i really enjoyed dr chavira's class. some of the questions on her exams were a bit tricky but she also offered extra credit which made up for it. i highly recommend getting the textbook and reading the sections that she touches upon in lecture, also make sure to go to discussion and participate for easy points.

I absolutely loved this class with Dr. Chavira. Her lectures were straightforward and really informational. It was too bad we had the online platform, but she was a great professor nonetheless! I definitely recommend this class if you're interested in the disparities in cultures. You learn a lot of valuable information that opens your eyes to the differences among cultures. Our class consisted of 5 quizzes, 5 journal reflections in which you reflect on one of the assigned readings, 1 weekly discussion post, and 2 papers. One paper was about identity and the other was a research paper. Overall, Dr. Chavira presents her lectures clearly and communicates effectively with students. I definitely recommend taking her!

HONEST REVIEW. This is my last quarter at UCLA so I have a lot of experience with professors. Denise Chavira is really amazing professor, she genuinely cares for her students and wants everyone to succeed in this course. Lectures are very engaging, attendance is not mandatory since lectures are being podcasted. Honestly reading textbook is not even necessary if you really engage during lecture and take very good notes. Exams are amazingly fair, there were absolutely no tricky questions, the questions and answers are straight forward. There were no "all of the above or none of the above" type of answers which get really annoying and tricky. There are 3 exams and discussion attendance. Overall an amazing class, not hard at all if you pay attention during lecture and read sections in the book that are associated with lecture material.

I previously took this class with Repetti and hated it, but Chavira brought new life to abnormal psychology for me. She is very thorough and really only wants you to focus on the topics covered in lecture. Normally, I would recommend reading before attending class, but this is one of those classes I would say reading after gives you a better grasp on what will be on the test. Flashcards won't help because you need to know how to apply the illnesses and differentiate between them.

Grading: This class is based on a point based system; 3 exams worth 50 points each and 20 points for attendance to the discussion section.

There are no extra credit opportunities, no reviews before the exam, and no study questions. However, the "final" is not cumulative. I probably would have done better, but I procrastinated a lot and did not always read the book. The final exam is rather hard because you need to remember probably 4 distinct sections, with several diseases each.

There are some things I dislike about the class, for instance the discussion section goes over articles that are slightly related to the class but not tested on. We review in the discussion before exams, but only for about 10 minutes. I think this is how all 127a classes are made, not just Chaviras. It would be nice to make the discussion more similar to 120a, where they go over the material again and possibly give some examples.

This class was informative, but definitely harder than people made it sound on the bruinwalk. Her class is graded on a points scale without a curve, so you have to do really well on the exams in order to succeed. She also talks super slow and I found it hard to stay awake during lecture.

If you want to succeed in this class you need to read the book, attend the lectures, and study diligently before exams. Do not take this class lightly.

The material was very interesting, I just didn't like how heavy the readings were. And the discussion section didn't do too good of a job tying together what we learned in class. If you're a good/fast reader, I recommend taking this course, but if not (like me) I would proceed with caution. Overall, Chavira is a very good professor, her voice is very soothing. I also had the sweetest TA for this class, so she has good taste in people too lol. SELLING THE TEXTBOOK (abnormal psych Pearson, 17th edition) FOR 55$! email: kennedy.pennington99@gmail.com for more info

I also feel like the past reviews on bruinwalk make this class seem easier than it is. I am still waiting for my final grade, but I am hovering around a B+ or an A- depending on how I did on the final...hoping and praying for that A- ya'll. Anyway with that being said, I feel like if I don't write a review now I never will - so I am going to try and brain dump everything I know about this class and the exams/any tips to help anyone who wants to take this class to succeed.

I took 16 units this quarter and that definitely didn't make things easy either. However, this class by far was the class I devoted the majority of my time to. The chapters are pretty dense. I felt like I did better with the exams when I reread the chapters personally. The first exam was by far the easiest so make sure you do well on it!! The second exam was a lot harder and there was a lot of material, definitely do not try and cram for that exam and make sure you study a week in advance for it at the least because it is a lot. The third exam I thought was easier, but I also studied more for it this time so that could be why. There were some really tricky and weirdly worded out questions too though, so I don't really agree with the last reviewer who said that there aren't tricky questions - there are and they are designed to kind of make you second guess yourself which sucks, so keep that in mind and make sure you understand EVERYTHING.

Now as for study tips...the first exam I would say is more memorization based on the slides, but there are applied questions as well where you have to understand the material. The second exam had a lot of tricky questions based on the substance abuse lecture, so make sure you know that lecture WELL because it is one of the most difficult. There was also some stuff that was brought up in the lecture that came up in the exam that wasn't in the slides or the book - so make sure you listen to the podcasts carefully and pay attention and type it out/write it out. The way I studied for the exams was to make flashcards, listen to the podcasts with the slides in front of me, and going over the slides and explaining things over to myself, as well as making tests for myself to make sure I memorized/understood key tricky things that would show up. Remember that with this class the hardest questions are going to be the ones you wouldn't think would show up - think specific nitpicky stuff, so you really have to know everything inside and out to ensure a good grade. I personally wouldn't skip class because Professor Chavira does kind of get through the slides pretty fast and sometimes the lectures seem rushed because she wants to get through all the material, so I would say definitely try to go to lecture and then relisten to the podcasts. I know someone who never went to class, but they still had to relisten to the podcasts twice, so why not just go to class and avoid all of that? Also, I would try and go to office hours before the exam as the TA's get to see the exam and they know information about it. I personally didn't go, but I am sure it was helpful for those who did.

As for the discussion section...it did not help at all with the exams whatsoever. I don't know what it is about discussion sections at UCLA for psych not having a form of review for the material. I have never experienced this with any classes that haven't been for psych. The readings and class discussions were interesting, but 0 review time for the exams whatsoever.

Overall, take this class seriously. It is not as easy as people have said on here. There are really no "easy" classes at UCLA anyway. But again, I took 16 units this quarter and this class was the one I devoted the majority of my time to. I studied for it every single day and still am not sure if I got away with an A-. If you can't handle the amount of reading and studying you are going to do with this class, I would go with another class. The material is very interesting, but if you care more about your grade and your time - I think the best bet is to take another class.

I honestly really loved this class. Her slides were very straightforward, and she brought in cool examples from her work with actual patients. If you're interested in the topic and learning more about all these disorders, this class will be easy. A lot of it is really straightforward in itself too, most of these disorders are ones you'll likely have heard of before. You can find the textbook online for free through a website if you look. I found it to not be super necessary; it will help you review more than anything (and there might be a question or two on the test about specific stats, but you can usually guess those if you pay attention in class). I really liked the way the tests were done, they're almost fun really. It's a lot of little vignettes/descriptions of people and their symptoms, and you have to answer with what you think they have. I enjoyed that sort of applied style, but if you don't you won't like them. Overall this is class is a great one to take, really not that complicated or a lot of work. Would definitely recommend :)

This class was an okay class with Professor Chavira. She's very friendly.

She mostly just recites what her slides say. I didn't feel really engaged during class. I just went to say I did. Lectures were audiopodcated.

The class was a bit tough just because there was so much reading and so much material from the books were on the tests. Lots of treatment names, causal factors, and many other things to memorize. I took this class with another heavy-based reading class and I almost passed out with all the 100s of pages of reading I had to finish in a week to keep up.

However, her tests are not cumulative, so that definitely helped.

Overall, she's an okay professor. I ended up with a B+ with all the 100s of notecards I used. There's just a lot of reading and lots of terms to remember and associate with certain illnesses. Lots of work. But not work that hurts your brain because it's hard to understand. Work that hurts your brain because it's lots of information (but also very interesting).

I agree with the other review that said some of the people on here make the class seem easier than it actually is. Personally, I got off to a rough start with this class. I received a 41/50 on the first exam because I underestimated the amount of detail she wanted us to know for the test. When I went to my TA's office hours for the test, she told me that the questions I missed were tiny details mentioned in the lecture slides. From then on, when I studied, I got out several sheets of blank paper and started writing EVERYTHING she mentioned in lecture and EVERYTHING she listed on the slides. After, I memorized everything. That got me a 45/50 on the second midterm and a 48/ 50 on the last test. The material for this class is so interesting, though! It just takes a lot of memorization. Also, Alex is a great TA!