Worst class I have ever taken, plain and simple. I want my money back.

10% of the class is two discussion assignments that he will grade very harshly. (If you repeat something someone else has said, you get a 0 on the assignment.)

90% is the in-class midterm and final essays, which cover only a fraction of the course material and will be graded even more harshly.

This was a horrible class. I do not recommend. The lectures were disorganized and unhelpful. The professor was quite rude, even making fun of students at times. The assignments are structured in a way that sets students up for failure. If you want add a heaping dose of stress to your life, then this is the class for you!

Professor Baylor stands out at UCLA not only for his fair grading and genuine desire for student success, which helped me secure A grades, but also for his dynamic teaching style. His humor and ability to craft memorable jokes made every lecture not just educational but very enjoyable, creating a unique classroom atmosphere where learning felt profound, delightful, and fun. The discussions on in-groups and out-groups were particularly impactful, broadening my understanding and empathy in ways I hadn't anticipated. Professor Baylor's passion for his subject and his students is evident; making my academic journey both enlightening and memorable. I eagerly look forward to taking another one of his classes!

Take Professor Baylor, you will not regret it!

Professor Baylor stands out at UCLA not only for his fair grading and genuine desire for student success, which helped me secure A grades, but also for his dynamic teaching style. His humor and ability to craft memorable jokes made every lecture not just educational but very enjoyable, creating a unique classroom atmosphere where learning felt profound, delightful, and fun. The discussions on in-groups and out-groups were particularly impactful, broadening my understanding and empathy in ways I hadn't anticipated. Professor Baylor's passion for his subject and his students is evident; making my academic journey both enlightening and memorable. I eagerly look forward to taking another one of his classes!

Take Professor Baylor, you will not regret it!

I enjoyed this class very much. Prof. Baylor's lectures were easy to understand and gave great insight into the psychology behind voting behavior. The grades in the class were dependent on a midterm, a final, and two discussion posts. His grading was very fair and he is easily accessible by email if you have any questions.

In my opinion, Professor Baylor is underrated. As someone who's taken him for multiple classes, I think the reason for his lackluster reviews on here is because he's admittedly dry-humored and unemotional. Keeping this in mind, his demeanor may lead people to check-out from his lectures or avoid approaching him for help. That said, in my experience, he's a genuinely helpful and forgiving professor. Not to mention, he manages to keep lectures interesting by playing games, showing funny videos from past elections, or telling personal stories.

This class was a mixed bag for me. The material is pretty interesting and you can tell Baylor really cares about the subject matter, but sometimes it's hard to grasp his lectures. He can be somewhat dry at times and he throws a lot of information at you in each lecture. The grade is split up with a survey project, a final exam, and two discussion posts/replies. He does grade somewhat harshly for the discussion section but I found the project and final grading to be very fair.

Overall, if you pay attention and put a moderate amount of work in I think an A is definitely attainable. Baylor is easy to talk to and he wants you to do well, but he's not going to hand out an A either.

I'm on the fence about this class, leaning more towards dislike. Professor Baylor is a good professor. He wastes no time lecturing; he is organized, quick to respond to emails, and stays a little after class to answer any student's questions. He is not bad as a professor, but his grading distribution was so awful.

There are four assignments for the entire quarter. Here is the Grading Breakdown:
DISCUSSION BOARDS: 10% of our grade. We only have to participate in two discussion boards throughout the whole quarter. One discussion board requirement is a post to a question provided; the second is a reply to someone's post. 10 points total for the discussion boards, aka 5 points for each discussion board.
SURVEY PROJECT: 45% of our grade. This project takes place instead of a midterm exam. We have about three weeks to do it. This project is a mandatory group project, with three people per group. You can choose your group members, so choose wisely. Each group member is required to ask people 24 questions, 72 responses in total. You combine the data and analyze it. 40 points possible.
FINAL EXAM: 45% of our grade. Ten multiple-choice questions and two essay questions. A study guide is provided. We were allowed 1 hour and 15 minutes to do the exam. 50 points possible.

So, while the workload is light, this course has no room for errors. The group project and the final exam have tainted my view on this class, and for good reason, too. The group project was stressful as my group members were not the best. The final exam was so much worse than the group project, however. I studied for a week straight, and it felt pointless. The questions were designed to trick you, and Baylor was aware of that, so he said before the exam was even given out that he would be curving it. Basically, everyone left that classroom feeling defeated. There was even someone crying outside after taking it. Knowing what I know now, I don't know if I would retake this class, so I can't say if I recommend it. I'm glad it's over, though.

I enjoyed this class a lot. Baylor is a fairly engaging lecturer, but I think his real strength is his curriculum. It's really well synthesized and Baylor draws a clear and important connection between the public's inattentiveness and real-world political outcomes. It's obvious that he's very much in the Zaller mold, yet there's actually not a ton of overlap between his and Zaller's and Patterson's classes. This class is also more 2016 Election-centric and current-events-centric than those ones, I'd say.

Exams are easy if you go to lecture, and the paper is probably of average difficulty. Workload is on the lighter side.

I wouldn't take this class if you really dislike dry personality types; otherwise, I would highly recommend this class to anyone.

Baylor's class seemed like it would be easy but was pretty tough. Dry lectures and extremely long readings. Wasn't given a ton of direction for the essay.