She's a very motivated lecturer and you won't get bored in her class. But the exams are pretty hard and her grading is an actual black box. Supposedly it's 35% midterm, 35% final, 10% assignment 1, 10% assignment 3, 9% assignment 3, 1% Roth IRA. Assignment 2 was just a pass no pass. She said that she would curve the midterm so that the 60-80 was B- to B+, 80 and above was A- to A+. I scored low 70s on the midterm and final, and had extremely high grades on the three assignments (97%). I also filled out the course evaluation that had 3% extra credit attached. But instead, the only thing in the gradebook was the midterm, final, and the participation, which didn't even go through for me. She never responded to my email regarding the extra credit either. Please just take this class with Woo, and if you're in the class with Gardner right now, just drop it, it's not worth it in my opinion. Even if you already bought the course reader, it's not easy.

Reading the reviews for this class made me worried coming into it, but it honestly isn't as bad as it seems. You have to dedicate a lot of time to the class due to the assignments she gives but they are manageable if you make some friends in the class to work on them with. You also must attend class because she doesn't post anything online, however, Gardner has a bubbly and engaging personality so the lectures aren't too bad. The grading scheme is 35% midterm, 35% final, and the rest includes 5 assignments (although the second assigment is the longest and is just required to pass the class - no credit given). The midterm is based on the first 60 pages of the course reader and the final is based on the rest of the course reader. The exams were confusing at the first look because she gives limited practice in the course reader and phrases the questions differently in the exams than how she has them in the course reader. She curved the midterm generously and also gave 3% extra credit for completing the course evaluation. I've heard to take Woo instead of Gardner if you have the option, but if you end up with Gardner I wouldn't be too worried.

this class was a joke. The professor does not record or post slides of her lectures making it harder to study. Also there are 5 assignments throughout the quarter all except for one is actually relevant to the course. The rest is just a waste of time. None of them were put into the grade book/graded so the final grade is dependent on your midterm and final. There is a chance to get extra credit if you write a review.

Professor Gardner is easily one of the best accounting professors here at UCLA. Especially for introduction classes such as 1A, students are guaranteed to learn a plethora of information from her lectures. Here, I will break down some of the pros and cons of her class.

Pros:
Her lectures are very engaging and informative. If you go to her lectures and actively pay attention, you will absorb all of the information needed for tests. She also isn't like your stereotypical accounting professor and brings a lot of energy to the lectures and obviously has a passion to help her students.

She is very focused on career recruiting. Professor Gardner always has her office hours open and is always available to talk after class in regards to career. Any questions you might have, she can probably answer, making her a great resource for anyone looking to break into any sector post-college.

The content is relatively easy as it is an introduction class.

My TA did not take attendance for discussion either.

Cons:
She does give a lot of work. There are four assignments that take a decent amount of time to finish, but if done correctly and you allocate the proper time to finish the assignments they are no problem. They are also generally interesting if you are remotely interested in accounting and finance.

The course reader is $45 and is necessary to pass the class. The course reader is where you will take all the notes, and without it, it is very difficult to pass the class.

Overall thoughts:
Overall, her tests are very fair if you study what's on the course reader. My recommendation is to take this class as you'll learn a ton about accounting which will help you in future courses. There is a stigma of Professor Gardner being challenging, which she sort of is, but if you take the time to actually learn the content and do some of the recommended homework problems not all of them, which are not graded, this class in my opinion is an easy A. Plus, if you supplement the lectures with book readings, you'll be completely fine. Overall, I probably spent about 2 hours a week of homework for this class.

all the reviews you've read before this are right, this class is nightmarish. do not take this course unless you absolutely have to, i.e. econ & biz econ majors. besides being a certified GPA tanker, the set up of this class is just unreasonable and more work than it needs to be. all of the assignments are extremely time-consuming and inefficient. she's extremely old-fashioned and requires everything to be printed out and completed by hand, including an excessively long assignment involving recording journal entries, which would be so much easier on a digital spreadsheet. although she can be charming at times, i find her to be an incredibly frustrating professor as she often goes on irrelevant tangents. she also expects students to memorize an incredibly unfair amount of information for the midterm and final exams. i think a cheat sheet would've been fair. overall, i despised this class and dreaded every day that i had to come in for lecture. i've heard there are students out there taking this class for fun, do not be like them.

I really enjoyed having Gardner as a professor and I think she deserves a better rating. Her grading scheme was 35% midterm, 35% final, 30% assignments (broken down into 4 assignments: 10%, 9%, 8%, 1% and then a 5th assignment that was pass/no pass but I think everyone basically passes it). The assignments are super straightforward and I got above 96% on all of them. The pass/no pass assignment takes around 14-20 hours total but it honestly helps you prepare for the midterm soooo much. Her midterm and final are exactly like the course reader and she also assigns textbook problems that aren't graded. A lot of people I know didn't do them and still got A's in the class but I found them super helpful. That being said, you still need to study pretty hard for the exams and I studied at least 5 days in advance because her exams are content heavy. The exams are all free response which is honestly really nice because you receive a lot of partial credit. She also gave 3% extra credit for filling out the course evaluation and curved our midterm so an A-/A was an 84. I went to her office hours a few times for career help and help with the material and she is really nice and wants you to do well. She brought the Big 4 Accounting Firms to our class to help us network so you can tell she wants you to do well and prepare for your career.

By FAR the hardest class I have ever taken. This course has long and pointless assignments which are expected to take 20-40 hours, and have nothing to do with the actual class and tests. Pretty much tons of pointless busy work which takes hours and distracts you from the actual class. Lectures are not recorded so you have to go. Midterms and finals are extremely hard, I believe the average was a C-D and she still didnt curve it. Horrible class, wait another quarter or 2 to take this class with Woo.

Only take this class if are willing to spend a ton of time on it. There are 4 large assignments that each take up a large amount of time (Assignment 2 is supposed to take 20-40 hours), and most of them are not helpful for learning the actual course material. Lectures are not recorded, so it's important to attend lecture in-person otherwise you will miss a lot. The midterm and final are difficult and there is no multiple choice. The only redeeming parts of the class is that Gardner is a good and engaging lecturer and you will learn the material quite well. However, if there is the option to take it with Woo, do it. This class is not easy even though the material is, which sucks considering it's an intro course.

The class is time intensive, with many assignments that take a lot of time out of lecture. However, if you put in the time, you will learn so many useful life skills and useful information through this class. Would recommend.

This class is just not as bad as some people have made it seem. The only thing that was annoying for me was that she doesn't record lectures so you do have to go to class. My major has nothing to do with this field but I found it really interesting, and the assignments are relevant to improving your financial literacy. You do have to study a lot of material for the exams but it's doable and I could have gotten a better grade if I had put more time into it, so an A is definitely possible for everybody you just have to be willing to put effort in (which is easier to do if you think you will find this content interesting). Getting the textbook was virtually useless so you don't really have to buy it, I used it once to look up the directions for an assignment but you could probably get a classmate to send you the information.