Alright, let me get this straight. This man is so mad that students at UCLA are doing better on his weekly quizzes than the other community college he teaches at that he PURPOSEFULLY makes the midterm exam more difficult. (BTW, he changed his midterm the night before giving it out, so there were numerous typos that made it difficult to understand questions, and had a few questions that had multiple answers that were correct when only 1 was marked as the correct answer). Also, he REFUSES to accommodate other students when we simply asked for a little bit more time than 5 minutes on weekly quizzes (he eventually FINALLY caved halfway through the quarter and gave us 1 extra minute to answer even more vague questions he puts on his quizzes). He instructed his TAs to grade our final paper on a strict grading rubric that was EXTREMELY vague since the beginning as it was supposed to give us "creative freedom," yet he enforces a strict grading policy???

Let's talk about the final I just took. He claims that due to his fears of students cheating during online teaching, that he puts in place sequential testing (where you can't go back to check answers after you click to go to the next question, and you can't skip ahead to another question). This was an okay policy, personally; I can deal with that. Yet while he says he's afraid of students cheating, he puts a question on the final that requires you to look at your notes for the graph or just straight up guess because it's such a random detail from one of his lectures. There is also no graph to go alongside the question to help you answer it, so you either guess, or quickly look through your notes on a closed-book exam. I guessed and probably got it wrong.

The interesting topics that this course goes over were completely ruined by this professor's weird test-taking policies and strange stubbornness to accommodate students DURING A PANDEMIC. I actually really like sociology, but it is not my major and I took this class as a GE. DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS FOR A GE. It's not worth it unless you take P/NP.

I would actually rather write 5 papers like the other sociology professor does than take this class again with Villarreal. This class was STUPIDLY hard for no reason when the topics were actually interesting. I know the core concepts for this course (as stated by the learning objectives in the rubric), yet what is actually tested are random, fleeting details from lecture. Awful all around.

Class grade breakdown:
Midterm: 25%
Final: 25%
Weekly quizzes (lowest 2 dropped): 20%
Essay: 20%
Participation: 10%

Past reviews are very outdated, Villarreal does not run his class the same way that the scary reviews from 2020 make it seem. This man is incredibly down to earth and wholesome, as well as very passionate and knowledgeable about sociology. Would highly recommend taking if you're even slightly interested in sociology as I was. A lot of people I talked to said it all just sounded like common sense, which it does, but it's very interesting common sense. I also recommend taking this along with the honors seminar! It's such a small class that it gives you a much better outlet for getting to know him.

You could've easily made it through this class just by reading the slides Villarreal presents during lecture, which are a condensed and useful summary of the textbook. Lecture itself is just him reading off the slides, but he sometimes adds his own commentary and jokes. You'll be bored in lecture if you read the book, so my advice is to not read and get everything you need from lecture. No final, just two midterms week 5 and 10 and a 5 page essay week 7. Discussion is mandatory and we also had weekly embedded questions that are answered in the form of discussions on BruinLearn. He randomly decided to give everyone two additional points on the first midterm to boost everyone's grades and then gave extra credit for filling out the course evals, which was super helpful and nice of him to do.

He once said in class that there was a sociological experiment that showed better looking professors get better ratings in evaluations. (To which he said "If that's the case then I'm doomed"). Hopefully this is a good enough review to change the data a bit. I'm currently trying to figure out whether I should change my major to sociology now.

This class was definitely really stressful but it's kind of offset by the fact that the workload is so light. Lectures were asynchronous (about an hour and a half total for each week) and were based straight off the textbook with a little extra information thrown in. Weekly textbook reading is recommended and it is helpful to skim just because not all the vocab makes it into the lecture. There's a weekly discussion question that's due every Friday and sometimes a discussion memo written in a breakout room during discussion (I believe we had a total of 4-5 memos throughout the quarter, so it's not every week). Quizzes (5 questions; 6 minutes total given; no going back) worth 20% of our grade (lowest two scores dropped) were also due Friday and were quite simple MC based on the lecture material.

Midterm and final (each 25% of your grade) were both 35 minutes for 25 MC questions, with no going back after moving to the next question. Essay (20% of your grade) was due later on in the quarter.

Quizzes were simple reading comprehension (if you watched the lecture and took good notes then you're totally good to go) and you get full points on the memos if you just take the time to analyze the topic + write a full paragraph. The discussion questions were graded on participation, so that was an easy 30% of your grade secured right there.

I do agree that the midterm was overly punitive given the scope of the class + the format of the midterm. The exam was closed notes/book and we didn't have the option of going back to check your answer, which sucked majorly since the exam was timed. I ended up making the mistake of rushing and didn't do so well. The prof ended up giving back points for some of the questions with ambiguous wording (I think 3-4 questions total), so the average did go up to 85 according to one of the TAs. As someone else mentioned, apparently the midterm was made to be easier but was then changed because of how high our quiz averages were. There were definitely confusing wording/questions, but he did give back points so I believe it evens out.

My TA mentioned that the prof asked them to grade the essay down to a B average, so if you take this class, try to organize an office hour with your TA or the prof to discuss the prompt and the direction of your essay. A lot of the comments/feedback I got were extra topics I could have discussed (not really covered by the prompt). I wasn't too happy with my score but it ended up curved up by two points at the very end.

The final was a lot, lot better. I rewatched all of the lecture videos and redid all the readings (final wasn't cumulative so it was only about five weeks of lectures) and scored really well. While we still weren't allowed to go back and check answers (Prof said this was the alternative to Respondus), none of the questions had ambiguous wording and they were all answerable based on what we learned in the class. Average was around 85 again (no adjustments).

All in all, I don't actually think this was a bad class to take at all. There isn't a lot of cushioning if you screw up on one of the big portions of your grade (midterm/essay/final) and there isn't extra credit, but I think it's definitely doable if you really work to understand the details and themes of the course. Prof. Villarreal did try to accommodate us based on our feedback (increased quiz times by one minute; final was less confusing) but I understand why people are a little frustrated with this class. Taking it in-person would probably be better as you wouldn't have to deal with the no going back policy on quizzes/exams, but if you put a little more time in, I think this was definitely manageable as an online class.

Overall Vibe: I had a positive experience in Soc 1 with Dr. Villarreal. It was quite a large lecture with at least 200 seats. Soc 1 is a required pre-requisite for sociology majors, and I'd feel confident recommending soc majors or pre-majors take it with Dr. Villarreal. However, I would not recommend this course to non-soc majors just looking to knock out a GE; I think you could find a slightly more engaging and topical course that is less theoretical. The lectures are not highly engaging, and as suggested by some of Dr. Villarreal's other reviews he is not the most "thrilling" lecturer, but he gets the job done. Soc 1 content is just dry and theoretical in general, nothing you can do to avoid that.

Exams: 1 midterm & 1 final, both in-person and closed-notes, all multiple choice. I thought the difficulty of these tests was perfectly reasonable. I managed to earn an 84% on the midterm without studying at all. I studied for the final for about 3-4 hours and earned a 93% (missed 1 or 2 questions). I was still able to earn an A in the course despite these scores. I'm sure if you put in the effort and studied more than I did, you'd ace both the midterm and final. Note that I attended every single lecture and took thorough notes, which surely helped me on the exams. If you do not attend lecture, you will have a challenging time in the class.

Readings: We were assigned textbook readings each week. They were extremely dry and I stopped doing them after week 2. Dr. Villarreal covers all of the important information from each reading in his lecture material. So, go to lecture, take notes, and you will not need to complete the textbook readings. There were 1 or 2 academic articles assigned throughout, I would recommend at minimum skimming them because he did ask 1-2 questions on the exams directly from the articles.

Papers: 1 paper graded by your T.A. It was short and straightforward, I believe 5 pages double spaced. Earned a solid A and did not have difficulty answering the prompt or incorporating the lecture material into my paper.

Participation: Participation is only graded in your discussion section, so attending section is mandatory! However, I view this as a positive because it provides an extra cushion for your grade and also is a great environment to reinforce your learning from lecture. My T.A. prepared us very well for the exams by holding in-depth reviews during the class before the exams. In addition to just showing up for discussion, we had to submit a small written reflection after each section in which we collaborated for the last 15 minutes of discussion with 2-3 other classmates to answer a quick prompt related to what we were learning that week. As long as you put in an iota of thoughtfulness and submit same-day, you will get full points on these reflections. Word count requirement was 300.

Additional advice: Take the Honors 89 seminar!! I LOVED the seminar far more than the lecture. There were only about 10 students, so it was discussion based and a nice small learning environment. I feel I was pushed to engage in much more critical thinking than in the lecture. Dr. Villarreal was an excellent discussion leader and created a positive learning environment. We read really interesting studies each week. I wrote a separate review of this course that you should read if interested. Also, Dr. Villarreal was flexible and understanding in my experience: I got quite sick with a flu before the final and he was very willing to reschedule it for me without making a big hassle or asking for medical documentation.

Key takeaways:
-Dr. Villarreal seems like a kind & respectful instructor (see my sickness experience above)
-I would recommend this course to sociology majors & pre-majors, but not to those just looking for a GE (mostly because you could find something more interesting, not because the class is "bad" or "too difficult")
-You do not need to complete textbook readings if you attend lecture
-Lecture attendance is not technically mandatory, but I would very very strongly recommend it
-Attending discussion section is mandatory
-Grading of papers was perfectly reasonable
-Difficulty of exams was perfectly reasonable (again, as long as you attend lecture)
-If you have any interest in social science research, take the additional honors seminar that goes with this course!

This class was very straightforward and I enjoyed it. The professor was great, the exams were fair (pretty much made up of the material on his slideshows), and you did not need to read the textbook which I appreciated. My TA was very clueless so that did make the class a little difficult for me, but the topics of the class were very easy to learn on your own, without help from the TA. There is very little work and only one paper. Highly recommend taking this class.

WORST COURSE EVER. This class was soooo bad I do not think I have ever been more bored, clueless, and disappointed in a class than I was in this one. I remember asking him for help on how to improve my grade after the first midterm TANKED my grade and he said "Oh I do not know your grade so I cannot help you maybe ask your TA?" When I asked my TA she said to ask him. This class consisted of 2 midterms and a final paper (which was graded very harshly by my TA despite her saying it was a "easy paper" ,and "I cannot grade a personal paper about racism harshly." Then I emailed both my professor and TA because I spent a ton of time studying for this DIABOLICAL course just for both of them to never reply. Villarreal seems sweet at first but after some time you come to realize that a professor that is unhelpful, has poor teaching skills, and turns exams into riddles cannot be that nice. If you are thinking of taking this class with him I pray for you and as the weeks pass you by I'm sure you will begin to see the enormous lecture hall become more and more empty.

Honestly it’s a pretty easy class and it’s straight forward. there’s 2 exams and an essay. the exams are multiple choice; about 32 questions. I had some trouble with the exams even if i did understand the class material. However, I still passed :).

The class is not recorded, and discussion attendance is required. The material was somewhat interesting, and the class overall was very easy and low effort. Even though class is not required, the professor reads off slides that are straight from the textbook, so you can get by not attending lecture and just reading the textbook. Would recommend as an easy GE.

I took this class during my first quarter at UCLA and thought it was manageable and pretty slow-paced. Although the Professor is a bit quiet and the lectures can be boring (he reads right off the slides), the final and final paper are not too difficult, and he gives you help studying the material before the exams. The Professor is an older man and he truly is very passionate about Sociology, but he records his lectures and reads directly off the slides so you do not even have to go. I would definitely recommend taking this class!

This class contained extremely interesting topics that I wanted to learn more about. The midterms I found to be difficult somewhat with multiple trick questions (they are about 35 questions I believe), and there are two of them. My TA Joseph was extremely helpful to me, but the professor didn't make himself very available to us as students to ask him questions. He was extremely hard to understand throughout the course. All he did was copy and paste from the textbook and put it on white slides. It was painful to go to class every week as it was hard to understand him due to a poor microphone and mumbling and the slides had no interesting content on them to help us learn the material. If I could take another GE class I would have, but the professor is a kind man for sure, the class was just tough to get through, and my grade I feel like was reflective of how difficult it was to learn in this class as I would have a 4.0 without this class grade.