Professor is a nice and smart guy. However, he is very soft-spoken and monotonous which makes it hard to be engaged. I would recommend watching the posted pre-recorded lectures rather than attending in person. The pre-recorded lectures are often much shorter too. The average on the first midterm was like an 80%, and it was relatively easy (just 32 multiple choice questions) but had confusing wording. The weekly reading is entirely summed up in the slideshows, so it's not super necessary to do it. In section, we do a lot of busy work and don't really expand on the ideas, but it's fine. We had a short paper which helped salvage my grade since the mean grade was an A. Overall, not a very interesting class, but not bad either if you need to knock off a GE.

This class is so easy, I read the textbook just because I am always anxious that, if I don't read, then I'll fail the exams. But I got an A on the midterm and final. The class content was so easy ... it was like "what is racism?". The TAs across UCLA went on strike in the second half of the course, but the effect was nonexistent. Prof Villarreal is intelligent, but his microphone is so weak and he mumbles sometimes so its really hard to understand/hear him sometimes. Most classes I would just take notes on the lectures and not pay attention to what he was saying. ALSO. Oh my god. The WiFi in that lecture hall was so horrendous people would be rage quitting left and right because they couldn't connect to their Google Docs to take notes and he would move on to the next slide. Overall, so so easy. Take it if you need it.

Super easy class if you actually go to lectures and do the readings, and the prof is a really great guy

This class is a solid, if basic, introductory course for sociology. Also consider taking the companion seminar (SOCIOL 89), if offered.

The format of this class is very traditional - two in-person lectures and a discussion section (attendance required). Professor Villarreal's lectures adhere very strictly to his slides, and the slides adhere very strictly to the textbook; as such, I know many found them pretty dry. Notably, the lecture slides and recordings from previous years were all posted on BruinLearn. Discussion sections typically went as follows: the TA would review/re-present parts of the lecture material in class for the first 30 minutes, and then have students write one-page reflections (graded for completion) on a provided question for the last 20 minutes of discussion.

In terms of homework, the only homework for the semester was responding to weekly discussion questions posted on Canvas (usually asking about lecture topics in a modern context). We also had one paper (5 pages max) due around week 8, asking students to write about an example of inequality they have experienced, witnessed, or read about. Due to *extraordinary circumstances*, our papers were ultimately never graded, so I can't speak to how they would be normally evaluated.

We had two exams for the quarter - a midterm during week 5, and a "midterm 2" during week 10. Both exams were multiple choice only, consisting of ~32 questions over 75 minutes, and midterm 2 was non-cumulative. The exam questions stuck pretty closely to the material taught in the textbook/lectures, and were generally very straightforward; few people used the full time.

PS: In addition to the primary SOCIOL 1 class, Professor Villarreal also had a companion seminar (SOCIOL 89) during the same quarter.

Though lectures were not super engaging, this was an overall very easy course and I would highly recommend it to freshmen getting started on their GE credits. Though there is weekly readings, and group write-up's (which may sound like a lot), it is extremely manageable. Also, exams are very easy and straightforward--it is a series of multiple choice questions and no short answers or essays. The class was boring at times, but very do-able in terms of work load and exams.

I took this class asynchronously with an in-person discussion. Honestly, it was pretty easy. The class is based on a textbook and the professor's lectures basically repeated everything from the readings. I found the tests to be fairly easy by taking detailed notes on the readings and reviewing them the night before, as well as going through the TA's practice questions. There were 2 midterms and no final, and the midterms were not cumulative! The midterms themselves were pretty simple, just multiple choice asking about concepts from the readings on a somewhat basic level. The readings though were a bit long and could take me a long time to get through, but given that it was just 1 chapter a week and a few lecture videos, the workload was really low and I could knock everything out in a day. My TA was Roxanne and she was super nice! Really lenient with the discussion assignments and very approachable.

My lectures were online recorded, so I did not interact much with the professor. There was two multiple choice midterms (no final), one 5- paged essay, and each week there was a group memo and a discussion. Instead of just knowing the definition of the vocabulary, you have to properly apply the terms.

A pretty easy class, but felt pretty disconnected since it was async. Workload was very minimal, just watch the lectures, take the weekly quiz, and write a short group paragraph during discussion. Tests were easy if you just make a study guide with terms and concepts that he put on the slides.

This quarter was Prof. Villarreal's first quarter here, and I wasn't sure what to expect. I went in thinking that there would be a lot of reading, but pretty easy tests and essays, but it actually turned out to be almost the opposite. The only homework was reading the textbook chapter for the week, watching the async lectures, answering an embedded lecture question, and taking a quiz. Overall, very light workload. Since this was my first async lecture, I wasn't sure what to expect. However, I felt that there was an overall lack of communication from the professor; he basically only sent emails for the midterm, essay, and final. As others have stated, there wasn't really a rubric that the TAs graded the essay on, which was unfair. I think prof will benefit to provide a TA for them to use next time to grade essays so students have a clearer understanding of what he wants. If he does not, make sure to attend TA office hours and figure out what your TA wants.
The weekly quizzes were fairly simple, although the midterm did not necessarily reflect those weekly quizzes. There were quite a few confusing questions (either worded strangely or otherwise), and some that you would not have known if you did not read the textbook thoroughly. I didn't think that the rule that you couldn't go back to your previous questions was too bad, although it did add some additional stress. Honestly, I think I stressed out about this GE more than needed, but he wasn't a terrible professor. If you can time manage for quizzes/tests and read the textbook thoroughly, it shouldn't be too bad.

Due to COVID, class was asynchronous, a huge hit especially for such a discussion based class. Villarreal really tries his best and I also took his honors seminar to get some sort of live class, but it really just isn’t the same watching lectures and reading the textbook alone. Not a hard class by any means, very simply structured with weekly quizzes, an essay, participation (group memos in discussion), and the two exams. I wish there was a bit more padding in the grade because some exam questions are quite tricky (pay attention to lecture and the book!) and the essay was pretty vague, so I’d suggest to try your best with the weekly quizzes. Villarreal is a sweet and kind professor and I wish I could have taken this class in person!