Haven't even taken the midterm but already feel like the class is shitty... I feel like the professor does not go over material thoroughly and the way he handles class is messy. He also expects so much when he himself does not do such a good job explaining concepts. Totally lowered my interest towards this subject.
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I don't know why there are more than 30 percent of people getting As in the previous years...

I’m sorry to anyone who liked this class but I came into this class so excited to learn about psychopathology and I found myself more interested in every other psych course I have taken at UCLA and that’s sad to me because I want to go into clinical psychology. Dr. Lee seems decently nice but he is a boring lecturer and no matter how hard I studied the slides his exams screwed me over because I always questioned if I was right since he had many select all that are correct questions. Overall I would take this class with another prof or just take normal abnormal bc this class is a regret of mine.

I really was not a fan of this professor at all. His exam was really inconsistent and subjective, he emphasized all throughout the class that this class would not make u able to diagnose any of these disorders then on the exam that's exactly what he asked you to do, like they were mostly situational based and was like does this kid have xyz disorder. His lectures on eating disorders were downright triggering and I don't even have an eating disorder. Like for anorexia he really put up on the screen a huge picture of a holocaust-skinny girl, and said that "people with anorexia are underweight and have a severe fear of gaining weight" and left it at that. No mention of like actual mental psychology or how anyone of any size can have an eating disorder, etc.

I think his research focus is autism because he gave really in depth lectures on that, and only that and for each other condition he basically just read off the DSM-5 (like i do mean literally, like for some slides he quite literally screenshotted the DSM-5 criteria and just read them).

I think this class had the potential to be super cool and engaging but it fell short of my expectations.

This was the first core Psych class I got to take at UCLA, and I was so excited, even though I was taking it online because of covid. I found the lectures really difficult to pay attention to. They were dull, and people were constantly blowing up the Zoom chat with questions that Prof Lee was *going to answer anyway* if students would just wait, so it could get kind of chaotic and disorganized in lectures. Ultimately, he read off the slides (which were posted), so I ended up taking notes from the slides and rewatching his lectures later. Like other people have said, the tests were very heavy with the "Mark all that apply" questions, so even though they were open-note, I found myself second guessing my answers and having trouble on tests. Further, we had to take the tests on CCLE, so we couldn't even go back and check our answers, and we were timed. With so much going on during Spring quarter, I (and I'm sure many others) had a very difficult time focusing on schoolwork, and honestly, it didn't seem like Prof Lee was concerned with whether or not we were engaged. I get it, professors had to shift their method of instruction abruptly, and were subjected to many of the same external stressors as their students, but compared to my other professors-- in classes I didn't even like-- Prof Lee fell short. He sent an email at the beginning of the quarter that said something like "email will not be the primary form of communication this quarter, email your TAs if anything," and although he was friendly in lectures, I felt like he was inaccessible or unapproachable as a professor. I don't know, I guess this class just really disappointed me, but I think if you have the time, energy, and motivation to teach yourself the material, you'll be ok. It really wasn't the worst class I've taken, just incredibly underwhelming and needlessly difficult at times.

I had high hopes for this class but was very disappointed with it. The midterm was comprised entirely of "mark all that apply" questions, many of which were incredibly specific. I was not prepared for nor had I encountered this format previously and it added so much additional stress, confusion, pressure to the exam/(my life for a time). It added some annoyance too because this question format change appeared to be both a deviation from the provided syllabus and the expressed experiences of past students. The final was mixed multiple choice/multiple answer and substantially more straightforward. Overall though, this class felt unduly difficult and horribly stressful.

Taking the class this spring. We've only taken the midterm so far and I'm honestly confused. Idk if he changed his syllabus or grading scheme when classes went online but I don't understand how so many people have gotten As in the class in the past. The grading scheme is midterm (40 points), final (50 points), 10 points for discussion. Final grade is sum of points earned/100. He tests you on lectures and the textbook and doesn't tell you what material from each you will be tested on and still makes the questions very specific.

The professor is quite helpful in explaining the bigger, more confusing concepts. Definitely go to OH. There are weekly readings and it is not specified what concepts from the book will be on the exam. I found the test format to be similar to Psych 100B. I'd say rewatch lectures, review book annotations, and focus on the slides!

This class was interesting, useful, and did not take too much effort. There is no homework, so your grade is based solely on exams and discussion section attendance. Grading scheme is: midterm 1 (about 40 points), midterm 2 (about 40 points; builds on some material from midterm 1), final (about 40 points; mostly on material from the last 1/3 of the course but a few elements from exams 1 and 2), and discussion section attenance (10 points; 2 points per section.) He drops your lowest exam score as long as you get above a 65% on each exam (so you still have to take all 3 exams.) If you get below a 65% on 1 or more exam, then all 3 exams are factored into your grade and none of them are dropped. There are only 5 discussion sections and you get 1 free skip without penalty, so you can still get the full 10 points. There is an attendance google form that you have to fill out at the end of discussion that asks questions about concepts discussd in section so you can’t really leave section early. You can also get 2 extra credit points from doing 2 hours of SONA studies. Exams were about 40 multiple choice/true or false questions total with about 3-4 extra credit questions at the end. I would recommend taking VERY thorough lecture notes, because his EC questions often tested on small details in lecture that are easy to miss. I thought the exams were a very fair level of difficulty, but one con is that they test on concepts from the reading that were not discussed in lecture. Assigned reading is roughly 2 30-60ish page chapters per week. If you don’t want to do all of the reading, I would just recommend memorizing/skimming the vocabulary list at the end of each chapter, because that is what questions on the exam tended to test on. I didn’t have time to do all of the reading for the exams so usually I would just miss or guess on those questions and still got an A in the class. In class, Prof Lee told us that exams would be about 75% content discussed in lecture, 15% content discussed in lecture and reinforced by the textbook, and 10% discussed solely in the textbook and not in lecture. Lectures are also recorded on Bruin Cast. Professor Lee is a good instructor who explains concepts thoroughly and gives many examples to help us understand things better. He doesn’t speed through slides like some professors that I’ve had. He also explicitly says things in lecture like “this concept will be on the test,” which is super helpful. Finally, he provides practice exam questions and solutions, which I really appreciated. I really liked this class because it taught me a lot of warning signs/symptoms of mental illnesses that I now know to look for in my future kids someday. Overall, if you are looking for an easy A, low effort class, I would not necessarily recommend this class. I’ve taken way easier psych upper divs than this class; however, it is definitely doable and not unreasonably difficult.

This has possibly been my favorite course I've ever taken in college. The content is so interesting, and Prof. Lee is an amazing lecturer. He is super engaging and explains things in an easily digestible way. Classes are recorded and he doesn't take attendance but I would recommend going to lecture because you can ask questions. His grading system is very nice too in my opinion. There are two midterms and a final but as long as you get above 65% on all three exams the lowest one will be dropped. So if you do well on the first two midterms you don't have to worry about the final. The exams are relatively straightforward and he always includes at least 4 extra credit questions and will drop a question if most of the class gets it wrong. Overall, it is such a great course, I highly recommend it.

This review is intended for students with any mental health disorders/past traumatic history. As a student who's endured many of the detrimental impacts of the disorders mentioned in this class, I felt incredibly uncomfortable with how material was taught. While the professor aimed to appeal the class with "funny" videos describing some of the symptoms of mental health disorders, and making "comedic" metaphors, I actually found this quite offensive, insensitive, and evidently inaccurate. While I can appreciate professors who do not want to trigger the class, I found Professor Lee's commentary to be disrespectful to not only myself, but also my peers, and the many individuals in the world who could not be in that classroom due to their mental health limitations. I urge all students to remind themselves that while a professor can hold a psychology degree in one hand, it does not mean they will have compassion in the other.