Super nice, the quizzes matter a lot but all the quizzes and tests were super easy open note. They were mostly just facts so if you write down what he says you’re chillin. For in person tests, it would be hard to memorize all the material but if you take him online he’s so funny and loves Star Wars references and pop culture.

This class was offered asynchronously, with 2 lectures a week. Each lecture averaged about 35 slides. There is an attendance required 1 hr discussion section, with a quiz on the previous week's material. This course has a very steep point system. With that being said, you definitely have to put the time in to be successful in this course. I attended PLF sessions + made my own notes on top of watching every lecture. The quizzes and exams are based off the slides: both the text and images are fair game for testing.
All this aside, the information was very interesting, and I didn't mind putting in the work to study for it. I thoroughly enjoyed this course and wish I could have taken it in person! Yes it's challenging, but it's very rewarding to devote time and effort and learn new things along the way! Take this course if you have the chance.

(This class was taken remotely due to COVID-19)
Can we stop equating an Overall 'good' (5) score with a class being 'easy' and a 'light' workload? That being said, if you want an 'easy' A, this class isn't for you. However, if you are truly interested in learning about Neuroscience, don't hesitate to take this class. Professor Adhikari does an excellent job going over each concept thoroughly via lecture & slides (and if you pay attention you may even find him quite entertaining) and is good about responding to CCLE discussion board questions. The TA that I had (Adam Gold) was very knowledgeable, and I liked how he reiterated the most important concepts from the lectures each week. My only complaint is that on quizzes & exams you can't bounce around - like skip ahead (a test-taking method I personally find effective for managing expectations) or return to previous questions you'd like to spend a little more time contemplating the answer to.

Dr Adhikari does not deserve such a low rating. I don’t know what he was like pre-pandemic but the previous reviews make me believe that they have to do more with the course itself rather than the professor.

For winter 2021, the course was open note for ALL quizzes and exams which took a huge weight off of my shoulders. In addition, the quizzes and exams are not very difficult if you pay attention to the material in lecture and take good notes.

Personally, I didn’t think discussion was useful at all. Adhikari frequently monitors the discussion board and answers any questions you may have about the material. He also posted practice midterm and final which is a very good indicator of how well prepared you are for the exams.

We had one midterm and one final, both weighed at 35% and 7 quizzes with two being dropped and making up 30% of your grade.

Breakdown of scores:

Quizzes (best of 5): 26/30
Midterm: 46/50
Final: 48/50 (he added 4 bonus questions to the final)
Overall grade: 91.8%
There will likely be no curve as most of the class performed well.

Overall, Adhikari is a great option but if the course is not open note in the future then that will definitely cause some stress.

One complaint I have about the course was the wording of some questions on all material (quizzes, midterm, final, practice tests). Could have been better worded.

This class was genuinely the worst class I have ever taken at UCLA, and this is being said by someone who survived Psych 100B. Professor Adhikari's and Professor Izquierdo's handling of the COVID-19 outbreak's effect on final exams was the most despicable thing I've witnessed from my instructors during winter quarter. Not only did they not consult with students and almost made us use the problematic Respondus software for our final exam, but even when they changed their test administration strategy and made it open-book, the final exam was nearly impossible to do well on even with extensive notes from both the lectures and the textbook. There were questions on topics I know for a fact that we didn't cover. The class average for the final was 75%. I'm thoroughly convinced that if Respondus was used for the exam, at least a third of the class would not have passed. Beyond that, they sent a very passive-aggressive email lauding themselves for having the basic human decency to make the exam open-book and optional, which they probably would not have done had the Vice Chancellor's office not pressured all professors into doing so. Beyond COVID-19, our class had very problematic TAs with incredibly inconsistent quiz creation patterns and tutorial methods, and my TA (Adam Gold) was very unapproachable, which made both class and section as a whole unbearable to attend. I once stood in front of the professor's podium to ask a question for like five minutes before lecture began and they pretended that I wasn't there. I hated this class and it stands for everything wrong with higher education.

Going into winter quarter, I was really hesitant to take this class because of the Bruinwalk reviews, but I'm actually glad I did because Professor Adhikari is a funny and caring professor who is able to teach the dense material fairly well.
The class itself was not too hard, but it had to do a lot with the quizzes and exams being open note/book/internet. The grading scale is based on performance on weekly quizzes (you can drop 2), the midterm, and the final. Taking good notes and understanding the concepts from lecture will ensure success in this class. There was a textbook, as well, but Professor Adhikari included PDFs of the chapters on CCLE, and the reading was supplementary to the lecture I believe.
Overall, Professor Adhikari is a good professor who tries his best to make the dense material of PSYCH 115 engaging, and I would recommend taking this class with him, especially if exams are open note/book/internet.

This was by far the worst class I have ever taken as an undergrad. On top of the fact that there was a lot of material to cover, it was never taught in a clear or coherent manner. Furthermore, your entire grade is based off of participation (16.7%), quizzes (33.3%), and a final (50%). The quizzes are administered at the beginning of the discussion section and then the material is clarified AFTER you take the quiz which seems counter-intuitive in terms of the purpose of a discussion section. Additionally, there is no standard for what is on the quizzes, it is to each T.A.'s discretion as to what they will include or not include in the quizzes. If you end up in a section like mine, the quiz and discussion section will leave you more confused and frustrated than when you came in. The extra credit offered ended up being applicable to a small portion of the class. The terms of earning the extra credit were to have perfect attendance in lecture and discussion along with participation. The problem with this was that most people who had perfect attendance were not awarded the points because, again, it was up to the T.A. to determine who had participated and who didn't. Overall this was a challenging class with no room for error. If you can avoid taking it, you should.

I was hesitant to take this class based on the reviews but after taking it I realized that it is not the professor that makes this class difficult but just the material itself. The professor clearly shows his interest and devotion to the topic and is always available to clarify any information. I truly enjoyed his lectures and felt that his understanding of the material was relayed to me very well. I would take a course with this professor again! The course set up is based on weekly quizzes, midterm and final. While that is intimidating, as long as you take GOOD NOTES and truly pay attention to the lecture then you are bound to get an A. You can't let yourself get lazy with this course but as long as you understand the concepts you should be good to go.

I don't know how he was Pre-Pandemic, but I think that Professor Avi himself was super sweet and was a wonderful lecturer (might have been the fact that it was asynchronous). I treated this class like an in-person class and memorized almost everything for both the midterm and final, and breezed through the exams because they were pretty straightforward. This class is definitely hard in the sense that there is so much material in 10 weeks, but if you truly study maybe a week or few days in advance, the exams/quizzes will feel relatively easy. YEs, the material is definitely not hard to understand, especially if you've taken harder classes like Chem153A. I personally thought Psych 110 was harder cause I took it with the worst prof ever. The quizzes were TA-based and they were somewhat sort of poorly worded, but not impossible to do. I rarely used my notes during the exam so I honestly think this in-reality is what you study and what you get in the end, even in the in-person perspective. Again, I don't really know how he taught before so I wouldn't judge the past reviews, but what I can say is that he definitely was amazing this quarter.

My Grade Breakdown for an A+:
-Quizzes: 30/30 (2 out of 7 quizzes dropped // 30% of grade)
-Midterm: 49.50 (35% of grade)
-Final: 50/50 (35% of grade)

Honestly, I think if you go in with an open heart and don't take this class with another heavy-intense load class, you will be fine and do well in the class! Good luck and stay safe y'all :)

This class is probably the hardest class I have ever taken, and the fact that it was taught by Professor Avi made that even more complex. This professor does not lecture clearly and just goes over the slides without any additional information. I also did not like the format that the class was going with, there was only one final with no midterm, and he expected us to know everything and every small detail in every slide is a fair game of the final. The final was not handled greatly as online, it was probably the hardest final. Since they knew it was going to be online, they made the final as hard as possible. I do not recommend taking this class, wait another quarter for a different professor if you have to.