If I had to pick one professor that had a profound effect on my college experience, I would have to pick Professor Larson. She is so knowledgeable in her field, it is really so inspiring! I love how she structures the class. Every class she will list the main topics on the board and will be lecturing on those topics in that order. She is very organized and rarely gets lost in tangents like other professors. I've taken two classes with Professor Larson, PS 120A and PS 126, and they were both so amazing. I learned so much from her, I wish she would teach more classes! I feel so privileged to have had Professor Larson as a teacher.

Absolutely my favorite professor at UCLA. She is so easy to follow, and you can practically write down everything she says. I had Ben as a TA, and hands down, the best TA! He is very knowledgeable and very concerned about student learning.

Her grievance policy isn't good. She doesn't allow regrades for finals or essays which makes no sense to me because she allows it for the midterm. Bring a laptop - she talks really fast. You can get away with not reading at all if you go to class because her lectures are pretty effective and informative. I wanted a regrade for my final and she got mad at me. Take good notes and participate in discussion. Not the easiest A but definitely within reach.

I really learned a lot in this course. Going to lecture is absolutely necessary-- you'll have five or six pages of typed notes by the end of each lecture. The readings are informative, but you can skim through most of them to get the bigger picture (plus, Larson covers the important information from the readings in her lecture).

The tests are straightforward. She gives you a list of possible essay questions so you can prepare before the exam. These same questions are on the midterm and final.

The only difficult part of the class is the essay. There's really no expectations set and it was barely talked about in class.

The grading distribution is 30% midterm, 30% final (not cumulative), 30% essay, and 10% discussion.

Overall, I really enjoyed the class and thought the tests and grading were fair.

This class is more like a history class than a political science class. I highly recommend taking a computer to lecture because it will be a full hour of straight notes. The course is structured well, and professor Larson definitely knows the material very well. It is possible to do well on her midterm and final which are composed of ID's, Short answer, and an Essay without doing most of the reading. She doesn't give a study guide, but the test is 11 Id's you pick 8, 2 short answers you pick one, 2 essays you pick one. The midterm is rushed and hard to get everything across, but if you type everything she says and go over it a few times you should be fine. There is also a 6-10 page paper on a list of like 8 topics. The paper is pretty unrelated to the class, its more like a research topic with a little critical thinking. If your looking for an easy A this isn't the class for you. If your the type who doesn't go to class then don't even consider this one. Lecture is essential and discussion helps. If you like history and a teacher who really knows her stuff then take Larson.

Lectures were clear and organized. Having a computer to take notes would certainly help, but it isn't absolutely necessary. Very clear study guides were given prior to the tests, and the content of those tests comes directly from the lecture. It is entirely possible to get a 100 on the test without cracking a book, however some of the reading is interesting and worthwhile. It wasn't entirely clear what was expected on the paper, as the paper topics given are phrased very similarly to the study guides for the tests. In sum, take the class. The material is interesting and Prof. Larson presents it in a way that is very easy to absorb. Also, I've talked to her a bit outside of the classroom and she seems pretty nice and at least somewhat concerned with the interests of her students. Brad Stapleton, my TA, was a fair grader and a cool guy with a wealth of knowledge.

Prof. Larson is an excellent lecturer. Her tests are straightforward and fair. She allowed me to do an Honors adjunct for the course and was very helpful. The reading is somewhat boring, and mostly repeats what is said in lecture, so it's good to do the reading as a review. I highly recommend this course and this professor.