Getting an A in this class is not too hard, as long as you do the readings each week, which aren't too bad. Professor Ross provides all the readings which aren't too long. You MUST do the readings to do well in the midterm and final since they include questions that you would only know if you read. You don't need to attend lecture, honestly just doing the readings and going over the lecture slides (which he posts after lecture) is enough. He does admit that he makes the multiple choice questions in exams hard on purpose, so beware lol. All 3 TA's had 2 hour long review sessions the week of the midterm and final, you can attend all of them which I recommend. Take David as your TA if you can :)

This class was honestly not too difficult. If you are a committed student, getting an A in this class is very manageable.

No textbook required because Prof. Ross provides all of them for free.

Prof. Ross is overall a great professor. He is very knowledgeable in this topic as well as the whole field of political science in general. During lectures, he repeatedly asks the class if we had any questions or confusions about a topic for him to go over again. He also provides study guides, which may appear daunting, but many of the topics overlap each other. He also provided 1 point of extra credit if we completed a survey.

During the midterm and finals week, the 3 TAs would host their own 2-hour long live-ZOOM call that we can join to ask any questions or further elaborations on the topics from the study guide. I found this EXTREMELY HELPFUL.

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Grade distribution:
20% Section Participation – you get one point for attending section and another point for participating at least twice in them.
20% In-class midterm exam (6 IDs and 10 MCQs) – writing your name on the exam automatically grants you 30 “free points,” with each ID accounting for 10 points and each MCQ accounting for 1 point.
20% Take-home midterm (4 pages maximum) – Prof. Ross will send out the essay prompt the evening after you take your in-class midterm exam, and you have about 2 days to complete it. The essay wasn’t too hard, but given that we only had 2 days to complete it during midterm week, it was quite harsh since I had other exams. So you must manage your time carefully…
40% Final exam – literally the same format as the in-class midterm. It initially was supposed to have much more IDs and MCQs, but on Week 8 or 9, Prof. Ross changed his mind and kept it the same length as the in-class midterm exam. The exam is cumulative, with 30% of the Qs focusing on Weeks 1-5’s material and the remaining 70% on the latter half of the course.

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On the first day, Prof. Ross warned us about the weekly readings being “heavy,” but it actually wasn’t too bad. For the scientific papers, which we had like 4 or 6, he advises us only to read the Abstract and its figures while skimming the rest. In general, the readings were not too long.

I found the lectures overall to be very interesting. Prof. Ross normally elaborates on the main points he wants us to take away from the readings and often provides relevant events, examples, and information. He also uses slides that he would always upload at the end of class. These slides are helpful when studying for the midterm and the final exam.

For section, my TA was David, and he was awesome. Usually, early in the week, David would email us a list of questions on the weekly reading to prepare us for section. As a result, it is important that you finish some of the readings BEFORE coming to each section because if you want full credit for participation, you have to participate at least twice in answering/discussing the questions.

Overall, I highly recommend taking this class if you are a committed student. It’s not too hard, but you must keep up with all the material.