Professor Goff was most amazing professor I had at UCLA. She was extremely funny, passionate, charming professor that made me look forward to her lectures. She often use her kids as example which I found it extremely helpful to learn some of the concepts. Her lectures are recorded by her personal phone which is more reliable than bruin cast as sometime there are some technical difficulties. Lectures are posted on CCLE as well which makes it very flexible as it is sometimes difficult to attend lectures everyday depending on life circumstances. She was extremely clear in the time of pandemic and handled final extremely well in such short notice with extreme flexibility, empathy, and kindness that I could not find for other professors in my other classes that I was enrolled in for that quarter. The class does not require any materials (save money) that will affect grade. However, she assigns free online articles that are very helpful and relevant to the course.The only thing you might have to pay for is top hat which is completely optional as it is only providing some extra credit. I think her exams were extremely fair and moderately challenging. I felt like I learned a lot in this class and would love to take more classes with her! I promise you would not regret taking class with her.

Grade breakdown: Out of a total of 150 points

Two Midterms- drop the lowest out of the two (best score out of 50 points)
Final: 50 points
Discussion: 15 points for attendance (allowed to miss once), 10 points for participation, 25 points for 5 written assignments due every week
Extra Credit: Top Hat questions done during lecture. Max of three points possible ( it's like clicker questions but on your phone or laptop)

Lecture is cool. Professor Goff is real nice and she does talk about her kids a lot, but only really ever to connect to lectures. TopHat is needed for lectures in order to answer questions asked during class. If I remember correctly, it cost like $30-$40. You download it on your phone or laptop and answer questions as you would clicker questions. Both participation and correctness are taken into account for the extra credit so try to be correct. Not much else to say. The lecture was cool and interesting.

Discussion is cool too. You're put into groups on the first day which you'll stick with the whole quarter. There are no group projects though, it's just for group discussions. You usually talk about what each person wrote for the writing assignment for that week. The writing assignments are easy too. Read an article and answer some questions about it. About a page long, maybe a little longer. Overall really easy. Emily Neer was my TA.

r/ucla

Perhaps the most engaged I have been with lectures at UCLA. Not only is Professor Goff a great speaker (maybe a bit fast at times), but the material is interesting and she does a great job at applying it to reality.

There is one weekly homework assignment asking you to apply a concept from that week's lectures to some sort of prompt. It should never take more than half an hour to complete. The rest of the grade is based off of midterm and final exam scores. Participation is not required and the lectures are recorded.

Exam questions can be tricky because they are almost never just "recall the definition" tasks. Read the answers carefully and use process of elimination.

I highly recommend this course.

I took this online in Fall 2020. It was an awesome class; Professor Goff unfortunately had to take a leave of absence in the middle of the quarter due to her son getting COVID-19, so Professor Scott Johnson took over briefly and the class was made asynchronous. That's about my only gripe with this class.

Other than that, 130 is pretty smooth sailing. There are NO TEXTBOOKS AT ALL: the most you'll have is to watch a short video or two that accompanies lecture. The class is out of 150 points with 2 possible extra credit points for responding to a related Netflix episode. All sections were optional; you still had homework every week in submitting a short written assignment (8 assignments worth 10 points each). The TAs have rubrics outlining exactly what to write each week though and it's moreso graded on completion and if you wrote something relevant. Midterm and final were 50 questions each and although originally they accounted for 35 points each, the lower of the two got weighed less (out of 28 points and the better scored test out of 42). I didn't do so hot on the midterm (got a 80+%) but did get a 96% on the final and clutched an A+ by scoring full points on everything else. This is one of the best Column Bs you can take!

Professor Goff is amazing. The exams were a little tricky but other than that this is a MUST-TAKE course. 100% would recommend.

Goff is a pretty good lecturer! She really ties in her own experiences with her own children when she can, so it's interesting to see some of the developmental psych concepts in The Wild. She is an engaging lecturer and cares about the learning of her students. I really like developmental psych and working with kids, so I was hoping this class would go a little more in depth, but I think it's a good intro course to developmental psych!

Exams were really doable. You get one drop midterm, but it's recommended you still take the second one even if you don't need it, so you can get a feel for how the questions are. Exams are somewhat non-cumulative. The bulk of the exam will be on the pertinent third of the class, but be able to apply the concepts to the big themes that run through the whole course. Don't stress about them too much, though (the typical nature vs nurture, etc). Some questions still tripped me up (as in most psych MC exams), but just read carefully, and they aren't too bad.

There is a very lax discussion component. Don't forget to respond to all the components on the weekly writing assignments (sometimes there's a stinger at the bottom that people miss because the assignment is laid out weirdly). You have groups that you only really discuss with in class. Readings do show up on the exam, but you only really need the key takeaways/methods. TAs should usually be able to point you to what you'll need to know from the readings.

This is all you need to know about the class:

-Professor Goff is very funny and her lectures are entertaining, so attend them even though attendance isn't necessary.
-All of her lectures are recorded and posted on CCLE along with the lecture slides which is great for studying or if you can't make it to class.
-There are two midterms, the one with the lowest score is dropped. (If you ace the first one, you don't even need to show up for the second one!)
-Exams are multiple choice but can be tricky (questions are not based on memorization) so make sure you thoroughly understand everything.
-The group project (literature review) isn't too bad and there are only 5 research articles the entire quarter that you need to read and analyze in Discussion.
-Don't underestimate the class, put in the work.
-The topics are all very interesting, I would take this class again!

Definitely take this course, it's enjoyable, and the workload was my saving grace in this class. Most of us got A's and the professor is incredibly personable and works with her students, not against them.

Although I felt like this class was easy, the quizzes can be slightly challenging for two reasons -- although its open book you have to answer those questions quick. I got an A on the midterm but I literally had like 2 minutes to spare to double-check answers.

ALSO for the love of god, pay attention to the movies she shows in class. She asked like 6 questions about one of the films we viewed and I was not expecting that. Other than that, this class is a breeze and widens your perspective on parenting.

Professor Goff is one of those professors you have to have before graduating. She cares about student learning and makes sure that everyone understands the material. The only (optional) thing you have to buy for her class is TopHat, and that's only if you want extra credit.

The grade distribution for her class is as follows:
Midterm (you take two and she drops the lowest one): 50 points
Final: 50 points
Discussion: 50 points (15 for attendance, 10 for participation, 25 for written assignments)
Extra Credit: 1% overall grade boost for participation on 50-79% of TopHat questions, 2% for 80+%, and 3% if you have one of the top 5 scores on the questions

She records her own lectures and posts the slides before the end of the week. Her lectures are engaging and she takes questions and asks TopHat questions during. Although attendance isn't mandatory, I would still recommend going to lecture because the exams are entirely based off of lecture. Even so, I have rarely zoned off because she puts videos of kids being cute, or finds a way to relate the material to your own life. She also drops your lowest midterm score and offers extra credit for participation; you don't even need to answer the questions correctly. I would still recommend buying TopHat for the quarter, however, because her exam questions are just like the TopHat questions. She also holds extra office hours during finals week, and hosts a review session prior to each exam at the end of class.

Overall, Professor Goff is one of the most engaging, caring, and dedicated professors you'll have at UCLA. She clearly cares about children, and you'll leave her class loving children as well, as well as having learned about human development.

One of my favorite classes ever. Her lectures are clear and engaging, plus she drops your lowest midterm score.