I enjoyed this class with Professor Tausanovitch. The workload was very manageable as we only had one 5-page paper and two exams (the midterm and final.) However, our grades were heavily weighted on these three things because we had very few assignments. If I remember correctly, we had one to two readings, apart from textbook chapters, each week for our discussion sections. In discussions, we had the first five minutes to complete a short quiz (2% of final grade) on one of the readings. The rest of the time was used to discuss what we had learned from the readings. I recommend taking notes on the readings to be more prepared for sections. There is only one free absence from discussions unless you have an excused absence. The layout of exams is the same as an AP Gov. exam, so it has multiple choice, short answered questions, and an essay question. During the actual final, instead of three hours, you only get two hours. Lectures were recorded in case you couldn't show up to class, but Professor Tausanovitch made them interesting, so I preferred to go in person. It's definitely possible to pass this class with a B or higher, depending on how you do on exams.

Professor Tausanovitch has nothing to do with the class besides being the professor it is listed under, it is all based on the TA (Kenton Card for Fall 2019). Kenton was not very organized, and not very helpful- I found the meetings to be a waste of time. It's nice that students can get academic credit related to an internship but do not assume this is an easy A just because there is not lecture - it is a decent amount of work to do the weekly essays as well as prepare the final research paper. I think if I had known the details, I would have not found it worth it to do it while doing my internship and would have rather taken an additional poli sci class where I could have learned a new topic.

So here's the thing about Tausanovitch. People said coming into the class if u didn't take AP Gov then it is a decent bit harder. This is true but don't let it scare you off. He says at the beginning of the class that if you put in on avg 9.8h a week into studying/doing the readings then you will get an A. I didn't, I honestly skimmed a couple of the readings before the midterm and final (The important ones are Zaller (Latent Opinion), Orr and Huber (Partisan Animosity) and Binder (Congressional Gridlocks), but even then js know the main idea and you will be fine. Final and Midterm are about 60% of the final grade, and aren't particularly easy tbh. Writing heavy but if you memorize the term sheet and can write an ID on any of the terms provided you will be ok. Lectures are posted online, but I and pretty much everyone else I knew stopped going after the midterm. The one other thing about Tausanovitch is he is pretty unreasonable about absence, i.e i had a flight cancellation leaving me stuck 24 hours in Chicago which lead to me missing section, and I asked in advance if I could attend another section to receive participation points, to which he said no. Take of this what you may. All in all, not a particularly hard A, not the easiest PS40 prof either though.