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 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!