I feel that he could have been more specific about what he wanted from his students in regards to quiz expectations, paper expectations, and grading. Otherwise, he was an entertaining and kind professor.

This was one of the most frustrating out of the classes I've taken; little steps on clarity, but the material was very interesting.

Two "reaction" papers, two quizzes, midterm and final paper, and TONS of reading.

This class can be very interesting, but Timmermans makes it quite hard to grasp. There are two quizzes (each worth 10%) the average on both of them was a C-. No one got 100%. They were incredibly detailed and he didn't give us any kind of a study guide for them. The midterm and final were take home papers. They were 10 pages each. They are fairly broad and can be difficult to get to the point. I got an A on both the midterm and the final but since I got a C on the quizzes, i ended up with a B+ in the class. If you take this class, be ready for the quizzes.

Dr. Timmermans is a kind and funny professor. He is easy-going as he allowed me to turn in my reaction paper late because I was enrolled late. He has a Dutch accent which might be hard to understand sometimes but he's generally very understandable and clear. Discussion participation was 20-25% of the final grade which you can easily get 100% just by sharing a question with the section. I thought I was going to get a A-/B+ but I think he ended up curving a little bit which boosted a lot of people's grades. Very interesting class about death and trauma through a sociological perspective. 8/10 would recommend

Professor Timmermans is great lecturer who actually makes a research methods class interesting. He has some of the most organized and easy to follow lectures I have encountered. The book is not necessary at all; the midterm and final (both multiple choice) only cover material from lecture and some online readings. The TAs are great and very helpful. The exams can be tricky, but there is a generous curve that creates a nice grade distribution. Overall, I highly recommend Timmermans for this class.

If you have any sort of respect for medical professionals and believe that they might be doing even the slightest good for humanity, avoid his Medical Sociology class. He insists on claiming that doctors are only interested in money even if it means hurting their patients. Regardless of what type of factual information from other sources you provide that disprove his beliefs, he will shoot it down and claim it's "not accurate."

Perhaps the worst thing is he decided to use a rubric for a paper after we had already turned in the paper. So if you went and found a bunch of third party sources (which he suggested when he assigned the paper) you'd get a lower grade than if you just cited stuff from the books he assigned for reading.

To top it all off, he pushes a book he wrote that claims we shouldn't do CPR. He cites some outdated statistics that state that it only helps in a small percentage of situations. Don't even bother trying to point out that CPR is valuable even if it saves just one person's life.

Overall, he's a stubborn professor and he picks his TAs to be yes men who will back up whatever he says, even if you provide evidence for every single one of your arguments.

Here's the thing. I really like Professor Timmermans. But, I was also VERY interested in the Medical Sociology course and got to spend time with him in the additional 170H honors seminar. If I wasn't that interested in medicine, or looking for an easy course to fulfill a requirement, I would NOT take Soc 170, especially from Timmermans. His lectures move very quickly through slides and he expects a lot out of students. For the midterm I received an A- and B+ on the two five page essays he had us write. This freaked me out, because I needed an A in this course, and busted by butt for the final and ended up with an A in the course and an A in the honors course. He is a very serious man, but he is like a comedy performer when he is in front of a lecture hall. One time he thought it would be hilarious if he played the jeopardy theme song throughout an entire quiz. It was funny for about a minute, and then it just completely messed with everyones concentration. Basically his job is to observe and write about death, so he is a pretty grave guy if you talk to him on the side, and although he may appear to not be that interested in you and your studies, he will take the effort to help you if you need it.

Timmermans is one of my favorite professors - but that being said, I love dry humor and witty comments, which you will only get if you understand the readings well enough. If you're not willing to put in the effort into your readings and essays, then good luck with the course.

There are two quizzes - which depending on your TAs and how he's feeling can be pretty skewed and pointless. People tend to not score well on them - mainly because they're poorly worded and phrased. Not your fault.

The place to redeem your grade is the midterms and the essays. Always come up with a thesis that carries through your paper and is backed by and woven through with research.

This class is awesome. You truly learn a lot. Professor Timmermans is funny, smart and makes his class very interesting. His quizzes are challenging but do able. He assings many readings but you can skim and be okay with just grasping the main idea . His midterm/final are 10-pg essays but he is clear and they are doable with all the content one learns and we can use his slides and notes in the essays

Basic rundown: My favorite lecturer at UCLA. you can tell that he is extremely passionate and knowledgable of the topic. He makes the dark topics around suicide/death/trauma extremely interesting
Quizzes (2) 20 questions multiple choice (if you did bad you can write a 10 page paper to make it up)
-the quizzes were not easy, got a 50% and a 75% on them and I read each reading and attended all lectures. the make up papers saved me.
Final: take home essay - you have one week to do it (DO NOT SLACK)
OVERALL: even though this class was on the difficult class the content and the professor made it worth it. you should read the articles as this helps alot - but only going to the lecture could get you a B in the class

I've never written a review on here before. However, Professor Timmermans is THE BEST PROFESSOR I'VE HAD AT UCLA. During this crazy quarter, he has been so thoughtful and understanding to student needs. He literally kept this course as engaging as possible by talking about relevant current events. He truly wanted to keep his student-professor dynamic alive even though this quarter was remote by adding in pictures or memes that students sent it. He actually cares about his students, and for him its not about the grades, its truly about whether the student understands or not. TAKE ANY CLASS WITH THIS PROFESSOR BECAUSE HE WAS SO AWESOME AND UNDERSTANDING DURING THIS QUARTER. I'm so happy to end my UCLA experience with him, because while other professors were being strict and insensitive, Timmermans was doing the exact opposite + he has the best glasses ever.