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.

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.

Never had a professor with a bigger ego than Chris. Ended up in this class because I was missing a GE and it was the only one open. Every class was painfully dry and you learned more by not going to lecture and just winging it at home. Your grade depends on the TA, mine was super easy but I had friends who lost points for the things I would get 100% on. Overall would never recommend this class even to my worst enemy.

I think everyone should take this class with Tausanovitch during their college career because the way he makes learning about American politics so interesting, even for non-poli sci majors. He’s such an engaging lecturer and does an amazing job of incorporating humor and non-partisan analysis. With that being said, the readings are a little tedious and this quarter had a particularly difficult midterm compared to past classes.

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.

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.

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.