Dr. Weiner is a fabulous professor and he truly cares about his students. He is very talented in the material of human motivation and has a lot of great information to pass along. In addition, he is the author of several of the theories that you learn about in the course (such as attribution theory).

As other students have suggested, the reading is quite dry and I found them to be difficult. Overall, it certainly helped my reading comprehension and vocabulary, but it was not an easy process. I found it helpful to seek help from the T.A.'s. When I took the class, the T.A.'s were excellent (Veronica Calkins and Patrick Rock). Both helped explain the readings and provided help with the logic element of the theories.

Finally, Dr. Weiner is a world-renown psychologist and it is worth visiting him during office hours. He is so intelligent and there is a lot to be learned from him!!

You have been warned:

Yeah, yeah, I know, professor Weiner is funny, and he definitely knows what he is talking about. BUT, this class is TONS OF BORING reading. The sentence structures in the book are quite convoluted and really hard to understand. You'll find the reading hard regardless of your English level (ESL or native English speaker)
In my opinion, there is too much work for an elective. His test (midterm and final) are not easy. You really need to understand the concepts and THEORIES in order to do well.
I'm telling you, if you're taking this class for a Psych elective or because you find the description of the class interesting, you'll regret it.

Great sense of humor, interesting class. Class is definitely enjoyable. That said, his exams are extremely difficult. Know the math behind every metaphor. Know every single metaphor in depth and how to apply them practically. Memorize everything from lecture. Skip the Judgment book but make sure you know exactly what he discussed from that book in class and from the TA reviews. Ask all the TA's for their review slides. That is the only way you will get through this class. In my opinion, you don't need to kill yourself for an elective...

Professor Weiner is a very engaging lecturer and always keeps the class awake with his witty comments and jokes. He is super approachable and seems to genuinely care about his students learning. The class overall was pretty chill. No assignments. Grade is based on only two exams: a midterm (50-55 questions) & a final (90-100 questions). Apparently Professor Weiner has cut down on some of the readings through the years, so it's not as overwhelming now as these other reviews here have claimed. But do make sure to read. A large portion of exams are from the readings. You'll often find that you don't have too many notes from lecture itself, so that should show you how much readings make up the rest of exams. With that said, if you're cramped for time like I was studying for the Final you can BYPASS READING THE ENTIRE JUDGEMENTS & RESPONSIBILITY BOOK. There's like 250 pages you need to read for that book, but really it gets pretty repetitive. I only actually read the chapter on alcoholism and half of the chapter on AIDS. If you read the chapter summaries for each chapter from that book (Judgements and Responsibility), you should be good for exams. Do make sure you read the assigned readings from the Human Motivation book though! Most of the exam is from that book. I did just what I stated above and was able to pull off an A. Overall, the class is pretty chill, Professor Weiner is engaging and funny, class time was entertaining, and it is not too difficult to pull off an A if you go to lectures and do the readings. Not an automatic A, but just make sure you read before exams, and the class should not be too bad at all!

Weiner is possibly one of the best professors I have taken at UCLA. His sense of humor never failed to entertain me. You'll have fun in class!

Personally, I missed a lot of lectures just because he podcasted it, but I did go enough to get the extra credit clicker points.

His midterm is about 50 questions and his final is about 100 questions. His tests are easy, just make sure you do the reading! It's not a lot from what I've seen on here, he's cut down on a lot.

Make sure you know theories and who contributed to them. He loves comparison questions. He also says it's not a memory test, but sometimes he includes questions like "Who created the TAT?" so not only should you make sure you definitely understand the concepts, but also try to get all the little details as much as possible.

Also, go to the review sessions, they really help bring everything together

Dr. Weiner is fun and knowledgeable. The worst part about his course was the readings. I love Dr. Weiner, but I have to say that the textbook was the most difficult and boring book that I have ever had in my entire life. They were so difficult to understand and if felt like it made things very complicated. The undergraduate T.A.'s simplified the material and were extremely helpful (especially Kathleen). Definitely attend their review sessions. The experiments in class were always so much fun and class-time was enjoyable.

Attribution theory is amazing, and a lot of the material you will learn is very applicable to everyday life.

Dr. Weiner was so funny and is an excellent lecturer. It is also fantastic that he provides video podcasts! Go Dr. Weiner!!

Professor Weiner is an amazing professor. The best way to learn a subject is to learn from someone who has a passion for that subject and Prof. Weiner is definitely that someone. To get an A...
Attend all lectures and take notes if that works for you-if you get lost, don't lose hope just go home and listen to the pod-cast. This was extremely helpful for me
READ-everything he assigns. He cut down on the reading so its not soo dreadful anymore but it is A LOT which is why I did not read it and ended up with a B+ in the class only because I didn't read.

Test- your understanding of the material. Go over the material with a friend or just test yourself. Make sure you can distinguish between all the different theorists!!!

GOOD LUCK!

Professor Weiner is fantastic!! Even though this class is not necessarily an "easy" A, the information is fascinating and he is a fantastic lecturer. He throws in all sorts of experiments and videos that give you a break from lecture. He is clear and easy to understand. Make sure you read BOTH of the books and it would be intelligent to attend lecture too. Don't miss out on this awesome opportunity to learn from such an amazing professor!

There's been some mixed reviews about him but Prof. Weiner is really great. His class is NOT hard if you just read the Human Motivation book. You don't even have to worry about reading the other book fully. Just follow the study guide for the other book and find what's in the study guide. If you are smart, you can probably deduce the answers without even touching the other book. If you love to be within the presence of someone who really knows what they are talking about and is an expert in their field, you HAVE TO take his class. Prof. Weiner makes the material very practical and interesting when he lectures. The reading can be somewhat dry, but once you get what it's talking about, it's actually very interesting. In addition, all you have to do is get an 86% overall to get an A in the class. There is one midterm and one final. You can always get help when you need it because there are undergraduate and graduate TAs so there's always someone holding office hours.

WARNING:
This class is not an "easy A".

If for some crazy reason, you want to learn about various hypothetical armchair theories about motivation spanning the last 80 years, none of which can be actually applied to your life, by all means take this class. The professor is nice and funny and will entertain you during the lecture.
If you are taking this class for an easy A, as an elective for your psychology major, or because you thought the material would be interesting - AVOID!

The midterm and final are based entirely on the textbooks, so as interesting and funny as Professor Weiner is, going to the lecture is a complete waste of time. Worse, the textbooks are dreadfully boring and totally theoretical with no real world applications. In his textbooks he presents dozens of theories and theorists with 600+ pages of dry boring text, and his exams test you on the subtle differences between them. His exams are multiple choice and because of the way he asks the questions if you don't know the exact answer you'll likely get it wrong.
To get an A you need to have a pretty good understanding of each theory and theorist and the differences between them.