To excel in this class you have to be engaged with the material. You want to take notes beyond just want Speer says because he does not post the same slides, only key terms, so its kinda important to go to lecture. If you can get Wisam as a TA, GO FOR IT!! Wisam makes understanding this stuff a piece of cake. I got an A- in the course and I really only studied everything Wisam clarified. There is a list of questions for the exams and you choose a few to answer. Speer is an interesting professor, slightly witty.

A- cause of my final paper mostly. I'm not sure when I took this class, but it was incredibly engaging. This class with Prof Speer is probably a good introduction to upper-division in general. He is really kind and respectful towards his students and makes sure to give time for each slide or any questions that come up. There are weekly assignments, but not only are they graded on completion, but they actually contribute towards the tests (crazy, I know). Now 101 has a lot of info, so don't underestimate the course material.
Everyone always talks about Wisam, I didn't have him as a TA, but honestly just go to Isaac, if you need help.
I'm taking soc 156 with Prof Speer now which is how I ended up here to see if he had any reviews for that class too. I think he taught 147 at one point, but I already took that class over the summer. Anyway, yup.

I LOVED THIS CLASS AND DR. SPEER!! He made the class so fun and engaging. The material was really interesting, and the professor has a great personality so it made lectures fly by. Dr. Speer is super caring and is always willing to help students. He is an amazing lecturer and is super patient. This class is a 10/10.

I was not looking forward to this class at all as it's learning about old theorists and reading their boring, dense work. However, Professor Speer made this class super interesting, was able to break down the content into understandable terms and it was actually a fun class. Some of the concepts are definitely hard to grasp but it is important to do so. I really do recommend going to office hours for Professor Speer and/or your TA to discuss the readings and ask any clarifying questions. I know office hours can be scary, but for this class especially it is so important in order to really understand the necessary material unless you are some genius who can easily read and comprehend the works of Marx, Durkheim, and Weber.

After taking this class, I know I am very comfortable with the way Speer lectures. I am so excited to take more classes taught by Professor Speer.

I honestly really appreciate the minimal stuff he has on the slides because he goes in depth explaining them. So the best way I know for me to take notes for this class is typing what is on the slides and possibly under whatever statement, I also type what he says. I am able to do this during the live lecture, but if you cannot keep up, his lectures are also recorded!

As for his assignments, I believe they are fair and straight forward. If done correctly, they are helpful in possible essays, because you would then have citations for explaining certain concepts. However, if you are not sure and still do the assignment, this quarter and usually these assignments are graded on completion anyways. Therefore, in discussion, we would usually discuss the questions or concepts in class.

They changed Soc 110 to Sociohistorical Methods, a methods course, and this was the first time it had been taught in this way. It was a lot of work and prof Speer was still working out the best way to teach the class. There was a midterm, a final, weekly readings of papers that used historical methods (sometimes really dense/boring), homeworks about the readings that were only graded on completeness, a final paper, and discussion section was worth 10% of the grade. You got to choose your topic for the final paper which was good. Overall I enjoyed the class and thought Speer was really great and lectures were engaging. It's a good way to get the methods requirement out of the way especially since there's no math.

This is my second time having Speer. His lectures are a bit dry, but he does really make the effort to ensure students understand what he is trying to teach. He's a nice, helpful professor. The lectures are very consistent. The tests were not overly difficult, but not exactly the best way to test theory (in my opinion). The readings were manageable, the homework was helpful in understanding the readings, and the structure of this class was consistent which was nice. I'd recommend Speer to other students, but I didn't find this class as engaging and interesting as I think it could have been. I loved 101 and was very excited for 102, but it was a bit boring.

Speer is just a great professor! He always tries to make concepts/readings as understandable as possible. The workload is really manageable and it is not too much. As long as you the readings and take notes you can definitely get an A. Also, Speer is a very nice and approachable professor who goes above and beyond to help students understand the materials!
I would definitely take another class with him.

Sociology was the first GE that I took here at UCLA, and definitely one that I would take again. Speer was an engaging professor who really tried to help us understand the material he was presenting. In addition, his TA's were all top notch and really helped clarify anything that we didn't get in class. Soc 1 was a great class, and I would definitely take this again.

I find that Speer is not the worse professor to have, with lectures that are easy to follow. However, the style of having a midterm, 8-page paper due in Week 9 followed by a final in Week 10 did not make sense to me. I wish that instead of a final we only had the paper or vice versa. The format of the midterm and final is divided into two parts: multiple choice then short essay answers (about two.) The multiple-choice questions felt unnecessarily tricky, and as someone who did the readings and took notes, I was annoyed that several responses felt like trick questions. On that note, there are multiple lengthy readings required with weekly homework assignments (answering about 6-8 questions on the week's reading with a 150-word response to each.) I did not strictly adhere to the word count and was not penalized for this, but this depends on the TA. I think what made the class manageable to me is having a really good TA to break down the concepts, so I have to admit I'm hesitant to take another class with Speer without guaranteed additional help. (Approaching him for questions can be intimidating.)