He has such a superiority complex. He teaches from a colonizer perspective and includes readings who perpetuate this idea. Needs to learn how to desensitize his syllabus. He is extremely inconsiderate of students and their needs. The class is made up of weekly discussion questions, which are worth 1 point. A book report, (unrelated to class) a midterm, and a final. Your grade is based largely on these 3 things. I do not recommend taking this class. Avoid at all costs.

Despite the many positive reviews posted about Professor Walker, I highly advise anyone wanting to take this class to NOT. The grading is extremely unclear as it seems everything is graded based on opinions and no actual rubric, therefore leaving grading to be extremely unequal and irregular, and largely dependent on your TA. His final is cumulative and has a massive unhelpful “study guide” which he then asks us to look at our past midterm study guide on top. It’s majority things we are expected to know and conclude based on what he’s taught us, but the minority of it is straight forward topics we have actually learned. It will leave you tickling your head wondering if you were in the same class all these lectures as the study guides for the midterm and final are worded so annoyingly and different. The final has 2 essays, 4 “short answer” (quotes because they’re basically essay length, anything less you will not get full marks), and multiple choice questions. Tests are again harshly graded and seem to have no rubric or empathy instilled as some leave with a 100% and others with a fairly similar test leave with a 75%. No regularity and rightful reasoning. The actual professor is an epitome of what you would believe a UCLA professor being, very well endowed in knowledge of the course, intimidating, and talks far to fast for anyone to hand write everything important he is saying (no computers allowed). His lecture notes are an outline at best, and due to his fast talking and vast vocabulary skills, he often leaves us with little time to even process what he was speaking of. Often asking if we have any questions during the middle of lecture, students often never ask simply because they wouldn’t know what to ask since the information is being thrown so fast and at such depth it’s hard to necessarily pin point what we have a question about. Reading is as dry as the Sahara desert, and boy there’s a lot of it. Getting an A is not impossible as I have seen classmates doing so, but I’m unsure how they are (besides the adderall). Good luck to those who venture to take this course, and I promise you by the end of it you will be questioning why you embarked on being a sociology major to begin with and might have quite a distaste for social movements as it has been analyzed in such depth, not getting tired of it is nearly impossible unless you were Monsieur Walker himself. Also, save some money for some hair dye by the end as you will get some grey hairs.

I think the previous reviews are by people who forget that your classes are supposed to be challenging you. With that being said, Professor Walker's class is one of my favorites that I have ever taken. His lectures were engaging, and you can tell he really cared about students understanding the material. Doing well on the midterm and final is completely doable, it just requires a lot of studying and memorizing the material from lectures. The book report is also not challenging at all, as long as you show that you read the book and answer the questions in the prompt then you're fine. I would highly recommend taking Walker!

I'm in the process of taking this class. The discussion papers (worth 6% total, 1% each) were a living hell because my section ended up having three different TAs due to "technical" complications. Without this complication, the papers and the class is straight forward. There is one 6-7 pg book analysis worth a lot of your grade. The midterm (and I'm assuming the final) is easy if you study the study guide he gives. You don't have to read the readings (just skim for discussion questions) and can still succeed as long as you take notes/pay attention in class. Reading would make it way easier though and probably a lot more interesting... I wouldn't know. I felt this class kind of had a political science approach, which was harder for me because I think sociologically (if its your first time in a soc class, I feel like its not very representative of sociology as a field). We went over sociological theory, but for some reason I felt the readings and lectures had a political science edge to them. Can you tell I'm sleep deprived and procrastinating?

Straight forward class. Not as bad as his other classes but the TAs help ease the burden. This class has a fair amount of readings so set aside enough time to read through them. Midterm wasnt too bad but make sure to do a class study guide. Final was the same. He had a book report but it was pointless for the class. Not too bad of a class. I will not take him ever again though. I say if you want to read a lot then go ahead and take this class. Its a lot of work to prepare for the midterm and final. I didnt read a few of the readings but I still got a decent grade.

Walker is a great professor! I started the quarter very overwhelmed by the reading because it was very dense and a lot was assigned. As soon as I accepted that I would need to put aside a good amount of time at least twice of week, I started to really enjoy this class. If you do the reading and still confused, Walker goes over it clearly in class and you also do in your section. Each week there is a 1-2 page writing response due in section that I believe was helpful in grasping the concepts. There is a book analysis report that isn't too difficult if you don't leave reading the book to the day before it's due. As for the midterm and final, he gives you a very clear study guide with what you need to know and it is reflected pretty clearly in the tests. Multiple choice, fill in the blank, short answers, and an essay. Walker is very smart and he knows what he is talking about. I highly recommend.

Prof. Walker was such an excellent instructor! Take him, end of discussion.

At first the class seems hard because of all the reading required, but he gives an outline before each test and the review sessions are very helpful. Study hard for each test, and get an A. He responds to emails and is very friendly. I highly recommend him!

Professor Walker is a great professor. Very knowledgable guy that knows how to relate lectures to current events. I would definitely take him again. You will need an i-Clicker 2 for this class. He asks at least one clicker question during every lecture. This will count as 10% of your grade. There are a lot of readings for this class, but they are interesting. You will have 2-3 different articles to read every week. I had Nada as my TA; She was very helpful, but you'll have a better understanding of the material if you read the articles before discussion. Given that some of the articles were long, I didn't always read the entire articles, but did skim reading to get a general understanding of the article. You will have to write discussion papers (1-2 pages) for 6 weeks of the quarter (you choose which weeks). These aren't difficult, you just need to show them that you're understanding the readings; these count for 6% of your grade. Discussion attendance counts for 4% of the grade. Midterm Exam is 25% of your grade. You will need a blue book for both the midterm and the final. Both the midterm and final include multiple choice questions, fill in the blanks, short answer responses, and long answer essays. He gives a study guide for both the midterm and the final. As long as you have a general understanding of the articles and took good notes during lecture, you should be able to easily fill in the study guide. The Final Exam is 35% of your grade; given that it is cumulative, it is a little bit longer than the midterm. You will also have a Media Analysis Paper due around the 7th week of the quarter. This will count for 20% of your grade. He will give you a list of articles to choose from and you will have to write a 4-5 page paper relating the class material to the article. This may sound like a lot, but this was the class I enjoyed the most this quarter.

Just to give a different point of view from the last review give, I took this class during my first quarter at UCLA and my TA was Nada also. The last review was a great summary of the class but I want to give my personal experience in case it helps future students. I am a transferred student and it was my first quarter. I took this class per recommendation of my New Student Advisor (NSA), when I went to see a counselor before the quarter started she said don't take this class in your first quarter here because it's a tough class. I chose not to drop it because I really want to finish my undergrad in 2 years and given the time most of the Sociology classes were already full. Professor was great and so was the TA, I did all the work and attended all classes. It is tough though, you have to do all the readings in order to keep up with the class. The only thing I didn't really like is the midterm is only like 8 multiple choice and fill in and then you have a short answer and then a long answer question, so if you miss a few of the multiple choice or fill in and don't do great on the short and long answer you get a low grade. Theres basically not a lot of room for error. If I can retake this class, I probably would so I can get a better grade with the same professor, as a transfer student from a community college who had only taken one political science class before, I'd say I just wasn't mentally prepared for the work load and the depth of this class.