She's a great lecturer and her exams were really straightforward. I always finished in half the time allotted and I got an A in the class. I liked to read the chapters after she lectured just to reinforce the material, although it wasn't always necessary because she's really clear. Your grade, however, will depend largely on the lab. My TA treated us like babies, and half the students were transfer students so the pace went really slow. The course is designed meticulously and it'll feel like kindergarten (we had popcorn reading), but you have to take it so just suck it up.

Prof Firstenberg is a really awesome lecturer! 2 hrs long but she gives us a break in the middle and her lectures are easy to follow! NO PODCASTS (not lectures, not reviews, nothing) NO BLACKBOARD SLIDES.. she doesnt use PPT.
As far as the course goes: 60% lecture, 40% lab. Lab has a lota busy work. Lecture consists of a midterm and a final (more like 2 midterms, not cumulative) You HAVE TO, HAVE TO, HAVE TO, take your time on the exams. for the first one, TRULY UNDERSTAND the difference b/w correlation and true experiment. I got a d on my midterm, a A on the final, and a B+ in lab and ended up with a B in class. DONT flip out if you do horrible on the midterm!!! there is time to make it up. PLUS the final is waaay easier! esp cuz you know what shes looking for, how her tests are and stuff.

I like Prof. Firstenberg. She made the lectures pretty easy to follow and not so boring. The material in this class is really not that hard. The tests are just a little tricky so I recommend really getting to know her style and figuring out what she likes when it comes to the answers. Many people warned me about how tough this class would be so I was really expecting the worse but I came out of it with a B and i felt I could have definitely studied and tried more so all in all I was only disappointed with myself and not really the class or the prof.

Often I find that Psych majors have the most vivid memories of Psych 100B. It's strange that although this is true, we often find little to say about the professor herself. The lecture portion of the class is pretty negligible: only once a week sessions as opposed to the two lab sections a week. Talking about 100B with other psych majors seems to be such a universal bonding experience among us all.

Firstenberg was quite good as a lecturer, always enthusiastic and concise. The tests are pretty much universally hated, "doesn't test your actual knowledge," "much too focused on trivial details." Basically, if you actually like these tests, you've got a path down research and academia waiting for you. God protect your soul if that's the case.

Nice lady.....Terrible class.

first of all, the rumors of how psych 100b takes up a crapload of your time is absolutely true. the lab is pretty much all busy work. as for the TAs, it really depends on who you get. they are usually really horrible or really good. firstenberg, the professor, is absoluteley wonderful, and she makes the concepts extremely easy to understand. however, come around exam time, you basically want to cry. the exams are extremely tough, and it feels like they are testing you more on your test taking skills or your luck, more than anything else.

all in all, psych 100b really isn't all THAT hard, it's just a lot of busy work that takes up your time. and since it's a required class, you should at least take it with firstenberg to make this experience as good as it can be. definitely recommend her.

Prof. Firstenberg is an excellent professor. Her lectures are informative and engaging. While she does an excellent job with her portion of the class, the TAs/Lab Section of this class are absolutely miserable. There is a lot of worthless high-school-like busy work and the labs are poorly integrated with the material taught in lecture. For example, we would be doing tasks in lab that we would not be lectured on for another 2 weeks! Also, the group project is tedious and extremely difficult if you have someone who is annoying/very stupid in your group. Depending on your TA/Group project members this class can be alright or miserable: it's kind of a crap shoot.

Firstenberg is one of my favorite professors that I have had during my 3 1/2 years so far at UCLA. 100B is the type of material that could easily be incredibly dry and sleep inducing, but she makes it very interesting adding in various examples and anecdotes. The first midterm was extremely doable if you went over your notes a couple of times. There are a few book questions, so I read it, but most of the questions are purely lecture based. The second midterm was the same, but much more difficult, probably to cancel out the fact that 80% was the average on the first exam. The second exam did have a lot more ambiguous questions, but she is good about going back through and looking at the distribution for all of the questions. A large part of your grade will come from the discussion section, so definitely hope for a good ta. Also, make SURE you get a good group for your group project or you will hate your life for the rest of the quarter! Otherwise, I had been dreading this class, but it wasn't bad at all!

Professor Firstenberg handled the lecture part of 100B, and that was pretty easy because the tests were multiple choice and not hard. The lab sections were handled by the T.A.'s...and those were a lot of work!