Horrible. Worst professor at UCLA.

This is the absolute worst class I have ever taken at UCLA and in my life in general. I have never had such an unprofessional professor before. Taking this class was an incredibly frustrating experience, to say the least. The professor's conduct was unprofessional and dismissive of students' concerns. Ignoring emails, especially when it came to addressing valid issues regarding the quizzes, was a common theme throughout the semester. The most humiliating aspect was how the professor would put students on the spot, forcing them to explain their concerns expressed in the ignored emails in front of the entire class of over 100 students. This public shaming tactic was not only unprofessional but also completely counterproductive. Even specific TAs such as Sabrina Habchi were incredibly rude to students and made discussion section unbearable.
Speaking of the quizzes, they were disproportionately weighted, with each question missed costing a literal 2% of the overall grade. There were only 3 quizzes of 5 questions that were worth 30% of the overall grade. This high-stakes approach only served to increase stress levels as the lectures/ readings did not help at all with the quizzes.
To add to the frustration, the promise of extra credit turned out to be false advertisement. Despite what was stated in the syllabus, the professor refused to award extra credit to those who had already achieved high grades on a quiz. Two extra credit points were offered for taking his personal survey and two more points were offered for recruiting two other UCLA students. I was denied half the points so that I wouldn’t get more than 100% on a quiz even though our syllabus stated that we would receive “all extra credit points in total sum.” What makes this particularly significant is the fact that the four extra credit points were representative of 8% of my literal grade. According to the way extra credit was allowed to be used despite what’s in the the syllabus, the lower you performed on the quizzes, the higher the grade in the class you would receive as you would have been allowed to use all your extra credit while other students could not.
Beyond the grading issues, the lectures and readings were unhelpful in preparing for the quizzes, leaving us feeling lost and stressed all the time. The professor's teaching style, marked by arrogance and monotonous lectures, did little to engage students or make the subject matter interesting.
The fact that only 3 out of 72 students were willing to retake the class in a poll sent in the GroupMe speaks volumes about the overall dissatisfaction with the course. Even the lack of response from the political science department and the grading grievance office on this matter is disheartening.
In conclusion, this class was marred by unprofessionalism, disregard for student concerns, arbitrary grading practices, and ineffective teaching methods. It's a sad reminder that a poor professor can significantly detract from the educational experience, leaving us feeling frustrated. The two good reviews on this class have to be written by the professor as they are dang near blasphemous. DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS!!! You will not take a worse class at UCLA than this. Good luck if you do, you might get lucky with a good TA who makes it less HELL like.

Loved this class even though it was prerecorded lectures! My TA Aeden was the best and our sections helped with the connection to the class. Dr. Perez is very thorough and I thought his lectures were really engaging. He has such a breadth and depth of knowledge relating to the topic, overall super knowledgable.
There were short quizzes based on the readings throughout the quarter. They were so short that the issue was that if you missed one question out of three it would be a terrible grade, so partway through he made them longer. There were 2 short papers (4-6 pages) based on movies, and a take-home final that was open for a while. The grading was pretty easy in my opinion.
There was an extra credit opportunity through participating in one of his studies, which was really easy and took no time at all, and is 2 points added to whatever grading category you want.

Take it from an international student who has absolutely 0 knowledge in American politics, this class is very enjoyable! First of all, Professor Perez is very knowledgeable in his field and you can see that he teaches his class out of passion and not just because it's his job. Overall, the class is divided into 3 main parts, readings, lecture and discussion. There are 2-3 weekly assigned readings and they are dense/ hard to understand sometimes. However, most of the time he'll go over it during the lectures and although attendance is not necessary, I highly recommend attending the lectures. He will go over the concepts and will use the assigned readings as supporting evidences. However, don't be discourage if you don't understand what the professor is talking about in lectures. It gets pretty technical and packed sometimes but the TA will definitely go over the important parts in discussion. There will be biweekly quizzes and as long as you attend your discussion and take down notes, its pretty easy and straightforward. There will also be 2 midterm papers and a final paper. The grading is not harsh at all and as long as you follow the rubric, you'll be a-okay. Overall, I would recommend this class for any psych majors looking for an upper division electives. I wouldn't say that this class is an easy A, but it is very possible to get an A in this class!
I'm also selling my class and discussion notes. Please message me in ********** if you're interested!