For anyone who thinks this course is an easy A—it’s not. That said, the class wasn’t overly difficult if you attended lectures. Many students skipped them and relied solely on the recordings, but picking up on the professor’s additional commentary during live lectures prepared me very well for the workbook prompts and quizzes.

There were four quizzes, and they were fairly intense—more like exams. They were online and proctored through Respondus, with about 48–54 questions each. Most questions were based on the review guides, though the professor often switched around answer choices, so you really need to understand the material rather than memorize it. Some questions were taken directly from the guides, while others focused on lecture commentary and explanations of why certain review guide answers were correct or incorrect. My advice is to start studying a couple of days in advance and pay close attention during lectures—you’ll do well on the quizzes if you do that.

Workbook 1 was graded somewhat harshly. I did well, but only because I started about four days early and completed one prompt per day before the deadline. Do not wait until the last minute—these take a while. To succeed, it’s important to cite specific examples from both lectures and readings and go well beyond the minimum citation requirement. Workbook 2, on the other hand, was graded much more leniently, and I nearly earned a perfect score. The prompts were engaging and enjoyable to work on. If you’re aiming for the best grade possible, having tools like ChatGPT critically review your work and check it against the rubric can be very helpful.

The extra credit opportunities help a lot in this class. You can earn up to 6% back through two reflections and a course evaluation, which made a big difference for me—I finished with an A+ because of it. Definitely take advantage of these opportunities. Without the extra credit, far fewer students would likely earn A’s.

Overall, I really enjoyed this class and would recommend it to students who want to understand human behavior on a broader level. While I didn’t personally care for some of the concepts that felt too woke, the material was consistently interesting, and each week offered something thought-provoking.

I took Professor PlaceK's SOC 180 Fall 2024 and SOC 145 in this quarter, but I can't find SOC 145 here, so I decide to leave a review under her SOC 180!
There are not enough praiseful words that I can say about Professor PlaceK. Please take her classes at all costs!!!

Great professor and really cares about you! Two workbooks and 3 quizzes! Extra credit is offered and she records the lectures! Study guides are also given! Easy A if you do the work and all the materials are pretty interesting

Super interesting class, consists of 3 tests that were all online and two workbook assignments that were fun to do. Professor was super nice and posts the slides/recordings of lectures.

Great class. All of Placek's classes are wonderful to take. Getting an A is straightforward and you'll often end up watching interesting movies like I did as part of a workbook assignment. A ton of extra credit.

Great, fairly easy, and well-structured class! Workload includes: an introductory and conclusion discussion post, two workbooks (each have 3-4 essay-style questions that require 4 paragraphs each and tie into lectures/readings), and 4 quizzes/tests. The workbooks sound hefty, but you work on them throughout the quarter (I believe the due dates were a month apart). Attendance is NOT mandatory (it is a really interactive, engaging setting though!) and Dr. Placek uploads the recorded lectures + slides + goes through a provided study guide, which is all you need to study for the tests/quizzes. Said tests are pretty in-depth, so you definitely need to study for it. As long as you fill out your study guide, which Dr. Placek is happy to go over with in and out of class, you'll be fine. Dr. Placek also pushed back just about every assignment to give us extra time. She really cares about her students and wants you to succeed! I'd say this is a pretty easy, laidback class, I just wouldn't procrastinate the assignments down to the day before - give yourself some time with the material (which is really interesting) and you'll be good to go!

One of the best instructors I have ever had throughout my entire educational experience. The workload for this class was extremely manageable and easy to follow as long as you pay attention to the lectures which were extremely interesting. Professor Plaček provided weekly study guides which helped so much with understanding class material and the quiz questions were basically based on these study guides! The class had three quizzes (around 45-65 t/f and multiple choice questions each with 100 min time limit through respondous), two workbook assignment (3-4 mini essays each workbook), an intro and conclusion discussion post, and some optional extra credit assignments (up to six points worth). Lectures were also recorded with subtitles and attendance was not mandatory!

I thought everything was decently good . I was not amazed, but I was also not disappointed.

I felt like the workbooks and quizzes were appropriate assessments of my learning. Neither provoked anxiety and I felt like my expectations were very clear.

Love Dr. Plaček. Course load consisted of two workbooks/quizzes. Quizzes are straightforward, as they are all t/f, matching or multiple choice. Accommodating and one of the best sociology professors at UCLA hands down!