Dr. Johnson's class was a frustrating and horrible experience amongst my otherwise wonderful time at UCLA.

Her exams are short written answer and graded harshly with no clear guidelines on what she expects. When looking over my graded exams I found a number of mistakes in the grading that the professor and TA acknowledged and sometimes corrected, sometimes didn't. This is because the grading was not based on actual comprehension and explanation of the material, but the usage of random specific words in the readings and lecture slides. If you did not use these words, even if you accurately described the findings, you will get zero points for the question. And given that every short answer question constitutes approximately 8% of your entire class grade, this adds up very quickly and can cripple your score immediately. Coupled with taking weeks to grade, this means that you have no idea how you are performing in the class until it is too late to do anything about it.

Dr. Johnson's lectures were often arrogant and pompous, carrying herself with an uncomfortable sense of superiority that deters any questioning of her interpretations of abstract findings. And when trying to speak to the professor about her work, she was completely inaccessible for the last 5 weeks of class and the entire following Summer.

Finally, it's also worth noting that she changed the date of the final exam after the class was in its second week, which created an overlap for me with another course. This forced me to drop the other class and I was unable to sign up for a replacement due to the late change. When I told her of the conflict, she told me she drops the lowest score so most people don't even show up for the final. I found that to not be the case. Every student I spoke with were also in the dark, struggling and counting on that final. Hoping that we were able to learn her unorthodox testing, the final test was most important. I left the test feeling like I had 100% on the exam. She failed to post the final test in the portal. Ever. When I finally spoke to her, over a month into summer, she said it was because the final test was a lower score. I spoke to other students who believed they also did better on the final and their scores were also never posted in the portal. Because she is the Dean of Communications, I found myself in a loop when trying to get above her to get a straight answer. It affected my otherwise incredible experience and permanently affected by GPA.

All of these factors combined made the class a horrible and frustrating experience that I wouldn't wish upon my worst enemy. Do not take this class.

DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS.

I know that the Spring quarter isn't done yet for 2019, but I feel like I need to write this review to help others. I am a psych major, I have a 3.9 GPA and I consider myself to be a pretty good student. That being said, this class was way harder than any other psychology class I've taken at UCLA (including PSYCH 100B) and although the material was interesting, the exam format was ridiculous causing me to drop (which is not something I do easily).

The exams are all short answer/essay format and you will have to remember countless studies in depth + interpretation. You will have to know hundreds of lecture slides worth of material PLUS 4-5 scholarly articles per week so around 20 total for each exam.
Kerri Johnson seems like a nice person but she has an attitude of superiority that just didn't sit well with me.

She simply said, "You have to know everything", with a big smile on her face and also, "It's an upper division class dude, what did you think?"
Listen, I have taken multiple upper division classes here at UCLA, even psych classes that are considered the hardest and no one has ever asked for this much detail and essentially memorization only to blow it off as: "What did you expect?"

If you are taking this class as an elective, I suggest dropping it because it might compromise your grades for classes that actually do matter to you.

YOU'VE BEEN WARNED!!

As a psychology major, I heard that this class was an easy elective and that the material was interesting. The course was unbelievably easy - I got an A in the class despite not going to class for Weeks 7 - 11. You literally don't have to do anything to get an A; just show up to the exams and you will get an A, no studying necessary. The writing assignments are a joke.

Having said all of that, I genuinely do not believe the easy A was worth the mind-numbing, pseudoscientific bullshit this class feeds you. I think I have taken about 45 classes at UCLA; this was BY FAR the worst one. Not only is the material inherently banal and more importantly unremarkable, but the professor is unclear and disorganized. By the way, I'm not the kind of student who hates on professors and instructors - I think 95% of my instructors at UCLA have been better than brilliant. Also, I usually never miss lectures, but Johnson's lectures used to make me so physically angry that I decided at some point to just stop going.

So what I'm saying is: Yes, if you take this class, you are guaranteed a solid A. BUT, the material and the instructor do not make that easy A worth your time. STAY AWAY... I have warned you.

This professor is literally the worst professor I've had as junior at UCLA. She does not care about the class at all ... you can tell she could give less of a shit about a single student. She is clearly only here for research and it shows. She spends her class touting her own research, bragging about her own career rather than teach material which doesn't even matter because the exams are mostly focused on the readings anyways.
In the beginning of the quarter, the TA taught the class and the TA grad student was a better teacher than Professor Johnson who has been teaching this course for many years. That says it all.
Dont take this class if you care for your sanity. Professor Johnson will drive you crazy with her shitty teaching and lack of care.

I just want to warn everyone before attempting to take this class because it seems easy and the reviews are "not that bad" that this was the WORST class I have taken at UCLA by a milestone. I also would like to preface this by saying that I am a good student too and this class was the first time I have ever received a D on anything. Anyways so the class consists of the professor and the TA. There is no discussion for this class only a lecture. Also, keep in mind that the professor is a researcher at UCLA and the TA is her assistance so they are super close. Basically the entire class you sit in on these lectures which are these TERRIBLY designed slides of just photos and then she explains experiments and studies all class. Its just study after study and by the end of the class you've essentially heard over 100 different studies. Her slides are also designed in a way that its impossible to understand if you didn't attend lecture since its basically all pictures. Then you have readings every single week too that are extremely complex that we never ever go over in class. The exams are supposedly 50/50 of lecture and readings but I swear she purposely puts the most difficult things on the exam which by the way is all short answer. Anyways this class is seriously not worth the time and to put it in perspective of the number of studies you have to memorize in this class the midterm and the final each were 50 plus page study guides that the class created because there is that much information. Also, the TA knows absolutely nothing and there's basically no way to get help. There were multiple rants on how difficult this class was for no reason. Save yourselves and take a way easier elective.

I literally just took the final for this class so I don't even have the energy to roast her to the fullest extent, but do not take this class. Kerri and her do not care about your learning, they don't answer your questions in office hours (yes even just about the concepts of the readings), and there are like a million research articles as the readings that you're expected to know every detail of for the exams. To describe every interaction I've had with either of them in one word I would say "condescending". Instead of just answering a question to clarify a concept from a reading IN OFFICE HOURS they avoid the question and make you feel like an idiot for asking by adding in some snarky remark like "well if you paid attention in lecture it would be pretty obvious..." Like I did and its not so I'm here trying to raise my grade...? Sorry Kerri not all of us care about your research, which you obviously think makes you better than everyone else. Honestly hate myself for taking this class. It probably will tank my GPA and I absolutely would not recommend.

This class is extremely interesting and awesome. It is an upper division class and this is UCLA so of course you should expect to be somewhat challenged in this course. This class is no walk in the park but the material is incredibly interesting which makes this course very enjoyable and fun to take. The class is not that difficult if you keep up with the readings. Her powerpoints and lectures are really good and well done.

Please ignore the moron who posted below and said that Professor Johnson is stereotypical about gender roles and stereotypes, this person clearly is not very competent. All of the material that Professor Johnson teaches IS BASED ON RESEARCH. She is not conveying her personal opinions, only what research has found.

Furthermore, Professor Johnson is a fair grader and an amazing professor. If you are interested in pursuing research and graduate school TAKE THIS CLASS. Even if you're not, the material in this course is super interesting and really cool. I highly recommend this course and ANY course that Professor Johnson teaches. She is AWESOME!

Don't listen to the reviewers below. The reality is that this class is extremely interesting. It is an upper division class and this is UCLA so of course you should expect to be somewhat challenged in this course. This class is no walk in the park but the material is incredibly interesting which makes this course really interesting.

Please ignore the moron who posted below and said that Professor Johnson is stereotypical about gender roles and stereotypes, this person clearly is not very competent. All of the material that Professor Johnson teaches IS BASED ON RESEARCH. She is not conveying her personal opinions, only what research has found.

Furthermore, Professor Johnson is a fair grader and an amazing professor. If you are interested in pursuing research and graduate school TAKE THIS CLASS. Even if you're not, the material in this course is super interesting and really cool. I highly recommend this course and ANY course that Professor Johnson teaches. She is AWESOME!

DON'T TAKE THIS CLASS!!! I thought this would be a fun elective and that was a huge mistake. This class was way more difficult than what you'd expect from a psych elective on body language. The exams were some of the hardest I have ever taken at UCLA, and grading seemed completely arbitrary. DON'T DO IT!!! I can't stress enough how much I regret not dropping this class when I still had a chance... If not for this class, I'd be graduating with all As... Save yourself stress and anxiety, and take something fun like Cultural or Heath Psych.

As a graduating senior taking this class in my last quarter at UCLA, I can say that is class is the absolute hardest. I have never encountered a professor at UCLA that legitimately doesn’t care about her students or class. She missed the entire first 4 weeks of school because she is the head of the Comm department and has meetings during class time. Her TA absolutely sucked and was unhelpful for those 4 weeks. As far as professor Johnson, she is oblivious of what her class entails - you will need to read extremely hard and long articles every week that will be different from lectures, you will NOT go over them in class and you will be expected to memorize lecture slides and readings for midterm and final. Since everyone was failing she offered extra credit (which was only a point added to our lowest test grade)... DON’T TAKE HER. Seriously. You don’t want to go through the stress. I am a good student and studies like crazy for this class and got a C. She is not worth the trouble, stress, and lowering your GPA.