I took Professor Branstetter's Pre-Modern and Modern East Asian Political Thought classes and they were my absolute favourite! The content is really unique and Professor Branstetter is the kindest and most caring. He teaches us so much more than just work - about life! I always looked forward to his classes, even the 8ams, and that says a lot. :)
Overall, I definitely recommend!!!! You really CANNOT leave UCLA as a poli-sci major without this amazing, eye-opening class.

This is class was by far one of my favorite classes to take in my entire college experience no doubt. A really interesting, mind opening, and illuminating class to take for any grade, especially Seniors!

Such an amazing class. If you're a Pol Sci major you should at least try to take one of Branstetter's courses because they're so engaging and relatively straight-forward. That said, I think it's time to dispel the myth that he's super easy. The workload was really pretty nice (dense readings at time but not bad compared to some other PS classes) but you had to read every single thing to pull off an A. The exams were pretty generously graded but there was no clearly defined rubric unless you went to his office hours after exam grades were returned. I ended up saying everything I knew about a topic within the frame of the question in my own words, and at times even that wasn't enough. I feel like you have very little way of knowing what is really asked of you; that said, the point penalty for coming up short on the expectations is pretty light. On the other hand, his lectures were among some of the best I've had in my time as an undergrad. Always efficiently timed, always engaging, always easily digestible, always interactive, even during Zoom. The quizzes were really not bad, and dare I say even a grade boost? I'd take a class with him again.

I took professor Branstetter's Pre-Modern Asian political theory class and although the material itself was engaging, and he was a really awesome lecturer, the exams were not it. There was two exams that he only graded on so you had to make sure to ace them or else your grade was doomed. The readings were also extremely long and challenging, like I kid you not I read most of them and it took me weeks to actually finish them in their entirety. I do like the exams were open note and unlimited tries, but he and his graders take forever to grade them, leaving you with minimal time to actually be able to rewrite them. I somehow got a good grade in the class by simply doing the readings and reviewing the lectures and powerpoint slides, but god the readings made me 1000% stressed.

Overall, 119 with Branstetter was an easy and very manageable class. Lectures were recorded and honestly you didn't need to watch them every day. The grade structure was simple: 50% was your midterm and 50% was your final. However, both were take home short answer exams that you could answer by rewatching lectures and using your notes. We were also allowed to (in theory) retake them as many times as we wanted until we got the grade we wanted. While this sounds nice, the grader took so long to grade that the most resubmissions I knew of anyone being able to do was just two per exam. I believe in the end most people did get an A, but there was a bit of stress in the uncertainty.

Branstetter is extremely knowledgeable in his field and is a super engaging lecturer. You can tell he truly cares about student understanding and our success, and he is super kind. The only issue I had with the class was the grading resubmissions, but I would still take this class again in a heartbeat.

You do not need to go to class. Grade is based off of 1 midterm and final. You can redo the midterm and final to get the score you want. I recommend you do show up though, he is a nice guy who likes the company. Make sure to watch his slides/lecture videos that he records for the midterm and lecture. 9/10 (he lost 2 point bc I was mad core stressing about whether my edits on the exam was right, but he gains a point back bc he was willing to walk me through what I needed help with).

First time leaving a review here. I'd say Professor John Branstetter is the man. He is not the typical "professor" you would expect in college. What he's talking about in this class is more like life lessons rather than difficult academic stuff. You won't have to memorize a lot of professional terms. But you learn how to be a good person and how to live a happier life. Other than that, he gave three exams, the first two were short-answer type of questions and the final was essay-style. It was not hard at all, what you need to do is to explain the main concepts he taught in lectures "in your own words."

Branstetter is a great professor and a genuinely nice guy. If you are looking for an interesting and relatively easy political science course I highly recommend his courses.

Being a student which hates the density that is associated with political theory, and theory in general I was skeptical of taking a course like this. However, Professor Branstetter is quite literally the best in the department and simplifies something so complex with pop culture references and analogies. I didn't quite know what to expect when I enrolled besides the fact that he has a reputation as an engaging lecturer, boy did he live up to that and more! He even records lectures still, without any more COVID protocols and made our midterms and final take home exams! We had two midterms, one on week 4 and another on week 8, with a final due at the end of finals week. Very manageable workload, and easy to review considering he posts the lectures. Branstetter is so inspiring and a pure joy to learn from in class every day. If you get the chance to take his class, I highly recommend it because you will come out of it with respect for political theory or even with more adoration for it than you had before!

After four years at UCLA, I can confidently state that Professor Branstetter is the best professor I have ever had at UCLA. He truly has a talent for seamlessly breaking down historical events and relaying important concepts in an easily comprehendible manner. Although I often find learning history or political theory to be relatively dull, Professor Branstetter does an incredible job of making his lectures interesting and keeping his students engaged.
The framework for the class is as follows:
7 short quizzes (2 of the lowest scores are dropped) - I can not emphasize enough how simple and straightforward the quizzes are, if you watch the lectures you will easily get a 100% on all of them
1 midterm and 1 final - both of which essentially require you to regurgitate the information you have learned in your own words; the professor mainly wants to see that you have learned the important concepts and are able to explain them in your own ways
Overall, I would recommend Professor Branstetter and any of his courses to every student at UCLA