I took this course as an upper division elective for psychobiology and it was one of my favorite classes at UCLA. The course is not necessarily an easy A but if you go to class and take decent notes it is definitely doable. I was a senior when I took this class and in comparison to my pre-med requirements like the chemistry and physics series, this class was not bad at all.

Your grade is determined by a 50% exam and 50% research paper. Since you are only graded on these 2 assignments, you have to keep up with the course material. The exam was fair. She actually provided us with a study guide that contained a good amount of the questions that were on the exam. Since all the questions were free-response, it was helpful to focus on understanding the big-picture concepts rather than memorizing the details of every slide. She explicitly stated specific details that we had to know so there weren't any curve balls. As for the paper, you are allowed to write about practically any topic you are interested in as long as you follow the basic guidelines. I thought her grading was relatively generous overall.

I had professor Izquierdo for Psych 119A and for a module in Psych 116. She was very passionate and knowledgeable about the course material. She tried her best to simplify and explain complicated topics. She always asked the class questions which allowed me to engage with and retain the course material. She was very approachable and her office hours were perfect times to clarify any topics we were unclear of. You could tell she wanted her students to succeed and even offered extra credit in the final exam for attending seminars relevant to the course.

Overall, this was a very interesting course with a great professor. I highly recommend this class to anyone interested in the treatment of psychological/neurological disorders.

I have to say this class is by far my favorite upper-div course I've taken at UCLA, and I actually don't find the workload heavy. The lecture topics were engaging, and the readings assigned were interesting as well. Professor Izquierdo explained the concepts very clearly and was willing to answer all kinds of questions both in class and during her office hours. For the paper, I think as long as you start early there shouldn't be any problem. The final exam was extremely fair. All questions were from the study guide she provided a week before. So if there are any questions from the study guide that you're not sure of, just make sure to go to her office hour before the exam. Overall, I highly recommend this class.

I really liked this class. It focuses a lot on research and the methods on neuropsychopharmacology in the first half before talking about the disorders they pertain to in the second half. Dr. Izquierdo is really willing to explain concepts in office hours. The class is structured so half your grade is based on a paper and half on the final. Definitely make sure to read the prompt and ask any questions to clarify structure. For the final you will be given a midterm study guide given after the paper is due. Do it as soon as possible, so you can get any questions answered (the questions will be on the final). The final exam study guide will be given around a week before the final so plan your time wisely and practice the questions. The highlight in terms of topics has to be chemogenetics which is an interesting way of approaching learning more about the brain.