This class was great and very interesting. Thomas Sherrer is a great lecturer and has really well prepared slides. He knew a lot about this subject and made his lectures interesting and did tell some pretty solid jokes. Overall, he was great but he is pretty slow on returning grades (it's just him and a couple of graders for the whole class so I don't blame him). Overall, there were four assignments total which comprised your grade. The two projects were pretty easy to do fine on and graded very kindly. The Party Platform assignment was definitely a little difficult because it had to include a lot of information, but still be short (200 words a section x 4 sections). The infographic was basically a free 10% on your final grade. The midterm and final weren't too difficult but there were some pretty specific questions on there which made them harder than they should have been. Overall, I recommend this for an upper div poli sci.

Great and engaging professor. He allows open notes on midterm and final as long as they’re handwritten. Participation isn’t mandatory, and he posts the slides. The midterm and final are very straightforward, and there are only two short homework assignments. Easy A.

Should be illegal for a 4 unit class to be this easy and chill.

This class with Professor Sherrer was an excellent experience. As a freshman, this was one of the first courses I took at UCLA, and it truly set a positive tone for my fall quarter. The class consists of weekly readings that you should complete before class, but you can definitely get away with skimming them since Professor Sherrer includes the important concepts from the readings into lecture notes. Attending the lectures is highly recommended, as he explains tables, graphs, and key takeaways that are not always fully written on the slides. That said, all slides are posted after each lecture, which makes reviewing and studying much easier. There are three homework assignments throughout the quarter. They are very straightforward, clearly explained, and manageable to complete within one to two days. The final homework is graded slightly more strictly, but expectations are still very reasonable as long as you follow the guidelines. Both the midterm and final exams are open-note (using a physical notebook), so be sure to take thorough notes! Before both of these large exams, Professor Sherrer goes over the concepts that will be covered, so I would recommend highlighting those parts in your notes so you can quickly refer to them! Discussion attendance is mandatory, but the discussions are genuinely engaging and allow students to participate in meaningful conversations. Participation is encouraged and makes the class more enjoyable overall. I would 100% recommend this class to anyone looking for an easy GE or if it is a required class for pre-public affairs majors!

i loved this class! it's pretty simple and mostly just an overall survey of important events that shaped policy in the u.s. sherrer is an engaging lecturer, he's really sweet and definitely cares about his students and wants us to do well. i'd definitely recommend this class if you're interested in the subject matter

An interesting course to be sure, the Professor is really engaging and informative.

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.

Sherrer is not empathetic and honestly an unkind man. While his class is informative and simple, he is not supportive to his students and insists on enforcing his policy despite unforeseen circumstances possibly hindering in-class participation. I had technological issues and still made it to his two-hour class session despite working full-time and taking three other classes; he refused to accommodate me for my technological issues all because I "didn't let him know beforehand." I showed him proof that I was having these issues before class and was preoccupied with a multitude of heavy responsibilities and he was not empathetic and quite unsupportive about it. I politely tried to reason with him for a week and he was not cooperative. I am not looking forward to finishing the rest of this class with him and am disappointed at how "great" he seemed despite not being true to his character in class. I ended up not receiving points for a class I was present for and my grade will now struggle because Sherrer insists on being apathetic and indifferent. It is really very disappointing.