Professor
Daniel Posner
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Most Helpful Review
Posner's Comparative Politics class is interesting. He goes over your run-of-the-mill comparative breadth (institutions, etc) and then moves on to globalization. He is well prepared and lectures very effectively. The course reader is quite expensive (~$80), but a breeze to read. On the tests, a simple definition and how it relates to the overarching ideas in the class would get you an A.
Posner's Comparative Politics class is interesting. He goes over your run-of-the-mill comparative breadth (institutions, etc) and then moves on to globalization. He is well prepared and lectures very effectively. The course reader is quite expensive (~$80), but a breeze to read. On the tests, a simple definition and how it relates to the overarching ideas in the class would get you an A.
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Most Helpful Review
Spring 2022 - I felt like professor posner was really engaging with his lectures but my only qualm with this class is the variability in TA harshness. If you have a lenient TA who is willing to hear your arguments out and actually allows participation, you will likely do well. If that is not the case, you might be unfairly penalized and not get a grade that reflects your understanding of the material. tldr: the TA matters A LOT
Spring 2022 - I felt like professor posner was really engaging with his lectures but my only qualm with this class is the variability in TA harshness. If you have a lenient TA who is willing to hear your arguments out and actually allows participation, you will likely do well. If that is not the case, you might be unfairly penalized and not get a grade that reflects your understanding of the material. tldr: the TA matters A LOT
Most Helpful Review
Prof Posner is seriously one of the better professors at UCLA and one who truly cares about the information he teaches. He is very charismatic and his lectures are extremely organized. I took this class with Michael Ross' M167c and man was that helpful as many of the readings and information overlapped. I got an A in this course without doing a single reading from the phonebook that is the course reader (what a waste of money). However, I did read the novel for which you must write a 10-12 page paper. If you attend lecture (and you must attend lecture and take excellent notes...BRING A COMPUTER!) then the paper will be a piece of cake since the novel relates heavily to many of the themes in the class. I easily got an A on it. Furthermore, the map quiz at the beginning of the year is a grade booster. If you screw that up its on you. I found that websites like Sporcle were clutch in helping me memorize the countries. In conclusion, this is one of the better or more informative classes you will ever take at UCLA. I knew nothing about Africa prior to this class and now have a wealth of knowledge that is not going away soon. That's because the way that Posner teaches his material somehow makes it stick. Bring a computer to take notes, attend all the lectures, and if you can team up with a group of people and create a Google Doc to knock out the massive amount of terms needed for the midterm and final. TAKE POSNER AND TAKE THIS CLASS!
Prof Posner is seriously one of the better professors at UCLA and one who truly cares about the information he teaches. He is very charismatic and his lectures are extremely organized. I took this class with Michael Ross' M167c and man was that helpful as many of the readings and information overlapped. I got an A in this course without doing a single reading from the phonebook that is the course reader (what a waste of money). However, I did read the novel for which you must write a 10-12 page paper. If you attend lecture (and you must attend lecture and take excellent notes...BRING A COMPUTER!) then the paper will be a piece of cake since the novel relates heavily to many of the themes in the class. I easily got an A on it. Furthermore, the map quiz at the beginning of the year is a grade booster. If you screw that up its on you. I found that websites like Sporcle were clutch in helping me memorize the countries. In conclusion, this is one of the better or more informative classes you will ever take at UCLA. I knew nothing about Africa prior to this class and now have a wealth of knowledge that is not going away soon. That's because the way that Posner teaches his material somehow makes it stick. Bring a computer to take notes, attend all the lectures, and if you can team up with a group of people and create a Google Doc to knock out the massive amount of terms needed for the midterm and final. TAKE POSNER AND TAKE THIS CLASS!
Most Helpful Review
167C Political Development One of the most interesting classes I have ever taken at UCLA. The midterm and finals are very clear with what is on them before, so you know what to study (and you actually have to know your stuff) Posner really wants you to learn. he is a great lecturer who picks great TAs (ruth was really helpful). the weekly questions keep you in the loop in case you miss a reading or two. TAKE THIS CLASS
167C Political Development One of the most interesting classes I have ever taken at UCLA. The midterm and finals are very clear with what is on them before, so you know what to study (and you actually have to know your stuff) Posner really wants you to learn. he is a great lecturer who picks great TAs (ruth was really helpful). the weekly questions keep you in the loop in case you miss a reading or two. TAKE THIS CLASS
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Most Helpful Review
Spring 2024 - I did not like this class. The content itself was okay (although confusing at times), but I did not like how he taught. He uses slides, but only for images; in other words, he does not have words on his slides, and you are required to listen to him lecture for an hour and fifteen minutes straight. At some point, you are bound to doze off during an hour and fifteen minute lecture, and when you stop listening for only a minute, it’s hard to figure out where you are in the lecture. Obviously, this is subjective, and some people may like how Posner teaches. Personally, I just do not do well with straight listening, so I didn’t have the best time. Aside from that, you can tell that Posner is a good guy and very clearly loves to teach. Here’s the grading breakdown: MIDTERM ONE: worth 25% of your grade. The first midterm is an in-class bluebook exam where you identify 6 terms. Basically, Posner wants you to say what the term is and the importance of the term in the context of the course. Posner will provide a list of roughly 30-40 terms a week before the exam and you will study the terms on that list. On the exam day, Posner hands out a paper with 8 terms on it. Of those 8 terms, you pick 6 terms and identify them. MIDTERM TWO: worth 25% of your grade. The second midterm is given a week after the first midterm. This midterm is a take home essay and is supposed to be around 5 pages. Posner will post a prompt, and you have 30 hours to complete the midterm. FINAL: worth 35% of your grade. A 50-question multiple choice scantron exam. 2/3 of the questions involve content from the second half of the quarter, and 1/3 of questions involve content from the first half of the quarter. PLEASE NOTE — Posner changed the exam format, given that our TAs were striking. Originally, the final exam was going to be a bluebook exam where we were to identify 4-5 terms (similar to the first midterm), answer 2 short answer questions, and answer 1 essay question. If you take this class, you will most likely NOT have the multiple choice final exam; you will probably have the bluebook exam that was originally scheduled before the strike ensued. PARTICIPATION AND ATTENDANCE: worth 15% of your grade. This grade depends on your TA. My TA, Paul Bahk, graded this with 10% being actual attendance and 5% being if you participated in the discussion sections. The participation and attendance split will vary depending on your TA. My biggest complaint about this class was that when Posner gave out the midterm and final terms, a lot of the terms were ones we hadn’t gone over yet. Our classes were Tuesdays and Thursdays, so he would post the terms list on BruinLearn/Canvas on the Tuesday before class, and he would talk about new terms that would be on our midterm and final the Tuesday and Thursday before the exam date. It’s difficult to study terms when you have not learned them yet, and, in my opinion, a little unfair to test us on terms we learned less than 7 days ago. To sum it up, I did not like this course. The Bruinwalk reviews made the class seem easy, but it was much more difficult than anticipated. Posner assigns many readings and often introduces 2-4 new terms per lecture. Although this class is labeled as a Methods and Models course, it is more of an International Relations course. If you like IR courses, then you will like this course. If you don’t like IR courses, you will probably not enjoy this class.
Spring 2024 - I did not like this class. The content itself was okay (although confusing at times), but I did not like how he taught. He uses slides, but only for images; in other words, he does not have words on his slides, and you are required to listen to him lecture for an hour and fifteen minutes straight. At some point, you are bound to doze off during an hour and fifteen minute lecture, and when you stop listening for only a minute, it’s hard to figure out where you are in the lecture. Obviously, this is subjective, and some people may like how Posner teaches. Personally, I just do not do well with straight listening, so I didn’t have the best time. Aside from that, you can tell that Posner is a good guy and very clearly loves to teach. Here’s the grading breakdown: MIDTERM ONE: worth 25% of your grade. The first midterm is an in-class bluebook exam where you identify 6 terms. Basically, Posner wants you to say what the term is and the importance of the term in the context of the course. Posner will provide a list of roughly 30-40 terms a week before the exam and you will study the terms on that list. On the exam day, Posner hands out a paper with 8 terms on it. Of those 8 terms, you pick 6 terms and identify them. MIDTERM TWO: worth 25% of your grade. The second midterm is given a week after the first midterm. This midterm is a take home essay and is supposed to be around 5 pages. Posner will post a prompt, and you have 30 hours to complete the midterm. FINAL: worth 35% of your grade. A 50-question multiple choice scantron exam. 2/3 of the questions involve content from the second half of the quarter, and 1/3 of questions involve content from the first half of the quarter. PLEASE NOTE — Posner changed the exam format, given that our TAs were striking. Originally, the final exam was going to be a bluebook exam where we were to identify 4-5 terms (similar to the first midterm), answer 2 short answer questions, and answer 1 essay question. If you take this class, you will most likely NOT have the multiple choice final exam; you will probably have the bluebook exam that was originally scheduled before the strike ensued. PARTICIPATION AND ATTENDANCE: worth 15% of your grade. This grade depends on your TA. My TA, Paul Bahk, graded this with 10% being actual attendance and 5% being if you participated in the discussion sections. The participation and attendance split will vary depending on your TA. My biggest complaint about this class was that when Posner gave out the midterm and final terms, a lot of the terms were ones we hadn’t gone over yet. Our classes were Tuesdays and Thursdays, so he would post the terms list on BruinLearn/Canvas on the Tuesday before class, and he would talk about new terms that would be on our midterm and final the Tuesday and Thursday before the exam date. It’s difficult to study terms when you have not learned them yet, and, in my opinion, a little unfair to test us on terms we learned less than 7 days ago. To sum it up, I did not like this course. The Bruinwalk reviews made the class seem easy, but it was much more difficult than anticipated. Posner assigns many readings and often introduces 2-4 new terms per lecture. Although this class is labeled as a Methods and Models course, it is more of an International Relations course. If you like IR courses, then you will like this course. If you don’t like IR courses, you will probably not enjoy this class.
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