The overall class itself was not bad and the lectures were reasonable and decent. The professor also explained well enough for us to understand and the materials for us to read as well as the assignments given once a week were also doable and not too difficult. The only thing that I disliked during this class was the midterms. The reason was that our grades were deducted here and there and they either gave us vague reasons without proper explanation for the deduction or provided no reasons at all. As over half of the total grades relied on the midterms and final exams, it would be appreciated if the professor provided proper reasons for point deductions. However, overall, the class experience was okay.

I took 139: The Cold War as one of the first few classes at UCLA. At first glance, it appears to be quite manageable. One discussion board a week, graded on completion IMO. His lectures were dry at some points. However, his dry humor kept me going; as a lecturer, I don't believe he was necessarily bad. One essay where we watched a movie and drew insights from the course, in addition to taking an in-person midterm and final. For the final, he gave us a cheat sheet. I'll explain why in a minute. The content itself was pretty interesting, and not new if you had taken APUSH, APGovV, or some other history class about the Cold War. So, I was pretty confident, but when that first midterm came around, I kid you not, I felt like I was taking an LSAT. Those questions were among the most confusing and twisted wording I had ever encountered. So, I thought I did okay, and instead, I got a 70% after the curve, which completely screwed me over. I even asked Pike himself, and he was surprised by how badly we did as a class. For the final, he gave us a cheat sheet where we could put as much information as possible on a small note card. So, I took the final and scored a 69% with the aid of a cheat sheet. In my mind, I was completely fuming because I finished the class with a B-, and I'm a transfer student who came in with a 4.0. That was my first B ever in undergrad, and I was so pissed and still am today. Pretty sure the format has remained the same in some of his other classes, but I'm gonna stay away from him for the time being. You would look elsewhere for an easier class, because this will drain your confidence level and completely catch you off guard.

Pike is one of the best professors I have had in the political science department! His lectures tend to go over the course readings and he likes to add a little humor every once in a while. He wants all his students to succeed and is very kind and approachable. You can tell he is very passionate about what he teaches.
Here’s what to expect in the class:
DISCUSSION BOARDS: we had weekly discussion boards that were related to the readings. You have to make one post and respond to 2 classmates. The responses to classmates are not long, he only wants 2-3 sentences. The discussion boards are graded on completion. He drops the lowest scoring discussion board at the end of the quarter.
MIDTERM: Our midterm was all multiple choice. He did not provide a study guide for the midterm. It’s composed of lecture material and readings. He provides the scantrons for the exam.
FINAL ESSAY: a 6 page, double-spaced essay. You could choose your own essay topic, but it has to be approved by the TAs first. The essay topic just has to relate to US Foreign Relations.
FINAL EXAM: Our final was all multiple choice again, likely due to us having a final essay. Once again, we did not have a study guide, but this exam felt a little bit easier to study for because we all knew what to expect after the midterm. The final exam was a little bit longer than the midterm. The exam only covered material after the midterm, so it was not a cumulative exam. That being said, in the words of Pike himself, you still need to know about material beforehand to make sense of the questions. So while he is not going to ask you a question from a Week 2 reading, he will want you to know what terms from the first half of the quarter are. He provides the scantrons for the exam.
The class was pretty laid back! In all honesty, I did not do well on the midterm. The questions on the readings threw me for a loop. If you don’t know the main argument of reading, it’s hard to answer the question. I got a 78% while the class average was a 88%. I did not feel good going into the essay or exam, but after getting to know his style and what he expects, I was able to do well on the essay and final exam. Pike, from my understanding, did not curve the midterm or the final, but I know he has curved exams in the past.
Overall, Pike is a really good professor! His lectures are easy to understand and he really makes an effort to explain everything he talks about. I would 100% take another class from him.

I really like Professor Pike, the content is simplified and is easy to understand the material. However, I would highly suggest studying on exams as some questions may not be as easy to understand in terms of wording, particularly understand all the reasons or motivations that lead to a particular Cold War event. Even for a multiple choice, it was slightly difficult for me to understand what he was trying to ask but he does curve and he does provide extra credit on some questions if you answer correctly. For the paper, make sure to follow all of the directions when asked or you will be deducted. The content is highly interesting so I would recommend.

Professor Pike is truly amazing, he genuinely cares about the material and his students. The class was composed of weekly responses and a multiple choice midterm and final. He’s very responsive in office hours and overall amazing. Would definitely recommend!!!

The official course title was “POL SCI 139 - Special Studies in International Relations: Technology and International Relations”
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🧑‍💻 Notable mentions about the course:
▪️no textbooks required (assigned readings are via Canvas)
▪️Weekly discussion boards
▪️attendance NOT required (somewhat commuter friendly course)*
▪️*records audio only and posts slideshow/PowerPoint lectures separately
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NOTE: I don’t like to promise people that this class is an easy A, as I met people in “easy A” classes, but they did not do well because they either had too busy of a schedule or struggle in writing essays. With that said, I think that Pike classes are among the easier and more engaging classes to take at UCLA, which offers greater accommodation to students who work and/or takes 3+ classes and wish to go to law school.
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This is my first class taken with Dr. Pike and students are not wrong that he sits alongside one of the best political science professors at UCLA! I was a bit skeptical about the course at first because I personally enjoy American Politics courses or Race, Ethnicity, and Politics concentrated courses, but Professor Pike makes the lectures interesting and engaging. I like when he often inserts his bit of humor to lighten up the mood and make the lectures more fun. If you are a bit nervous coming up to professors to talk about grading, IR topics, research, and such, he is very approachable and kind.
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The readings may at times feel pretty Eurocentric (a common complaint about research within IR among political science students), but during lecture Professor Pike does make everything feel relevant and important…though everything is important. I personally felt that he broke down everything in an easy to understand manner (with the help of real life examples/scenarios), especially for students like myself who doesn’t place much focus in studying IR theory and feel nervous on taking IR classes.
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I am unsure whether if it were the circumstances of this quarter, but he allowed students to contest their grades, especially when the syllabus failed to reflect what student’s expected in to be marked down for. After multiple students bringing this issue to his attention, he agreed to regrade essays that were marked down for “not referencing enough readings” (which was the thing that the syllabus didn’t mention). I did not have this issue but I felt the TA marked me down too much for being a bit vague on my topic sentences (something Professor Pike didn’t do in the other midterm essay he graded) in my thesis in the essay they graded, so I contested it with professor Pike to have a second opinion and he was kind enough to look it over and regrade it. I can’t speak for his other classes, but I thought that he was awesome in offering students for their midterm to be graded on “unfair” criteria not mentioned in the syllabus or TA-Professor grading discrepancies.
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🗣️ Discussion Boards: I felt they were pretty easy and sometimes I wasn’t able to do the readings but if you attended lecture, you were able to answer them a bit easier. They are not strict in citing pages as long as you demonstrate you are engaging in the course material and ask thought provoking questions to students (required for replying to student’s posts), you will be fine.
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📖 Readings:
Readings are posted online via Canvas. There usually was about 4 readings a week, 2 for the first class of the week and 2 for the second class of the week. They were pretty straight forward and many readings are 30+ pages long, and can be done either before of after lecture, whichever works best for students.
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📝 Midterm/Final: both were take-home essays where you had to choose two essays among the few prompts given. The prompts are not provided ahead of time, nor is there a study guide provided. The essays expect students to cite the readings and not what is in class (although I personally felt the lectures were still helpful in attending since they summarize/guide students in what to focus on in the readings), therefore the it is important to not miss a single reading if you wish to walk away with an A in the class (unless you decide to cram and skim the readings during the exams) 📚👀.
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📈 About extra credit:
He did offer extra credit if 50% or more of the class did evaluations. I don’t know how much but it sure is more than what most political science professors offer. If he doesn’t offer this in his future classes, it wouldn’t hurt to ask about it.
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Important things to note ‼️🙇🏻
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📚 About getting an A+…
I believe his policy changed about grading from talking to my roommate who took this came exact class a few years ago, but now he awards A+ grade to the top 6 students in the class! 🫠 I believe this policy applies to all Pike’s 139 classes. If you are looking for a guaranteed A+, I would keep this in mind since TA grading and his own grading can influence your standing in this. A student in the GroupMe for this class mentioned how they previously took Pike and they were in the 99% range and still didn’t receive an A+. Because the class is easier, it is also makes it harder to get an A+. This quarter has been more hectic so I believe the top 6 students had at least a 97% or above.
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🌼 Spring 2024 disclaimer:
This quarter was pretty hectic and Professor Pike was among the few professors that did accommodate students when they were emotionally and academically impacted with the protests. He gave extensions and made the final optional (for those that wish to boost their grade if they got a mediocre grade from the midterm), so keep this in mind when reading reviews about him for Spring 2024 in the way he graded or weighed certain assignments since his original syllabus changed. Based off my experience and other student’s feedback from when they took Pike during COVID-19 and the TA union strikes, he is among the few professors that cares and understands that these things do impact students in a various ways and does make changes I felt were reasonable.

Every political science student should take this class and especially if you are a transfer student. It is a very comfortable mix between the structure found in a large university like UCLA and a typical CC class. The course itself was extremely straightforward and Professor Pike is a great instructor. The structure of the class is the following:

30% Discussions: There are usually 2 readings each week (all of them free as PDFs in canvas). Read them and complete the prompt while citing at least 4 things from the reading or material that week. Then respond to a classmate. There are 9 of these discussion posts and the lowest one gets dropped so if you are doing well in the class you don't even need to do all of them. Still, they don't take that much time to do and its extra security.

30% Midterm: The midterm was ALL multiple choice. I believe there were around 38 MCQ questions on the midterm. No SAQ. There is no study guide given before the test, however, if you attend the lectures Pike is very clear about whats going to be on the test. I did not attend most of the lectures and still did mostly fine. The main way to prepare for any of the tests in this class is to really understand the reading materials. There will be multiple questions that test you on what a reading's fundamental idea was. The questions are formatted in a way where it looks like there are multiple 'correct' answers. Usually the last part of the question is what gives it away. This is for all the exams.

40% Final: Same format as the midterm. Except this just tests concepts from Week 6 onwards. The midterm only covers week 1-5. There are still some conceptual questions using ideas from the earlier weeks (Realism, Liberalism, etc...) but that is really the extent of it. He won't be testing you on Week 3 material on the final. The final was 48 questions.

Professor Pike is a good teacher. He makes an active effort to present the course in the most digestable way possible. The slides are very sparse with words, and the pace of the lectures are decently slow. I personally found them too slow but the class itself is only 50 minutes long. Pike does not hold in-person office hours regularly. It's usually through zoom and by appointment. He does open his office up to pick up exams after the midterm, and posts a midterm review after so you can go over mistakes. He removes the midterm exam review during the week of finals.

Though this class is relatively easy, it is not a cakewalk. I did not do well on my midterm and originally got a 79 that was bumped up to an 82 somehow. I did all of the discussions and was on the very edge to get an A in the class. I needed a 93.4 and ended up with a 93.6 on the final to clutch an A. Ended up getting an A with 0.08 percent margin. But I never attended the lectures after the third week. Please take the studying in this class seriously. If you do not give the material and course the respect it deserves it will come back to bite you.

BRO is the GOAT!!! I swear the non-tenured professors in the poli sci department are the only reason I still love the major! Although the lectures may appear monotoned, he does sneak in some dry humor and I can confirm that I think it's funny. The concepts seem confusing sometimes but he dumbs it down perfectly where it is easy to apply to the international playbook of today. There's super relevant examples, and good readings (if you opt into reading lol), that really help facilitate a deeper understanding when the tests come around. There were two exams, the midterm was all multiple choice (30ish questions) and the final was multiple choice and free response (32 and 3). Overall, it was a great class and I am glad to have taken it in my final quarter, it tied my poli sci degree with a bow.

Pike is a super chill professor that wants you to do well. Audio in lectures is recorded and slides are always posted. Your grade is based on three "policy briefs," which are essentially mini reports, weekly discussion posts, and a final annotated bibliography. Readings aren't always necessary and expectations are always set clearly. You don't have to spend over 3 hours a week outside of lecture to get an A. I'd definitely recommend Pike and this class!

Pike's classes are easy to follow and his little jokes keep the class light-hearted and entertaining. I have taken multiple classes with Pike and he is for the people, he has no intention of hurting people's GPA and grades generously. Overall I would take any type of class that Pike was teaching, but this course was particularly interesting. He navigated talking about politically charged topics in an appropriate and respectful manner.