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 is my first ever bruinwalk review, but I felt like I needed to say something, because I had a bunch of friends not take this required course cuz of the prof and his bruinwalk rating! I was also SO scared to take this class due to its reputation, so I want to ease your fears if that’s how you’re feeling!

Given this is under COVID circumstances, in which we were allowed to use our notes and obviously things are different on a virtual platform!

The bad...
I found the timed nature and not being able to go back to questions once you answered them challenging! Also, I personally am not a fan of my whole grade being made up of quizzes and exams as I’m not the best test taker and often felt rushed! The quizzes were rough (but he did drop two of the lowest scores), the midterm was also tough and weirdly worded, but the final was very similar (with more straightforward questions). The material is quite dense and it honestly feels like there’s too much that you need to know from all the pathways to the differences between mechanisms and brain regions!

The good!
He gave four extra credit problems on the final that helped boost your grade if you needed which definitely gave me hope!! Our PLF was absolutely amazing and I found her midterm and final review session and weekly worksheets instrumental to condensing the material and ensuring I had the basic concepts down! At the end of the day, I genuinely enjoyed the content and really loved the material! I found it so interesting and engaging and loved sharing some fun neuroscience facts with my friends!

Takeaway
Yes, the grading was quite stressful, but the prof was very helpful in the end by providing the extra credit q’s and also apparently he is rounding up final grades! If you take extensive notes and keep up with the material (which kind of helps with the weekly quizzes), you should definitely be good to go!! Just believe in yourself and know that you are totally capable of doing well in this class as long as you put in the work!

I don't know what this class was like pre-pandemic, but I found it to be very enjoyable. The professor is very passionate about the material he lectures on and it shows in the lectures. I don't think he deserves these bad ratings. Yes, there is a lot of information to learn in this class but I think it's an overall challenging class no matter who is teaching it. For us, it was open note exams so it really was not that bad. You just need to dedicate time to learning the material. I personally think he is a great professor and very helpful.

i never write reviews (I’m a senior and this is my first one lol) but HAD to for adi! Tbh i found 115 easier than my psychobio electives and it was even more interesting. He gives practice exams before every midterm and final that are pretty representative of the actual thing. The only problem is that tests/quizzes were made so that u cant go back once u finish a question. Quizzes were also worth kind of a lot (each question is 1%) but tbh he drops 2 of the 7.

Take 115 with this dude! He even has questions on Star Wars and Harry Potter. He super approachable at OH too. ofc I get it may have been diff pre-pandemic but tbh he’s not at all bad and if anything, this is one of the best classes I’ve taken/learned the most in since COVID.

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 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 :)

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.

This was one of the most interesting classes I've taken at UCLA so far; there are so many (negative :( ) reviews detailing how overwhelming and disorganized the content is, but I think that's just the inherent nature of the class & its curriculum. With that being said, these reviews aren't wrong—there really is a very wide range of topics crammed into 10 mere weeks. HOWEVER, Avi did a really great job at breaking down these concepts and providing insightful examples that helped with my understanding. He always began the weekly lectures with big-picture ideas and concepts and broke them down into their respective neurological mechanisms. Additionally, the workload for this class was SUPER manageable: 0 homework assignments, 7 quizzes (2 were dropped), and 2 exams (1 midterm & 1 final). I didn't have to worry about any busy work at all; all I had to do was to watch/attend lectures and to take the weekly quiz when the time came—super simple and straightforward. I cannot say more good things about this class!

Other bonuses: Avi's also super funny (both intentionally and unintentionally). He would physically act out his examples and it made class just that much more pleasant to be in. You can see that he really does love what he does & knows a lot about it. I would LOVE to take more classes with him with the future but there really aren't that many undergraduate courses offered :(.

TLDR: great professor, super funny & engaging, loved the way he structured the lectures, loved the workload and thought it was very effective & fair.