Avoid this class like the plague because she is terrible. For someone who has an Ivy League degree, she sure sucks at lecturing. This class will leave a bad tasted in your mouth. Oh she's sassy AF! LOL.

I took professor Z for my first quarter at UCLA and I have to say it was not the experience I was hoping for. The class and the lectures are boring and I feel that she could use more examples to clarify certain things.

This is my first quarter in UCLA. As a transfer student, I felt stressful at first, especially when I read some comments about Professor Berend is strict. I think they are not true or maybe Professor Berend change her teaching style. We have 10% attendance grade which depends on whether you write anything per week in class. Our Midterm and Final, which include multiple choice and short answer, are both 25% in total grade. You have some extra credits (4-5 points) in Midterm and Final. Then, you will have 40% for writing five reaction paper. Also, Professor Berend offers some extra credits in reaction paper. I dont think she is mean. Instead, she is kind and helpful professor. To give students more chances to get an A, she even said if you get higher grade in final than midterm, your midterm grade can be replaced by your final grade. I am an ESL student so I am stressful in class since sometimes I do not know her meaning. However, when I asked her for help, Professor Berend was patient and taught me how should I learn in this class. As long as you finish your readings prior to class, you can absolutely understand what does she talking about. Even though she extend her course contents, she still follow her outlines per class. Finally, I got A at this class. Come on, guys. This class is not so hard as you image. Professor Berend is a kind person who really want to help you get an A!!! Highly recommend her!!

No one should be discouraged by the bad reviews here. Granted, Berend is not the greatest at lecturing, but she does provide a lecture outline (which is also posted online) in order to keep up with her lecture. She's a bit monotone but she's direct and often humorous. She's certainly concerned with student learning, because she posts discussion questions about the readings, which often show up on the midterm. She discusses each of the readings in class, and she's very clear about her expectations on the essay prompt.

The class is based on 4 quizzes (the lowest grade is dropped) consisting of 5 relatively easy questions. The midterm and final are also PRIMARILY multiple choice, which is pretty easy if you've only been to lecture. She also has essay response questions, which are usually worth 1 or 2 points, at most and missing those won't hurt your grade as much as the multiple choice. That's the worst part about the class. The exams are usually out of 25, so if you miss only a few, you're already had a B-level.

Nonetheless, the class is relatively easy if you just pay attention to the class and get a familiar understanding of the reading. There's also one very simple 5-page paper due 10th week where you basically use readings in class to analyze a particular family (in advertisement, television, etc.).

So if you like the subject, don't be discouraged to take it because the class is actually pretty chill and not too difficult.

This was by far the worst Sociology course I have taken here at UCLA! The topic was very interesting and I do not doubt the knowledge Prof. B has, however,she is a researcher who lacks the skills to lecture. Although she does try and have an organized lecture by handing out an outline, the actual lecture is very monotone and it seems as though she is talking to herself and not an audience. She stands behind the podium the entire time while speaking, twirling the microphone cord around her hand as she frequently states, "um, uh", and she mumbles at the end of her sentences. The most frustrating part was that I went to her office hours to speak to her regarding the final paper and I demonstrated the article I was planning to write about. I gave her some ideas that were related to the concepts in class that I thought I could use, however, she said no. Yet, when I received my graded paper, I was deducted points for the same exact ideas that I had proposed to her, demonstrating to me that there was a lack of communication between the TA's and the professor. Overall, I would have preferred taking this same class, but definitely with a different professor.

I must say that I am very much confused by all the previous review! Prof. Berend is an absolutely wonderful teacher, and one should consider him/herself lucky to be in any class with her. This particular class was very straight forward: four or five quizzes (one of which was dropped), a paper, a midterm and a final. She hands out a lecture outline for every class and the t.a's do a wonderful job preparing you for the exams. How someone could not do well in this class eludes me. Prof B. has a great deal of knowledge and experience in this field and is always more than willing to help any student in need. I highly encourage everyone to take this class primarily because the subject matter is extremely relevant to anyone who is interested in mechanics or our society. It was really quite fascinating!!

DONT TAKE HER! She's a really vague professor that is hard to understand. She has lots of " erms arh" in her lecture and does not have a clear structure for the lecture. Nice lady but definitely not a good lecturer. Going to lecture doesnt really help other than to confuse you. I have taken many other upper division sociology classes and have never felt so lost in any other lecture like this one.

This was by FAR the worst class at UCLA I have ever taken. And it wasn't just the class, it was the teacher! Berend must be avoided at all cost! Her accent is so difficult to listen to, shes babbles on about things that have no relevance to the content of the tests, her tests are so backwards its impossible to study for! The worst!!!

this is the first review i've ever felt compelled to write on bruinwalk, mainly because of all the other negative reviews that i don't think prof. berend deserves. I LOVED THIS CLASS. people complain that's she's condescending and hard to understand, and while that first part might be true, i had no problems understanding her. (i sat in the front.)

the class is NOT HARD at all. the concepts are easy to understand, almost entirely common sense. i mean, if you've ever watched family-oriented shows on tv like the brady bunch, you're already ahead. i don't understand how only 7 people got an A on the midterm. if you can answer the study questions (which the TAs go over in section), you should be able to get an A on the midterm and quizzes. and frankly, you don't even need to do the readings to answer the study questions, even the author-specific ones because prof. berend's points in lecture are perfectly aligned with the authors' arguments. i honestly did NONE of the readings (i only skimmed a few in order to write the paper) and i've gotten an A on every quiz, the midterm and the paper. i'm not trying to be arrogant--i don't consider myself any sort of genius--but i just want people to know that you can easily succeed in this class if you simply pay close attention in lecture. she has a lot of interesting things to say and her perspective and arguments are very refreshing. bring a laptop, so you can surf the internet to keep yourself entertained and awake when lecture gets dry and so that you can take notes at a faster rate. i look around class and no one is writing anything down or taking notes...and then they complain that her tests are "tricky." they're not. you're just not paying attention.

people probably complain about her tests because of the "more than one correct" option on some of the questions. WHAT IS COMPLICATED OR TRICKY ABOUT THAT? more than one correct means exactly that. and she even said once that by more than one she means TWO! it seems to me that a lot of people in this class are giving her (and me...) good reason to be condescending.

oh man is she BAD! i'm currently enrolled in her soc of the family class and cannot stand to go to one more lecture. her accent is hard to follow, she pauses like 5 times with "ums" per sentence which makes it even harder to follow what shes trying to say. it takes her an hour and a half to articulate about 20 minutes of information, most of which is not even useful and doesnt show up on her tests. rather than design her tests to reflect how much her students have learned, she makes it as tricky as possible and grades it ridiculously hard. i went into the midterm with a very thorough knowledge of the class and thought i was going to get an a/a-. i ended up getting a D. she marked paragraph answers entirely wrong (not even partial credit!) because of grammatical issues. she said that 60% of the class answered a question "fathers are seen as the main breadwinner of the family" and that this was wrong because "seen as" is not a factual statement. all of a sudden you've missed the entire paragraph answer despite knowing exactly what you're talking about. she's a very nice lady, but a HORRIBLE lecturer, HORRIBLE grader, and HORRIBLE professor. oh yeah, and she rampbles on FOREVER. she'll start wrapping up class with the traditional "next time we'll talk about..." and then 15 minutes later she's still rambling about who-knows-what while the whole class is packed up, zipping up bags, putting desks away, etc. UGHHH!!