I rarely write reviews, but I just had to for this class. This was the lightest and the most enjoyable class I took at UCLA.
The lecture portion is recorded. Videos are short and easily digestible. The material is clear and interesting.
The sections are done mainly by the professor and she is amazing. Very engaging. There are 2 quizzes per week (one on the lecture with 10 questions and one on the section with 5 questions). Super easy and straightforward. If you watch lectures you will be able to answer everything and get 100%
There is also a discussion weekly, a reflection paper, and a manuscript review. all of them very easy to do.
I wish there were more classes like this one. DEFINITELY RECOMMEND!

I wanna start off by saying this is one of the most interesting classes at UCLA. It has some seriously useful, research-backed information on topics that attract a lot of controversy and bias. I think having Dr. Ray as a professor is really helpful to understanding addiction. But the biggest issue with this class is the workload and pacing. Weekly quizzes all throughout, which are not evenly weighted. The weekly lecture quizzes are worth 40% (!!!) and the discussion quizzes are worth 20%. The lecture quizzes are due in the middle of the week, a really unusual deadline for a college course, in my opinion. They do drop a couple quizzes, but that's still a huge chunk of your grade dependent on less than 10 quizzes, each with about 5-15 questions. It's very difficult to make up those points when that one category of quiz is worth 40% and then another 20% is basically the same style of quiz. There are no finals or midterms, just two papers which are not evenly spaced in the course but due within about 3 weeks of each other. That pacing just doesn't really make sense to me, because I feel that the first paper could be due earlier and/or the second paper could be due later. The professor recommends getting started on the second paper early, which you definitely need to, but it's difficult to do that when you've just turned in the first paper and you have two other classes to manage work for, plus two weekly quizzes worth even more of your grade!

This was one of the lightest and enjoyable classes I've had so far at UCLA. Perhaps because we were still dealing with COVID precautions and understanding the mental health toll this pandemic has had on a lot of us, Dr. Ray was extremely laid back this quarter in her expectations of us. There was no midterm or final (which I know there was at least a final in past quarters). We had weekly reading quiz, lecture quiz, and discussion topic. We had a couple writing assignments: one that was on an AA meeting you have to attend and the other was a manuscript style assignment. The class was really chill and I'm really appreciate of Dr. Ray for taking it easy as this past year has been extremely difficult.

Oh my gosh I can’t rave about this class more!!! Dr. Ray is a GEM she’s so sweet so good at explaining and so understand. This class is a lot of open not quizzes and a final and it is so interesting And so important to every day life. Lectures can be a little dry but in the scheme of things this class was super interesting and easy to do well in! Thank you Dr. Ray for this class!!

I took this class with Dr. Grodin, but she used Ray's lecture recordings and the same online class format.

DONT BUY THE TEXTBOOK!!! Save your money, you dont need it. All the information you need is covered in lectures, even though they say otherwise.

The discussion sections were not worth going to! Attendance was not taken, and there wasn't really anything covered in discussion that wasn't covered already in the weekly lecture slides. Also, discussion slides were posted before the discussion quiz, so anything that you may have missed is accessible before the quiz.

This class was super easy. The paper was super easy, and grading was basically just checking off items on the rubric (which was very clear and informative.) I got a 100% on the paper.

The final was easy as well, and many quiz questions were recycled and used verbatim on the final. Luckily for me I studied using the quiz questions.

The workload is moderate due to the weekly quizzes and discussion board posts but if you really want to you can work ahead and finish the class mostly early. I would definitely take this class again.

Meh

Yes! I loved this class!!

Professor:
Professor Lara Ray is fantastic. She's super knowledgeable and helpful. Because this is a hybrid course, you watch her lecture online (About 40-50 minutes of lecture per week) and the professor actually leads most of the Discussion sections which is super helpful!
Honestly would take ANY class with Dr. Ray and I'd be ecstatic.

Class:
- Watch lecture videos that are around 40-50 minutes each week.
- Online Pre-Quiz (10 questions) on the lectures before attending discussion section.
- Submit a weekly piazza post on a specific topic (Usually related to the lecture topic- takes like 5 minutes) by the due date/time listed online.
- Online Post-Quiz (5 questions) on the discussion section after attending the discussion section by the due date/time listed online.
- There are multiple extra credit opportunities and the professor was gracious enough to drop multiple quizzes to help our grades. They even take out questions that seem far fetched or seemed confusing. The quizzes were VERY fair.
- No Midterm exam but there is a Final!!

Honestly, this class was amazing. The professor makes it really interesting and fun. I recommend going to discussion to interact with the professor. She really cares for her students beyond what she is required to do. I really recommend any class with her because she is fantastic! Both as a researcher as well as a professor. I wish she taught other upper div psych classes!!

I took this class for the first quarter of it being ONLINE. And i LOVED IT. I have never taken an online class at ucla before but this class was amazing. Basically you have lectures to watch at home (very well put together videos) and usually only max 45mins a week (u can also put the videos on 2x speed). There are 2 quizzes a week- this sounds like a lot but its really not, they are open book (easy) and you get to drop 2 of your lowest scores. Dr. Ray also is very understanding and changes things to fit the student's needs (she extended the deadlines of weekly assignments as needed, offered extra credit 2 times, and was very engaging and always there to answer Q's online). There are also weekly piazza posts worth 3pts each (super easy, graded on participation). There is no midterm (weekly quizzes take its place) and the final is cumulative, in person. There is also one 50minute discussion per week which is in person on campus with a smaller group (25 students) so you can actually see Dr. Ray in person and talk to her too. I loved the design of the online class, and highly recommend this course! All of the material was interesting and Dr. Ray is awesome. 10/10. Oh and also, there is a textbook that is required, but I never used it once and she tests 99% on lecture material anyways so you honestly don't need the book if you usually don't use them to study anyways like me.

Hi Bruins! She is a great researcher but as a teacher.....she is just okay....she throws a few tricky questions on the quiz...I think that she doesn't really realize that many of us work up to 30 hours per week (and no not to just buy stuff we want) but to survive, so she loads you with pre-section quizzes, post-section quizzes and discussion questions....which are not hard but she puts a lot of pressure on the deadlines and what nots. If you feel like you are going to grad school, then take her!! She will prep you for that. But if you work at least 20 hrs per week, I wouldn't recommend her, you might struggle though and GPA is also important for Grad school. On my side, I dropped after the first meeting so yay it didn't affect me but just wanted to give you the heads up...good luck Bruins!

way too much reading. too much discussion required in section. im usually the kind of person who re-watches lectures, takes notes, and memorizes everything. but i dont like when i have to read complicated scientific articles involving knockout experiments and weird triploallele sequencing stuff and talk about it all during discusssion