Took this course online amidst a global pandemic and very disappointed by how it was structured -- your grade consists of a midterm (short essays identifying terms and concepts), which counts for 30%, and a final paper, which is 70%. Lectures are uploaded as PowerPoints with pre-recorded audios in the slides. The recordings are long and boring and sometimes difficult to hear. Only two office-hr sessions throughout the quarter. Not responsive to emails. Overall, it turned out to be completely opposite of what I expected, given the good reviews he has here, and I regret wasting my tuition on a class that I learned practically nothing from.

This course was nicely designed for the online class. The lectures were pre-recorded and all readings were given in advance so you could really work at your own pace.
The midterm required a one-page response to 6 out of 8 key terms from the class and tested your ability to integrate the readings with the class lecture. The final was an open-ended prompt that required more analysis and deep knowledge of the readings. I recommend this course but the grading is definitely strict and not as lenient as you imagine. The midterm is worth 30% and the final is worth 70% so your grade only depends on these assignments. The workload is up to you but be prepared for a bit of a challenge. Overall, recommended because it was convenient and accessible.

I took PS 120 A over the summer with Professor Radd. The class consists of three 500 word essays, each worth 20 percent and then one 1,000 word essay worth 40 percent, The class is pretty straight forward, all you have to do is do some of the reading that he gives you and respond to the prompt in 500 words or more. I did like this class and if you are looking for a chill class, this is the one!

I took professor shevchenko for ps 120b and I can attest that he is the best professor I have had at UCLA thus far. He takes attendance, so that requires you to go to class and learn. However, his grading ins't difficult: take home final and a midterm. If you do your work you will forsure get an A. Make sure to do your readings too! He really teaches well and is organized in his lecture style.

Shevchenko is a very knowledgeable and very fair (as in he is pretty unbiased in his lectures and will not try to inject too much of his own subjective musings) professor. However he DOES tend to ramble and speaks very very fast. This combined with his accent and habit of jumping around is the only thing that made this class more complicated than it should have been. I took 120B with him and it was a nightmare trying to listen to him talk about 7 different IR models at the same time. PS135 (Politics of China) was a little easier, but maybe because there was only one country to concentrate on instead of the entirety of IR.

Overall he's a great professor, just be prepared to sit forward in class and try hard to "coheratize" what he is saying.