I had Gardner for both 1A and 1B. Although she is not as easy as Woo, she is very fair in her grading; the material on her exams is exactly the notes that are take during lecture and our class received pretty generous exam curves. I preferred her 1B to her 1A because there weren't all the time-consuming projects and rather only a midterm and a final. This meant that for much of the quarter, you did not have to worry about her class but it also meant your entire grade was 50% midterm, 50% final. Having friends who took 1A with Woo, I am sure Gardner does a better job at actually teaching the material, although she may be a little more difficult. Its a trade-off.

I took this class with Professor Gardner online due to COVID, and she pre-records all her lecture videos and posts them on ccle for us to watch on our own time. In terms of the actual lecturing, I really quite enjoyed it - she's a very clear lecturer, and explains all the concepts very well. It was also a plus this quarter too because we didn't have to buy her course reader (which for Mgmt 1A was about $80) and she simply provided all the pdfs for us, but her course reader in my opinion is REALLY helpful, informative, and clear.

In terms of her exams, the midterm was a bit harder and the class average was a bit low, and I think she got a lot of emails from students worrying about their grade, so the final was visibly easier. However for both exams I feel like they're all relatively fair (nothing was too unreasonable), and I think the class average in the end was pretty decent too.

In general, definitely would take her class again!

Highly recommend this class. Gardner is a very clear and engaging professor who provides real-world examples and great investment and career advice. She can be a bit repetitive but that's how she makes the material stick. This is one of the few classes where you will actually remember the material after completing the course.

I recommend doing all the assigned textbook problems in addition to reviewing the course reader to prepare for exams. The course reader lays down the key concepts you need to know for the exams and the textbook questions are good practice. Don't stress about the tax returns she makes you do - they're a small fraction of your grade and aren't correlated with exam questions. I got below 60% on two of them and still got an A in the class.

Prof. Gardner is a great professor for this class! She does a great job explaining the material in depth and insuring that the students know the material. The workload is minimal and this is a great class to take if you are interested in a future in mergers and acquisitions. Prof. Gardner cares deeply about her students and is always willing to help. If you go to class and keep up with the material, the exams are straightforward.

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If you have no accounting background prior to this class, you will somewhat suffer. You definitely have to put the work in to get the best grade possible. Something to be aware of is her grading scheme. Only the top 20% of the class get an A, the next 40% get a B, and the next 40% get a C or lower. That being said, at least 20% will not pass the class.

She uses a course reader that is vital to the class because you do everything with it. It is helpful during class however I found it a bit confusing to study on my own because you do everything in class. So to study, I did the homework problems she assigns, which by the way she does not collect homework. She simply collects assignments.

She is the most straightforward, funny, and fair management teacher. so if you can, take her! The other teachers I have heard are not good or have a ridiculous grading scheme.

One more thing, her tests are extremely time sensitive and if you don't know how to do something, move ON! and do something you do know how to do.

This class is not very difficult for an introductory tax course since the course reader ($82) basically covers the entire material reflected in the exams. The textbook is helpful if anything during lecture was unclear, but the homework isn’t really reflective of the exams so I’d do it as a last resort. With that said, the concepts alone may not be very difficult to memorize, but they can get pretty complicated when they’re intertwined into one question, especially when there are phase outs involved. Do not expect practice exams. She will simply give you a single sheet of paper to show you the format of the exam. The assignments which each consist of 5% of your grade (20% for 4 assignments total) are also not helpful for the exams, but solidify the concepts discussed during any previous lectures. Make sure you do them correctly though because she will take points off for any little thing!! Read the instructions correctly and try looking the solution up online if you’re unsure of your answer. I found that the solutions online are outdated given the tax law changes but are similar enough to make sure you’re on the right track.
The final was WAY harder than the midterm..Due to the present circumstances, we had to do the final remotely online which was fine because we had multiple choice questions on the midterm anyway. Anyways, the final was on CCLE and she made it so we couldn’t go back and revise any of our answers which was EXTREMELY frustrating because I would remember halfways through the exam how to answer a question that I guessed on, but obviously couldn’t go back..Oh and she didnt even bother to mention how many questions were on the final so how the heck were we suppose to pace ourselves??? I wasn’t sure if I was going too slow or if I had time! Hopefully she changes this policy for those taking her next quarter also online. To put it into perspective, I was one of the 13 people who got between As and Bs prior to the final and failed the final <50%. Gardner is funny and an amazing lecturer, but don’t take her exams for granted.

Best professor I have ever had at UCLA. Gardner is not afraid to repeat again and again what you need to know, which I like a lot because usually professors expect students to remember material after it has only been said once. Her class is very organized and you do lots of examples with her during class. Her tests are very challenging and require you to work through problems really fast.

Professor Gardner is extremely knowledgeable and her lectures are easy to follow. Her exams align with the material taught in class and she answers questions thoroughly during her office hours. The lectures are always engaging with multiple contemporary examples. Compared to other classes in this program, Professor Gardner's class has a significantly lower workload.

Her lecture is certainly entertaining and it keeps you awake. But dont expect to rely totally on her lecture for exams (which is all MC). She gave you the big picture for what you need to know in lecture and course reader. But the questions on the exams are mostly a particular example in which you need to apply the ideas behind. I agree with everyone else.. good luck in the guessing game because all the choices kind of make sense and you need some luck to choose the "most appropriate" answer. Even though you know the materials inside out, it's still not a given that you'd be able to answer the questions right. Study guide helps as it has some MCs that are relevant in exams. Dont buy the textbook. I try to read everything in the textbook for midterm but turns out confusing myself.