SOC 2230

This class is pretty easy and the professor is awesome. He discusses the readings in class and only asks test questions from the lectures so the readings are completely unnecessary and there is no homework.

There are two midterms, 30 multiple choice questions and an essay each, and a final of a similar format. The essays are usually no more than a paragraph and pretty easy, but sometimes the multiple choice questions are tricky.

In summarizing this class, I ask myself, "Why am I going to receive a B?" I'll answer that for you, and in doing so, give you insight as to whether or not you should take this class. I went into this class assuming it would be something like an NCIS or Criminal Minds training course. I was wrong. This class is 100% centered around theories as to what motivates people to commit crimes. And not crimes such as bloody chainsaw massacres, but crimes such as petty theft and vandalism. You'll go over how stress drives people to commit crime, and how family dynamics do the same, among other things. I was not into this at all. The material bored me, and thus, I didn't put much work into a class that is very easy to attain an A in, if you put work in. I loved the lectures -- Robert Day McConnell is by far the best professor I had this semester. There is no better man to teach this class. At first, he reminded me of Heath Ledger as the Joker... He's that good. But, again, if you aren't the type of person willing to put work into something that's pretty boring, or don't do well in uninteresting classes, it is probably not for you. Do not go into this thinking it is an easy A. I had an easier time getting an A in Econ 2010 than this class. Why? Material in Econ was much more interesting. So consider all this, and if you think you can get past the bland material included in the course, take it.

McConnell is the man! He's really funny and absolutely the perfect person to teach this class. Entire grade is four tests and participation during discussions. There is no need to do the readings, but definitely go to the lectures. Overall, it's an easy A and pretty interesting.

When people say this course is "easy", they mean "UVA easy". Getting an A still takes a fair amount of reading and studying. I was under the impression that reading was not actually necessary, but when an entire free response test question was contingent upon the reading, I realized this was untrue. Do the readings and go to the lecture and you'll be fine.
McConnell's teaching style didn't really appeal to me. I found his slow speaking incredibly boring and it was easy to drift off. Also, he tried a bit too hard to be funny and told awkward jokes.
Overall, though, I'd recommend this class. It's a good GPA booster.

Professor McConnell was a great professor for this course. His lectures were entertaining, though sometimes slow, but I almost always found myself enjoying them throughout the semester. The readings don't really matter, but it is very important to show up to every lecture and take very good notes. The tests are also pretty straightforward, but you have to make sure to write a lot for the essay questions because those aren't graded very easily and make up 30% of your test grade. Overall, this is a really interesting class to take, and, in general, it isn't very hard.

This was an incredible course! Professor McConnell is a fabulous lecturer and the subject material is pretty straightforward. The grading consisted of 4 exams with multiple choice questions (around 30 per exam) and two essays. Be careful, if Josh is your TA, you can't get away with answering just the essay prompt in a few paragraphs (despite the syllabus saying they should be 1-2 paragraph responses). Give as much information as possible to get a good grade. I would highly recommend

This was one of my favorite classes at UVA. McConnell is a great lecturer and makes the learning of criminological theory something that was interesting. He makes good jokes and keeps it very engaging. However as previously mentioned this is criminological theory you learn about theories of why crime is committed and how it can be stopped. If you go to class pay attention and take great notes the readings are unneeded and depending on the "grader" that semester you can pull an A-.

This was a great course! It is absolutely feasible to get a low A by just going to the lectures and taking really good notes (and maybe reading the original works that McConnell assigns in one of the textbooks). The only grades in the course are 4 exams (the final isn't cumulative), and they consist of a multiple choice section and 2 essay questions. My TA seemed to be a bit harsher with the grading the essays though, but he was very helpful in office hours and explained everything well. McConnell is a very capable lecturer and funny guy even while being slightly eclectic, and I would highly recommend this course.

I don't really know why this class is so highly rated and considered an "easy A" course. It's true, you never have to do the readings and there's no homework, but lectures are extremely dry, boring and not even that interesting. Prof McConnell is really chill but his voice is so monotone it could put someone to sleep. I went to every lecture and took detailed notes every class and didn't even do well. MC were easy but the true false were so specific and short answer questions could ask about one little detail that you don't have memorized. Wouldn't recommend unless you have a photographic memory or are extremely interested!!

So I always wanted to take this class since first year. Once I got in, I was excited, but it was sort of a disappointment. Some lectures were dry. The theories were interesting, but there were so many and some were so similar. The MC portion of the test is fine, but some questions are kind of tough because some answer choices meant the same thing. I would go to office hours to ask him why this wasn't the answer if it is the same as that answer, and he was like "oh that's just the better answer even though that branches off of this." So I feel like his explanations weren't so fair enough, but it's not really a big deal since the majority of the MC questions were okay.
The short answers though..... The TA Candace was unnecessarily harsh in my opinion. And I went to her office hours once and she didn't really have good explanations for marking me down. I also had a heavy work course this semester, so I ended up with a B. I'm pretty disappointed because he didn't curve either. I was a point away from B+, but oh well. So take it only if you're good at memorizing small details for the short answers!!! (or the next TA is so much better lol)

Also for reading the books, I feel like they can be helpful, but they can also put you at a disadvantage. I know that you do need to read for some of the exams. The book would give a theory and then it kind of confuses you because it talks about the shortcomings of the theory, which aren't explained in class. So sometimes on the MC portion, I wouldn't know which answer is right because I don't know if I should follow the lecture or the books. Also I feel like the TA Candace relied more on the books than lectures because she never showed up to lectures and she would mark things wrong even if you tried to memorize McConnell's words and wrote them verbatim for the short answers.. I am so positive she relies more on the books because she expects you to be super detailed like the dense books. So I would not call this class an easy A-. It can be an easy A- if the workload for your other classes are light, and again, if the TA is not Candace lol.