This is by far the most engaging, interesting, and pertinent political science class I've taken at UCLA. "Professor" Sherrer is exceptionally talented and gives engaging and clear lectures (it's amazing to have a professor that actually speaks like a normal human being and not a robot programmed to spew out overcomplicated academic jargon, as do 90% of the tenured faculty here).

The readings for this class are fairly light and the vast majority of them were actually very interesting. I think there may have been only two or three that were boring (the majority were Washington Post or NYT articles, excerpts from a very recent/engaging book, and super cool voter psychology studies). None of the readings felt like filler or irrelevant to the course (again, credit to Sherrer for planning the class so well).

Grading is fair and is based on a midterm (30% of grade, was super easy), a short writing assignment (20%), an infographic (10%), and a final (40% of grade, very fair but marginally harder than the midterm).

Sherrer is very organized and uses very clear slides. He also recorded lecture and did not require attendance.

I highly, highly recommend this class and Prof. Sherrer in general. I wish UCLA's political science department offered more classes related to this topic.

30% midterm
40% final
15% essay 1
15% essay 2

Sherrer is pretty good he moved around assignments to be accommodating.
Covid-19 so tests were open book
however, he is a super slow grader(3+weeks) and graded stuff after p/np deadline so some people were concerned.
Did not give a ton of feedback on essays
overall he's a good professor to have

TAKE THIS CLASS, I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH BEST TEACHER IN UCLA, THIS CALSS WAS SO GOOD I CAME BACK TO MAKE A REVIEW, I HAVE NEVER DONE THIS.

This was def my favorite class this quarter!! Professor Sherrer is great at what he does, making this class an easy and educational experience for his students. First off, all exams (midterm and final) are open note so long as everything is handwritten, which honestly helped me retain the information better. Sometimes the questions on the exams were pulled directly from the slides, word for word, so do take good notes. I'd say around 18/20 of the questions were based on the lectures while around 1-2 were pulled from the readings so make sure to skim them over and take note of the central argument. A tip I recommend is to put a Post-it note on each page of your notes and list all of the main topics you wrote about so you can go through them quickly when taking the exam. 

There is no textbook and you don't need to pay for class materials since he provides scantrons. The midterm average was 90% and the final was around 87%!! The topics you can expect to learn about are the movements relating to race, women's rights, environment, gun violence, healthcare, education, immigration, economic inequality, barriers to policymaking like the filibuster, etc. Super interesting lectures plus he's really funny. I highly encourage attending the lectures in person (he does post the slides after) since he sometimes did state a few things that were not in the slides but were present in the exam.

There were only 3 homework assignments that consisted of making slideshows of a social problem of your choice. The first 2 assignments ranged from 250-500 words while the last assignment (a more research-intensive slideshow) was 500+ words. All of them were spaced out pretty well throughout the quarter and you had an entire week to do them. The first two assignments took me about 1 hour each while the last one took 2 hours.

Shoutout to my TA Selena, she's super chill and made my discussion section engaging. All of the discussions extend to the assigned readings and there's really no pressure to participate but if you can, you def should. Attendance is mandatory for these and is included in your grade. Loved this class and will def take another class with him!!

Professor Sherrer is such a cool dude and a great teacher. He is engaging and so passionate about American politics. He had great lecture slides and encouraged us to engage in breakout room discussions with our peers every class. This helped us feel a bit more connected to each other during online school. The class was made up of two homework assignments that were full credit if submitted on time, attendance and multiple choice and short answer midterm and final. There was no textbook required and instead, he provided really interesting chapters from books he enjoyed. I would highly recommend taking this class and any class he teaches at UCLA.

Do you ever have a professor who you think, "wow, I could probably play a nice game of connect four with this guy"? Well, Thomas is one of those professors (lecturer, he insists on not being called professor). He is super chill and has a great sense of blunt humor which I found hilarious. I would 100% take his class again. Granted, he is new and the material was at times a bit unnecessary and felt like common sense, but I'm sure he will get over that soon. The homework was super easy and was graded based on completion. The tests were a bit odd and felt unrelated to the course at times, but they weren't hard. Definitely my favorite covid-era class.

I thought this was a really good class. It is hard to get during enrollment but you can request a pte through the pub aff department and they usually give out 2 per section. The class is made up of 10% attendance (5% participation and 5% attendance for section), 10% homework assignments (2 of them, one week 3 that is a short memo graded super easy and one week 7/8 that is a short slideshow also graded super easy, 25% midterm (20 mcq and 2 saqs that was super easy and open note), 25% slideshow research presentation (graded a little harsher than hw but still fairly easy and very short as in under 1000 words), and 30% final (20 mcq and 2 saqs and not cumulative and open note). Professor Sherrer is a great professor and lecture attendance isn't required. A few tips: 1) he admitted that the longest answer is usually the right one, 2) attend lecture and take good notes on paper as he only lets you use paper notes on the midterm and final, 3) he posts lectures but doesn't record, so if you miss a lecture right down the slides verbatim and make sure you summarize ALL graphs(no need for numbers just trends) and watch ALL videos because he pulls almost all questions from slides, graphs, and videos, 4) skim the outside readings because he pulled a few questions from them on the midterm but I don't think any on the final, 5) pay attention when he does the midterm and final review at the end of lecture because it helps a lot for the midterm and final. Overall, it was a good class

Professor Sherrer is a highly engaging lecturer, and this is the second course I’ve taken with him. While his teaching style is captivating, his approach to grading and exams has been extremely challenging. His exams tend to determine the entirety of your grade, with no opportunities for extra credit or makeup assignments. I also found it concerning that he discouraged the TA from adequately preparing us for the exam, which felt counterproductive since TAs are typically there to support student learning. In this particular class, the situation was more difficult—he introduced a significant amount of new material just two days before the exam and provided a study guide that did not align closely with what was actually tested. His exam structure could use significant improvement. The questions often focus on overly specific details rather than the main concepts emphasized in class, making it difficult for students to demonstrate their overall understanding.

Dont listen to the person who uploaded for the fall 2025 quarter even though its still spring 2025. You can't blame a teachers grading outcomes based on a harsh TA. I had the same T.A. Campbell, and you could've requested feedback from them for future assignments. The in person exams were literally multiple choice and short answer and open notebook, so if you wrote notes during lecture and from the slides, the answers for the questions were right in your face. If you're that type of person who can't go to class for certain reasons, then what did you expect... If you had reasonable accommodations, you could've actually asked him to send previous lectures he had recorded from other years.

Dont listen to the person who uploaded for the fall 2025 quarter even though its still spring 2025. You can't blame a teachers grading outcomes based on a harsh TA. I had the same T.A. Campbell, and you could've requested feedback from them for future assignments. The in person exams were literally multiple choice and short answer and open notebook, so if you wrote notes during lecture and from the slides, the answers for the questions were right in your face. If you're that type of person who can't go to class for certain reasons, then what did you expect... If you had reasonable accommodations, you could've actually asked him to send previous lectures he had recorded from other years.