturer. While I already had some interest in behavioral neuroscience as a whole, this class has opened me up to a vested interest in addiction science. The lecture topics are extremely engaging, and the selected research papers are extremely relevant to the course and interesting. Is this class easy? No, it requires a lot of time studying and drawing pathways to completely master and understand the material. With that being said, Dr. I sets you up for success with her detailed slides and is very willing to meet outside of her schedules office hours. I found that my critical thinking skills and question asking abilities have greatly improved because of the way this class has been taught. Definitely one of my favorite classes here at UCLA!

Overall, one of my least favorite professors. I took this class during a hybrid quarter (due to COVID), and she was very disorganized with lecture uploads and wouldn’t upload them on a schedule or even check to see if they’re current. A lot were obviously from past quarters and had information that was no longer relevant, which felt like lazy teaching to me.
Your grade is comprised of a term paper and a free response final, each worth 50% of your total. The term paper was not that bad, but her rubric is very vague; even if you clarify what you should include in your paper with her, expect tough grading and points taken off arbitrarily without an explanation and a refusal to regrade. For the final, you have a week, but it is very time consuming and not straight-forward. Again, expect tougher-than-necessary grading.
However, what I liked least about this class is how the professor would be very hard to get in contact with and blatantly ignore emails. If you are unable to complete an assignment due to illness, don’t expect her to be accommodating or even respond to your worries; she only responds to emails asking a question about the class.
TLDR: The class material is interesting, but the professor’s lack of caring makes this class one of my least favorites. Find a different professor for PSYCH119A.

So this is my first BruinWalk review. I think BruinWalk is very misleading IMO because you have a lot of people on the extremes who don't necessarily narrate an accurate description of the average student. I am a 4th year and one of the only Black women in my major. I read the reviews for this class and they were positive so I enrolled. I was at the point of my collegiate career where I couldn't withstand anymore "stereotypical" pre-med classes, where the students and teaching style was built on survival of the fittest. That had been my whole UCLA experience being that there's less than 1% Black STEM folk.

First the testing style:
She treats you like an adult and I love it. It's 50% term paper and 50% final exam. The term paper can be on anything you like that is either focused on the how drugs affect the brain/behavior, the effects of a psychotropic drug, and there is one more category. I choose the effect of marijuana on anxiety, which is so relevant because how many people think that smoking a joint has no implications - WRONG! I learned a lot by doing this paper. I kept my writing very organized and didn't interweave topics. You have to talk about animal and human models which is pretty dope.

The final exam is culmative - SO TAKE GOOD NOTES. I think in many classes is hard to build rapport with a professor but going to her office hours is really relaxed and she will answer any questions. I always was afraid of professors so I just choose to always skip them, but I had a wonderful experience in this class that definitely taught me the importance of going to office hours. There is this myth that Professor are so indulged in their research that they won't help you. I will challenge that and say that students are fearful to build relationship with the professor because of the dialogue us students exchange with each other.

As for the professor the class is doable - you can get an A/B if you put in the work. She sets it up for you to be successful if you want to be. She even gives you a study guide for the final that helps you adequately prepare.

This course won't be offered winter 2018, so make sure to take it Winter 2019! Amazing class and professor. It truly analyzes the intersection between psychology, neuroscience, and pharmacology.

I have to say this class is by far my favorite upper-div course I've taken at UCLA, and I actually don't find the workload heavy. The lecture topics were engaging, and the readings assigned were interesting as well. Professor Izquierdo explained the concepts very clearly and was willing to answer all kinds of questions both in class and during her office hours. For the paper, I think as long as you start early there shouldn't be any problem. The final exam was extremely fair. All questions were from the study guide she provided a week before. So if there are any questions from the study guide that you're not sure of, just make sure to go to her office hour before the exam. Overall, I highly recommend this class.

I really liked this class. It focuses a lot on research and the methods on neuropsychopharmacology in the first half before talking about the disorders they pertain to in the second half. Dr. Izquierdo is really willing to explain concepts in office hours. The class is structured so half your grade is based on a paper and half on the final. Definitely make sure to read the prompt and ask any questions to clarify structure. For the final you will be given a midterm study guide given after the paper is due. Do it as soon as possible, so you can get any questions answered (the questions will be on the final). The final exam study guide will be given around a week before the final so plan your time wisely and practice the questions. The highlight in terms of topics has to be chemogenetics which is an interesting way of approaching learning more about the brain.