Personally, I enjoyed this class. However, I can see why people did not. The actual content of the class, while easy to understand, is pretty boring, which makes lectures very boring as well. However, I wouldn't really blame this on Speer himself, since no matter how you teach it, the concept of "Comparative and Historical methods" is going to be boring nonetheless. He did try to compensate for it, such as through interesting readings, case studies, and him being funny. The final essay, while 10 pages, allows you to choose any topic and the TAs grade it leniently. The tests are also really easy as long as you study and pay attention in class. Just a heads up that the further the course goes, the readings do become a bit longer and more difficult to understand, but they're still manageable. Honestly the only complaints I have are whenever you ask Speer a question, he sometimes does come off as a bit sassy (as others have noted), but IMO he's just blunt like that and means no harm. Also, he's becoming a bit paranoid of AI and will go on random rants about it (he also makes you do your work on a google doc so he can see your version history). However, since this class does not have any math whatsoever and it is very easy, I highly recommend it to get your methods requirement done. Note: speer says taking sociol 101 before this class is "recommended" but I didn't take it yet and still found this course really easy so you should be fine

Speer is a professor that cares a lot about the subject. Take that as you will. I find that when professors care a little TOO much about their subject they get mad/upset when students don't feel the same way (don't put in a lot of effort, show up to lectures, make the whole class their life). He tries to be helpful and I think that he does an okay job at that. His tests are structured in a very indirect way. It's the type of test that tries to trick students by make the questions trick questions or just SLIGHTLY off from the actual answers. He is also extremely sassy when you try to ask questions. It's not very welcoming. SO, although he just cares so much and in turn wants to be helpful, the way he structures the class is tricky, paranoid, and just doing too much.

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.

Speer can be a little annoying with how repetitive his lectures are. Still, the class itself is super easy and I found that his repetition actually turned out to be really helpful because hearing the same information multiple times helped drill it into my mind. He might come across as a bit condescending at first, but as the class goes on you'll see that he cares a lot about his students' success and does his best to provide helpful resources and give advice for exams and the paper in lectures. The tests were super easy and don't even really require that much studying as long as you attended the lectures. The final 10-page research paper was the most crucial part of the class and although it's tough, you get to choose your own topic and they didn't grade it that harshly. Overall, a really good class for the methods requirement especially if you're scared of the other more math-heavy options.

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.

Great class to meet your Soc requirements. His class is very structured and organized, assignments and expectations are clear, and he does care about student's success. In my opinion, his lectures are not very engaging and because attendance to lecture wasn't mandatory, not a lot of people always showed up. The readings he assigns are interesting and connect well with class material. He gives a lot of time to work on the research paper and we had a midterm and final. MC questions and a short written response. I could have been a more productive student, going to class every week, taking better notes, studying more, but I still was able to get an A-. Also, the TAs are so helpful, shoutout to Rohan!

One of the sociology department's gems. I don't understand the slander of the review below mine because this class was so standout to me. Not only are Professor Speer's expectations clear, but the structure of his class is very fair. If you work hard, it pays off. If you slack off, don't expect a good grade. I think that should go for any class at UCLA, although it doesn't always, as so many classes don't feel that your work actually translates to your overall grade. I also appreciated how he didn't let students use the restroom during the final, mandated masks/pushed for testing, and even provided pencils if we forgot them...can't say my other professors have been as applaudable with any of that. He was also very responsive via email and was always available to provide feedback or help where needed. His class was very interesting. I would definitely recommend any of his classes and look forward to taking more with him in the future.

Very boring lecturer so it’s hard to stay engaged. Doesn’t give back grades on research paper, final, and other until minutes before the deadline, long after class is finished. TAs weren’t consistent with grading. This was a non math methods course but if it weren’t for that, I would stay away from this professor

Speer is just a great professor! He always tries to make concepts/readings as understandable as possible. The workload is really manageable and it is not too much. As long as you the readings and take notes you can definitely get an A. Also, Speer is a very nice and approachable professor who goes above and beyond to help students understand the materials!
I would definitely take another class with him.

They changed Soc 110 to Sociohistorical Methods, a methods course, and this was the first time it had been taught in this way. It was a lot of work and prof Speer was still working out the best way to teach the class. There was a midterm, a final, weekly readings of papers that used historical methods (sometimes really dense/boring), homeworks about the readings that were only graded on completeness, a final paper, and discussion section was worth 10% of the grade. You got to choose your topic for the final paper which was good. Overall I enjoyed the class and thought Speer was really great and lectures were engaging. It's a good way to get the methods requirement out of the way especially since there's no math.