This class is so easy, I read the textbook just because I am always anxious that, if I don't read, then I'll fail the exams. But I got an A on the midterm and final. The class content was so easy ... it was like "what is racism?". The TAs across UCLA went on strike in the second half of the course, but the effect was nonexistent. Prof Villarreal is intelligent, but his microphone is so weak and he mumbles sometimes so its really hard to understand/hear him sometimes. Most classes I would just take notes on the lectures and not pay attention to what he was saying. ALSO. Oh my god. The WiFi in that lecture hall was so horrendous people would be rage quitting left and right because they couldn't connect to their Google Docs to take notes and he would move on to the next slide. Overall, so so easy. Take it if you need it.

Super easy class if you actually go to lectures and do the readings, and the prof is a really great guy

Though lectures were not super engaging, this was an overall very easy course and I would highly recommend it to freshmen getting started on their GE credits. Though there is weekly readings, and group write-up's (which may sound like a lot), it is extremely manageable. Also, exams are very easy and straightforward--it is a series of multiple choice questions and no short answers or essays. The class was boring at times, but very do-able in terms of work load and exams.

Overall I'd say that this class was fairly easy. Weekly quizzes were straight to the point and covered exactly what was in the previous week's chapter and lecture, each containing 5 mc questions and being timed for 5, but soon 6, minutes. As for discussions, we would be put into different breakout rooms where we worked together to write a memo also based on the previous week's topic. Additionally we were required to write a 5 page paper, and my TA did a great job of specifying what we needed to include in order to get a good grade as well as clearing up any further questions in her office hours. Lastly, we had a midterm and a final, both 25 mc questions and timed for 35 minutes. Although the professor’s lectures, the discussion sections, and assigned readings provided great insight into various sociological topics, it became somewhat difficult to fully enjoy due to the constant complaining of slight inconveniences by other students. One of the main things fellow peers would love to complain about is the timing of the quizzes and exams, which I would like to point out had been clearly set by the professor in the syllabus. Many believed that five minutes for five questions wasn't enough time, but as stated before, the quizzes were fairly easy and we're literally based off of stuff directly stated in the textbook. Had the student just came prepared by simply reading the chapter or even just bothered to look over the slides put up by the professor, there would be no reason for them to take up all of the time given for the quizzes. Due to the lingering entitlement, the professor was bombarded with emails asking for additional time which he eventually came through with, but students still found a way to complain even though he wasn't even obligated to give more time. As harsh as it is to say, many have failed to realize that college classes and professors won't always accommodate your wants, this is the real world afterall, and not everything is going to go your way. Another problem many people had was with the actual questions in the weekly quizzes, midterm, and final exam. Many believed they were hard to understand because of the wording, however many also failed to accept that had they read the answers more carefully, one could note the slight variation between the right answer and those that were wrong, therefore allowing them to pick the correct answer and getting the points. With this out of the way, I would recommend this class, as the workload is highly manageable and easy to complete and the topics discussed by Professor Villarreal and the textbook are clear, fascinating, and eye opening.

Villarreal will definitely get some mixed and contradicting reviews, but they're all completely valid! I'll try to elaborate.

If this is way too long, here's the abridged version: Workload is light. Asynchronous lectures. Weekly quizzes are simple. The 2 weekly assignments count towards participation–please do them. Exams can be difficult and can make or break your grade. Run your essay ideas and thesis by your TA to gauge what they want/how they're gonna grade. Or else things will get confusing. EVERYTHING COUNTS.

I think the workload was pretty light. Lectures were asynchronous, so you had an entire week to watch them. Villarreal's mic kinda sucks, though, so it was a little difficult to understand him at times. Something that I didn't like was that he gave lectures nearly word for word out of the textbook. I took detailed notes on the text, so lectures could drag on for me. If I took this class again, I wouldn't rely so heavily on the text and wouldn't treat the lectures as supplementary.

There was a question posed in each of the recorded lectures, and we had to write a discussion post that was at least 4-5 sentences. (Students often wrote more just to make their point clear). Additionally, there was a group memo that we completed in groups of 3-4 during discussion section. Most of the time was spent on discussing the question and possible answers. These two assignments count towards your participation grade, so do them to get some free points!

Then there were also the weekly quizzes, which I found pretty simple. The questions were multiple choice and strongly vocabulary based. I think a quick skim through the text is enough to do well.

The midterm was definitely a little out of left field after the fairly simple quizzes. Others here mentioned that Villarreal purposely made it more difficult last minute. (But he did give back points on a few questions—these points helped my grade tremendously.) With the final, students knew what to expect, so some kind people shared some great study guides with the class! I thought the final was written so much more clearly and with less desire to throw students off. However, some students didn't share my opinion. I think the fact that we couldn't go back to look over our previous questions and had 35 mins for 25 questions took a toll on people.

If you aren't a strong test taker or don't do too well under pressure (especially if you're in an environment where it's hard to focus), I think you can find a GE that's a better fit for you. If you need this class as a Soc major, try not to take it with Villarreal if you can. Or at least don't take it online as this was his first time teaching a course at UCLA, so we don't know how he runs an in-person class.

We also had to write a 4.5-5 page essay, and the prompt was quite vague. Again, Villarreal wanted TAs to grade harshly, so the average was a B. (But from a poll conducted, many got higher grades!! Don't be too scared.) Due to the vagueness of the prompt, many students were lost during the writing process. I don't think the TAs had a standard grading system for the essays either, so asking clarifying questions to people with a different TA probably wasn't the best idea. Regardless of your writing ability, take advantage of office hours, so you can talk to your TA about your thesis and ideas and get a feel of exactly what THEY are looking for. I think anyone can do well on the essay as long as they don't go in completely blind. (I and many others decided to wing it. Don't make the same mistake.)

I don't think my grade was even near an A, but I aced the final and got a great participation grade. This class is definitely one of those where literally EVERYTHING COUNTS! Not doing too well in one area can hurt you a lot. But if you do "okay" on the midterm and essay, the final and how well you keep up with assignments can give you can extra push.

I'm not a Sociology major, but I'm very interested in the subject. I enjoyed what I learned and a lot connected to another one of my GEs. Someone else said that students were complaining too much, but I think it built community. And even with the complaining, we were always cheering each other on and helping each other out with the material. So the kinds of people in the class/chat will also affect your overall experience.

Due to COVID, class was asynchronous, a huge hit especially for such a discussion based class. Villarreal really tries his best and I also took his honors seminar to get some sort of live class, but it really just isn’t the same watching lectures and reading the textbook alone. Not a hard class by any means, very simply structured with weekly quizzes, an essay, participation (group memos in discussion), and the two exams. I wish there was a bit more padding in the grade because some exam questions are quite tricky (pay attention to lecture and the book!) and the essay was pretty vague, so I’d suggest to try your best with the weekly quizzes. Villarreal is a sweet and kind professor and I wish I could have taken this class in person!

This quarter was Prof. Villarreal's first quarter here, and I wasn't sure what to expect. I went in thinking that there would be a lot of reading, but pretty easy tests and essays, but it actually turned out to be almost the opposite. The only homework was reading the textbook chapter for the week, watching the async lectures, answering an embedded lecture question, and taking a quiz. Overall, very light workload. Since this was my first async lecture, I wasn't sure what to expect. However, I felt that there was an overall lack of communication from the professor; he basically only sent emails for the midterm, essay, and final. As others have stated, there wasn't really a rubric that the TAs graded the essay on, which was unfair. I think prof will benefit to provide a TA for them to use next time to grade essays so students have a clearer understanding of what he wants. If he does not, make sure to attend TA office hours and figure out what your TA wants.
The weekly quizzes were fairly simple, although the midterm did not necessarily reflect those weekly quizzes. There were quite a few confusing questions (either worded strangely or otherwise), and some that you would not have known if you did not read the textbook thoroughly. I didn't think that the rule that you couldn't go back to your previous questions was too bad, although it did add some additional stress. Honestly, I think I stressed out about this GE more than needed, but he wasn't a terrible professor. If you can time manage for quizzes/tests and read the textbook thoroughly, it shouldn't be too bad.

A pretty easy class, but felt pretty disconnected since it was async. Workload was very minimal, just watch the lectures, take the weekly quiz, and write a short group paragraph during discussion. Tests were easy if you just make a study guide with terms and concepts that he put on the slides.

My lectures were online recorded, so I did not interact much with the professor. There was two multiple choice midterms (no final), one 5- paged essay, and each week there was a group memo and a discussion. Instead of just knowing the definition of the vocabulary, you have to properly apply the terms.

This class contained extremely interesting topics that I wanted to learn more about. The midterms I found to be difficult somewhat with multiple trick questions (they are about 35 questions I believe), and there are two of them. My TA Joseph was extremely helpful to me, but the professor didn't make himself very available to us as students to ask him questions. He was extremely hard to understand throughout the course. All he did was copy and paste from the textbook and put it on white slides. It was painful to go to class every week as it was hard to understand him due to a poor microphone and mumbling and the slides had no interesting content on them to help us learn the material. If I could take another GE class I would have, but the professor is a kind man for sure, the class was just tough to get through, and my grade I feel like was reflective of how difficult it was to learn in this class as I would have a 4.0 without this class grade.