Clucas, Meika  

She is by far the worst Cal Poly professor there is. It's good that she has overheads because you can't understand half the shit she says. Her test are not that bad. If you do the reading and go over the notes from the overhead you will be fine. The only thing that prevented me from getting an A is the group project which she does not explain at all. DON'T TAKE THIS PROFESSOR!

Quite honestly, this is the worst teacher I've ever had at Cal Poly. For lectures, she would put up an overhead and then read it to the class. Anything that wasn't on the overhead was a sentence directly from the book. The first test was kind of difficult, but I figured out how to study for the other ones: I took my textbook to class and highlighted the sentences she said, and that was all I studied. I got an A. She also assigns a group project, and she's never clear on the guidelines. Now that I have taken the methods course, I realize that she actually wanted us to do a social science research project using methods & statistics, but this is a 100-level course, and you don't learn to do that stuff until you take SOC 355. As a result, the project grades weren't too great, because none of us really knew what she wanted. But the tests aren't too hard; just study the sentences she says straight out of the book and you'll do fine.

No one has done a recent review on Clucas. For SOC 315, Clucas wasn't amazing, but she wasn't terrible either. Her lectures: powerpoints are jam packed with notes, so do not write/type word from word (unless you really want to). She'll read the powerpoints to you as well as clarifying things, so just listen to what she is saying and write that down. For this class she spends lots of time pairing everyone up to do group work/current event updates. Her lectures are long and a little boring, but GO TO CLASS. Trust me. Her midterm and final are based on the the textbook the videos shown in class, and the lectures. She doesn't post on Polylearn, so there is no way to catch up if you miss a class. Besides a midterm and final, there's a group presentation and group paper to do. It's a case study on an ethnic group. The presentation is fairly simple, and the research paper, follow what you do for the presentation. Group research paper is 5-8 pages so it's not that hard, plus she DOES put a rubric/outline on PL for this. It's not due until the last week of class after all the group presentations are done. Also, she has every group (there are about 12) make 5 multiple choice questions on their case study and she puts them in the final. Someone made a google doc for all the groups to put their MC questions up, DO THIS. It helps so so so much. Plus she likes it when people participate, so do that. Heads up, she has an accent that may be difficult to understand if you haven't been around Japanese accents. But she really is a sweet lady, so going to OH I'm sure will clarify things more for you. TLDR: Go to class. Read the textbook. Participate in class. She is lovely

I really don't know why the previous evaluations are so hard on her. I thought she was a fine teacher. It's true that for lectures she usually puts an overhead up and reads off of it. It gets a little boring but it's not that bad. She has an accent but it's not difficult to understand her and she probably speaks better English than most of her students. She's a really nice person and she's totally willing to help anyone who comes to her office hours. The lab part is easy as long as you do the assignments. The lecture exams were a little harder for me. I suggest studying in a group for this class, it really helped me. All in all, Professor Clucas is not the best professor I've had at Poly but she is certainly not the worst. I wouldn't mind taking her again.

Loved this instructor. Yes the material and lectures are boring but thats to be expected with this subject. The labs were incredibly easy to follow and complete especially with Dr. Clucas and her aid there to walk you through it. The lab exams were a piece of cake but beware the lecture exams. Those tests consisted of multiple choice, fill in, and short answer questions. The fill-ins are BRUTAL so know the vocabulary very very well. Also, there is a ten page paper that seems like a nightmare but is really pretty straight foward to do. She gives you an exact outline to follow so writting that length is no big deal. She lets you use the paper for her SOC 421 class to with minor modifications so thats a bonus. The lab grade helps a lot so dont worry if you dont do so hot on the lecture tests. Overall she made a tedious and required test very bearable.

If you go into the cxlass understanding that it is a computer program, and like being taught how to use Word, then you will be able to appreciate Dr. Clucas. She gives the material in a straight forward manner. She also teaches everything you need to know in both the lecture and the lab. She works with her students, giving full attention during office hours.

Where do I start? The tests are ridiculously hard and are just as described in the other evals on this page. The fill in the blank portion on her tests are worded so weird it\'s hard to figure out what she is asking. She grades the tests hard also. If it\'s not the exact wording she is asking she marks the whole thing wrong. The labs were easy. I actually really enjoyed them once I got the hang of SPSS. I went to every lecture and lab yet still got a D in the class. I\'m confused. All the classmates I talked to either got D\'s or C-\'s. I thought the labs would help my over all grade, especially the research paper she makes you do. I worked super hard on it, but clearly that didn\'t help my overall grade at all. Avoid this teacher if you can. She will mess up your GPA and you\'ll regret taking her.

Going into this class I was completely terrified based on her reviews, but Clucas is actually a very good instructor. She is super sweet and very helpful in office hours. The labs were super easy and she is willing to help those who don't understand SPSS in lab and in office hours. She is willing to look over your final paper in advance to give advice on what to change...which I highly advise doing!!! The tests are SUPER hard, you must know the vocab really well because the fill ins are pretty tough, and she also grades them very strictly. She also grades the labs strict too, so double check your work! Overall, not as bad as it sounds, just do all the labs, do well on the paper and decently on the tests and you should be fine...because there is a very generous curve at the end of the course!

She's a sweet woman but she really shouldn't be teaching. She struggles to make assignments clear and has a hard time facilitating in lab. Her lecture slides are unorganized and she's often difficult to understand. She provides study guides for the exams but they aren't very helpful as far as knowing what topics to study in depth. If you go to office hours she'll help you, and it's clear that she cares about her students, but it's not enough to compensate for her shortcomings as a professor.

You may be able to take the POLS equivalent of this class which I hear is easier. This wasn't really that tough of a class though. You gotta go to class to understand most of her notes cause she does everything off powerpoint and its not important to write down what's on the slides as much as it is to write down what she says about each of the points. And you should read the book too if you wanna do well on her tests. She grades kinda hard on the tests, I kept getting C's but my assignments were alright and I studied pretty hard for the final the night before and raised my grade a whole letter from a C to a B. She is really willing to help if you ask her questions so don't hesitate.

Overall Dr. Clucas was a good instructor. She does require you to do a lot of work but this is a senior level university class. She was fair in her grading too. All of her test questions were essay format and she gave me a good grade as long as I sounded like I knew the information. Very professional, nice, and punctual. Some people may have a problem with her but all you have to do to get a good grade is go to class and do the readings. Good luck.

hard to know what to study for her class.

Prof cried today.... What a weirdo hahahah get a grip of your life.