Dr. Lakins was a great professor. Her lectures are fascinating and her ideas are clear and easy to understand. Although her midterm exam was tough due to TA, Professor Larkins really wanted to help students. If you often go to her office hours, she will help you a lot. In the end, I got a high score on the final exam. And the professor is willing to write me a letter of recommendation. I really like this professor's course.

I would recommend taking this class in the Summer! Dr. Larkins was very engaging and helpful with anything about the course. ATTENDANCE IS INCLUDED IN YOUR GRADE. She goes in-depth about what you need to comprehend from the slides, so pay attention and try to engage if nothing seems clear. Midterm and final review guides were provided, which helped immensely for the exams! The textbook is offered through Inclusive Access, and it wasn't easy to find other versions or copies online.
If you enjoy engaging lectures and energized professors, this class will be perfect for you! Would definitely take this class again if I could :))

Great professor and manageable workload. Would take again.

One of the most disorganized and rudest professors I've ever had. For some context I had enrolled this past quarter with a surgery date set months prior. On the first day of class while reading the syllabus I noticed the first exam happened to fall on the date of my surgery. So I took the initiative, went up to her on the first day, and let her know in advance I would need to take the exam earlier or do a makeup. Shouldn't be an issue, right? Fast forward a month later before the first exam/my surgery date, I email her a week before (no response) then remind her again a day before that I need to take the exam still. She then proceeded to tell me the exam wasn't ready yet...a day before (??). Ok...so I opt to do a makeup exam after my surgery once I've fully recovered since it's still early in the quarter. I follow up with her via email, nearly dying in bed as my throat has quite literally just been cauterized (tonsillectomy; do not recommend), where she says the only date she can do is a week after my surgery to do the makeup exam. At this point I am nowhere even close to being fully recovered and after long debate (with extensive doctors notes and records) I tell her that this date just simply won't work. She doesn't respond. For weeks. So imagine my perspective where I'm sitting at home in extreme pain, not able to speak or swallow, and now stressed that I'm not gonna pass the class. Fast forward another month, she says I can take the makeup exam WHILE doing exam 2. This was already cruel to begin with, but I obliged since I had already studied for that exam when I was supposed to take it. Anyways, come the date of second exam and an email reminder, she "forgets" to print the makeup exam and tells me to take it the day of the final...a month later. Insane right? So, FINALLY, COME DATE OF THE FINAL I TAKE BOTH THE FINAL AND EXAM #1 that I was supposed to take 10 weeks prior. So, I pretty much spent the entire quarter stressed out thinking I was going to fail since I did had a 0 for the first exam the entire duration.

That being said, the coursework itself is pretty easy. If you want to be babied or talked to contradictingly like a kindergartener then this class is for you.

I took this class fall of 2023 as my first UCLA Sociology class for my double major. I was scared to take this class because of the harsh reviews it got, the bleak grade distribution, and the negative things I've heard about it from word of mouth. However, this class was one of the most straightforward and easy-to-follow courses I've taken at UCLA. I loved Professor Larkins as well as my amazing TA, Shibang. I honestly have no idea why this class has such a bad rep when it's so well-paced and very manageable. The Professor was so helpful and considerate of her students and even gave us extra credit questions on the exams (on the first exam she told us the answer). She and all the TAs would also go around the class answering any questions we had on the test (if you asked the right way they would basically tell you if you selected the right answer or not). I never felt like I didn't have support in this class and I truly felt like the Professor and TAs just wanted me to succeed and learn.

The class had three exams (all multiple choice) and three writing assignments (the first one is individual and the last two are group OR individual). Also, the exams are not cumulative which was awesome. The writing assignments were super straightforward, and if you put together a good group you will do well for sure. Just make sure to study for the tests using all the material she put on the slides and from the textbook chapters the topics are from. I wouldn't bother reading the textbook until the study guide comes out because she'll put down every term and topic you need to know for the test. Just weed through the textbook for each one instead of going through the whole book. Also, if she brings in any guest presenters, info from their presentations will be turned into about three questions on the exams so take some notes.

Good luck!

Hands down one of the best professors I've ever had ! going into this, i thought i was going to hate this class, mostly because of the bad grade distribution, the poor reviews, and just the general concept of research methods. however, professor larkins made the class so fun, engaging, and easy. there are 3 exams but only the highest two are counted, so i just didn't take the 3rd exam since i got decent scores on the first two. she gives study guides, and there are extra credit questions. she likes calling on people, but she's super nice and friendly so don't freak out if you get called on or don't know the answer. there are three written assignments and they are all pretty easy and they get graded super nicely. attendance is included in your grade and she takes attendance every class, but if you miss around 3-4 then she's fine with that. overall, she's a super cool and hands down awesome professor. she would even bring candy and have people toss it to those who participated. she reminded me of those fun teachers everyone liked back in grade school. NOTE: i genuinely don't understand how this professor has bad ratings. like someone else said you have to be a born hater to leave a bad review, or they just didn't go to lecture lololol

I genuinely loved this professor! Despite it being an 8am class with mandatory lectures/lecture attendance counting, she made it very engaging and fun. There are 3 exams that you can choose to take individually or in partners. I decided to take my first two with a partner and I loved it and passed with a great score, and there was no need to take the 3rd exam. She is passionate about what she does and I love how she relates a lot of the content to things she has done and connects it to real life examples for us to understand. She never made me feel dumb even if I was called on and didn't understand. She made everyone feel special and would always say "brownie points" whenever people would turn on their cameras if class got moved to zoom. She also took candy to class one day to give out to give to those that spoke. I loved her class & I hope to take more classes with her again!

Tough grader. The most terrible class I have ever taken.

Love - Hate relationship w this class

Dr. Lakins was a great professor. Her lectures are fascinating and her ideas are clear and easy to understand. Although her midterm exam was tough due to TA, Professor Larkins really wanted to help students. If you often go to her office hours, she will help you a lot. In the end, I got a high score on the final exam. And the professor is willing to write me a letter of recommendation. I really like this professor's course.