TAKE THIS CLASS! I am a sophomore now and I took this my first quarter at UCLA as a GE and I loved it. Honestly, the grading depends on your TA for the paper assignment, but Professor Min is so engaging and you can tell that he really does care about making your experience in this class as enjoyable as possible!

Professor Min is the best professor I've had at UCLA (edit: this review still stands almost a full year after I took this class). He is incredibly knowledgeable and very skilled at conveying course material in an engaging way that makes you genuinely like the class content a lot. He has a great sense of humor and utilizes it during lectures. There is a short 10-15 question quiz at the end of each week. These were super easy as they are online, you have the entire weekend to complete it, and once you start the quiz, you have 40 minutes for it (you can finish it in 10 if you paid any attention in lecture). The bulk of the class grade comes from a final research paper which you submit a proposal for around halfway through the quarter. The topic of the paper is always some important contemporary event in international relations. When I took the class (Fall 2021), it was about what the US could have done differently in Afghanistan. The previous time this class was offered with Prof Min (Fall 2020), the topic was North Korean denuclearization. It's 6–7 pages, but you have basically the whole second half of the quarter to do it. I didn't find it hard at all, but it was interesting nonetheless. Prof Min is a standout educator, and this class is really fun and interesting without being very difficult. A great class I'd recommend for freshmen, especially Poli Sci majors (seeing as this is a major pre-req, it's a good one to take early). I knew south campus students who took it as a GE as well and they enjoyed it and got As in it as well. Highly recommend.

I absolutely loved this class. The professor is a fantastic lecturer and the units were super interesting (at least for someone who loves political science). His slides are very clear and so are his explanations. I went to class every time and took diligent notes. He posts the recording and slides! I had an online quiz every week. If you actually understand the topic, the quizzes will be fine. I usually got a 13-15/15. I never once read the textbook. We had one big paper that was worth 50% of our grade. I worked very, very hard on it and got a 90%. I think an A in this class is very feasible if you put in the work.

Professor Min is hands down one of the most clear and engaging lecturers I have encountered at UCLA so far. The format of the class includes a final paper but NO midterm and NO final. Weekly quizzes make up the rest of your grade, but they are very doable if you just go to the lectures. They are also open note/online so you really should really be able to do well on them. I would highly recommend this class if you are interested in politics or just wanting to take a fairly simple GE. You cannot go wrong with professor Min!

There were no tests in this class, just weekly quizzes which were online and open-note (no collaboration allowed). Super easy and most of the info you could find on the slides. Lectures were pretty helpful.

The big project was this essay worth 50% of our grade on a topic we didn't learn about. That was pretty stressful but I ended up receiving a 97 on it even though I felt like I didn't know what I was doing. The prompt was "What should the United States have done differently in Afghanistan, if anything?" and relating it to class concepts, and I felt overwhelmed because I knew nothing on the topic beforehand.

Professor Min is incredible. I looked forward to every one of his lectures and the content of the class itself is really interesting. He posts all his slides beforehand but leaves a couple small blanks in them that you fill out during lecture.

Here's how grades are weighed:
30% - weekly open note, take home quizzes that stay open from Friday to Tuesday but do have a time limit (lowest grade is dropped)
20% - section participation (my TA gave full credit for each section as long as you showed up and answered/asked at least one question)
50% - 5-6 page analysis paper (5% is guaranteed simply by submitting a proposal by the deadline, regardless of how good that proposal is)

Quizzes are very straightforward and based off the slides & lectures. Also, you are guided through the paper bit by bit with each section so it's really not that intimidating! There is also a clear rubric provided for it, so you know exactly what you need to do in order to get a good grade.

The textbook wasn't even necessary in my opinion because Professor Min covered all of the content clearly and concisely during lecture. It's great to read for some extra context though.

Overall, I would highly recommend this class. It was very manageable for me and it was my first quarter at UCLA!

amazing and super easy class!! the quizzes are easy and straightforward as long as you take good lecture notes. his lectures were super interesting. would 100% take another class with him

This will be one of the most organized classes you will take at UCLA. His lectures and slides are extremely clear, and funny, and he makes them interesting by using current-day examples and anecdotes. We had one quiz to do every week but they were pretty easy and it was just based on the slides. We had about 40-50 pages of reading every week but stopped doing them in Week 6 and I was perfectly fine. The readings just work to refresh your memory and provide more examples. The analysis paper was based on a very broad topic - the war with Afghanistan- and we were limited to 5-6 pages which imo is not enough at all; this topic is something you could write a book about. Regardless, the class was the best class I took this quarter and I am so sad to let it go :((

The one thing to watch out is the final paper which is worth like 40% of ur grade, just make sure u do decent on that and you'll be set. The quizzes aren't difficult but you have to make sure you are familiar with that week's lecture.

This was my favorite class this quarter, and undoubtedly a great introduction to the political science major as a freshman. Professor Min is all you want in a professor-- organized, kind, funny, caring. The workload was extremely light, just one quiz a week (open note). I was apprehensive at first about skipping the readings but I'm so glad I did, his slides are all you need. Plus, if you're ever feeling iffy about a quiz question, the textbook is free online for reference. The only difficult thing about this class was the paper worth 50% of your grade. Based on past reviews, it seems to always be about a current event that you have to apply class concepts to. This year's was about the Afghanistan conflict, which obviously required a large amount of research and time. My TA didn't give much feedback throughout the process either. I got an A on it though, so just make sure you spend enough time on it and start early (you get a lot of time to do it). I found it very gratifying in the end as I walked away with new knowledge and understanding on such an important topic. Overall, I'd highly recommend this class to anyone.