Professor Bruce Ravelli Reviews
Class Ratings
Prof: Bruce Ravelli / Fall 2016
Apr 27, 2021
I took this a long time ago, so he may have updated the course a bit since then. 100a and 100b made me fall in love with sociology, as I'm sure is the same for a bunch of others at UVic who have had the chance to watch Bruce lecture. I took both sections with friends which made the experience enjoyable as we would study and attend classes together. In my experience, don't treat the course as a fly-by elective otherwise you're going to get burned by those midterms/finals. You only have like 50 minutes to get down 2-4 little essays filled with terms and examples you have to memorize exactly. I remember we had 2 midterms, 2 papers (1 content analysis, 1 lit review), and a final exam. A great primer for future courses in soci, but definitely one of the most work-intensive. Thanks Bruce! :)
Textbook proceeds go to charity in Victoria!
Class Ratings
Prof: Bruce Ravelli / Spring 2017
Apr 27, 2021
I took this a long time ago, so he may have updated the course a bit since then. 100a and 100b made me fall in love with sociology, as I'm sure is the same for a bunch of others at UVic who have had the chance to watch Bruce lecture. I took both sections with friends which made the experience enjoyable as we would study and attend classes together. In my experience, don't treat the course as a fly-by elective otherwise you're going to get burned by those midterms/finals. You only have like 50 minutes to get down 2-4 little essays filled with terms and examples you have to memorize exactly. I remember we had 2 midterms, 2 papers (1 content analysis, 1 lit review), and a final exam. A great primer for future courses in soci, but definitely one of the most work-intensive. Thanks Bruce! :)
Textbook was very mandatory when I took it; proceeds go to charity in downtown Victoria.
Class Ratings
Prof: Bruce Ravelli / Spring 2020
Apr 27, 2021
Took Bruce's Community-Engaged Learning (CEL) seminar as one of the seminar requirements for the Soci major program. Each student is assigned in groups of 2 or 3 based on which community partner organization you choose to work with. The majority of the course is focused on completing a term-long group project with the partner org. My group was ok, best you could hope for in a group project I guess. My organization was a little lacklustre but we got the project done and I finished the course with an A.
Try to have something to say about readings otherwise the class will be quite dull; absorb what you can from the guest speakers he brings; make sure to stay self-motivated on your projects. Bruce marks hard on papers/reflections, bring your A-game. Enjoy the course, it's Bruce! :)
Class Ratings
Prof: Bruce Ravelli / Fall 2019
Mar 22, 2021
Bruce is a very entertaining lecturer. He is also very upfront in what is expect of you so just do what he says to a T. It was more work then other first year courses (like psyc100A) but overall not that bad. There are weekly quizzes based on the textbook and there are a few midterms and essays required. The quizzes even in non-covid times were open book. The stuff talked about is interesting but get ready for some class mates to be assholes about it from some reason the weirdos are all attracted to this class (eg. had a classmate debate Bruce every class on everything like one class this guy straight up was defending eugenics used on disabled people). A lot of sensitive topics are talked about in this class though just an FYI but he always does a warning before we are about to go into it ...read more
The textbook is super useful. Also write down a lot of what Bruce says because for the essays/assignments if you echo back what he said in different wording you'll do great.
Class Ratings
Prof: Bruce Ravelli / Spring 2017
Mar 19, 2021
Bruce is an amazing lecturer but a terrible professor. He doesn't treat his students as adults and is upfront in how he views any and all reasons for being late are lies. He "encourages other views" yet shuts people down when they disagree with him, he used a paper 20+ years old as an example of evolutionary psychology's mindset (even though it was incredibly outdated) and did not acknowledge that it was a misrepresentation of the field, and he seems to relish in being a brutal marker. He also comes across as quite arrogant and uses his own website for the course (or at least did back in 2017). His lectures are, however, quite phenomenal. If you can get past the negative, they are a treat. He has mastered his delivery of them (probably because, based on what others who took the course h...read more