Professor Olick goes off on tangents and most of what is discussed in class is never asked on exams. There is a midterm and final, both of which were easy if you kept up with the readings and went to class (he does point out concepts that he says he will test on during lecture). Very easy if you put in the work.

This class has an interesting topic, but the professor is a bit confusing to learn from. His powerpoints are disorganized, and he jumps from one to another and back to an old one when you're trying to write down notes. His lecturing can be entertaining, and he teaches concepts through examples that can be interesting, but a lot of the time he deviates from the topic or spends a lot of time on one topic and skimps on another. Try not to fall asleep in class because you'll miss a lot though, since you need the mental capacity to sift through what is important enough to write down and what is just extra information he provides from his tangents. The assignments are a piece of cake, they'd literally take you at most up to an hour, but I do wish we received more than HW credit of 4 points on the 3-5 page paper we had to write. The readings range from 3 pages to 30, so be prepared to read varying amounts of material that can either be interesting and entertaining or dense and boring each week. Overall, this class briefly introduces interesting sociological topics, but it's probably better just to try to jump into a higher level soc class since it's not too hard and more focused.

The thing is, I didn't know how to study for class. Powerpoints of lectures were not that good for study, and in the lectures he gave, there was more examples than actual stuff. However, it should be an easy A if you know how to do it. my TA was just OK

The material and most of the readings are interesting. However, Professor Olick goes on horrible tangents that leave you drawing tons of arrows back through your notes. He has virtually incomprehensible powerpoints, making it mandatory to come to class. Even if you do come to class though, it is nearly impossible to understand what he is talking about. There are no review sections to help you understand lectures, so the only time you get to process the material is during a discussion section where you are only allowed to mention readings. The class is definitely doable, but I would skip the frustration of never knowing what is going on and take this one with a different professor. If you do take it, make sure you go to a few office hours and have some handle on the material before the exam.

Not a hard class at all. Do the readings and you'll be fine on tests. The professor has a tendency to go off on tangents, but he tells you what is important to know. The professor uses the decile system for grading, so it's not too hard to get an A.