I loved this class! The material is straightforward. You are graded on four projects, a weekly chapter review, and in-class "pop" quizzes. They are not too difficult. He totally wants you to succeed, and I love that he designed the class to reflect how we best learn, which is literally what he is teaching about. I am so glad I took this course!

For anyone with attention deficits don't take this course. He doesn't post slides before the class and quiz questions are extremely specific with 1 minute to finish each question in class. Lectures are long and boring. A lot of quiz questions come from very specific studies in the reading and he assigns 2 50 page chapters per week.

I'm shocked people rated him so highly. Im surprised someone who teaches educational psychology can't teach... since he has all the info there. Lectures are painfully long and boring, they feel like an eternity. The slides suck and he changes them so fast, goes on tangents at least 4 times per lecture ab irrelevance, like eugenics. don't do it!

You can really tell Professor Mayer cares about teaching and the success of his students. So long as you do the work and follow instructions, you should get an A in the class

By far one of the most kind hearted and inspirational professors I had. When assigned to do his project assignments, he provides great feedback and made me better at writing psychological research. His goal in his class is to make you actually learn which he does brilliantly. His class was very fun and I highly recommend taking him! :)

Grade is based off in class pop quizzes ( 2-4 questions), small projects (4 total), and chapter reviews. All of which are super easy. He gave us a chance to redeem any missed quiz questions in the last lecture. This class is an easy A and the prof loves what he does and puts an emphasis on education rather than grades.

Super interesting class. One of the only classes at UCSB where I felt like learning was more emphasized than grades. He likes asking student opinions and welcomes all questions and class discussion. Really great teacher.

He reminds of a sweet Italian grandpa. But it shrouds the fact that his lectures are so boring and it doesn't help that people are so annoying in class. Ask him personal questions after class. He goes off topic a lot. His test questions require you read a long book and remember one experiment and those results go against what he includes in lecture

Mayer is a nice and a pretty funny old guy, but I genuinely was not so interested in the material it's making the class difficult to get through. This class is not hard, the material is fairly simple, you just have to put forth the effort. I didn't really try on the first exam and got an 82. For every 10 points higher on final 1 notch up: A -> A+

Dr. Mayer is amazing! He genuinely cares about student success and learning concepts. Both textbook and lecture are important for the class, but the content is very clear if you attend and read! Highly recommend his classes!

Professor Mayer did not use power points for lecture despite class consensus voting for pwrpoints. Even when using whiteboard there was no structure to it and wrote down important terms/authors so it was easy to lose track throughout lecture. I personally relied on the book but the reading was poorly written I Would prefer another class if possible

Loved this class, so straightforward and the tests were pretty easy. You absolutely must attend lecture to pass the class because the material is based on studies. One midterm and final, some class participation.

I actually really like professor Mayer's lectures. BUT HIS TESTS ARE SO AMBIGUOUS. completely unfair tests! his questions and answers were so vague- I had no idea what he was asking about and he wasn't there during the exam, the TAs couldn't answer the questions either. Overall, BEWARE! Do not take him because his tests are completely unfair

Not a good professor at all. The textbook was long and rambling. Did not use powerpoints in lecture and it was almost impossible to stay awake in class. Test questions were very ambiguous.

Fantastic Teacher! Empathizes with students in terms of learning and retaining material. Knows how to dissect the material into ways that are easy to digest. (pre-class quizzes) Read the book! (all of his class material comes from it) Really wants to help his students not just learn, but master material. HIGHLY recommend him for any class.

Very knowledgeable good teacher, but very hard class. doesnt use powerpoint so I found it very hard to follow & stay awake. Exams were MC & short answer. grades hard on short answer. gives pop quizzes which you can't make up points for-my grade dropped because i missed 2 of them when i went back east for a funeral. study hard & go to class!

Interesting class. Nice person, lectures are well organized & clear. Assigned readings are from his own textbook, which is easy to read. Exams are fair, you should do fine if you pay attention in class & study. Grades are based on in-class participation questions, a midterm, & a non-cumulative final.

Mayer is a decent professor, seems to care about his students a lot. However, his textbook is absolutely terrible. I don't understand how he teaches educational/learning methods and writes such a horrendous textbook. Hands down one of the worst books I've ever had to study out of. This class would have been better if not for his book.

This class is very easy and simple. Mayer is very organized so it's very easy to follow along and take good notes. He makes the class enjoyable with his cute little jokes. That's not all there is to him though; he's one of the top educational psychologist in the WORLD. This guy knows what he's talking about. Go to class and take good notes :)

He really is a sweet old man...almost "jolly" but not quite cuz he's not fat. Hehe. ANYWAY,you have to go to lectures cuz he's old school and a little behind on technology (not a believer of websites or powerpoints) If you don't wanna buy the book, you better sit in front and take kick a s s notes, cuz the tests are based on lectures.

His lectures are SUPER organized, but go to class because he lectures with a chalkboard and has no website. He's a sweet, nerdy old man. People who say his tests are tricky might be a little slow, because his tests are straightforward, and they test your knowledge, so know the material. I wouldn't worry too much about the book, but skim it!

um this class seems so easy but i did all the readings and went to prac all the lectures and got a b+ when i knew everything cuz of stupid tricky test questions. im talking those lame ones like a, a and b, a and c, all of the above, none of the above...shady.

Dick is a good guy. His classes are also very informative. That being said he is completely inflexible. He fully expects students to get everything they need from the class, which is possible, except I have several learning disabilities and I found Dick to be totally insensitive to this.

He was rather boring most of the time, but he tells nerdy jokes to spice things up. Plus he's super nice and he repeats himself several times to make sure everything is clear.