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.

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.

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!

We were quizzed on gay porn on an exam. That pretty much sums it up. Honestly felt more like a gender studies class than a SOC class. Lectures are very engaging but the slides are not very helpful as they are cluttered and disorganized. A study guide is provided for the exams but there's just so much content it's a little overwhelming.

Class is interesting and extremely easy with Dr. Placek. I ended with significantly over 100% just by attending/watching lectures and studying for a few hours before taking the online quizzes. Take this class imo. Professor is also nice and helpful.

Please do not take this class if you want to remain mentally sane. The class consists of 3 quizzes and 2 workbook assignments. The 1st quiz is by far the most difficult and is worth the most points. The study guide does not help at all on the first quiz. After taking this quiz your grade will drop drastically. As for the 2nd and 3rd quizzes they get easier but are worth way less which doesn’t do much for your grade at that point. The workbooks are graded harshly and further drop your grade. The only thing that helps you out is the extra credit. She has some decent reviews but I promise you those are the 1% of the individuals who took her class. She’s extremely difficult.

Your grade in the class is essentially determined by three quizzes, two writing assignments called workbooks, and a nice chunk of extra credit. A lot of students will find the quizzes difficult since they focus on details; however, Dr. Placek also posts review guides and completely bases the quizzes on them. So if you're good at rote memorization, you'll be able to score well on the quizzes; otherwise, study consistently and ask her for help (aka asking her the answer on a review guide question - she'll give it!) . Workbooks are quite doable - technically, they are a compilation of a weekly writing assignment so if you're on top of it, you would be writing around four paragraphs each week. And she didn't require a works cited page. Lastly, she offers generous extra credit.
Placek's lecturing style is quite disorganized and she often seems to jump from concept to concept without really connecting them, which I disliked. However, she does record lectures. Ultimately, I would take her again; however, I think many would disagree because of her quizzes.