I love this professor. If you take her, I highly recommend that you go see her in office hours because she is very helpful and explains the material from lecture really clearly. She always encourages students to come see her and then she spends tons of time making sure you really understand everything and that you are studying effectively. She's also funny and very intelligent too. You do need to study though because the tests are difficult, but she does let you drop your lowest grade which is great. She also covers a lot of material, but you can see that it's because she is incredibly passionate about psychology. I enjoyed this class more than any other I've taken at UCLA so far and I've decided to change my major because of it. I would definitely recommend her -- just don't get behind because there is a lot of material covered at a pretty fast pace.

This was a great class to take! The professor gives 2 midterms and a final but all of them are NOT cumulative and she drops the lowest grade of the 3 of them. The tests are very reflective of the material covered in lecture, it is just a lot of information that she gives, such as definitions and case studies that you need to know, so you have to memorize a lot for the tests. She podcasts her lectures and posts the lecture slides. She is super nice, funny and very helpful!

What a headache. I should have known to not take a 3 hour class on a Friday. She speaks VERY quickly and spends the majority of her time explaining her examples and outside studies but skims over the important material. There is no textbook but you have to read chapters in 4 different books about different aspects of social psychology. The first midterm was very difficult and many students were forced to take the course P/NP or had to drop the course instead of failing. The TA's are excellent and write the questions from the books on the exams. The final was not cumulative and was not as difficult as the midterm. For both exams it is imperative that you truly know and understand the studies she explains during lecture. Most students only listened to the podcast and did not go to class. Good luck, take it with another Professor if possible.
Grade breakdown: 40% midterm, 40% final, 20% section
my final grade: A

I'm not sure how often Dr. Smurda teaches this particular class, but she made it quite enjoyable for Summer '15.

Your grade is made up of the following:

A test reviewing some concepts from 100B (but not nearly at the same brain-melting difficulty) that she lectures on for the first few weeks into the course. - 30%

Participation/Methodology Exercises - 10% (I combine these because it's literally impossible not to get all the credit unless you don't show up).

15%: Compliance Paper (you walk through a study you conduct as a class and write up a small portion of a research paper, she basically walks you through it)

25%: Final Paper on the experiment you design during the second half of the class

20%: Group presentation that basically outlines your final paper for you

She makes things relatively easy to understand, and if the TA is still Melissa, she's a great resource for helping you through your paper and experiment and working out kinks in your design.

Ended up with an A-, and put in a reasonable amount of work for a relatively fast paced class (mind you, it's summer). Also you don't really get to choose your groups for the experiments, but you're likely to get the partners you want if you all put the same order for the preferred topics you want to design an experiment for.

I was scared to take a lab at UCLA because I heard that all of the lab classes were very difficult and tedious. I prorastinated until my last quarter, and I'm glad that I did so that I could take this class with Dr. Smurda! Not only is she an extremely nice and caring professor, but she makes the material interesting and enjoyable. She also makes her self readily available through office hours and outside office hours for any questions or concerns about the material. I would recommend this class to everyone, it's enjoyable, not too difficult, and this professor is amazing!

1. pay attention in class and try to learn the information as she presents slides, because you sure as hell aren't going to be able to write it all down.
2. do the extra credit
3. its mostly memorization so make flashcards/ find a study group to help you retain the definitions
4. go with your gut feeling and use common sense on midterms or the final (i didnt double check questions on my final and got an A)
5. if she says to study something in class, do it, because it will probably be on an exam

i recommend taking smurda. its a fairly easy A if you study. i didnt keep up with the weekly readings and only studied a few days before the exams and got an A-. she has fairly interesting lectures with a lot of videos, even though i fell asleep a lot. the best part? her 2 midterms and 1 final are each 1/3 of your grade and they are NONCUMULATIVE.

Dr. Smurda is an amazing professor and I highly recommend psych majors who need to take a lab class to take her Social Psych Lab. This class luckily is nothing like Psych 100B, because you actually get to pick a topic for your project that interests you and your group. You also have a chance to find significant effects, which is really rare in 100B.

The meat of the class is one midterm exam, a group presentation (based on your group project), and a final report (based on your group project as well). The midterm is just the right amount of challenging, not difficult if you study and stay engaged with the material. It is also a mixture of multiple choice, matching, and written questions, which makes it quite fair. Dr. Smurda is very clear each step of the way in the class about what you need to do and how you need to do it, so as long as you pay attention you'll do well. Even though it's quite structured, there's always room for creativity when you're designing and executing your project, which is great. And Dr. Smurda is so helpful, always available to help with anything you're struggling with and willing to explain it in a different way so you'll understand it. Her lectures are engaging and I promise you won't get bored! Take this class!

If you are gonna take Psychology 135, take the one with Professor Smurda.
As you expect to learn in a social psychology course, she teaches you lots of things about the social psychology area, and each of pieces of knowledge is really informative and you can really apply what you learned in the class to the reality and lots of situations and moments in your life.

She delivers the lecture in a really clear and organized way that you can follow her with her speech also by reading slides. Because of the fact that she will always give some small surprise during the lecture, the slides would not be posted before the lecture, but after the lecture. You can still review for exam by studying slides.

She is also a nice person that she is very available during her regular office hours and she is really willing to hear from students and talk with students about the issues about the course and more, so feel free to go to office hour and talk with her.
She also personally holds review sessions before the exams, so there are many review sessions you can choose to attend, some from the TAs, some from professor Smurda herself.

The class overall is not very difficult, but prepare to learn a lot because social psychology contends lots of information and it is really broad.
The grading during my Psych135 is: 40%midterm, 40%final, 20%discussion sessions, 1.5%extra credits by participating in 3 researches.
The exams are all multiple-choices, about 40-50 questions. If you do study a lot, you will be fine.

Overall, taking 135 with Smurda is a good experience, and it is both doable and enjoyable.

Professor Smurda was by far one of the best professors I've had at UCLA! I wasn't looking forward to taking a lab class, but Professor Smurda made it very enjoyable. She is very approachable and genuinely cares about her students. You can tell that she worked hard on her lectures to make sure they were engaging and fun for us. She made the class a very comfortable environment and always had a great energy about her.

I am very confused by any negative review on here. I think she taught at a perfect pace and her lectures were always enjoyable.

Overall I received an A, which I think is very doable if you put in the time and effort. I would definitely recommend her if you are looking for a lab to take!

I had mixed feelings about her. She was often friendly, but I didn't like that she only teaches part time and talks about her children too much in class. I feel like I might know more about her kids than Social Psychology. Don't underestimate her tests. I got a C on the first exam and an A on the final. So, I got a B. Kind of sucks.