Being my first quarter at UCLA, I was definitely worried going into this class because essentially your entire grade is worth three exams (three exams worth 100 pts each and a small amount of points dedicated to participation). But honestly, while you have to be a good memorizer/test taker to do well in this class, I found it to be pretty easy. The averages on the first two exams were in the B+ to B range, respectively, so it seems everyone else did okay also. There is no curve tho which was nice in this situation. Also, this was apparently the first quarter where Chavira offered extra credit. It was only two points but it can definitely come in handy, as it ends up being about an extra 1.5%ish bump on your grade. All you had to do was participate in the SONA studies but I'd recommend signing up as soon as the quarter starts cuz it is very difficult to get a spot in a study towards the middle of the quarter and later. I put it off for awhile and I was only able to get 1 EC pt tho I didn't end up needing it.
The questions on the exams were straightforward as someone detailed previously... virtually no trick questions and very few "none of the above/ both C and B but not D" stuff. The questions are framed in a practical manner rather than just asking for plain definitions (tho there are a small amount of those types of questions) so don't just memorize definitions of illnesses. Listen to her examples and watch the videos required for the class.
Also you barely even need the book at all... the book goes into way more depth that what she covers in class. I'd still recommend buying it if you have the $ to spare since it was nice to refer to it if I wasn't so clear on a topic or wanted more context into a particular illness.
Essentially all you need to do to ace the exams is use her slides and write down anything she says that is supplementary to the slides. For instance, she'll read something on the slide and then say some extra things to provide context and/or detail. The lectures are recorded so you don't have to go to class (I didn't show up to any lectures and got an A+) and it's nice because you can really write down everything she says since it's recorded. Tho you don't really need the book, anything she says is in lecture is fair game for the exam so I'd highly recommend using BruinCast to your advantage. Keep in mind tho that the BruinCast for this class is audio only and not video, if that matters to you. Also to even better help you on the exams, I'd highly recommend going to the extra review sessions the TA holds before an exam.
There is a small amount of points dedicated to participation, which are rewarded by attending discussion. The discussion is completely supplementary to the course and none of the material in discussion we're on the exams, unless it was something we covered in lecture as well. And lastly, the "final" is not cumulative and simply covers the material that is taught after exam 2. All in all, Chavira was a great professor and is very clear on her expectations for her students. For the last chapter, we didn't cover all the material that was planned so she chose not to test us on that on the final, unlike many professors who would test on that anyway. I'd highly recommend her for psych 127a

I honestly really loved this class. Her slides were very straightforward, and she brought in cool examples from her work with actual patients. If you're interested in the topic and learning more about all these disorders, this class will be easy. A lot of it is really straightforward in itself too, most of these disorders are ones you'll likely have heard of before. You can find the textbook online for free through a website if you look. I found it to not be super necessary; it will help you review more than anything (and there might be a question or two on the test about specific stats, but you can usually guess those if you pay attention in class). I really liked the way the tests were done, they're almost fun really. It's a lot of little vignettes/descriptions of people and their symptoms, and you have to answer with what you think they have. I enjoyed that sort of applied style, but if you don't you won't like them. Overall this is class is a great one to take, really not that complicated or a lot of work. Would definitely recommend :)

I also feel like the past reviews on bruinwalk make this class seem easier than it is. I am still waiting for my final grade, but I am hovering around a B+ or an A- depending on how I did on the final...hoping and praying for that A- ya'll. Anyway with that being said, I feel like if I don't write a review now I never will - so I am going to try and brain dump everything I know about this class and the exams/any tips to help anyone who wants to take this class to succeed.

I took 16 units this quarter and that definitely didn't make things easy either. However, this class by far was the class I devoted the majority of my time to. The chapters are pretty dense. I felt like I did better with the exams when I reread the chapters personally. The first exam was by far the easiest so make sure you do well on it!! The second exam was a lot harder and there was a lot of material, definitely do not try and cram for that exam and make sure you study a week in advance for it at the least because it is a lot. The third exam I thought was easier, but I also studied more for it this time so that could be why. There were some really tricky and weirdly worded out questions too though, so I don't really agree with the last reviewer who said that there aren't tricky questions - there are and they are designed to kind of make you second guess yourself which sucks, so keep that in mind and make sure you understand EVERYTHING.

Now as for study tips...the first exam I would say is more memorization based on the slides, but there are applied questions as well where you have to understand the material. The second exam had a lot of tricky questions based on the substance abuse lecture, so make sure you know that lecture WELL because it is one of the most difficult. There was also some stuff that was brought up in the lecture that came up in the exam that wasn't in the slides or the book - so make sure you listen to the podcasts carefully and pay attention and type it out/write it out. The way I studied for the exams was to make flashcards, listen to the podcasts with the slides in front of me, and going over the slides and explaining things over to myself, as well as making tests for myself to make sure I memorized/understood key tricky things that would show up. Remember that with this class the hardest questions are going to be the ones you wouldn't think would show up - think specific nitpicky stuff, so you really have to know everything inside and out to ensure a good grade. I personally wouldn't skip class because Professor Chavira does kind of get through the slides pretty fast and sometimes the lectures seem rushed because she wants to get through all the material, so I would say definitely try to go to lecture and then relisten to the podcasts. I know someone who never went to class, but they still had to relisten to the podcasts twice, so why not just go to class and avoid all of that? Also, I would try and go to office hours before the exam as the TA's get to see the exam and they know information about it. I personally didn't go, but I am sure it was helpful for those who did.

As for the discussion section...it did not help at all with the exams whatsoever. I don't know what it is about discussion sections at UCLA for psych not having a form of review for the material. I have never experienced this with any classes that haven't been for psych. The readings and class discussions were interesting, but 0 review time for the exams whatsoever.

Overall, take this class seriously. It is not as easy as people have said on here. There are really no "easy" classes at UCLA anyway. But again, I took 16 units this quarter and this class was the one I devoted the majority of my time to. I studied for it every single day and still am not sure if I got away with an A-. If you can't handle the amount of reading and studying you are going to do with this class, I would go with another class. The material is very interesting, but if you care more about your grade and your time - I think the best bet is to take another class.

The material was very interesting, I just didn't like how heavy the readings were. And the discussion section didn't do too good of a job tying together what we learned in class. If you're a good/fast reader, I recommend taking this course, but if not (like me) I would proceed with caution. Overall, Chavira is a very good professor, her voice is very soothing. I also had the sweetest TA for this class, so she has good taste in people too lol. SELLING THE TEXTBOOK (abnormal psych Pearson, 17th edition) FOR 55$! email: ************* for more info

This class was informative, but definitely harder than people made it sound on the bruinwalk. Her class is graded on a points scale without a curve, so you have to do really well on the exams in order to succeed. She also talks super slow and I found it hard to stay awake during lecture.

If you want to succeed in this class you need to read the book, attend the lectures, and study diligently before exams. Do not take this class lightly.

I previously took this class with Repetti and hated it, but Chavira brought new life to abnormal psychology for me. She is very thorough and really only wants you to focus on the topics covered in lecture. Normally, I would recommend reading before attending class, but this is one of those classes I would say reading after gives you a better grasp on what will be on the test. Flashcards won't help because you need to know how to apply the illnesses and differentiate between them.

Grading: This class is based on a point based system; 3 exams worth 50 points each and 20 points for attendance to the discussion section.

There are no extra credit opportunities, no reviews before the exam, and no study questions. However, the "final" is not cumulative. I probably would have done better, but I procrastinated a lot and did not always read the book. The final exam is rather hard because you need to remember probably 4 distinct sections, with several diseases each.

There are some things I dislike about the class, for instance the discussion section goes over articles that are slightly related to the class but not tested on. We review in the discussion before exams, but only for about 10 minutes. I think this is how all 127a classes are made, not just Chaviras. It would be nice to make the discussion more similar to 120a, where they go over the material again and possibly give some examples.

HONEST REVIEW. This is my last quarter at UCLA so I have a lot of experience with professors. Denise Chavira is really amazing professor, she genuinely cares for her students and wants everyone to succeed in this course. Lectures are very engaging, attendance is not mandatory since lectures are being podcasted. Honestly reading textbook is not even necessary if you really engage during lecture and take very good notes. Exams are amazingly fair, there were absolutely no tricky questions, the questions and answers are straight forward. There were no "all of the above or none of the above" type of answers which get really annoying and tricky. There are 3 exams and discussion attendance. Overall an amazing class, not hard at all if you pay attention during lecture and read sections in the book that are associated with lecture material.

Professor Chavira is very kind and understanding. I was about to drop this class because of personal problems, but I talked to her and she kindly let me continue. The workload was light (no participation grade and assignments at all, just 2 midterms and a final) and there was no discussion for this class. However, I would recommending going to her lectures, which I found very helpful for the exams. I'd also suggest reading the textbook. (You don't have to read every single page. Just read the sections she covered in the lectures.) The exams were not that hard, but only if you do some study. Make sure to know stuff she mentioned in the lectures because she usually added a couple of questions about what she discussed in the lectures that were not in the textbook (such as videos and some studies on the slides). Personally I think this class is very interesting and I really like Professor Chavira, but it's definitely a class for someone who's good at taking tests because it's all you're graded on.

This class was an okay class with Professor Chavira. She's very friendly.

She mostly just recites what her slides say. I didn't feel really engaged during class. I just went to say I did. Lectures were audiopodcated.

The class was a bit tough just because there was so much reading and so much material from the books were on the tests. Lots of treatment names, causal factors, and many other things to memorize. I took this class with another heavy-based reading class and I almost passed out with all the 100s of pages of reading I had to finish in a week to keep up.

However, her tests are not cumulative, so that definitely helped.

Overall, she's an okay professor. I ended up with a B+ with all the 100s of notecards I used. There's just a lot of reading and lots of terms to remember and associate with certain illnesses. Lots of work. But not work that hurts your brain because it's hard to understand. Work that hurts your brain because it's lots of information (but also very interesting).