TAKE THIS CLASS! As a transfer student I was nervous about the transition from a Community College to a 4-year University. Professor Speer made sure that my experience in this class was a positive one. I will admit some of the readings were difficult, but Speer went over them in class and discussed it until everyone understood. Such a caring and understanding person in light of everything going on. I really wanted to take him for Sociology 182 for Winter 2020, but the class filled up so fast, and rightfully so. Speer is hands down the BEST professor in this department. Honestly, the BEST professor at UCLA!! Also if you're good he'll show his dogs Bogart and Nyla.

I was told Speer was supposed to be the best but I didn't see it. he's not terrible but he didn't live up to the hype

TAKEN DURING COVID-19 ONLINE INSTRUCTION:

Speer is a great professor, he engages with his students a LOT in his slides-based lectures which makes the classes go by super fast. He is friendly and likes to see students engage with the material, makes himself very accessible for office hours. He canceled our midterm and restructured our class to assist students having difficulties with online learning, which was really appreciated.

He has a cute dog that he often shows us before/after class, which many of us really got a kick out of. Speer is a HIGH DEMAND professor so if you're able to take a class with him I definitely recommend prioritizing it when you register so you can actually get in!

The final paper was 30% of our grade and based on assessing Marx and his predictions on capitalism, so if you are into Marxism, this class will definitely be an interesting one! One thing I will say though is that it was fairly long (8 pages) and required 5+ outside credible sources, so it took up a lot of my energy. The readings are very hard to understand but his slides are set up to help you process them before and after, which I appreciated as well. You read works by Marx, Durkheim, and Weber.

I recommend him as a professor for SOCIOL101, which is an especially dense class that is made very digestible by him.

Professor Speer was such an amazing professor - he was very understanding and approachable. The class was recorded and attendance was not mandatory. The material was very interesting and applicable to what is currently happening today. We had weekly readings and reading questions to turn in. The questions helped me understand the main points of the readings. There was supposed to be a midterm, but he canceled it last minute and instead we had a cumulative final. We had to write an 8 paged literature review on a question we created in the beginning of the quarter. The final exam was take home.

Absolute worst professor I have ever taken at UCLA. Does not care about his students well being, nor does he care about the learning process of his class to begin with. He did not give us back our final grade, our research paper grade, or half of our homework scores until the night before grades were finalized. From a student who gets straight As at ucla, avoid this professor.

Speer is the worst instructor I’ve had in my academic career. His lecture was extremely uninformative and misleading. His class material is outdated and lectures are extremely hard to follow with how monotone he is. Speer gets very off topic and side tracks to his political beliefs that he tries to impose on students, rather than focusing on teaching. I remember him comparing Trump to Hitler, to name one incident. I strongly encourage everyone to stay away from this class!

This was an enjoyable class to take. Professor Speer is patient, accommodating, and presents the material in a clear manner. His assignments are pretty writing heavy which is expected when it comes to Sociology classes, but the workload is manageable. He is also rather opinionated which makes his lectures interesting and funny. I would try and take one of his classes if you can.

This class definitely deserves a better rating on bruinwalk!!! Wouldn't call this an easy class but as long as you put some effort into this class you will definitely do okay. Speer is very knowledgeable, clear and approachable. While not the most engaging, I enjoyed learning about the material of this class and would recommend it. There is a midterm and final, discussion participation grade, weekly homework assignments (they help A LOT for the exams) and a final paper (literature review). This was a very very fair class and I would not mind taking a class with Speer again.

Very run of the mill. To be honest, sitting through his lectures was very boring. I value that he really cares about his class and the subject, but sometimes it felt like he was teaching a class designed for high schoolers.

Sociology 110 is a wonderful class to take in order to meet the methods course requirement as a sociology major (it is the non-math methods course). This class is based off of a few things:
- participation in section: 9%
- course eval.: 1%
-HW Assignments: 20%
- Annotated Bib.: 10%
- Research Paper: 30%
Exams (midterm & final): 30%.
The homework for this class is fairly easy considering it is graded based off of completion. Although some of the readings are dense and can be difficult to comprehend. The research paper (which is 10 pages) is one of the major assignments for this class, make sure to start it ahead of time! The exams are fairly easy as long as you study. They tend to consist of 20 MC and 1 short answer. Lastly, Speer is a good professor, although his lectures can be boring at times. Overall a great class and as long as you put the effort and time in you should do good.