Genuinely my favorite class/GE I have taken at UCLA. Professor Payson is so passionate about political science, yet is so sweet and cares about her student's success. She was an amazing lecturer and made understanding class content very easy. Lectures were always recorded which was nice, but honestly going to her class was super enjoyable and she always made time for in-class activities and discussions on certain topics. The midterm was take home and the final was just a paper. I highly recommend taking it!

payson is the poli sci professor ALL poli sci professors should take note from. this is mainly regarding her reading guides. poli sci is a reading HEAVY major, and payson recognizes that. she literally cuts that reading time in more than half by giving us a reading guide and telling us EXACTLY what to focus on and what to skim briefly and what to skip completely. it made this class such an easy workload.
the midterm was online, open note, and fairly easy. it was mc, short answer, and some "essay" qs but those were really like a paragraph or two. she reviews exactly what she wants in those essay responses, and it should be the most straightforward response, no fluff at all. the best part was that she rotated grading the responses through herself and all the TAs, so your grade was not based on JUST your TA, but all of them combined so it was very fair. the final was also online, and payson made it easier based on the midterm. it was also open note, and you choose 5 terms and write about them and find a connection to another topic in class. it was also easy and i think fairly graded as well.
lectures were super engaging and she was so personal and tried to learn everyone's name. i've never seen a prof ask the class a question, and for every person responding, she would ask their name and write it down. she would try to remember everyone (it was like 100+ people) in lecture and she made it so straightforward and easy to digest. she is def a professor every pol sci major should take.

This class is a fantastic option for a political science prerequisite course and a good social analysis GE. Professor Payson is an amazing lecturer who not only gives great examples and explanations of course content but expands this class beyond a simple AP U.S. Government review by incorporating interesting research into lectures and discussion sections. She is very accessible in office hours and went out of her way to accommodate students during this challenging quarter. Lectures are recorded, but some parts of the slides are left blank as an incentive to attend in person. No attendance is taken during lectures, but discussion attendance and participation (participation meaning a one-sentence statement about what you learned due at the end of discussion section) is mandatory and worth 20% of the grade.

This class has a midterm, a final, two quizzes, and a paper. The midterm and final are structured almost identically. The midterm, worth 20% of the grade, had 30 multiple-choice questions and four (you pick these four out of six options) short answer questions of four to five sentences. The final, worth 25% of the grade, would have been nearly identical, but it was multiple choice only due to the TA strike. The midterm and final are both online and open-note with a 2-hour, 10-minute time limit, and they're very easy. Class averages were around 90% for both. The quizzes (one in week 3, the other in week 8) are worth 20% of the grade and cover the material taught in the few weeks preceding each of them. They're 10 questions each, being mostly multiple choice with a couple one-to-two-sentence responses. These were about equivalent in average scores and difficulty to the midterm and final. Finally, the paper, worth 15% of the grade, is basically just a long homework assignment. Having it graded was made optional this quarter, but it seemed to be easy to follow the rubric and get a great score. You simply summarize a news article and show how it relates to course themes in 4-6 pages, and you don't even need to cite any sources besides the article. There was also a four percentage point boost to your grade for writing a letter to a government official about a topic of your choice. I'm not sure if this will return in future quarters, as it seemed rather generous, but if it's offered it's a very helpful extra credit opportunity.

I would recommend using the textbook for this class, but mostly just for the exams, quizzes, and paper. You don't need to memorize it word-for-word; just know the key terms and concepts Professor Payson highlights in lectures and the reading guides (these guides are very helpful; using them saves you a lot of time when reading/reviewing!). The aforementioned research papers covered in lectures and discussion sections make appearances in the exams and quizzes, but you really don't need to know much about them other than a basic summary of their findings (once again, for the discussion section research papers, use the reading guides for reading/review!).

Overall, this is an easy class that was made even easier by the TA strike. While the grades may be inflated this quarter due to the strike and the extra credit assignment, this is still an easy and interesting class with a great professor. I recommend this class to everyone, especially political science majors looking for their lower-division courses. Even if you took AP U.S. Government, this course is still valuable for its utilization of research and Professor Payson's passion for and expertise on the subject.

Professor Payson is truly one of the kindest professors I have had at UCLA. She genuinely cares about learning over memorization of concepts. She is super understanding and made a great deal of effort to ensure all of us had a positive experience. All her exams (2 quizzes, 1 midterm, 1 final paper, and 1 final) were all take home open note. She really cared about us actually being interested and engaged with the material and overall I would take this class again. Highly recommend for an easy GE!

Prof. Payson clearly cares about students' learning. In the unpredictable times during this quarter, she has provided resources, constantly checked in, revised class policies, and welcomed questions. Her lectures were engaging, stressing why the materials are relevant and making convincing arguments based on an array of empirical pieces. While I am a junior, given that this class is mainly taken by freshmen, I saw this class as a great gateway to the rigor of college-level study. This is because she extended well beyond high-school politics class by highlighting consensus and persistent puzzles among political scientists in class and exposing students to some of the latest empirical works. I really appreciated the class structure that assigned an academic paper for the discussion section. The work of competent TAs made it well approachable for students despite its potential challenge for freshmen. The course could have benefited from more structured instruction on how to read an academic paper. I believe UCLA Library and the Writing Center have great resources, and posting those on BruinLearn would be great.

Professor Payson was extremely helpful and did her best to assist her students. I found the class to be super interesting initially but after the second or third week lecture became boring and hard to stay interested in. A lot of topics are the same as AP gov topics which also made the class less interesting. The midterm and final exams were online and untimed which was nice but essay topics remained broad and vague. I had Joshua as my TA and appreciated all his help and efforts.

Payson is great! Class is straight-forward, engaging, and informative. Workload is appropriate and very manageable. She posts weekly reading guides, which is so helpful because she tells you which sections to skip and which to focus on. You don't even really have to do them as she goes over in detail in class. All assessments (3 quizzes, midterm, final) are remote and doable. I will say that even though the work is manageable, the grading scheme makes it pretty easy to get lower than an A even if you do everything right. Section participation is 10% and final project is 20% (average on this was a 94), so other 70% is assessments. So if you do poorly on one assessment, your grade could take a hit. But none of the assessments were unreasonable, so if you go to lecture and pay attention you should be fine. She also records lecture audio and posts slides if you can't be there in person. Payson is so sweet! She's young and engaging, and offers some more interactive activities that actually aid your learning. Good class if you can get in!