not the most interesting class because it was mostly a repeat of ap gov, BUT easy nonetheless. even if you do not have a background, you can get by with an A+. my intnl friend was so scared of failing that she P/NP the class, but she got a 98%. Prof is very well-structured, midterm and finals are always the same layout and the study guides are fairly helpful. There is also a paper that is easily graded as well, dependent on your TA. Sections are so very helpful, again depending on your TA and mine was pretty great. very easy for poli sci majors and for a ge.

I took this class as a major prereq and liked it! I didn’t think I was interested in American politics until taking this, but Tausanovitch really makes the content interesting. He’s an amazing lecturer who does a great job explaining the topics and communicating about the course. The midterm and paper were relatively easy, but I will say the final was really hard, probably the hardest final I’ve taken in my first two years of college. I would recommend this class specifically with this professor! He is very approachable and a great teacher, one of the best I’ve had at UCLA.

Grade Distribution:
Participation: 10%
Midterm: 25%
Take-Home Essay: 20%
Final: 45%
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If you have ever taken AP Government this class should be a breeze for you. Dr. Tausanovitch isn't the most engaging lecturer but his slides are always organized and easy to write down. I didn't do any of the readings for this class (including the textbook) and I was fine. I was also very lucky to have Berdan as my TA who was very understanding about participation. The take-home essay was around 5 pages and about why Congress has limited productivity. Make sure to talk to your TA about your essay as it really helps your score. The midterm and final were also pretty easy, with the final being a longer version of the midterm. They both have a few multiple choice questions, identification questions, short answer questions, and one essay question. Overall, if you are a political science major and need an easy pre-requisite I would recommend this class.
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GEs fulfilled by this class:
Foundations of Society and Culture: Social Analysis

The discussions were very interesting and I feel like I learned a lot from this class overall. Harder to study for due to the content being kind of all over the place and not very structured.

The content of this class was not difficult, but the amount of it made studying for exams challenging. The midterm and final were not easy but not too bad as long as you study a bunch and memorize most of the terms and lectures. Professor Tausanovitch's lectures were not very engaging but the slides were useful. Overall, I learned a lot in this class, but mostly through my own studying.

This is an overall good introduction to American politics and Tausonavitch is a great professor: lucid, straight to the point, inquisitive, and undogmatic. Lots of readings but you don't need to complete them in order to get an A in the class, just make sure you read the abstracts, intros, and conclusions, look at the vocab on his study guides, go to lecture, and you should be all set to go. I barely used the assigned textbook and was fine without it. However, if you want to take a deeper dive into politics, I think the articles he assigns are quite refreshing and insightful.

Professor Tausanovitch is a pretty boring lecturer. It's super hard to stay paying attention to his lectures so most of the time I felt like I didn't know what we were learning. The format of the tests reminds me of AP tests with a multiple choice section, short essays, and long essay questions. The tests are not too hard but do require a lot of studying and are worth a lot, so make sure to actually spend some time studying if you're like me and never took an AP Gov class in high school. The essay wasn't too bad but it was boring, but I thought mine was horrible yet I still got an A.
The class breakdown is as follows
Participation: 10%
Essay: 20%
Midterm: 30%
Final: 40%

This is my favorite class I've taken so far at UCLA! I thought the material was very interesting, and Mr. T does a great job lecturing and he's very funny. The tests aren't too hard as long as you show up to class and pay attention to what he's saying. As a poli sci major, I will definitely seek out some upper-division classes taught by this professor as well. 10/10 highly recommend :)

I LOVE this professor. Easily the best class I’ve taken at UCLA

The class was pretty cool. Honestly a good standard for an intro to American Politics class. What did kind of throw me off was that half of our qurter was online and the other was in person. Other than that if you took AP U.S. Government in high school this class is pretty similar. Professor T always takes it a step further of course and goes into detail about certian topics. The midterm and final were also pretty fair and manageable.