She said final was easy before handing it out. Funny joke. I laughed out loud like the rest of the class.
I would highly recommend her. She does have bad reviews down below but those are from 5 years ago. She is really passionate about DSP which allows her to communicate the material very well. Lots of examples are given in class which is just what you need. For the first half of the quarter, she lectures from slides half the time, but as the quarter goes on she lecture more with on the board with examples.
Anyways, she is one of the best professors I have had at UCLA. I should mention that she is also one of the hardest professors teaching one of the toughest EE courses-113. BUT, this is great because she also gives out very good grades. In my opinion she is the best type of professor: one is very tough, but gives good grades so you actually learn a lot AND get a good grade.

I have had many terrible professors at UCLA and maybe a couple of good ones (not more than I can count on one hand). Unfortunately, Professor Van der Schaar falls into the former category. She lectures from PowerPoint slides, which, in my opinion, is just pure lazy on her part. I would be willing to cut her some slack if she actually lectured well in conjunction with her slides, but she simply didn't. If you can take this class with another professor, do it. She sucks. She is also not very helpful as she doesn't make herself available. Oh, and the final was super difficult, too.

She said that the Final is gonna be easy, even easier than the Midterm. However, the Final is very difficult.

By far the BEST professor I have ever had at UCLA, and I am a senior year EE major. She is the best lecturer. Her lectures are always organized and FULL of examples, just like an undergrad student needs. You will learn a lot in her class. She has a slight accent but you will get used to it. She is a GREAT person, so make sure you go to her office hours. She will not only discuss class related concerns, but also give you personal advice for grad school and life in general. THE BEST PROFESSOR EVER! TAKE HER!!

Even though I got an A in Van Der Schaar's class, she is FAR from an easy professor, and I would highly recommend avoiding her. How was I able to do so well in the class? Two letters: TA.

The homework assignments that Van Der Schaar assigns are nearly impossible to solve by yourself, but if you go to the TA office hours, they will help you A LOT on the homework; often they'll just give you free answers to the hard problems.

In lecture, Van Der Schaar often went too fast and made too many mistakes that other students and I sometimes caught. Sometimes, I got the feeling that her notes were untrustworthy.

We used Sayed's notes instead of a regular textbook, and Sayed's notes didn't explain the concepts much better.

Van Der Schaar's use of board space is really cumbersome; at times she'll go to one side of the board and then she'll go all over the place to finish the problem she is solving.

Midterm was relatively easy mainly because she spent a whole week solving problems to prepare us for the exam. However, the final was next to impossible. We were tested more on the later material, which is immensely harder than the earlier material, AND Van Der Schaar only gave us one lecture for review as opposed to two.

All I have to say is avoid her.

She may seem nice the first day, but as the material increases in difficulty, her accent increases in thickness.