This class is a fantastic combo of being both generously graded and an interesting subject, I definitely recommend it as a Soc upper-div (and honestly maybe even just as a relatively easy upper-div for anyone). The readings are interesting and fairly short for a Soc class. The one weak point of the class would be lecture. Berend lectures without any sort of slides or whiteboard use and tends to ramble so it can be rather dull, but her lecture outlines are both handed out in class and posted online which makes following along fairly simple (and attendance probably optional, although the EC on the final was based on something only said in-class). Class also ended 20 minutes early every day which was great.

There are four short multiple choice quizzes, pretty easy to figure out if you’ve done the reading or at least know what’s going on in class. There are also two short papers (single-spaced, less than 1 page) that are pretty easy to throw together and interesting to write. The midterm is 20 multiple choice and some short answer, plus extra credit questions. The final is in-class and not cumulative, basically a second midterm.

I scored over 100% on the midterm and felt good about the final, too. There’s also an additional extra credit opportunity at the end of the class which only requires you to write three sentences, so I don’t know why anyone wouldn’t do it. All in all, though lecture is a little dry, the readings are actually useful and an A basically requires the minimum effort.

THIS PROFESSOR SUCKS ASS

Class is a little tough. Quizzes every other week pretty much, but these were fairly easy if you actually attend lectures, discussion, and study. We had a couple of writing assignments that were graded slightly harsh, it's important to attend office hours at least a few times. It's definitely gonna be difficult to get an A+ but an A or A- I imagine is fairly easy.

Not that bad of a Soc Upper Div, she is old not engaging and boring I was fighting my life trying to not fall asleep during her boring lectures. You must do all the readings and take notes for them, as the weekly 6 question MC in-person during lecture quiz is based on the readings and a little bit of lecture material. Her quizzes were very difficult with no context in the questions, she is not helpful either in understanding the concepts in the readings, I mostly learned from the TA who would give a summary of the readings during her discussion sections, that's why I recommend going to discussion if you have questions in regards to the reading material, because they are not mandatory attendance. Very difficult grader for any and everything as there was 2 short essay's, they even show off by saying it is very difficult to get full points on their paper. I was able to get 13/15 and a 14/15 hence showing they do not like to give out full credit and make it difficult on purpose to pass this class. No midterm exam, only a cumulative final exam of 31 MC in person during the last day of class during week 10. For the final I recommend having memorize the authors and what they argue for and against, along with overall relevant themes in the lecture connecting to the readings. I studied for 3 solid 8-10 hour days and got a C on the final.

DO NOT TAKE THIS PROFESSOR!!

Please save your grade and take another professor. Read this knowing I am a straight-A student who frequently does the readings, attends office hours, etc. Apologies for the lengthy post.

This was probably one of the worst if not the worst class I have ever taken at UCLA. This is not because of the actual class but because of the professor. The actual material was interesting to learn and easy to grasp, however, the professor created quizzes that would make you think you don't know what you're even learning. I struggled to keep a C in the class and had an F for some time.

Here is our grading breakdown (Course assignments were not weighted):
-6 quizzes (2 are dropped)
-2 mini-essays (500 words max)
-Final exam (Final was a mix of 25 MC questions, 9 very short free responses, and 1 extra credit question)

Looking at this you might think this class is easy because of the light work, I even thought it would be a simple class, but I was so wrong. Also, yes, no midterm!

Each quiz (6 questions each) was given every two weeks and was about whatever we learned during those two weeks. This meant that what she taught in the lecture that day would be on the quiz too. The average for quizzes ranges from 2-4 out of 6, basically the average on every quiz was an F. Halfway into the quarter I assumed students started asking what they could do to help other grades and she gave no support. She wrote lengthy emails discussing how if we don't know something we should study, like thanks Sherlock it's not like your class of 150 students thought about doing that. Then she began class with a talk to us students because I am assuming she got annoyed by the number of people emailing her about their grades and these talk she gave were similar to what she wrote to us in the emails. I averaged a 5/6 (83%) on my quizzes after the two were dropped but without them being dropped I averaged a 3/6 (50%). Overall, the professor was no help at all when it came to the quizzes.

The writing assignment seemed fairly easy because it was a 500-word mini-essay about a short article or story. On the first assignment, I scored 12/15, the average being 11.53/15, the upper quartile being 13/15, and the lower quartile being 10/15. The second the scores went out the GroupMe blew UP. The TAs issued an apology for the scores being low and said that they had to follow strict guidelines provided by the professor. The second writing assignment went better for the class, my guess is because of the amount of emails the professor received so she eased up on her strict rubric. For the second writing assignment, I scored 13.5/15, the average being 12.21/15, the upper quartile being 13.5/15, and the lower quartile being 11.5/15.

At around the 8-week mark in the quarter, GroupMe was blowing up with messages about how people didn't know what to do because of their failing grades. Even I was worried.

The final exam to me seemed fair. It was difficult because it was a cumulative exam. The study guide she provided helped me a lot. However, I don't think she was going to provide one and I remember her telling us "You should know what to study." On the final exam, she included questions from past quizzes. The free-response questions were only around 1-3 sentences each. Some people did say in the GroupMe the exam was more difficult than expected.

If you have come this far in my post I hope I have convinced you to not take this professor. However, for the actual material of the class, I would give it a 4/5 because of how interesting it was. If you're able to get another professor for this class PLEASE DO.

While some folks might think she is a hard teacher, her tests are quite predicatable, and the discussions useful

What I did to get an A+ in the class was pretty simple: do all the readings, whenever it goes into some defination on it's main arguement(which is pretty obvious...usually will say first we consider this, second that, and finally this, or these words we desire to define mean this this and that), took notes...then went to all lectures/discussions and didn't write everything down, just what was not on the slides, what she elborated on
all her tests were on the main points of that week, and lecture, sometimes what she said, and not what was on the slides
so if you do all the readings, pay attention to all lectures, and discussions, there is no reason why one shouldn't do very well in her class. She is clear, intresting, has relevant readings, and is very helpful. Her work is relatively light 6 quizzes(lowest two dropped), 4 reaction papers(a prompt on something that week, one page long single spaced), and a final (about 20 MC, and 10 short explanations, with 2 extra credit). Again I would 10/10 take her again!
10/10 retake her

Note: This class was originally going to be in-person, but because of the Omicron variant it was remote for the first few weeks of the quarter and then remained hybrid. Because of this, the midterm was cancelled and an extra quiz was added.

We were graded on the following:
-5 bi-weekly quizzes on material of the most recent two weeks plus a make-up quiz (6 points each and 2 of the lowest quiz grades were dropped)
- 4 Short reaction papers throughout the quarter (10 points each, single-spaced, <1 page) – relating to the topic of that week (lowest paper grade was dropped)
- Cumulative final (30 points. 20 MC questions, 6 short reaction questions, 2 extra credit questions)

When the class went back to in-person learning she was very understanding and let students have the option of staying remote and continue watching lecture videos. TA discussion attendance is not mandatory, but it's worth attending to do well on the quiz/ understand the week's material. I had Oscar was my TA and he was super helpful in breaking down the content and sent out weekly notes about the readings. I recommend getting him as your TA!

The class was very organized and Professor Berend always responded to emails quickly. The readings were manageable. There were some weeks where I just skimmed the readings and just went to my discussion and still did pretty well on the quiz.
In my opinion, the final was a little harder than I anticipated (to be fair, I didn't always do the readings), but I still got a passing grade.
I had no background knowledge about economics and still ended up with an A for the class. I also took this class at the same time that I took Soc 101 and a lot of topics overlapped, so that really helped me understand topics discussed in this class. Overall, this was a good class for a Soc requirement, it was not too hard and we went over some pretty interesting topics.

Tips for success:
--Go to your TA discussion sections!
-- Understand every author's main arguments and if you're uncertain, ask your TA or the Professor
--Take thorough notes on lectures and readings throughout the quarter starting in Week 1 (Kind of a given, but I didn't do this and I regret it)
--Actually doing the readings, or at least try to understand the author's main arguments
-- Go to office hours
-- If you have Oscar as a TA, study his weekly notes!

This class was challenging as someone who is not great at understanding economics, however, it was still interesting from a sociological point of view. I really thought I would end up with a C in the class, but somehow ended up with an A which is amazing.

We had 5 quizzes (dropped lowest one), 4 short reaction papers (dropped lowest one), and 1 final (no midterm). The quizzes and papers were actually pretty difficult, ESPECIALLY if you don't read and watch lectures (at least watch the lectures and understand the main points of the readings). I got a 60% on my first reaction paper but ended up getting a 100% on the other three by asking questions to my TAs and the Professor. Also, ask your classmates for help on these papers,,, they can be challenging!! The quiz questions were confusing too, so make sure you read and understand the questions correctly. As Professor Berend always says, "Don't assume anything. Answer the questions directly with no assumptions."

We didn't have actual classes or sections. It was more like, you can attend if you want but if you attend you have a chance to round your grade up. I would advise going to class and section. I didn't which made the quizzes and papers more difficult for me but the people that went to class and section always ended up getting something beneficial out of it.

The final wasn't bad. It was actually easier than the quizzes in my opinion, but I did actually study a little for it so that's probably why LOL. There was also extra credit on it. It was like 20 mc questions and 5 short answers (1-2 sentences). I studied by reading all my lecture notes, going over the past quizzes and figuring out why answers don't make sense and do make sense (this helped a lot!), and one of the TAs gave us a study guide for the readings which was a huge help. I ended up getting an A on the final.

Overall, the class wasn't bad, but it is a class that you do have to read a bit in order to answer questions.

To be totally honest, Berend is not a great lecturer. Her points tend to lack organization and its extremely easy to tune her out and doze off, which has nothing to do with the lack of slides because many professors are engaging without them. There are better, more simplified ways of expressing the points she makes and the TAs do a much better job of doing that. If it wasn’t for discussion section and her lecture outlines, the class probably would have been much more convoluted. I took the approach of ignoring her during lecture and just copying down the outlines while sitting there. The quizzes are easy but the wording is a little annoying and I always felt like all the answers were similar but I got 100% on all of them so they’re easy to figure out anyways. Go to discussion, go to office hours if necessary, and read the outlines. It’s a manageable class, you probably just won’t be very motivated to make it to lecture.

Final was harder than midterm. If you want to take this course with this professor, study hard !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I was getting A- before Final, but I got F and barely passed. Lots of extra credit and easy to pass, but the course material could be hard for someone who cannot fully understand the lecture and notes.