Acing sociology

[Fakesmile]

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I'm considering to take an "Intro to Sociology" course, my first non-science course at college. Its course evaluation says the course will require heavy reading and writing, and even its midterm and final will only have 3-4 essay questions. This will be my first course that involves a great amount of reading and writing and I'm not very experienced at reading and writing in fields like sociology so I'm not sure if I'll be able to ace this thing. But I think this course will be useful, which is why I decided to consider taking it in the first place. I'd appreciate any advice from sociology majors and veterans.

 

[randombetch]

... It's sociology. What advice is there to give?!

Just kidding - just do the reading and come to class prepared with insightful things to say.

 

[dokein]

Make sure not to hold the professor to any reasonable standard of proof, and you should be fine.

 

[TheBateman]

I have much experience with SOC classes as it is one of my majors.
Do the readings.

 

[frescoengano]

go to prof office hours and he/she will probably give you hints as to what to study

 

[samuraiR]

I loved sociology/psychology classes when I was in undergrad. Read the chapters, they are usually really interesting anyways.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

sociology seems like a really laid back class..
i remember the folkways,laws, moral area of where social norms come from during intro to psych which is borrowed from sociology, it seems like very interesting field.

 

[alexfoleyc]

I'm considering to take an "Intro to Sociology" course, my first non-science course at college. Its course evaluation says the course will require heavy reading and writing, and even its midterm and final will only have 3-4 essay questions. This will be my first course that involves a great amount of reading and writing and I'm not very experienced at reading and writing in fields like sociology so I'm not sure if I'll be able to ace this thing. But I think this course will be useful, which is why I decided to consider taking it in the first place. I'd appreciate any advice from sociology majors and veterans.

Don't worry you'll be fine. Almost all non-science classes involve heavy reading and writing, but you'll get used to it. I remember I once took this law class which required us to write essays every week and do presentations each week.

 

[Ginger Ale]

I got a B in sociology since I didn't realize that our professor gave us assignments during class that counted towards 10% of our grade. Therefore, make sure you really understand the attendance policy (I guess this goes for any class )

anyways, sociology was really big on these 3 theories: conflict theory, structural functionalism and symbolic interactionism. It was really crucial in our class for every test and the final to be able to know and apply these theories to topics such as: race, sex, gender, politics, economy, etc.

another thing I wish I did frequently (which again probably applies to most classes) was go to my professor and see what I did wrong on previous tests. I ended up sitting down with my professor a few days before the final and going over every test I took (which was really, really good review for the final)

anyways, hope I was helpful. If you have any questions, just PM me

good luck!

-Ginger Ale

 

[Fakesmile]

Thanks for the posts.

I have much experience with SOC classes as it is one of my majors.
Do the readings.

I'm nervous about the midterm and final which, as I said, have only essay questions. Were you marked heavily on essay-writing techniques or mostly on contents?

Also, of course it will depend on schools and profs, but generally, how is the grading in intro SOC classes (What proportion of students are given A's, A-'s, etc.)? I heard that some non-science classes (intro to philosophy) give out very few A's (~5%). Is that true for SOC classes as well?

 

[MilkmanAl]

To be honest, I sleepwalked through my intro sociology class. That was probably the second-easiest class I took in all of college. We had "all essay" tests that were extremely simplistic and graded less stringently than I thought possible. I'd be very surprised if you had any trouble with this class.

 

[apumic]

Thanks for the posts.

I'm nervous about the midterm and final which, as I said, have only essay questions. Were you marked heavily on essay-writing techniques or mostly on contents?

Also, of course it will depend on schools and profs, but generally, how is the grading in intro SOC classes (What proportion of students are given A's, A-'s, etc.)? I heard that some non-science classes (intro to philosophy) give out very few A's (~5%). Is that true for SOC classes as well?

All of this varies by school but... Essays on tests are likely to be graded primarily for content, although gross errors in writing may do significant damage. Soc tends to be thought of as the easiest of bx sciences. That having been said, some soc classes can be quite tough but an intro class should be pretty doable. Distributions depend entirely upon the prof but I'd expect maybe 5-15% As, 25-45% Bs, 25-45% Cs, and the rest Ds & Fs.

 

[chman]

My advice would be to take care of your English requirements before diving into these classes. I don't know about your school, but mine required two classes (so do most med schools) and they really helped me regarding other humanities and social science courses. Especially the second English class, "Argument and Persuasion."

Other than that, I recommend doing all the readings, and to get help with editing. Another tip for editing is to not do it directly after you write something. For instance, if you write a draft, put it away for a while before editing. This allows your brain to forget what you wrote, otherwise it will try to see it as you meant to write it, instead of how you actually wrote it (if that makes sense).

 

[akuarys]

I dunno about your situation but at my school intro to sociology is usually... well... a joke. Most students use it as a fluffer course to pad their GPA's. I guess just make sure you do all the readings and be aware of class policies and stuff. Have fun!

 

[MilkmanAl]

is it possible that you just had an easy professor?

Absolutely, but as far as I'm aware, there isn't such a thing as a not-easy professor where intro soci at UNC is concerned. A couple other friends took the class before me with different professors and had a similarly easy time. Really, though, I think that level of difficulty is pretty much the norm. It isn't universally regarded as one of the easiest classes you can take for no reason. Yeah, there's probably some poor bastard somewhere who has to read a book a night with 20-page papers due every week for his intro soci class, but that's definitely not how it goes for most.

 

[dokein]

Yeah, at UCLA all the sociology classes are ridiculously easy. Thats why athletes are often sociology majors and stuff.

 

[chman]

Absolutely, but as far as I'm aware, there isn't such a thing as a not-easy professor where intro soci at UNC is concerned. A couple other friends took the class before me with different professors and had a similarly easy time. Really, though, I think that level of difficulty is pretty much the norm. It isn't universally regarded as one of the easiest classes you can take for no reason. Yeah, there's probably some poor bastard somewhere who has to read a book a night with 20-page papers due every week for his intro soci class, but that's definitely not how it goes for most.

I edited that question out when I thought about my intro to soc class. It is a cake walk for 95% assume.

 

[chman]

Yeah, at UCLA all the sociology classes are ridiculously easy. Thats why athletes are often sociology majors and stuff.

If I had to guess, which I do, I would say that intro soc classes are much different than upper division, as with most subjects.