Professor James is very knowledgeable about the subject and knows how make this course interesting. If you are really interested in the American Presidency, and do not mind to put in a lot of effort, then you will earn an A. It is all about smart planning of your time, for midterm, paper and the final. Do all the readings and be honest to yourself. No pain, no gain for this instructor. I received an A+ and definitely would take James again. He does reauire a lot of work, but he is clear and straightforward. No surprises. also I am selling all the books for this course really cheap. **********

The class is hard period. And there is lots of reading. But doable class. I am also selling the books and I have study guides as well. Shoot me a txt of u want to but my books.
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i am selling the books for this class email me at *************
good price for ALL BOOKS

Selling the textbooks for cheap. Text me at ********** :)

This class was super interesting and engaging. I learned tons about the Presidency and actually enjoyed James a lot. While I think his midterm and final are very oddly structured, I somewhat understand it seeing as there are a lot of theories in this class to cover. In terms of lectures, I thought the slides made a lot of sense and were very easy to follow. I loved all the examples he put into them to to prove his points/claims. He does go very fast though and can be hard to keep up with. In terms of readings, this class was overkill as there were 5 books assigned plus many articles. To be honest, you can get through this class without reading too much though as the TA sums up a lot of the material. I also want to shout out Soonhong as being a great TA and really making this class 100x more manageable! Overall, I think this class was super interesting and I would definitely take another class with James again and would recommend this class.

Very straightforward class. Professor is very approachable and helpful. If you are looking for an easy pol sci class, take this one. A lot of reading ,but you don't really have to do it to pass.

This is the second course I've taken with this professor and I fell that he is one of the better professors that I have taken. This class requires a lot of memorization. It includes a lot of economics topics so that made it a bit harder to understand. Overall great professor and great class.

Good amount of work, but it's manageable. I personally like the way he organizes exams (giving you questions in advance) but it does mean more studying. James is a good lecturer, and the class is very interesting.

Go into this class with some vague idea of what you want to research, a short list of professors you have in mind that you may want to advise you, and some work ethic, and you'll be rewarded.

Professor James is great. UCLA is lucky to have him. If you've taken him in another course and think you know his deal, you don't. He really puts his all into this course, cares about every single student, and advocates for you to succeed. Working with him was awesome.

The workload might seem like a lot on paper (5 4-page papers, combined for a 12-15 page final), but when you write about stuff you're interested in it makes it way more manageable (sounds corny but it's true).

I recommend this class to anyone interested in grad school, legitimately interested in political science research, or just wants a break from the redundancy of undergrad poli sci coursework (midterm, final, prompt-response paper, etc).

Easily the best class I've taken thus far at UCLA. The lectures at the beginning of the quarter were more interesting than the lectures at the end of the quarter, but don't let that stop you from going to class even though the lectures are podcast. It's obvious that Professor James knows what he's talking about, and if you see him in office hours he happily will expand upon course content. I went several times before the midterm and it really helped clarify some concepts (especially because my TA wasn't helpful at all). You do have to study for this class, but as far as the midterm and final go, if you prepare the questions he gives you, you can't fail. It's really straightforward. The paper was a pain in the ass, but relative to other 15 page papers it was easy to write. I didn't do a ton of the reading because there is a lot of it, and reading everything for substance would've been impossible. I skimmed the relevant chapters before the midterm and final and prepared the answers and I was fine. You definitely get out of the class what you put in for effort, though. I highly recommend this class. And, uhhhh, I'm not Professor James.

Final grade: A.