Enthusiastic and knowledgeable about her subject matter, clear explanations of concepts, encourages class discussion. I enjoyed coming to her lectures, which are well attended, and never bothered with an available podcast. I found myself telling my friends about some of the studies we went over in class, which sparked some really interesting conversations. Makes you think about yourself and how other people influence your thoughts and behaviors. I would definitely take another class from her.

Dr. Smurda is incredible! I learned a tremendous amount in this class. Her lectures were fascinating and she delivered them in an engaging, hilarious way. I found myself thinking about the material all the time. She was also very intelligent, helpful, and kind. She truly cares about all of her students and gives them a great deal of her time, even outside of class during office hours. Please offer more courses from Dr. Smurda so we can take them from her!

I was fortunate enough to take two classes from Prof. Smurda this quarter. I'm so glad that I took this class with her. It was a very rewarding experience! She is very patient, kind, and funny too. I feel like I learned a lot about doing research in psychology. Her lectures were very easy to understand and the midterm was fair. I like the fact that there were several types of questions, including short answer and essay. The group projects were really fun and I even made a lot of new friends in this class. If you can, TAKE THIS CLASS WITH PROF. SMURDA!

Dr Smurda is one of my favorite professors at UCLA. I took her for psych 135 in the winter and now taking her lab class 136A. If you want to take Psych 135, take it with her or Lieberman. The exams are very fair if you study and understand the lectures, and read the assigned readings and understand the main points from them. You learn so much from this class that you can apply to your own life! Highly recommended!

Dr. Smurda is a really good lecturer. I took both social psych and social psych lab with her and both of them are really fun. Dr. Smurda tries her best to engage her students as much as possible and she is also really helpful if you come to her with questions. My TA in the social psych lab is Melissa and she is really halpful as well. If you have both of them, you are in very good hands.

I took psych 135 with Professor Smurda, and she is one of my favorite professors at UCLA. Her lecture slides are concise, and she also provides many examples to help her students comprehend the topics. Additionally, she is extremely helpful during office hours. Her tests are also fair as well because she does not just test you on pure memorization. If you study the topics and understand the concepts, then you will do fine on her tests. She is not out to trick you. I received an A by just studying her slides and making sure I understood the big picture of each concept. If you need to memorize anything for her tests, she also lets you know beforehand.

Dr. Smurda is amazing! Most of the work is done in lab so not much is required outside of class time. There is a midterm, a group project that involves a paper as the final, a small paper (3 pages), and a few in class exercises. As long as you attend class, do the work, and study for the midterm, this class is not difficult. Dr. Smurda cares about her students, is available for help, and her lectures are engaging. I would highly recommend taking this lab with her if you have the chance.

The material covered in this class is relevant to everyday life. Professor Smurda presents it in a way that is interesting and engaging. It is apparent that she cares about her students' success and she is very easy to talk to and get a hold of if you need anything. If you pay attention to the studies discussed in lecture and read the assigned books, you should do very well on the midterm and final because the multiple choice questions she asks are pretty straightforward. Discussion sections are fun too!

Prof. Smurda is by far the best professor I've had at UCLA, my experience in her class was the best experience in all my Psychology courses.
As far as workload:
1 midterm 30%
group project 20%
final paper 25%
small paper 15%
attendance and participation 5%
in class group work 5%

I would recommend her for any class she teaches. She grades fairly, makes the lecture interesting, and she's very approachable. TAKE PROF. SMURDA !

***Took Psych 137J with Dr. Smurda

Her seminar on Self and Identity was extremely interesting and I would highly recommend taking the class! There are no exams, just weekly thought papers (1-2 pgs) and quizzes. Every student also presents during one class period, leading a discussion on one of the readings. The seminar is mostly discussion based so you have to come to class having done the readings and ready to participate, but the material is pretty easy to get through and I enjoyed reading it.

Dr. Smurda is clearly interested in the material and does a really good job of centering class discussion around relevant topics. Since the theme is the Self, contributing to the discussion isn't difficult and most of the examples in your papers come straight from your own experiences. I also really liked that it was a small class so you get to know the other students, which makes conversation much better.

Take this class!