Overall, Ayala is a super great professor and is incredibly smart about the topics he covers. The work definitely isn't easy, and you have to put in the effort to watch the lectures and take notes. The exam and midterm aren't bad at all and most of the questions are well-prepared for during the study guide. Some options will be answers like "the dodgers suck" or something hilarious. I took this class during COVID-19 so all of his lectures were recorded online, while he also gave a live lecture in person. Participation is required for discussion and lecture participation is done through weekly quizzes. The quizzes aren't bad either but you definitely need to pay attention. It's an easy A, as long as you put in the work, and there aren't many tricky questions compared to Sigmon's exams. I'd definitely recommend taking this class with Professor Ayala if you can keep up with the work. He's very underrated and IMO, he's not as bad as the other reviews say he is. If you're able to attend office hours or honors sections, he's incredibly knowledgeable and insightful.

Professor Ayala reads pretty much verbatim off of the same slides that he's been reusing the past nine years that he's been teaching this class. He is neither an engaging or accommodating professor, and it's clear that he's looking forward to retirement. He is rather apathetic when it comes to responding to emails, and I didn't really get the sense that he wanted his students to succeed in his class. The TA's 100% carried when it came to picking apart the readings and lectures, and giving us the materials in a study-able format. The only good thing about him is that he inputted final grades in quickly, and was somewhat nice in the last week. I would recommend taking this class from another teacher if you can.

Things have definitely changed since previous reviews - exams are now in person, and he does not post recorded lectures. Very unclear on class expectations, exams, grading etc and not to mention he just reads off the slides. I would not have survived this class without my TA Joelle, who really explained the concepts and what we needed to know 200% better than Ayala did. His exams are multiple choice and out of 40 points so one mistake will put you down by a lot. I got an A in the end but would not have survived at all without my TA. Overall, would not recommend - take 101 with another professor if you can.

Just know he is a tenured professor who's been on the UCLA Sociology department for a long time. He is old, out-dated and boring, he also makes 6 figures and is a Princeton graduate (he's entitled, an elitist, does not care about his teaching or well-being of his students.). His slides are way too compact with just quotes from different sociology theories, not useful at all and do not force your self to try to understand the quotes or theories on your own because he does not know how to teach at all. I mostly learned everything from the helpful resources and links given out by my TA Joelle, she is very nice, approachable and can explain these complex theories very well so I would recommend making a good connection with your TA for this course. He wants to mandate in person lecture, for me it was mandated twice a week for his stupid 8am-9:15am lecture. He will give online weekly 5-6 multiple choice quizzes based on lecture material aka theories he doesn't even teach well.(you can find the answers on Quizlet for every quiz). There was one page short essay based on old black and white short/films in which you will compare the labor to the labor in a capitalistic economy. The midterm and final is 40-50 multiple choice test, broken off by theorist, weeks 1-5 and 5-10 final not cumulative. I would recommend looking over the previous exams he lets you look at as some of the questions are reused, but just make sure you understand the theories and the specific terms related with each one. He is an asshole and makes some of the mc questions fill in the blank words, so you have to memorize what specific vocabulary words mean to fit the sentence correctly. This is a manageable mandatory Course for Soc majors, I for one did not read all 50 pages of the communist manifesto so you do not need to do all the readings. I also had a migraine during the midterm and got a D, got an A on the paper, full points for the quizzes and B on the Final. So just make sure you get your full participation points through the quizzes & attending mandatory discussion, get a good grade on the short paper and passing grade for the midterm and final and you will pass. Fuck all those readings absolutely not even on top of other readings for other courses I would have never been able to complete them within a week just for Soc 101.

-Participation/quizzes
-1Short Essay
-Midterm/Final

Although Professor Ayala is very knowledgeable, his lectures are a snooze and class expectations change throughout the quarter. Also, not at all flexible or personable with curving, extra credit, etc. The TAs for the class were amazing though and my source of understanding. Overall would not recommend him.

The class was alright in my experience. There was a lot of readings which made it a bit hard for me to keep up BUT I had Wisam as a TA and he was the best!! I also heard good things about the other TA Jorge! Having a good TA matters! There were weekly online multiple choice quizzes that counted as class participation and you had a week to do them. There was a 40 question multiple choice midterm and final (non cumulative) that were online open book, open note. There was also a short paper due week 2/3 and make sure to answer all the questions even if it's an "or" question because people got points off if they didn't answer all the questions. The quizzes were worded weirdly but you get the hang of it. Take notes during lecture as that will help when completing the quizzes. He ended up posting previous recorded lectures online because people who missed class would email him to ask for a recorded lecture to get caught up. He tried to avoid posting the recorded lectures because he knew that less and less people would show up to class and it did happen. The quiz questions came up on the midterm and final which was nice because those were easy points. After each quiz you can see what question you got wrong and the correct answer to them. He provides a midterm and final sample which were helpful in a way when taking the midterm and final. Some of the questions on the sample appeared on the midterm and final. On the exams he has a few quotes that he wants you to interpret to select the correct answer. Some of the readings were very dense and confusing so I would try to search up a summary online and it did help sometimes, other times my TA would summarize the argument, talk more about who the theorist was, and provided real-life examples which made it easier to understand and remember.

Way too much hate for Ayala in his rating and during the quarter. I don't understand people complaining about him on the GroupMe. He had lectures in which he basically read off the slides, which wasn't very intuitive. But he also posted recordings of past lectures that were much shorter than the allotted 1 hour 15 minute class period. So basically, you could get through the week's lectures in about 40 minutes and not have to physically go to lecture. He was very clear about what to know in his slides. Weekly quizzes were very straight forward because if you wrote notes, you could just look at them and find the exact answers. The midterm and final were not cumulative and were multiple choice online, which was also very easy because many of the quiz questions were just repeated on there. For SOCIOL101, a class in which people claim to be the hardest Sociology class, it was very very easy with Ayala.

Personally I found the course material to be very interesting, and you may as well if you have an interest in sociology. What makes the course somewhat difficult is the professor. His method of teaching isn’t the best, since he just reads off of the slides and some points he makes are very vague. My issue in particular was with the way he words his test questions — he’ll make it so that more than one answer is correct but you have to choose the one that’s “most applicable.” It seems straight forward, but not as much as you think. You can do extensive research and studying, and still get the questions wrong. My rule of thumb is to answer them how you think HE would. These concepts can get really abstract and confusing so if you’re lost just consult with the professor or your TA. Luckily I had a great TA. If there’s anything to be aware of, it’s his tests and quizzes. Confirm what the question is asking. Use process of elimination. Pull main ideas from readings — NOT just the said sociologist’s view, but OTHER views and opinions on that topic. Pay attention to quotes and know EXACTLY what they mean. The class is very doable but stay on your feet. Be prepared for a lot of reading…and ask questions!!!

I took this course during the Omicron wave, it was originally supposed to be in person but then it remained online. When he started lecturing in-person again, attendance was optional and he uploaded lecture videos on his website. So my review is solely based on my online experience.

First, the class breakdown is: Attendance and participation in Discussion Section 10%, 2nd week paper 10% (easy 2-page double spaced essay), Midterm 35%, Final 35% (not cumulative), Attendance and Participation in Lectures 10% (This will be computed by averaging the weekly quizzes).

I actually enjoyed Professor Ayala! He is super knowledgeable, accommodating/understanding, cares about students and is kinda funny. Class consisted of ~4 lecture videos each week with a weekly quiz due a week later. In my opinion, the quizzes were pretty easy as long as you watched the lecture videos. I would binge watch them all and then take the quiz while the material was still fresh in my mind. The material is interesting but it can feel like a lot at first glance. Luckily, he breaks down the class into two sections so first half is all about Karl Marx and the second half is on Max Weber and Emile Durkheim. The readings can be dense, but honestly I didn't do all the readings and still did well because of the lectures and discussion sections. Also, "ctrl + f" will be your best friend when trying to skim the readings. I also watched Youtube videos that summarize each theorist's major arguments/beliefs/writings and since these theorists are old, you can find tons of quick info online.

I had Leydy as a TA and I highly recommend her! She gave good examples and helped breakdown the main ideas. She knows this class can be hard so she's super understanding. We had optional study guide questions to help guide our readings and they make good study material. We were also given study guides for the midterm and final and that study guide came in clutch for the final! Most answers on the study guide were on the final, so that was awesome. For the midterm, most students emailed him about wanting a curve and he actually gave us one. He responded to emails pretty quickly and his class structure was very organized.

On his tests, he has answer choices like "a and b, b and c, all of the above, none of the above" which sometimes threw mw off, but he also had funny answer choices. I remember one was Game of Thrones related and he's a Dodgers fan so there were a few baseball related answer choices. His class is super doable and he's not as scary or intimidating as most people make him out to be. This class required some effort to get an A, but it's honestly pretty easy. Glad I took him despite the bad reviews!

Honestly, he is decent. His test and quizzes are worded weirdly where it is tricky. I took him during COVID-19 conditions and his course was immense. Unnecessary reading up to 50-100 pgs a week, he does give a study guide for test which is helpful but he still words things weirdly. I would recommend another teacher over him I pulled all-nighters trying to understand context.