This class is not at all easy but extremely rewarding if you're willing to put in the time and effort. There are weekly homework assignments that often consist of questions the field has not answered yet, so you have to make a claim and support your argument with facts. Time spent on weekly homework is in the 10-20 hour range if you want an A. Practically a necessity to collaborate with other students or go to office hours to ensure your analyses are reasonable. There is one midterm and one final. The midterm was a killer of dreams, but the final was slightly more manageable. If you find yourself struggling don't give up! The curve was generous. Professor Shutze literally knows everything there is to know when it comes to syntax. Go to office hours and ask questions. He can recite the year some theory was first introduced and who wrote the corresponding paper. Truly a remarkable man. His lectures can be a bit dry.

Professor Schutze is very knowledgeable and passionate about syntax, willing to adjust deadlines, syllabus, dates, etc. to make sure that students are learning the material, and a great professor overall. I don't know any other professor who not only reads the ENTIRE textbook, but sends makes note of anything in the textbook that is confusing, wrong, and any typos. He makes his handouts for each lecture based on what happened in the last, so that there's always just the right amount of detail. Truly a dedicated professor.
His office hours are key to understanding the material. You can ask any question there, but you should ask questions in class, because he is very happy to answer them in extreme depth. Make sure that you start your homework very early, so that you can ask questions, because a big part of the homework is not practice, but thinking outside of the box, which can be very difficult to do without being able to ask questions about your logic/thinking.
Make sure you do well on the homework; it's a big chunk of your grade. Do the practice problems in the book, and the study guide to be ready for the exams.

I took Ling 20 and Ling 120B with Professor Schutze. When he said 165B was going to be different, I thought well I know it was going to be difficult but justified. I was wrong. Apparently, he just can't give up drawing trees. In homeworks and exams, in addition to thinking through very complex problems in very short time, you also have to draw trees using sentences like 'a is likely to have caused b to appear to have been convincing c to make d and e does this to f before g does that'. I was really puzzled by his setup. I worked hard, understood all the concepts, was able to answer most critical thinking problems correctly, capable of drawing trees without making huge errors, but there it is --- you have to draw trees as fast as a machine or you can never get an A.
Of course, your life won't go to hell by taking this class, but I would suggest this class only for those who are determined to do syntax and tree drawing for a lifetime. The linguistics department has so many merciful professors --- just choose another one to save some trouble.