I took this class as P/NP and I highly recommend this for everyone! I messed up on one assignment and scored one SD below the section's mean and that's when I knew I wouldn't get any A. This class is so ridiculously competitive; weighting your grade based on the scores of others in your class is extremely unfair. You have to beat all of your classmates by a significant margin in every single section assignment as well as kill your final paper to have a chance at an A. I messed up on one and even though the rest went really well, I knew I wouldn't get an A. There are lab participation points, which is basically answering questions during lab. This is where people get strangely competitive... The lecture portion is fairly straightforward. It was recorded ahead of time and the prof chose to make them even longer than class time usually was, they were often around the 2 hour mark. If you do the practice exams (all of them!!) and FaceTime a friend, you can expect a mid 90s grade. Prof adjusted the class for pandemic by weighing the lecture portion of the class as 40% and section as 60%, and based on protests by making the lecture exam portion the higher of your two exam grades. Another assignment that was due at the end of the week was graded due to completion only.

Honestly, 100B is the worst class I have ever taken in my entire life. To start off with, I did not originally pass this class the first time I took it - the first time I have ever not passed a class. I actually ended up with a D+ and retook it during the summer. Imagine 16 weeks of 100B...yeah it sucked. I ended up with a B during the summer session. I would strongly recommend for anyone to take it during the summer session unless you think you are a terrible writer (in summer lab is 60%, 40% lecture). Do not be prideful in this class, if you have to do the work for your group project because your lab groupmates don't want to? Okay, do it. It's your grade at stake for that project proposal, and it makes a huge difference. I know it sucks picking up on someone else's work, but there is a chance you will end up with crappy group members (I did both quarters) where either one or some of your group members just don't want to do the work. And then tell your TA. Speaking of your TA, go to your TA's office hours. So so so important. Come with specific questions and try and get them to answer everything they can for your papers. The biggest issue that people have with this class is that there are those who are good test takers, but those who are not good writers - and vice versa. Take advantage of the writing center if you are not a good writer. Something I wish I would have done differently during the Spring quarter when I originally took this class was to have gone to more of the Master TA's office hours. Everyone should actually try and make as many as they can. They have input in writing the exam - so you going to their office hours is very important. Make sure you ask about questions regarding the distinctions between concepts in the class. That for me was my biggest hurdle in tackling the exams - you have to know the differences between concepts and where each is used for what. If you don't, you are going to get it wrong. Do not get scared, but don't undermine this class because it is a lot. Remember that everyone, no matter how good they may be doing, is struggling in 100B. If I were you right now, get the book, start reading. Do the practice exams ahead of time (they are online). Get a head start on reading the lab manual. Do not overthink your answer choices for the exams and quizzes - the two times I've taken this class, this has cost me a letter grade. Try and really make a mental effort to stick to your first answer, unless you absolutely believe that it is incorrect.

Stay on top of your game with this class, be ahead of everyone else, go to office hours, go to the writing center, do your papers in advance, etc - and I guarantee you will go beyond than just passing this class. And if you can, take it in the summer.

I took this class with a different professor last quarter but since we are all stuck at home, I figured I'd help anyone who needs it this quarter. I have the pdf of Research Methods in Psychology (3rd edition) by Beth Morling for anyone who needs it, for free.

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Class is very doable as long as you skim over the material she went over in class in the textbook and participate in your discussion group. Doing SONA experiments for extra credit is basically necessary if you want to end with an A in this class, it adds 2% to your overall grade.

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Keys to success in this class include being present on time to every single lecture, reading through key sections of the textbook, performing well on tests, and absolutely acing your Lab Section. The tests are moderately difficult so the advice I would give is to emphasize content covered in lecture and supplement that with the textbook readings. As long as you are above the mean for tests, you should be fine. Take initiative in your lab section and develop a good relationship with your TA; try to learn from your mistakes with each submission and do not get discouraged if you get a low grade in lab. Your goal should be to score one standard deviation or higher than the mean. By utilizing these tips, you are well on your way to earn an A or A- in this class.

This class was not enjoyable at all, however Professor Ankowski is an amazing lecturer who made the material super clear and easy to understand. It was 50% lecture, 50% lab for the final grade. The test questions are kinda subjective and based on fake research scenarios and are the type where it can be multiple options. However, they give us practice exams and the style was similar. Lab is a whole other problem tho and is super separate from lecture. Group projects in a virtual setting should be illegal and personally I thought it'd be easier if it was an individual project. Also running an experiment virtually was also super stressful. Everything depends on your TA so I would make sure to be active and talk in class and get to know your TA. Also if your group mates suck, just pull the weight and do it yourself so you don't get a bad grade. I feel like this class wouldn't be as bad, except the horrible grading curve for lab. You're graded on a bell curve and compared to everyone in your lab section, so even if you get an A range grade, and the mean was that A range grade, you get booted down to a B range grade, because they make the mean a B. However, if you work hard and check with your TA about your project every step of the way, it is doable!!

This was my 3rd time taking her, she was my professor for Research Methods and Language Development, however, I would never take her again after taking her Cognitive Development course. She messed up my GPA by giving us a tricky online final that consisted of 100 T/F questions that were supposedly "simplified." She could've had more compassion for students that were going through things because the COVID-19 is very stressful for everybody. Professors were even given the choice to make changes to their final exams and she didn't do anything.

She was a really nice and engaging professor throughout the quarter. She modified the class set up halfway through the quarter but it made it more manageable as you could drop one exam. I had a good experience every time I reached out to get help. The midterm was very clear and easy and did not require reading the textbook as everything important was already mentioned in class. The only downside was how little of compassion she showed for students impacted by COVID-19. We were all required to take the final online but she gave no attention to some of us who did not have a reliable internet or were moving/traveling internationally. I personally had an A+ all throughout the quarter but her mandatory, ambiguous final dropped my grade by a large amount. The fact that all 100 questions were T/F made it more confusing and unfair. Many professors allowed students to opt out of the final if they were happy with their current grade but professor Ankowski did not seem to care enough. Though I enjoyed her class very much, the way she handled this particular situation made me leave this course extremely upset.

Definitely one of the main weeder classes of all the psych classes here at UCLA. Material is pretty straight forward, Ankowski is a good lecturer as well but the exams are a nightmare. Questions on exams are designed to be tricky. The exams are pretty much based on how well you decipher questions rather than applying and using the material itself. So, you can study well and understand concepts and still fail both exams. Lab is alright except for the nit picking super arbitrary grading done by TAs. You have to do better than all your other classmates in the other lab sections to avoid the curve that actually LOWERS your lab grade in the end, so it's highly likely you will get a grade less than what you actually deserve for the lab section. The whole grading system for this course is bs for an intro course and it really needs to be evaluated.

I took this in Fall 2020 online.

The grade breakdown is pretty simple. For participation, you need 5 points. You can get a point every time you go to an office hour with her or a TA, or when you make a post to the forums about something related to the lecture of that week. You also need to complete "Extension Assignments" and a "Research Assignment" (that is just answering 5 basic questions about a grad student presentation you watch sometime). These are all just really easy as long as you write something related to the prompt; basically most people get full points just for completing them.

There's also 5 quizzes with the lowest graded one dropped. 10 questions each that relate to either lecture material, the book, and grad student presentations. All the answers could basically be found in one of the 3 and it's open notes. The final is set up the same way with 30 questions and an essay question but is about as easy.

My only gripe with this class is that sometimes the lectures were recorded poorly and the audio got distorted, and that there was too much of the lectures and grad student presentations to watch every week. We also were assigned to read chapters of the textbook corresponding to each week's lecture to prepare, but I never did that and instead just used CTRL + F for keywords on my quizzes and exams. You can find the textbook online somewhere; it's still important for the quizzes and final in this class.

All in all, the content in this class and the way it is setup is really easy. Most students ended up with an easy A this quarter. If you've taken Psych 130, be prepared to see 80% of the same things over again because I took Psych 130 at the same time as this class and I was literally seeing the same slides twice a lot.