I really loved the content of this class. Learning about different disorders, medications, causes, etc was really interesting. I just felt like there could be a little more guidance on what to study because there is A LOT of material. She did drop the lowest exam and gave a few extra points each exam due to tech issues we might of encountered. I still could never get an A on the exam and I did study very hard. I would take the class just because it is very interesting but just be ware it's a lot of information that you need to know and the disorders and treatments can become blurred with how similar they can be.

This class was a pretty easy A. I put very minimal effort into the course, and got over 100% in the class. The grade is based on points, with 72 points for each exam, 20 points for a writing assignment called the case conceptualization, 20 points for polls that accompany the lectures, and 16 points for discussion section participation (totaling up to 200 points in the class). She also gave extra credit points for doing evaluations and for completing all the polls, so 3 points extra credit were possible.

There are three exams, the third being cumulative and optional. She takes the highest two exam scores. The tests were very easy, and were 75 questions but three were dropped.

The case conceptualization consists of reading background information on a person, and then answering questions in a paper of 4-5 pages giving him a diagnosis, treatment course, etc. The professor said there were many possible correct answers, and it was not graded harshly at all. Dr. Ng was incredibly accommodating to the circumstances of this quarter, extending the deadline for the paper by quite a bit.

Discussion sections were engaging and I absolutely loved my TA, Megan.

Overall, I would highly recommend this class. The subject matter was interesting but easy, and I felt that discussion was a worthy use of time.

I went into this class super excited to learn about different disorders, but this class turned out to be extremely draining. The material is dense, professor talks and goes through slides too fast, which are full of text. After every class I felt exhausted and unsure of what I just learned. The exams were 62 questions in 75 minutes, which was a bit of a time crunch. They weren’t too bad, although I rewatched every lecture before the exams. The videos used in class were helpful for seeing the disorders in action, and the guest lectures by the TA were engaging as well, far more than the professor's. Overall, the class was fine. I just wish the professor would slow down, maybe cover less material so I didn’t feel so stressed.

I had wonderful experience with Professor Ng and she was one of the compassionate, understanding, and reasonable professor who made accommodation and incorporated class feedback to course and tests. There are a lot of materials to cover in class and as you study many different psychological disorder, symptoms, causes, and treatments it might confuse you if you don't have solid understanding. However, I personally found tests to be pretty straight forward and you will get what you studied for. The exam was made open note for this quarter and tests are curved (tests are graded out of 72 from 75 questions). She also drops lowest test score which means you can opt to skip the final if you did well on the first two exams. Other grading criteria included completing online poll within 24hours of lecture time, discussion section, and case conceptualization paper. Basically as long as you participate in class well, participation and discussion grades are freebie. I was worried about case conceptualization as I identify myself as horrible writer, but I had gotten 20/20 by carefully answering all parts of the prompt so I don't think it is that difficult. It could be that Dr. Ng or TAs might had been more lenient on grading case conceptualization due to protest, but I don't think it should be too challenging. She gave extra credit for giving mid-quarter feedback and completing course evaluation as well. I found this extremely helpful as some professor does not offer extra credit or you will have to participate in research or write up abstract (which requires more effort and difficult during this time!) She took the class feedback and extended time for making up missed discussion section, allowed us to go back to previous questions, broke lectures into smaller videos to reduce connectivity issue with CCLE, and so on. She also gave constant announcement during lectures and openly communicated with students which I found it extremely helpful even though lectures were pre-recorded. It also appeared that she actively communicate with TAs so TAs were up to date with materials and were helpful unlike other classes where where TA will be unable to provide answers. She also took class participation to cover material that students found more interesting for the last week of instruction instead of teaching materials that many students might find it boring. Additionally, she shows a lot of videos of person suffering from disorder which can paints the picture as well that helped me with understanding and learning certain disorders. I highly recommend taking her and I would love to take another course with her in the future!

127A in Spring 2021 was fantastic with Dr. Ng. All of it was conducted asynchronously, which was unfortunate, but nonetheless Dr. Ng and her TAs were incredibly accommodating. The lectures used were from previous years but some slides were updated to reflect new information.

Grading was based mostly on exams, a case conceptualization paper, and section participation. There are three exams with one being an optional final that you can skip if you felt that you did well enough on the first two. Exams reflected mostly lecture information; you can likely get by without using the textbook much for this class (which is free for download on Library Genesis by the way if you really want it), though a few exam questions may feature some "outside" information that could be gleaned from the textbook or external sources. Exams had 62 questions but were out of 60, so you had 2 points of breathing room. Like other reviews said, there is a decent amount of material, but exams were open-notes and book and really weren't too difficult; you also could complete it in a 24 hour window (1 hr 15 minutes allotted upon starting)

The Case Conceptualization is essentially a 5 page APA paper answering 7 questions given a case about someone with a mental disorder. It's not difficult by any means and previous examples of perfect scores are given as a guide to how your paper should look; it was relatively easy and graded leniently because multiple interpretations/answers were possible.

Sections were required, but the nature of this class allowed you to either participate in section live or post to a discussion forum every week. You have to do some listening to podcasts or reading of some articles/cases, but it's mostly straightforward: just say or write an adequate response to one question out of a couple you can choose from regarding the topic of that week. They're easy points; you also got points for completing polls during lectures using the OPT system (free of charge). You also could get extra credit points by doing SONA studies and filling out course evals.

Overall I really enjoyed this class, and speaking to Dr. Ng and her TAs too was incredibly helpful and insightful into work done in the field of mental health and mental illness. Very much worth it as a Column B major course.

I wasn't a huge fan of the professor personally, but a lot of the other students loved her. Her delivery of material seemed stale to me, and I actually preferred my TA's discussion lessons over the actual lectures. The material covered was interesting and really opens the door to exploring the world of clinical psychology. The tests were open note, but still very difficult if you didn't have prior knowledge of abnormal psychological conditions. Final writing assignment for this class was manageable and the overall workload for the course was as well. I loved that she continued to offer an asynch / hybrid option for the course even after returning to campus. Overall, I'd take this course again but maybe with a different professor, and again I say that solely on the fact that I couldn't get into her delivery of the course or her attempted engagement methods with the class while we were there in person.

This class was conducted asynchronously this quarter, so you had the option of attending lectures and discussion sections live or completing discussion forums and watching lectures recorded via BruinCast. The same questions were asked in both the live and online discussion forums, but if you attended in person, you would only have to participate once (speaking verbally) instead of answering all of the questions through the online forum. There are some materials that you have to read/ listen to (podcasts) before attending your discussion section and I personally never had them done on time, so I always opted for the online forum. PAY ATTENTION TO THE DISCUSSION MATERIAL! There may be a question or two on the exams about them..

The class is out of 200 points; 40 points for completing discussions, 40 points for the case conceptualization, and 120 points for two exams (open-note). Exams were administered through Canvas and you had a 12-hour period to complete it although once it opened, you only had 75 minutes for 62 questions (2 questions were buffers). There are two midterms (not cumulative) and one final that is cumulative and optional, if you did well on the previous two exams. You have one drop exam as each exam is worth 60 points. There are "required" readings but obviously, no one is monitoring you. Some exam questions may appear from the text, so I would recommend that you read it and take notes or at least skim through it. Some questions were never mentioned in the lectures, but they could be found through the text. Her exam questions could definitely be tricky. For example, we had a question about what was the least portrayed symptom of Schizophrenia in media and I swear we never read or learned anything about media and Schizophrenia specifically. I ended up dropping MT2 (52/60) and received a 54/60 on MT1 and 53/60 on the final.

I found the case conceptualization to be quite simple and straightforward and they were lenient with grading. I received a 38.5/40 and I recognized that I did not answer all the questions since there were multiple components to a question, so make sure you thoroughly follow the rubric if you want a 40/40!

There were two extra credit points offered; one for participating in research through SONA and one for completing course evaluations. In the end, I received 186.5/ 200 and scraped by with an A with a 93.3%. As long as you get A- (90%) average on your exams, an A is totally doable if you complete all other assignments and take advantage of the extra credit. Best of luck and I hope you enjoy this class as it discusses extremely relevant issues!

Overall, I had a great experience with Professor Ng. The class outlines the diagnostic criteria and treatments for several mental disorders. Professor Ng's slides were very organized and provided clear outlines of all mental disorders we covered. At times, lectures were a bit dry because the format of each of them was very similar (go over the symptomatology for a mental disorder, discuss modes of treatment, talk about cognitive/behavioral criteria that could lead to someone developing the particular disorder), but overall I feel like I learned a lot. Tests were more difficult than I thought they would be. They were online and open note, but the time allotted to take them was very short and many of the questions (30%) were based solely on textbook readings. There were two midterms and a final. Only two exam grades counted towards our final grades. Professor Ng also provided extra credit opportunities (maximum of two points added to the final grade) by completing a SONA study and filling out instructor evaluations at the end of the year. Discussion sections were more interesting than the lectures, because we often looked at specific case studies of people who were experiencing a mental disorder. Section attendance was optional, but if you did not attend your weekly discussion section you had to fill out a discussion forum online that was usually a reflection of the weekly readings. This was a nice option to have and provided a lot of flexibility. Overall I really liked this course. If I were to do it again, I would have prepared better for the first midterm, because the questions were deceivingly tricky. But once I figured out how to study for her tests, the class went a lot smoother. I would recommend this class to fulfill a major requirement.

I would not recommend taking Dr. Ng. She doesn't care about the students or their success in the class, barely responds to emails and even when she does it takes her at least 3 days, and she's one of the professors who think your world revolves around their class, without realizing that life happens (coronavirus, for example).
This is such an interesting topic and if I could I would have dropped it and taken it with another professor. She's not engaging, you just can't wait for her lecture to be over, and other than her research she doesn't care about anything - she teaches because she has to.

This is my favorite class at ucla. The topics are so interesting and professor Ng is fantastic at teaching them. Her lectures are recorded and posted in shorter videos so you can catch breaks, her explanations make a lot of sense and her lectures are organized. The readings she assigns are very helpful and it's definitely possible to do well in the exams. She also offers extra credit options through SONA. If I could take this class with her all over again I would. Highly recommend.