Oppenheimer is very passionate and talks super fast! This is a fast-paced class packed with lots of information. Lectures were not Bruincasted, so I had to record lectures and listen back to them slowly because he zooms through his slides. Section was quite a lot of work, as we had to complete mini labs with our assigned group for the quarter in the small amount of time we had during class. Although it wasn’t super light, I really did enjoy the material and how Oppenheimer presented it !

Definitely one of the best professors in the Psych Department. He has very good understanding of his materials and is able to make lectures interesting for students. One time he brought in a toddler to demonstrate some aspect of development psych, it was super informative. Although he uses slides, it is insufficient and you would have to pay very close attention in class to do well in tests. Tests are very hard, but he curves the grade. Recommended!

Danny Oppenheimer is an amazing dude, 10/10. Very interesting and dynamic lectures,.Very helpful. Would for sure take another class taught by him. Yeah, the exams can be difficult, but he provides you with lots of practice questions and is more than willing to help you out if you ask, plus he is very active on the class discussion board, so if you take advantage of these things you can definitely do well.

Also there's no textbook required and very little reading outside of class. The only real homework is "CPR" which is basically just designed to help you practice answering exam questions and understanding what he wants you to do. Consists of three parts that are due throughout the week in which you answer the question, review and grade sample answers, and finally review classmates answers. Takes about ten minutes to complete each part overall.

Overall this class was great, tough but great. The class consisted of a midterm, final, weekly lab points and weekly homework questions. The midterm is 13 short answer questions and is fairly difficult, the class average was a 52% ( I got a 57% and ended up with a B+ in the class). The final is 13 short answer on the second half of the quarter and 2 long answer questions on the whole quarter, plus 1 experimental design question. Their is a weekly group lab (group assigned randomly at beginning of quarter that stays the same all quarter) that is given points on completion not correctness. If you are a psych major this is very helpful for future classes as it teaches you how to design, run and analyze a good experiment. There is also a peer-evaluated short answer (like midterm or final) each week that has multiple times to login and complete each week. The question is not usually very difficult and is again graded on completion not correctness, however it is easy to forget one of the logins and miss points for the whole week. All of the lectures were interesting as Danny is a very captivating professor. He is also very helpful and expressed that if you wanted to improve your grade he would do everything in his power to help if you put in the effort. Even if you have a good grade I recommend going to office hours just to talk with him, he's super cool and knowledgable, You may not end up with a great grade but will certainly learn a lot. Again if you plan on a future in psych at UCLA this is the best basis you can get and will without a doubt help you in future classes (psych and non-related classes, I have used info from this class in literally all of my other classes). An A is not necessarily easy but certainly possible if you are on top of things. Also, just like every other psych 10 class there is a required 6 hours of time for the psych subject pool. I recommend you start signing up (online) as soon as possible so you don't have to worry at the end of the quarter, most are super easy.

Danny is the man. I really respect a professor willing to switch it up and give very engaging tests that require critical thinking and understanding as opposed to rote memorization. You will take more away from this class than most of the ones you take at UCLA because Danny actually designs the course to build your way of thinking of psych, rather than arbitrary memorization. Obviously this is not an easy A, but I really didn't find the tests as hard as people made them out to be - at least half of them are common sense and general test taking ability. The labs are pointless, but they are extremely easy.

I took this class fall quarter as a freshman. Professor Oppenheimer is among the better lecturers I've had in my brief time here at UCLA. He really tries to make lectures interesting, going out of his way to explain things in a way that you can easily relate to and often cracking jokes - towards the end of the quarter, this was the only one I went to regularly. I felt like I learned a lot by doing so. However, as much as you learn taking his class, and even though I thought I did well, he's also one of the harder professors, and that can be reflected in both the difficulty of his tests and the grading distribution. The tests, though objectively difficult, are very logic based, and you will do well on them if scientific analysis is your thing. Additionally, the fact that there's no textbook, and the fact that while lecture slides are posted online, they don't have much written on them means that you don't have a whole lot to work with while trying to understand/reinforce things later on. Lectures are also short in comparison to other classes with no discussion sections either, which means that in the time Danny does have, he goes through everything far too quickly, so there still is a substantial amount of self-learning involved. Overall, it may not be the best class for you if you're looking for an easy A, but it's definitely one I'd recommend if you have any interest in psychology or need to know it super well.

This class taught me quite a bit, and overall, I am glad I took it. However, I found it extremely difficult for an intro class because it forces you to think outside of the box early. Professor Oppenheimer's goals have good intention, but I often felt that I did not have enough resources to reinforce my learning. While not having a textbook can save you a lot of money, a textbook-like structure would have been really helpful in this class. My advice- think about application and not memorization.

Great professor who wants you to succeed and is very helpful. I found the class interesting as an overview of some topics in psychology. However, you do not go into much depth on the topics. The professor makes the lectures engaging so as long as you study a bit, it's not too hard. I ended up with an A. That said, the class average for the midterm was a 52%. He plans it like that and then curves the grades after the final. I liked it and found it pretty easy, but it does require a lot of application and analytical skills, not just memorizing. The midterm and final make up most of the grade, so if you don't do well on those, it might be a little hard to make up.

Professor Oppenheimer is a great, engaging and intelligent professor, but this class is NOT an easy A. He posts his slides online, but they have very little content so you have to go to class to understand what's going on (not bruincasted). He talks very fast and literally ever word he says is extremely important.

There's a midterm and a final, and weekly homework that's graded on completion (but do well on them because it's the same style of questioning used in the midterm and final) and a research participation requirement. No MCQs unfortunately, but just short answer questions that you need to know a LOT of detail for, so like I said, go to lecture. The final is the same plus 2 long answer questions and a research experiment question. You'll learn how to do the research questions in Friday lab, where you're assigned a random group. This is also graded on completion, but again, you want to know what's going on.

You need to work hard in this class for an A. I took for granted that since a lot was designated to homework, I didn't have to work as hard for the midterm and final. He doesn't tell you what grade you get on the midterm either, just a guesstimate curve, so you need to be on top of things always.

The grad student TAs are all pretty smart and willing to help, as is he, so GO TO OFFICE HOURS! I wish he put more on his slides/podcasted his lectures, but just know that you will enjoy every lecture you go to, even if you have to pay a LOT of attention.

Professor Oppenheimer is a super fun and engaging lecturer and you really learn a lot from his intro psych class. He even lets his students pick a topic for a student choice lecture and that was super interesting!
The class is definitely not an easy A though! His powerpoint slides are usually just pointers/pictures without a lot of information on it, so it's up to you to attend the lecture and take thorough notes of what he says.
For Friday labs, you're put into a group and remain in it for the rest of the quarter. They're usually really interesting since you get to design your own experiments with your group members. The labs are based on participation/completion; if you turn it in on time and show effort, you get the points.
There really is not much in terms of homework. There are readings for the lab on Fridays but they're relatively short; Every week you are also required to complete an online calibrated peer review. You answer a question he posts and then throughout the week, review other answers and your peers' answers anonymously. I found these extremely helpful in preparing for midterm/final since the questions are probably past exam questions so you get a better sense of how to answer them. This is also based on completion and therefore easy points- so make sure to do them!
His exams are hard, but not impossible. They are all free response/short answer questions, so you really need to know the material and be able to apply it. Do the practice problems he posts online, attend his office hours or the TA's office hours (the TAs are also really knowledgeable and helpful in clarifying material from class!), and review the material every week to see what concepts you don't understand.

Overall, I really enjoyed the class!