I do not recommend anyone else for 120A besides Jesse. He truly cares for his students and made a lot of accommodations for us amidst the pandemic. His exams are tricky, you need to study, exams are closed notes/book so you can't rely on your notes. I got a C on the midterm from not studying and a B+ on the final with minimal studying; LOTS of people got As and even 100% on the exams, again, if you study enough, the tests will be a breeze. There's lot's of assignments and quizzes where you can earn points to redeem yourself if you don't perform well on the tests. He also offers extra credit through SONA. I was able to still get an A in the course despite not performing too well on the exams. Take him!!!

This is the second time that I have had professor Rissman for a class.

Even during a challenging time, Jesse does his best to teach a class to 400+ students. Lectures are always engaging and he provides fun examples for you to follow even in his asynchronous lectures. The only thing I didn’t like about prerecorded lecture was the fact that some of them overtime.

Tests are fair but can be tricky if you didn’t study. If you really want an A then I suggest you read the book as a few questions from the book tend to pop up.

There are weekly quizzes and discussion is mandatory. If Dylan is teaching then I suggest taking it with him!

There’s also a paper that I found to be fairly straightforward as long as you follow the rubric.

Overall great class! Would take him again.

So far, in my limited experience of one year and one quarter as a transfer here at UCLA, this has been hands—down my favorite class I’ve taken. Not only is the subject matter incredibly interesting to me, Professor Rissman also makes his lectures very engaging and somewhat funny. At least for the summer, all of his lectures were pre-recorded, and the only attendance that was required was the discussion attendance. Class materials for the class were fairly priced. He used an online rental service for the textbook, which included the required extra practice ZAPS modules, all for around $75. However, while the book is helpful, it’s not necessarily needed, so you can completely get around this cost by not buying the book and finishing all of the ZAPS modules within the free trial. The grade was broken down into three big ticket items (Two tests and an essay) and a few more smaller items that weren’t worth as much (ZAPS modules, quizzes, and discussion attendance). You can also get up to 2% extra credit by doing 4 sona studies. The tests were very fair imo and were similar in structure to the questions that he asked in his quizzes. The quizzes are open-note, but the tests are not and are done through the respondus browser. Overall, while this class is quite a bit more work than some other psychology classes, it was well-worth it, and I would highly recommend taking 120a with Rissman.

good professor but hard class you have to study a lot and work really hard

If anyone wants to buy the access code I have an extra unused one. Please text **********

AWESOME CLASS!!!

Professor Rissman is such a sweet, down to earth guy. He tries to clarify confusing concepts to the best of his ability, and the examples he showed in class were interesting and applicable to everyday things that we experience. The textbook was not necessarily important, but it did supplement the lecture material and gave more helpful examples. The content of the class itself was captivating and fun, but a lot of the material was a repeat of what I had learned in other psych classes (this may be a pro or a con, depending on what type of student you are). The exams were very, very fair and not too difficult. There were clicker quizzes, but again, as long as you reviewed the material the night before, they were also very doable. I totally recommend taking this class with Rissman!

Let's get this out of the way: It's not difficult to get an A in this class. The median grade was probably between an A- and an A. There's nothing really special from the book and it's not necessary. The quizzes also get easier over time (the hard ones you can drop) and you can get +2% extra credit from doing 4 studies. If you do those at the beginning of the quarter, study enough to understand the material before quizzes , then you'll probably get an A. It also helps to do the modules at the beginning of the quarter (don't have to pay for it or worry when it's due) and ask your TA questions about the essay (not too difficult but the rubric is kinda confusing. I lost 1.5 points on it because I didn't discuss controversies enough of the paper).
This class is kinda fun. The professor is dorky and funny. But I left the class not really feeling any different. I know it's supposed to be an intro to other topics, but in the end it felt like I just took the class to satisfy a psych req. Overall not bad though

TAKE THIS CLASS. he is he best who teaches it. You don't want to miss out . TRUST

Breakdown of your grade:
Midterm Exam 30%
Final Exam 35%
Term Paper 15%
Clicker Quizzes 10% (you could drop the lowest 2 quizzes)
Clicker Participation 5%
Section Attendance 5%
Plus two extra credit percentage points
My final grade: A

This was my first time taking a column A class, and given the little "science" background I had, I was scared of how challenging the class was going to be. Nonetheless, I can honestly say Dr. Rissman has been one of the best instructor I've had during my academic tenure. The concepts were, at times, hard to grasp but the way Dr Rissman dictated the class was really effective. I like how interactive the class was with the clickers and how funny the demos were for certain topics! It definitely kept me wanting to know more. I only wished we had more time to go more into detail with certain topics because I felt sometimes we were going to fast. Though, having the class in video podcast was also helpful because I could also go back to the lecture and check if I forgot to annotate any major example or concept. Overall, a really good class. Just make sure you balance out the difficulty of all your classes because if paired with other hard classes it can get a unnecessarily stressful.