This guy is a terrible. He never gave lectures as he was too lazy to do it even during this COVID-19 lockdown. He graded unusually harshly and never provided a rubric to see what we should have in the essays. He gave one “review session” for the midterm and the final but only at one specific hour through Zoom. He recorded the session and put it in the class website but he removed it after 3 days??? Yea some of us have jobs and we don’t have time to immediately view it! Inconsiderate and illogical! Why does it hurt you to leave the recordings up for a week?! Hell, they should be up for the entire 6 weeks! Shevchenko is one of the worst professors at UCLA. DO NOT TAKE HIM. SAVE YOURSELF!!!

I don't know where the hell all of these good reviews came from. This guy is a grade A scumbag. I am taking his class during the COVID disaster Summer of 2020. Everything is virtual.

From the get go, in the class people started dropping like flies because of his demeanor. He doesn't have actual classes but instead has a monotone lecture over power point slides. A couple of students asked if he could change the recordings because they had trouble hearing it and his response was essentially, it sounds fine and get over it. That was the first red flag. The second was that a couple people asked him to have office hours and he refused and just said to e-mail him. Despite the fact that according to the UCLA Summer Sessions website, professors are required to have at least one hour of office hours a week. Plus with everyone at home during the pandemic, WTF else are you doing anyway that you can't take the time to talk to your students?

He took his sweet time grading the midterms. According to the class group chat the average was a 23 out of 30. He is a stupidly harsh grader. He limited the ID responses to a page each and I think his expectations were way out of line for responses (I say this as a senior with a 4.0). All in all this guy 100% does not give a rats ass about students and is a general POS.

I created a BruinWalk just to give this guy a shitty review. Never have I ever taken a more horrible, careless, heartless, not empathetic professor in my life. Everything everyone said before me for this quarter is valid. I worked my hardest I possibly could and did not even get an A. This guy had an irrational grading criteria for this quarter. from my knowledge the highest grade achieved in the class was a 93. The midterm average was a 23/30 and he only gave two people As on it. The final average was probably just as shitty as he has ignored all of our emails asking what the distribution was. This individual should be fired from the department. If you're going to be so damn heartless dont be a teacher...

Class was pre-recorded and at your own pace. Extensive readings but ultimately up to you if you wanted to engage with them or not. The grade is 30% midterm and 70% final. The midterm was a set of terms and asked us to define the terms in context with the readings and lectures and explain their importance. Final asked us to synthesize content and discuss the prompt with the proper analysis. I think the grading is definitely stricter than anticipated so be prepared for that but it is a good class to take. Convenient, manageable workload, and very clear expectations. The professor held review sessions before our exams and gave us a few days to complete them as well.

I had the pleasure of sitting in Professor Shevchenko's class during the summer of 2019. Right off the bat, I could tell that he was a lenient professor and often gave humorous jokes about the sensitive relationship between the United States and China. There is only midterm and one final. The midterm consisted about 7-8 terms and you choose 6 to write about in under an hour and 15 minutes. For the final, it consisted of 5-7 page paper, double spaced. He will give the class the prompt a week before it is due. 30% for midterm and 70% for final. I received an A in the class! If you take the time to know him and talk to him about what you know about China, then it is highly likely that he will grab your midterm and final and personally grade it. He has a TA that grades the other half, but you definitely want the professor to pick yours off the pile. 10/10 would recommend taking this professor again. He tolerates tardiness, but you can't miss class as it is half a letter grade off of your overall grade. Get to know him and the subject extensively. You will definitely get an A.

I took Professor Shevchenko for Session A and upon the first lecture was engaged with his style, structure, and humor. As a Poli Sci Major, I've naturally been drawn to middle eastern politics, but he dismisses this interest on the first day by explaining 'China is where it's at!'
Only one midterm (very fair) w/ study guide, and a take home final. I will say it was a little stressful to write an 8 page paper in 48 hours (that's all you get!) but he provides excellent articles/material to make you well prepared. I'd take him again in a heartbeat.