I didn't have as much of a struggle as other people did with this class during COVID, but I will list a few positives:

-she does the 2% SONA extra credit
-she dropped one of our discussion section quizzes in addition to the two dropped on the syllabus
-gave us the choice to change how our tests were weighed (30%-30%-15% vs 25%-25%-25%)

The class is entirely multiple choice exam based so there isn't as much of a need to participate, but going to office hours to clarify concepts helps a LOT since sometimes she glosses over things in lecture. Also, if Maggie ever teaches as a TA for this class again, highly recommend you pick them. If you're pre-med, try to study for this class like the MCAT. Flashcards all the way and maybe flow charts for some of the systems and pathways. Overall, tough class, but its a lot easier with study methods that test memorization and office hour clarifications.

This class is honestly insanely overwhelming. I have never worked harder or been so proud of a B in my life. I am lucky I had two classes that had a low workload because this class took all of my time. You need to be dedicated to this class or you will not do well. An insane amount of information is taught per slide, anything she says/is on the slides is fair game, she could mention it once and never again and it will be on the test. However, this class prepared me for every other class I took at UCLA. Because everything is fair game you need to commit to the material, but I have never referenced a class more in my life. I do not regret taking this course but it was a lot.

Course material:
I took this class concurrently with Psych 100B, and 115 was definitely the harder of the two for me. The material was pretty interesting IMO, but there was just a lot of dense information in what felt like a relatively short period of time. Fortunately, Dr. Kennedy doesn’t assess anything in the book that hadn’t been covered in her lecture slides, so I basically never opened the textbook and did fine in the class. Unfortunately, however, Dr. Kennedy’s lecture slides are pretty obviously outdated (some of them are even missing/contain incorrect information) so make sure you pay close attention to her lectures and/or clarify things in her OHs.

Quizzes/Exams:
In the quarter I took this class, there were 8 discussion sections, each worth up to 7 points (1pt for participation + 6 M/C question quiz), but only the 6 highest discussion section scores counted towards your overall grade. As much as I hated being quizzed every week, it was effective in keeping me on-schedule with the material. In addition, the class was split up into 3 parts (~3 weeks each) with a non-cumulative, ~32 M/C question exam at the end of each part. She also offered 2% EC for SONA and course evals.

The unfortunately thing about the M/C exams was that they were all administered through Respondus and were all “sequential”, meaning you could not go back to previous questions once you clicked “next question”. Also, some of the exam questions were a bit tricky. Personally, this combination made these exams extremely stressful for me, but as long as you are really familiar with the nuances of the material, you should be fine.

Grading scheme:
25% Discussion (your 6 best discussion scores)
25% each exam (midterm 1, midterm 2, final)
* Dr. Kennedy later added a options to weigh each exam slightly more or less than 25% if you wanted

Professor:
I only had a few encounters with the professor throughout the quarter, but she was always perfectly fine to me and to the other students I heard her speak with. She was admittedly a bit rigid about the whole sequential exam situation despite a lot of students complaining, but I thought it was pretty generous of her to let us choose to weigh certain exams more than others towards the end of the quarter. I thought her lectures were manageable, and she was able to effectively explain all of the important contents in the class.

Overall:
Personally, I didn’t feel like this class was nearly as bad as some of the reviews made it out to seem. The exams were a bit of a pain and there was a lot to learn in just ten weeks, but I thought the material was pretty interesting, and there were no other assignments other than showing up to discussions and exams (at least, during COVID). Apparently, some of the other Psych 115 professors aren’t the best, so if you have to choose between taking this class with Kennedy or waiting for a future quarter, I’d say just go for it.

This class is definitely not an easy one. But it's honestly not that bad. You just have to put in the effort for the class. There is no curve which isn't that great. Make sure to keep up with the notes of the class for the quizzes because those quizzes count towards your grade and are a big portion. There are two exams which are the midterm and final. She podcasts her lectures which is good. I would go to lecture and also listen to the podcast again and rewrite my notes. I know, a lottttttt of work. But, it paid off. I have all my notes, very detailed, basically every word she said during lecture. I took my notes in powerpoint form. Just make sure to study the notes well and you'll get a good grade! My email is *************.

Selling Biological Psychology loose leaf textbook! The 7th edition. I kept it in perfect condition with no markings! Please text ********** if you would like it!

I've been thinking and thinking about what to write for this class because I took it a while ago, BUT what I have definitely come to terms with is that Professor Kennedy is the ABSOLUTE WORST professor I've ever had at UCLA. As I've found she makes you feel stupid for not knowing certain things, she can't explain things correctly, and she's just not a pleasant person to be around for office hours. I say if you truly need to take this class, find someone else because holy hell she is a nightmare. and to top it all off there is so much material that she expects you to know the second she presents it.
I am going to retake this class because the first time with her dropped my GPA really bad.
if you do take her, good luck! just prepare to memorize 100+ slides in 10 weeks

Do not make the mistake of ignoring all the negative reviews this professor has received. This class is designed to leave your insane and lifeless. It really does require 12 plus hours of studying outside of lectures. The lecture materials is not as confusing, however, the exams are a whole different thing. They are written terribly. The psychology department did nothing to accommodate our request during the strike despite most students only having 4 to 5 discussions sections all quarter. She is not as welcoming as the TA. She isn't a bad person, but it's her teaching methods that need improvement.

I took this class as a last-minute decision as my other top options were all filled up by the time my enrollment came and I didn't read the reviews prior to enrolling. I didn't think this class with Kennedy was that bad like others have said. It requires a lot of memorization on your part but if you actually understand the course material in classes like Psych 10 and LS7A, you'll honestly do fine. Material taught in lectures build upon one another so I suggest taking the time to fully understand material in the first 3 weeks. I recommend this: take a discussion section towards the END of the week (Thursday or Friday) since Kennedy implements discussion section quizzes and they make up an important part of your grade (30%). Lectures were on Mon and Wed and you were tested on the previous week's material so this gives you ample time to study and review material from the prior week. Make sure you know pretty much everything that she has on her slides, even the little words. I recommend flashcards and drawing/labeling the diagrams yourself. When she uploads her lecture slides, review over them and get yourself familiarized with the information. Then, during class, she goes pretty fast and also reads off the slides so write down info that is NOT on the slides so you don't spend a majority of your time just writing instead of listening. Also, her lectures have an average of about 40ish slides but most say the same thing, just in a different perspective. After that, make some flashcards and read the textbook! You can find a free pdf online and it includes lots of information that honestly cleared up any confusion that I had in class. You can skip the parts that she doesn't cover in class that are in the textbook since she only tests you on what is on the slides. I have never really been to her OHs but from her discussion forum responses, it's intimidating to talk to her so I lean on my TAs to help me. For the MTs and final exam, be able to apply your knowledge. She's going to give you information about a situation and you have to respond with what is most likely damaged in that person or the area of the brain that the person is using to execute a task. They're all multiple choice but the tests often had tricky language that I couldn't get past. Each Midterm or Final weighed 23/24% of your grade and she gave 2% extra credit if you completed the required hours of SONA. She also drops the two lowest quiz grades that you take in discussion. If you need any help studying for MTs or the final, you can hit me up at ********** and I can send some maps that my TAs created for me for the different lectures that helped me.

Horrendous teacher. I have gotten all A's so far and taken neurosciences classes for graduate students and this class was way harder. The test questions do not make sense. I never write reviews for anything so if you are seeing this, this is your sign to not take this class.

This professor it horrible. I got an A only after studying for at least 10 hrs per week trying to memorize every single detail presented in lecture and didn't fall for her trick questions of exams. DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS unless you are prepared to spend countless hours memorizing material that doesnt even make sense. The lectures include so much unnecessary detail, and she never connects anything even in the slides. The slides seem like they were put in a random order as one doesnt connect to the next even slightly. When she is presenting, its almost like she has never seen the slides before in her life. My TA was amazing and super helpful, the professor was not. The grade breakdown is three exams together worth 70%. They are not cumulative which was nice, but they are incredibly difficult and detail-oriented. I recommend making quizlets; I had at least 80 flashcards for every lecture. The other 30% comes from weekly quizzes that are also impossible.