I really enjoyed this class! Tausanovitch isn't the most engaging lecturer, but the topics he covered were super interesting and you can tell he is very knowledgable about what he's talking about. Although a lot of info from the first half of class was a repeat of AP US Gov, I liked how in the second half of the class he went into different topics like voter participation, public opinion, campaigning, and political polarization, and I enjoyed how he incorporated real-world examples. Grading scheme consisted of a midterm and final exam in person, one paper, and participation in weekly discussion. Each exam had 5 multiple choice questions, 3 definition/term questions, 3-4 short answer questions, and one essay question. Exams themselves were very fair and you will do well if you paid attention in class and understand the concepts. He gives a list of all the possible terms for the definition part, so if you study those then you will likely do well on the entire exam, because all the terms relate to key concepts. I had Jessica as a TA and she was great at clarifying points made in lecture. Overall, the class is pretty easy if you put in minimal effort, and I would take a class with him again.

Not a bad class to take at all if you want to satisfy either your pre-political science major requirement or GE requirement, especially if you have interest and some knowledge about American politics. Professor Tausanovitch is also a straightforward and clear lecturer. He uses slides and is pretty passionate about what he teaches. In terms of grading, there were: Discussion Participation 20%, Midterm 20%, One Paper 20%, and Final 40%. I took AP Gov back in high school so I got through the class without doing any of the weekly readings alright. Midterms and finals were mix of multiple choices, short answers, and one long essay.

Honestly, this class was hard for me and I love politics. I have yet to take the final, but you NEEEED to study really hard from what I've learned.

A pro is that the midterm is curved, primarily because most of the class did not do well. But if you score less than 75% you have an opportunity to make up your grade for the highest possible score of a 75%. This is done by taking the midterm back home, typing everything out with the new correct answer, etc. On the midterm you are expected to be detailed like the AP Exam.

You have to take quizzes every discussion that are worth 2% of your grade based on the readings he assigns. The readings are NOT light and on average are around 30 full pages, so please keep that in mind if your workload in your other classes is already dense.

All exams are in person, with one 5-page take-home essay.
The Midterm consisted of 3 ID's out of 50 ID's, 5 multiple choice, 4 SAQ's, and an essay to be due in the span of the lecture time. (1hr 15min). They want the answers EXTREMELY specific. I'm unsure of the final exam as that information has yet to be shared.

Lectures are recorded so if you are sick you can watch through the Media Gallery, and one absence is excused for discussion with harsh participation grading. I don't know if it is because of my TA, but they are adamant on following Prof.'s rubric. You need to participate actively, engaging in EVERY discussion to receive a 100% in participation, with perfect attendance (excuse of 1 absence).

On the bright side, he does use helpful slides, but he always tends to add a bit more info in person during lectures.

Reading Quizzes – 2%
Participation – 20%
Midterm – 23%
Take-Home Essay – 20%
Final – 35%

I would personally not take this class again due to how strict it is. Hard, but for me. Other people were able to grasp the content better ig.

When taking this class, please weigh out the pros and cons.

Essentially, I'd assume this class is just like AP Government and Politics. I didn't take this in high school, so I went into Pol Sci 40 with veryyyy little knowledge about the US government system. At first, Professor T did scare me a little with the amount of information that was being poured onto us during lecture (he also talks fast so it felt overwhelming at times). The first half of the class was a lot harder than the second half. I'd say this is because we spent most of the first half learning about the structures of different kinds of political systems. The second half demonstrated how these systems actually worked in real governmental bodies, which was a lot easier to understand.

The midterm was basically like a short APUSH/AP Gov exam: a few mcqs, identification questions (defining terms), short answers, and one essay question. I honestly thought the midterm was so hard...I took so many blind guesses on the short answers but somehow still got partial credit. He curves the tests based on class performance, so my class got 8 points added to our original scores (SO GOOD!!).

the final was the same structure as the midterm, but I found the final a lot easier. It's cumulative but mostly emphasizes the second half of the class. I'm not sure how I ended up scoring on the final but I ended the class with an A so I assume I did fine.

The final paper was not my favorite thing to write imo but it's pretty self explanatory. you also get so much time to write it and it's only 5 pages so I wouldn't stress about it. My prompt was to choose a political reform that we agree/disagree with, then come up with valid counter arguments to argue against your belief.

The TA's grade all ur exams and papers. My TA was super helpful, informative, and passionate about what we was teaching! He was also a really lenient grader and gave good feedback on my paper. Overall, the discussion sections were super useful in understanding dense readings or topics in lecture. Also, the discussion reading quizzes lwk don't matter at all (pretty sure I did super bad on all of them and it didn't rly affect my grade).

As a comms major, this class was not too hard and I def recommend other comms majors to take this and fulfill ur pre-reqs.

either focus more on the content in the textbook or dont require us to read the textbook lol,

Very engaging class and pretty relaxed for a GE. Grade is pretty evenly divided between midterm, one essay, the final, and participation in your discussion section. Not hard to succeed if you have prior knowledge of government. Very similar content to AP Gov.

This class is chill and not too difficult. The midterm and final are essentially an AP test style with multiple choice, short answer, and essay questions. The concepts are not hard it’s just basic American government and politics. I did not take AP gov and had no problems. The discussion sections are also normally quite interesting discussions on different concepts. You don’t really have to do the textbook readings, but I do think they can be helpful in writing the essay on the midterm and final as it goes more in depth on concepts you are learning in the class.

Overall, I found this class to be really easy and the grading to be extremely lenient. For someone that actually did the readings, I will say that the lecture readings were completely useless as they weren't really tied to the lecture (sometimes he wont even mention them) and are not important for the midterm or final. If you took AP gov or an equivalent government course, I would just focus on taking note of the lecture slides to get you through exams (if you haven't taken a gov course before, you might want to consider reading the textbook, but the content is fairly easy for the most part). As for the section readings, I would encourage to read these because you are quizzed on them during discussion (only 3 questions each / 2% of the grade). The section readings were not very interesting, but I found them to get better as the class goes on (more because I figured out what information to avoid reading and what to be more attentive to). In terms of the 5 page essay assigned, the graders are very nice (the mean was like a 93 with the lowest score being a 78) and you could totally do it in a day and still expect a good grade as long as you put some type of effort into it. The midterm and final were really easy (a lot of common sense tbh) and are easy to get good grades on as long as you study the lecture slides. The lectures for the most part are pretty boring. Tausanovitch is extremely qualified in his field, although is not very engaging-would tend to sleep through some lectures. Overall, I found this to a good introductory POLI SCI course and would strongly encourage others to take it for a pre req or GE.

I took this class as major prep and mostly enjoyed it. While the lectures can get boring, Professor Tausanovitch is extremely knowledgeable and the TAs were helpful. This class was harder than expected for me but pretty easy for most people that took AP Gov. The midterm, final, and one major paper make up almost the whole grade and while none of them are too difficult you pretty much need an A on at least 2/3 to get an A overall. Workload-wise this class was light and overall interesting

I really enjoyed this class! I found the content very relevant and engaging and didn't have trouble keeping up with the readings at all. There is very little work to do other than the readings and they could be a rather boring and sometimes harder to understand, but just getting through them made tests and assignments much easier. I went into this having done AP Comp Gov previously, but I didn't think you need much background in politics considering that you go every branch of government pretty in depth. One thing I would say however is the slides are kinda disorganized section wise and don't provide a lot of guide for review considering how little text is on there. So take good notes!