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Thomas Sherrer
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Based on 53 Users
Relatively easy and simple class. An occasional assignment here and there. Midterm which was based on readings and slides. Final was almost all slide material from lecture that he posts after class.
One takeaway: you have to get perfect scores on everything in order to do well.
Because this class is dependent on very little assignments and those assignment not containing many points, unless you get a perfect score it is very difficult to get a good grade.
Sherrer overall is a good professor who makes lectures entertaining
By far the easiest yet most valuable class I've taken at UCLA. Each week consists of a guest speaker and Q&A session from a different career within political science. There's only a few assignments that make up your entire grade (no tests or quizzes) and all of them are super easy. Sherrer also gives really good advice on financial and educational planning that will help you make good decisions to guide your future.
If you need a bump in your GPA and want some life skills along the way, this is the class you need to take.
Professor Sherrer is my favorite professor I've had at UCLA. He's super funny, engaging, and good at conveying information. You can tell he really cared about this class and put a lot of work into it. There's a once a week discussion section that just reviews the material we went over during the week and a few exams that are nearly impossible to get a bad grade on. The exams were pretty easy, but there were definitely some questions that were very specific to certain readings (so make sure to do all of them). I would definitely retake this class!
I really enjoyed this class! Professor Sherrer is SO funny and chill, I found that I was super engaged every time I attended lecture. His exams are fair and the assignments are quite easy and practically grade cushions. You just need to select a social issue that interests you and write a few hundred words about it. He allows unlimited handwritten notes for the midterm and final which is super helpful as I pulled some of the answers for both MC and short answer right out of my notes. I'd love to take another Public Affairs class with him, he's awesome!
This class was so so chill. Most lectures are guest speakers who are actually really interesting. This class balances both being chill and being useful at the same time. Sherrer is funny and helpful. Only thing is that you do have to show up to lectures. He has a code each lecture + simple & open questions about the guest speaker's speech or his own lecture that you have to submit to prove you were there. There are some assignments too but those are really chill and never take too long (ex: editing your resume, writing a sample cover letter, editing LinkedIn). Overall, TAKE THIS CLASS you will not regret it.
This is an amazing class, highly recommended! Sherrer is an amazing and engaging lecturer, who teaches an incredibly interesting class that feels very relevant and important. This class was also very easy. Lectures are recorded and the workload is light, well communicated, and graded gently. I would take any class taught by Sherrer, he is great.
While Professor Sherrer is an overall great professor, be prepared for a large sum of commitment and reading in this class. He argues that due to the lack of a discussion section, course material is supplementally taught through assigned readings and articles. Your overall grade is made up of an essay, midterm, and final exam, which is honestly somewhat difficult. All in all, the class is great if you're someone super interested in the content of the way the media shapes elections, however don't take this class if you're looking for an easy poli sci upper div or don't have the time to fully commit to the course.
I took this class in the Winter of 2023, and would not take him again. He seemed nice at the beginning/middle but that changed. This class is made up of 3 homework assignments, midterm, and final (both online w/ 40 minutes each). First, the averages on the homework were good, and everyone did fairly well through the course. Second, the midterm was nice where the average was a 90%. Lastly, once everyone got to the final, the entire class average went down.
In my honest opinion, Prof. Sherrer seemed peeved at the fact that students did well on the midterm, without showing up to in person classes. He then made the final more difficult and then made the class average go from a 90% on the midterm to a B- on the final. Talking to classmates, I heard that many had a solid A to A+ grade, and many dropped to a B+; some even B-, or C+. By the way, these students are not slackers. So overall, my takeaway from this class is stay consistent with notes, for midterm/final review cumulatively even when he tells you to predominately "study week 6-10" (he snuck in content from week 4), and lastly try to go to every single class as he does also get peeved with low in-person attendance. He likes to sneak in specific info into his multiple choice questions so they aren't like broad questions at times; he references graphs.
In a nice way of putting it, is that he takes himself too seriously and felt like this exam was mean't to lower grades. From a classmates experience, I don't know how someone can go from a 98% to a B- or C+. He did not curve the exam or even try to help student's that were consistent. Talking with previous students, I found out that this isn't the first time he has gotten angry at people for not showing up to class since the zoom is intended for colds/emergencies. I think people not showing up in person (even though he had the zoom option) made him peeved; sometimes even shading students on the zoom call. So my best advise is go in person. I went in person just to minimize damage for the final but that didn't help...only like 15-20 students showed up at most. Just take good notes and put effort in.
BUT don't give him the benefit of the doubt that he will be nice, take feedback on why some of his questions are bad, or curve the grades.
I enjoyed taking this course with Professor Sherrer. He always seemed passionate about discussing the topics of each of our lectures. I recommend going to office hours early in the course and continuously asking for guidance during the course to make sure you are staying on track. Exams are exactly based on the lectures and readings provided. My only issue with this class was asking for office hours to go over an assignment and being marked down even further down on the assignment. Try to stay on the professor's good side, because he will not hesitate to mark points down on student assignments.
One takeaway: you have to get perfect scores on everything in order to do well.
Because this class is dependent on very little assignments and those assignment not containing many points, unless you get a perfect score it is very difficult to get a good grade.
Sherrer overall is a good professor who makes lectures entertaining
By far the easiest yet most valuable class I've taken at UCLA. Each week consists of a guest speaker and Q&A session from a different career within political science. There's only a few assignments that make up your entire grade (no tests or quizzes) and all of them are super easy. Sherrer also gives really good advice on financial and educational planning that will help you make good decisions to guide your future.
If you need a bump in your GPA and want some life skills along the way, this is the class you need to take.
Professor Sherrer is my favorite professor I've had at UCLA. He's super funny, engaging, and good at conveying information. You can tell he really cared about this class and put a lot of work into it. There's a once a week discussion section that just reviews the material we went over during the week and a few exams that are nearly impossible to get a bad grade on. The exams were pretty easy, but there were definitely some questions that were very specific to certain readings (so make sure to do all of them). I would definitely retake this class!
I really enjoyed this class! Professor Sherrer is SO funny and chill, I found that I was super engaged every time I attended lecture. His exams are fair and the assignments are quite easy and practically grade cushions. You just need to select a social issue that interests you and write a few hundred words about it. He allows unlimited handwritten notes for the midterm and final which is super helpful as I pulled some of the answers for both MC and short answer right out of my notes. I'd love to take another Public Affairs class with him, he's awesome!
This class was so so chill. Most lectures are guest speakers who are actually really interesting. This class balances both being chill and being useful at the same time. Sherrer is funny and helpful. Only thing is that you do have to show up to lectures. He has a code each lecture + simple & open questions about the guest speaker's speech or his own lecture that you have to submit to prove you were there. There are some assignments too but those are really chill and never take too long (ex: editing your resume, writing a sample cover letter, editing LinkedIn). Overall, TAKE THIS CLASS you will not regret it.
This is an amazing class, highly recommended! Sherrer is an amazing and engaging lecturer, who teaches an incredibly interesting class that feels very relevant and important. This class was also very easy. Lectures are recorded and the workload is light, well communicated, and graded gently. I would take any class taught by Sherrer, he is great.
While Professor Sherrer is an overall great professor, be prepared for a large sum of commitment and reading in this class. He argues that due to the lack of a discussion section, course material is supplementally taught through assigned readings and articles. Your overall grade is made up of an essay, midterm, and final exam, which is honestly somewhat difficult. All in all, the class is great if you're someone super interested in the content of the way the media shapes elections, however don't take this class if you're looking for an easy poli sci upper div or don't have the time to fully commit to the course.
I took this class in the Winter of 2023, and would not take him again. He seemed nice at the beginning/middle but that changed. This class is made up of 3 homework assignments, midterm, and final (both online w/ 40 minutes each). First, the averages on the homework were good, and everyone did fairly well through the course. Second, the midterm was nice where the average was a 90%. Lastly, once everyone got to the final, the entire class average went down.
In my honest opinion, Prof. Sherrer seemed peeved at the fact that students did well on the midterm, without showing up to in person classes. He then made the final more difficult and then made the class average go from a 90% on the midterm to a B- on the final. Talking to classmates, I heard that many had a solid A to A+ grade, and many dropped to a B+; some even B-, or C+. By the way, these students are not slackers. So overall, my takeaway from this class is stay consistent with notes, for midterm/final review cumulatively even when he tells you to predominately "study week 6-10" (he snuck in content from week 4), and lastly try to go to every single class as he does also get peeved with low in-person attendance. He likes to sneak in specific info into his multiple choice questions so they aren't like broad questions at times; he references graphs.
In a nice way of putting it, is that he takes himself too seriously and felt like this exam was mean't to lower grades. From a classmates experience, I don't know how someone can go from a 98% to a B- or C+. He did not curve the exam or even try to help student's that were consistent. Talking with previous students, I found out that this isn't the first time he has gotten angry at people for not showing up to class since the zoom is intended for colds/emergencies. I think people not showing up in person (even though he had the zoom option) made him peeved; sometimes even shading students on the zoom call. So my best advise is go in person. I went in person just to minimize damage for the final but that didn't help...only like 15-20 students showed up at most. Just take good notes and put effort in.
BUT don't give him the benefit of the doubt that he will be nice, take feedback on why some of his questions are bad, or curve the grades.
I enjoyed taking this course with Professor Sherrer. He always seemed passionate about discussing the topics of each of our lectures. I recommend going to office hours early in the course and continuously asking for guidance during the course to make sure you are staying on track. Exams are exactly based on the lectures and readings provided. My only issue with this class was asking for office hours to go over an assignment and being marked down even further down on the assignment. Try to stay on the professor's good side, because he will not hesitate to mark points down on student assignments.