Easy A, don't buy the reader (650 pages, $70, didn't read much of it, just share w/someone). Liked the prof at the start till I realized he was terrible, didn't help at all and just preached his bias and arrogance at us lecture. Go for an A, skip lecture.

lectures are repetitive and fairly pointless, generally fairly entertaining to listen to, passionate about topic, but really just not a lot of point in attending lecture, not much work for the class

Very condescending in office hours, interesting topics, tends to ramble on and on and loses your attention. overall, an OK class.

If I could have poked out my eye with my pen, I would have. Talk about singleminded and full of bias. Don't take this class if you like to hear things said honestly and not be forced to regurgitate someone else's skewed view of the world.

I agree, Powers is insanely biased. He's very narrow minded, thinks that his beliefs are absolute, and if you go against him, he will be just tell you that you're wrong. End of story. On top of that, he rambles practically every lecture. It's no wonder why I leave class angry every day. Pointless.

very motivated and enthusiastic about topic but didn't have structured lectures

THIS CLASS RUINED MY GPA. Supposedly easy, but the reader grades hard...Take it if u want a B, hard to get an A if ur reader's hard. Shouldnt' have taken it. hated it

Don't take this class unless you have to. It's not difficult, but the prof babbles on and on in class, so it's just not enjoyable. Grade = 3 essays, the final is take home.

Pompous ****. Loves to hear the sound of his own voice.

Don't bother going to lecture. He talks around points for the entire hour. He really likes adjective and adverbs (especially one's that he coins himself) and his sentences are chalk full of them so you never really know what he's talking about in the first place.

Easy A. Just go to lecture and then write whatever he says in your papers. He is OVER THE TOP Liberal, so if you have a problem with that, you'll probably get sick of his whining. I found it entertaining now and then, but he wasn't helpful at all. Advice: whatever he says- Agree with him!!!

Brian Powers seems to know what he is talking about, but he is clueless when it comes to communicating those ideas to the class. His lectures and assignments are really hard to understand and if you get a bad reader, you're screwed. This class is definitely NOT recommended.

Very interesting topic, but you wont learn a thing from this professor. Reading help with papers, but I stopped reading anyways because it was too much and it doesnt coincide with lecture at all. Very obnoxious lecturer. Write papers based on common sense knowledge you already have. Easy, but useless.

He is not very friendly or helpful, but the class is relatively easy. Just write what he wants to hear on the 2 papers.

annoying, egotistical, unclear essay and exam prompts. readings were almost useless. like the previous poster said, easy to pass if you just use common sense and write what he wants to hear on essays.

Lectures are generally unhelpful (with only a few exceptions) and often contain long digressions. The 4 required papers, including the final, have ambiguous, unclear prompts. All grading is done by readers, and over half the class receives B's (I asked). This is not good for an AC, and you learn surprisingly little despite 600+ pages of reading.

This class was truly absurd. It was an upper-division, but we spent more time talking about how to navigate blackboard or what he wants in the assignments than actual information. Every hour had about 5 minutes, if even that, of useful information. I learned nothing. This class was a joke.

His lectures are entertaining (perhaps mainly because of the way he talks), but I found it hard to take him seriously. Your grade depends on around 3 essays. Reading all of the required reading is not necessary. Not too hard to get an A.

I would definitely not recommend this class to anyone. Don't get me wrong, you do learn some fascinating information but .. from lecture? Not so much. From trying to figure out what he and the readers want? Not so much. From some of the readings - yes. But take another professor and learn it in a better environment.

interesting topic, but he makes it boring. lectures are extremely useless, he goes off topic. reading isn't mandatory, just read articles pertaining to essays. prompts for essays are difficult to grasp. hard to write what the readers want to hear.

I only went to lecture about 20% of the time, I find that when I didn't go to lecture, I didn't miss much. He goes really off topic and though he is very enthusiastic about sociology he really don't know how to teach it. He doesn't go according to syllabus and lecture is very random. His essays/paper prompts are hard to interpret.

this class was dullsville, USA :( there was no point in going to lecture, after you've heard one you've heard them all. don't waste your time doing the readings, just see what's relevant to your paper and read over that. the class is pretty easy, but it's so boring. the material has potential, but the teacher presents it very poorly.

Professor Powers is really passionate about sociology, but unfortunately, he's not a good teacher. He went off on tangents in most lectures, so going to class wasn't very helpful. The reader has interesting articles, but you only need to skim it for essays. Grade depends on your reader and writing abilities.

This class is extremely boring. I went to lectures at the beginning of the semester and just gave up later on. The paper he asked us to write is relatively easy; however, you have to use a lot of the reading into it, otherwise, he won't give you a high grade. Well, he does not give out easy grade anyways.

lectures completely useless, no need to attend at all. just make sure you go when something's due... he's really rude and when i pointed out he screwed up something online he fixed it and acted like i was stupid... not a good person or teacher, but my essay was done with only an hour of skimming the reading, and i got a b+ fairly easily...

horrible guy, acts like we are alllll stupid, incredibly arrogant and unwilling to accomodate to anyone, not like he grades anything anyways, so who cares about this guy? all he does is ramble.

Rambled in class, a lot of times could not follow him. Incoherent lecture slides .. not good for someone like me who needs organization to learn

Although this was not a difficult class, Powers was one of the most pompous teachers I have ever had at Cal. Maybe it was his grating voice... Maybe it was the fact that nearly every lecture made me want to drift off or doodle... However, I'll admit that the material he covered was interesting. I just wish the execution had been different.

My friend warned me never to take a class with him but I did anyway. Huge mistake. Not only are his lectures annoying because he has a very distinctive voice, but he is obviously extremely opinionated and biased which comes across in his teaching. Easy to BS the work but trust me, it's not worth it.

Please DO NOT take this class with Powers unless you absolutely have to. The lectures are absolutely pointless and useless. He just talks and talks about nothing. It seems that he just loves to hear the sound of his own voice, which is quite annoying by the way. i would definitely recommend against this class.

Honestly, if you have interest in sociology, I recommend avoiding this class as the first soc class you take. He makes the material dry and his lectures are useless. I ended up going to every lecture thinking each one would be better but NO! The class easiness depends on your reader (GSI). This class can be easy, but not for everyone.

Decided to take Sociology to fill a prereq. Looked like an interesting class. Professor taught in all questions and was rarely helpful, if at all. Tons of required reading and I felt half of it could have been cut. Interesting content, hard class, practically useless professor. Oh, and lecture is required.

Very boring, pretentious prof. He basically goes in circles and talks about the same thing every lecture. His essay prompts are annoyingly long. But it's an easy class. Just be sure to show up to sign in.

he is terrible. he talks in circles about pointless things. class is a total waste of time.

I am a Psychology major and I love social psychology so I wanted to see the sociology side of social psychology. I made the mistake of not using rate my professor. Never gain. Absolutely horrible Professor. He does not teach anything, he rambles. Attendance is required and the class has no content. He shows videos I could watch online. Stay away.

The way he phrases things is just weird. Not worth going to lectures. The talks about education a lot. Easy class

Rambles and talks in circles. In the hour long lecture, he typically says what we are going to be doing for the day, talks about something related for 30 minutes, talks on a different topic for 10 minutes, then we spend what's left on what he said we would be doing at the beginning of lecture. He asks more questions than he answers during lecture.

Negatives: something about his lectures is grating so I can never pay attention for long. Lecture attendance is a part of your grade. Tends to talk in circles, both in person and in writing. The ideas covered are very obvious. Positives: readings are usually short and can be quite interesting. No exams or section, just feedback from readers.

This is superficial, but his high nasal tone while lecturing, combined with repetitive and simple points, have not made me enjoy this class at all. Guidance for assignments is terrible (3-page-long essay prompts telling YOU to be focused and organized lol). He just has bad communication skills - which is surprising for a Berkeley humanities prof

Very enthusiastic about the subject manner. Most of the assignments are centered around preparing for the final paper. The lecture slides and assignments instructions are ridiculously text heavy.

The readings for the class are interesting material, but the lectures are bad. The class is mostly graded from 3 papers with a central research paper as the focus. I only did the important readings and did fine. Brian Powers clearly cares about sociology but he tends to ramble, repeat, and be overly simplistic for an upper div.

The reading materials are great but the lectures were so boring and useless. 1 semester long project, 1 midterm paper, 3 reading logs, and an easy take home final exam! Oh and discussion posts are necessary for participation credits!