I loved the content and materials of this class all except Professor Mays. I worked hard for an A but never liked her teaching style or lack of it. She is unorganized and full of herself. When someone questions or challenges her she shrugs it off by senseless rants. Her exams are poorly written (for someone who holds a PhD) and incomprehensible. You could feel that she does NOT genuinely care for her students' learning. I love UCLA but I hope you filter out and check tenured professors like her who does not keep up with the standards of higher education.

Avoid this miserable woman like the plague.
To illustrate examples from class she made constant references to tv shows, if you didn't watch the shows then you didn't get the point of the example. For instance "this disorder is kind of like... what Marty did" Really, thats nice, who the fuck is Marty?
In addition to her inane teaching style she was the most vindictive professor I've ever had. After multiple attempts at getting her to clarify class material she stopped answering my questions and, at one point in class, asked if there were any questions, made eye contact with me while my hand was raised high in the air, then looked away and said "moving on".
It was only out of hatred towards this cruel creature that I was driven to do well in this class.
Learn from my mistake.

I didn't listen to the flurry of bad reviews listed below because this class fit into my schedule, and it was the biggest mistake of my college career. If you value quality education that consists of a well structure class with a thoughtful, engaging and detailed professor who cares about your success... then do not take this course.

Her lectures are very loosely structured with no thoughtful connection to the exams. She basically shows up and blurts out everything that comes off the top of her head about each chapter, and then tests you with random information directly out of the book (most of which she never mentions in lecture), which basically means if you want an A you have to memorize every single detail on this EXTREMELY dense and complex subject matter. This is a lazy and, quite frankly, sadistic method of teaching. I have a 3.7 and have studied harder for this class then I ever have, and have never done so poorly.

Learn from my mistake and avoid this nightmare course at all costs.

professor mays was the worst teacher ive ever had in my entire life. this is not an exaggeration, she is horrible. her lectures were completely useless.. you're in there from 8-950am with no break what so ever. and she doesn't really know how to keep you're attention. she goes off on tangents that are not relevant to anything, and when she does talk about the material it's a short description that she zips through. oh and she uses no power point, no podcasts, nothing. so if you missed what she said, you missed it. and trying to ask her any questions is useless, first she makes you feel like an idiot for asking, then she doesn't answer your question. when she's done with her rant you're just left going "um.. thats not what i asked". If you have no choice but to take her, just read the book and make study guides out of the chapters she assigns. I also forgot, she assigned us at least 15 chapters for a 10 week quarter. the first test nearly everyone in that class failed the midterm. but she drops one so try to do your best until the very last one. the midterm review session were completely useless, they are run by her undergraduate t.a's that looked like they didnt know if they should be there or not, they looked lost and if you asked a question they would look forever into the book to find the answer. after 10 minutes of that i left, i could just read the book at home and not waste my time. sometimes the things she says in class are contradictory to the book, and when you bring that up she goes if its in the book then go by the book. so she basically just told us that her lectures are useless. she tries to get people to come to class by saying theres random question of the days and if u get 9 out of 10 right then she'll bump you up 2 points if your grade is 2 points away from getting the higher grade. throughout the quarter she only did 5, she never did the full 10. you can imagine how frustrating that could get. DO NOT TAKE!!! i feel like the good reviews on this page were written by herself.

This was by far the worst class I've taken at UCLA so far. Waking up at 8 am was absolute torture. As people said below, there are 3 midterms (lowest gets dropped) and a final for this class. For the first midterm, I read the book once and studied my lecture notes mainly. I got a D with the curve. For the second midterm, I only studied the book and didn't look at her lecture notes at all. I got a 103%. Therefore, if you feel you are comfortable memorizing 600+ pages of textbook, then take this class. Don't bother asking questions, because she doesn't really like to answer them and will respond "I can see you haven't read the book" even when you have. Also, don't bother asking what you need to know for the tests, because the response will be "If it's in the textbook, it's fair game." i DO NOT recommend this class. It is not worth waking up two times a week at 8 am for. If you must take this class, the enrichment sections run by the TA are much more helpful than her lectures.

HORRIBLE!!!
She's absolutely horrible. Not only is she NOT funny, waking up for her 8 am is painful. The questions of the morning require looking over notes thoroughly before class, they ARENT easy points. I managed to keep an A throughout the quarter (despite the absolutely insane amount of reading she made us do) until the final exam. At which point, she had us take a 3rd midterm and the final. My grade dropped a full letter grade. She's not even nice or funny! I normally do not hate any teachers, and generally enjoy the class no matter what, but if I had the option to go back, I would NEVER have taken this class with her!!!!! Avoid her at all costs unless you want to listen to a lady who thinks she funny (but isnt) at 8 am just to get screwed grade wise.

Dr. Mays is a remarkable professor, one of the best at UCLA. I enjoyed her every lecture and was always looking forward for the next one. Though, I am not a morning person and it was an 8:00 o\355clock class, I have never missed a lecture, because Dr. Mays made it very, very interesting. She has this unique quality, competence and talent in teaching and making your learning experience highly effective, interesting and joyful. In addition, Dr. Mays is highly knowledgeable about the subject, after her well structured and presented lectures you have a clear idea about the subject and it\355s important points. Dr. Mays will encourage you to utilize all the available recourses, and provide these recourses for you to take advantage of to be able to study your best. The enrichment sections are one of these recourses, and were as interesting , and helpful as lectures. During these sections, Raymond and Hayk, two undergraduate TAs are going trough the material that you\353d learned that week. I would highly recommend attending these sections. Raymond and Hayk are both very proficient in the subject area, and just great people, you can ask them your questions and get in depth answers to all of them. Jennifer, the graduate TA is likewise great, she is always there if you need any help, or have any questions. She is very knowledgeable, friendly, kind and helpful. Overall, in Dr. Mays\355s class you feel an excellent teamwork of the processor, the graduate TA, and two undergraduate TA s, and everybody really cares about you doing well.

Her teaching isn't boring but everything she teaches is in the book. Pay 19 bucks on the lecture notes so that you don't need to go to lectures. :D Read all the chapters deeply and memorize all the treatments, which are the killer questions in the exams, you'll be fine.

Definitely a class you should take. Professor Mays, despite some of the descriptions of her below, is an excellent professor and cares about your learning. She provides many means for you to get the grade you want! If you answer all (or miss only one) of the questions of the mornings correctly, you get 2 points added to your grade AFTER the curve. If you go to all the enrichment sections and write a simple 6-page paper, you get another 2 points! I only answered the questions of the morning but got an A anyways.

If you want to get a good grade, I recommend reading the book. Just read it straight through - she goes through every chapter by the way, except for chapter 9. Her lectures are lively and will keep you up at 8am, but I don't find them necessary. She has 3x 40 question mc midterms, two of which are during the quarter and one of which is coupled with the final. You can drop one of your midterm scores. Just read the book and go to enrichment sections to find out the main concepts that you'll be tested on. I can't say that her tests are really easy (except for the first, which was a joke), but if you go over the material so that you know the answer to the question before you read the options, then you'll do great. I recommend knowing the characteristic symptoms, causes and treatments for each disorder (forget about age of onset, prevalance, etc). Know the drugs, know the neurotransmitters. Her questions guide you though, so if you remember those SAT skills then you're good also.

I took Mays with an LS class and Psych100A and survived it, so you can too!

I didn't think she was as standoffish or pretentious as other reviewers, but I didn't really talk to her all that much. She's probably one of a very few professors who could keep me awake and interested from 8 to 10 in the morning. She's very animated and engaging. You definitely do have to read the book. It's a good book with lots of examples. The tests were unremarkable, not hard, not easy. You don't have to learn much other than the basics of the disorders, but you gotta be able to identify them. She also shows a lot of videos, which is cool; helps to understand some of the disorders better.