Professor Potts is absolutely amazing and the most passionate professor I've had at UCLA. She confirmed my interest in adding Global Studies as my second major, and I have so much respect for her. The lectures are very organized and engaging, and you can really tell how intelligent and kind she is. I was blown away. The tests are fair because if you study, you can do well. Don't spend too much time on the short response questions because some people felt there wasn't enough time on the essay portion, but Potts compensated for that by adding extra points. The TAs care a lot and provide feedback on your papers, so the key to doing well is by running your ideas through them before writing the whole thing. Your writing should be comprehensive because this is a Global Studies class where most people are good at writing. This is a class where about half get an A/A-, but you can "easily" get an A IF you put in the work to study and write strong papers. Effort is the key, and it is more than fair considering how much Potts and the TAs care about your learning. I wished the slides had more in-depth information, but I think Potts structures it this way to encourage people to come to class and participate. Discussion is mandatory, but they were productive and allowed me to understand the material better. Potts balances empathy and logic very well; she wants to be fair but is also willing to accommodate you. Take this class with an amazing professor!

Professor Potts is great! She doesn't use that many words in her powerpoint but I think that helps her lectures be more engaging because it forces you to listen. Not everything she says is going to be on the tests but a lot of it is. She gives study guides which are just a list of key terms, but if you took good notes in lecture it's not that big of a deal to piece it together. The tests were all free-response. Your TA grades pretty much everything you turn in, so you better hope they like you. Overall, I think the class was great and very interesting and Potts is a great professor for it; I highly recommend taking her class!

Spotts is amazing! Her lectures are very clear. This is obviously a very general class that covers a lot of different concepts, but everything is super relevant and interesting. Tests are relatively easy and paper is also pretty simple. I would recommend recording lectures to go back and listen to everything she says because she does a really good job of summarizing the readings in lecture. Will totally take Spotts again if I have the chance! This women KNOWS.

Good material but was always rushing lectures. Would often not speak in coherent sentences due to trying to get all her information into the hour and fifteen minute lectures. It was hard to focus for me since she was always using filler words to compensate for talking so fast (which she was unsuccessful at). Brushed over key slides and said to go back to them in your own time, which I did and expect to do (for studying). However, I would've rather been able to actually grasp the concepts and materials presently so I could learn more later. Instead, it always felt like I was teaching myself. Also, lectures are mandatory (2 question exit quiz for attendance/credit) so it's even more frustrating because she doesn't give any new information when she talks, instead she just reads off the slides.

Honestly confused by some of the ratings on here because I personally did not enjoy prof potts' lecture style. She's a pretty strict prof and if she sees a phone out taking pictures of the screen to clarify notes or take a picture to reread for later, she will call you out. She also goes suuuper fast and speeds through slides but there's a lot of information on them so it's hard to follow along and you feel discouraged if you miss a slide and she keeps going lol. She doesn't post the slides till after lecture so you also can't reference the notes right away + lectures are not recorded. There's an exit quiz, two questions, at the end of each lecture. If you miss it or get 1/2, it will drop your grade a bit. She drops the lowest quiz but u only have like 5 minutes or so to take this and you're usually going through your notes, which are confusing because she goes really fast, so it's easy to miss a point. She seems like a really sweet person and is very knowledgeable about what she teaches, but the lectures are quite indigestible. However, when they are, I will say I learn a lot!! It's pretty interesting for the most part but try to sit in the front because it's easy to fall asleep since she's only going off of slides and yap lol. This class has opened my eyes on global studies and it hasn't deterred me from the minor necessarily but I will say, try looking into a diff prof or intro class!

this professor talks WAYYY too fast and speaks in a way that is so indigestable

I enjoyed this class and I think Professor Potts is a good professor. The class was a bit boring sometimes, in my opinion, because you only touch the surface of the many different topics covered in this course. The workload was manageable and not too difficult. The midterm and final were both all free response questions, but relatively easy, especially if you pay attention in class and study a little bit before the exam. The professor had very well organized notes and was an easy lecturer to listen to. I would recommend taking this class, especially for Global Studies majors.

Professor Potts is one of my favorite teachers at UCLA. She is so knowledgeable and passionate about the subject, and it shows in her lectures. She's helpful outside of class and wants her students to succeed. The class is pretty content-heavy, but if you go to lecture and section you'll learn so much and do fine. Her lectures and organized, insightful, and she's clear in her explanations. She's honestly inspired me to choose Global Studies as my minor. Don't skip on this prof, take this class!!!

Still one of my favorite classes I have taken at UCLA, and it reinforced why I have chosen to be a GS major. Professor Potts is great, and this class gives such an interesting and great overview of globalization. Grade is based primarily on midterm and final which are fair and she provides a good study guide for them. I highly suggest taking this class with Professor Potts!

Overall, this is an excellent class to take. My main complaint is that the grading scale for the papers was not great. A B paper had everything asked for in the rubric, while an A paper would have to go "above and beyond," this made getting an A on an essay assignment unnecessarily tricky. I feel like this class covers a lot of information that some people already know about, Colonialism and global interconnection, but it is still interesting. The tests in this class were straightforward since the professor provided a study guide, and the answers to the questions are off of the slides.