There was a saying about Chwe my classmates had that I feel was appropriate. If material taught in class was like 1+1=2, then homework was calculus, and the exams were asking you to calculate the distance to mars in the unit of various fruits. Basically, he expects you to extrapolate the very basic framework taught in class to figure out very complicated problems, so most of the exams have very little to do with the questions given for homework/examples in class.

That being said, the class is not impossible and the class ranking system (which screwed me over personally) usually means the grade distribution is very generous. Basically, if the questions the TAs give are crazy, most students with miss it, and it all comes out in the wash.

As for the use of this class, which seems to come into question in many of these reviews, I thought the silly examples given were the professor's way of making light of some interesting concepts. Sure, no one thinks like the people in the questions, but the overall concept of thinking many turns ahead is used a great deal in strategic situations. Don't take this class too seriously, and you'll hate it less.

My TA was also not the best (she tried but had difficulties with Englsh) and I never went to office hours. I suggest you take advantage of the materials given on the class website and before exams do EVERY practice final and midterm. This gives you the ability to time yourself, and while the questions and difficulty of each exam varies greatly, by taking all of them you are more likely to be prepared for what is thrown at you on your day.

*Shrug* If you have to take it, take it if another lower division is also available, maybe take that one.

Game Theory was the most useless polisci class I have ever taken. I agree with the person below me. Chwe gave silly examples and I never understood how any of the material presented would ever relate to the real world.

There was weekly homework, which was pretty time consuming imo. The class is webcasted. Midterm was hard, so I decided to switch to p/np because there was no way I could have gotten an A or B by then. The class median for the midterm was 50%, which gives you a pretty good sense that a good chunk of the class didn't learn anything. I barely scraped by with a C towards the end.

Game theory sounded so interesting. But the first two weeks of lecture consisted of charts and tables of the silliest, most meaningless things that did not seem at all to pertain to anything educational. Finally, when Chwe started to get into game theory and teaching "strategy", I often wondered how anything he said pertained to real-world decision making, because really, who thinks of "playing A or playing B" simultaneously with another player? Or who calculates probability that somebody will do A over B? I guess that either way, some of what Chwe taught was interesting in its analytical viewpoint of decision-making. But when it comes down to it, I feel that I wasted a quarter on yet another class that sounded interesting but often felt like such a joke.

Chwe himself was just an okay professor. Much too often, he mumbled to himself, confused himself and the rest of the class, neglected to answer questions he didn't want to get too in depth with (probably because he wanted to lure us into taking the upper division version of this course), and shuffled around in front of the chalkboard deciding what of his numerical nonsense to erase. While he was extremely, annoyingly hesitant and inarticulate during lecture, he was always helpful during office hours. Just email him if you cannot meet him during regular office hour and he will gladly accommodate you. That was the one thing I liked about him.

He also has a very particular sense of humor in that most of his homework problems involve a boy stalking a girl that he likes, a girl choosing the boy with the Lamborghini, etc. It sometimes made me wonder if all the "games" he presented stemmed from his own experiences...

Anyway, back to the course itself... Homework (20%) was weekly (the first few assignments take a very long time, but the course goes on, the homework problems get fewer and less time-consuming). There is one midterm (20%) and one final (50%). Neither is difficult, but the midterm is almost impossible to finish on time because it's so long and you have only the regular classtime to do it. But that's why the final is worth so much more: you have much more time and almost the same number of problems. This quarter, he provided "midterm insurance": if you end up doing better on the final than midterm, the final grade will replace your midterm grade. However, if you do better on the midterm than final, nothing changes.

Lastly, I MUST speak of the T.A.'s. There were three, and two of them were absolutely HORRIBLE. Koo--he made me SO ANGRY. Twice in three weeks, he cancelled discussion without notice. Once was right after the midterm. The second time was right before the final (granted, he supposedly got sick this time). In discussion, he would ask fragmented questions and take a whole minute to process the simplest of questions we asked. He, too, was often reluctant to let out particular information. But one time, he did the opposite of that by drawing out a whole graph and number line, taking up 40 minutes of class, and finally telling us, "Oh, but you do not need to know any of this. Just know how to do the easy way." ... Seriously, though, every time he spoke, I couldn't help but roll my eyes. He is one of the two worst t.a.'s I have had thus far.

If you can pick your t.a., pick Danielson. I can't believe I didn't find him until two days before the final, during the review session he generously held. I sincerely think that he should be the professor instead. During the session, a guy behind me said, "I don't know if I should be glad about all this information, or mad about the rest of the class," meaning that this t.a. had wrapped up the entire PS30 course in two hours than the professor and the other t.a.'s did in 10 weeks.

TL;DR: Not a difficult class, but the professor/ t.a.'s get very frustrating. Patience recommended.

At least there's no textbook!

I couldn't agree more with the person below me. The material taught in class is basic, easy to understand for the most part. The exams are extremely difficult. The only material there really is to study comes from old exams, but that doesn't adequately help prepare for exams as they require deep understanding of the material which you can't get from simply having a few old exams (and homework) to study from. In and outside of class Chwe is nice, but I don't feel he helps us learn the material to the extent he expects us to know it. Overall, not a good experience.

I had a very horrible experience with this class but I am going to try and be as fair as possible in my review.
I didn't need this class and only took it to learn game theory for some upper division IR classes I was interested in. The reviews on bruin walk lead me to believe that this was a great class which would lead me to be successful as long as I put in the work. This was absolutely not the case and I am confused by the large amount of positive reviews because so many of my classmates were struggling just as I was. When the class starts out it seems like easy material with engaging lectures that include video clips to help you understand the material. However after a few weeks this class became my worst nightmare. There are homework assignments due every week which I always put hours and hours of work into. However, the issue is that the problems he puts on his homework and tests are much much much more difficult than any examples he does in class. He does the most easy and simple examples in class and then you get home to do homework and the problems have suddenly transformed into very large and complex problems. There is no book to help you and the class is so large that when you get lost its difficult to do anything about it. A lot of times I would watch the lectures over again on podcast but still it did not address what I was expected to do at home. I guess this is where the TA comes in but I had an absolutely horrible TA who could not explain the material to save his life. So this is where you take the gamble... the class really needs a good TA to fill in the gaps but if you are unlucky you may end up with one of the bad TAs. I don't know how Chwe is in office hours to be fair to the guy because I had class during his hours but I tried to go to my TAs office hours which was little to no help at all. The midterm was extremely difficult and a new concept which was to be on the test was introduced only one day before the exam. I feel the students who have reviewed the class in a positive light are probably better with math than me and many other students were. If you are a fast learner and ok with figuring out much of the class on your own then you will most likely be fine. However, if you are a student who needs clear explanations, examples of difficult material done in class and extra help this class could quickly become a problem for you. I honestly put in the time and the hard work but I just didn't feel as though I was offered enough resources to understand what we were expected to accomplish for the homework and tests. The class consists of a homework due every week worth 1 point, participation, a midterm, and a final. If you don't like math or building models I would stick to the other lower division poli sci classes rather than this one.

this was my first ps class at ucla, and i was very impressed by chwe. because there wasn't much to learn, he went very slow and asked if there were questions every five minutes. additionally, he reviews basically the past 2 or 3 lectures every time, so it's hard to forget things. as far as the material is concerned, it isn't very challenging. practice is the key to success in the class, so if you do the homework and a little additional studying for the midterm and final, you should be fine. also mentioned below is the generous curve. over 30% a's is unheard of! he gave 17 a+'s... that's not something you can complain about. if you have the chance, take chwe. he's been one of my favorite professors at ucla!

I don't know what the person below me is complaining about. Yes, the midterm and final are challenging and WILL take you the entire time. But the class is curved very generously; in fact, 48 out of 147 people in the Fall 2008 class got A- or better, which is over 30% of the class. 32/147 got A or above, over 20%.

That being said, Chwe is not the most engaging lecturer and comes off as quite the nerd. He does use video clips to illustrate class concepts so maybe that will help you stay awake. There is no textbook for his class; all the material comes from lecture, and he does post the lecture slides online, but you should definitely attend and be attentive to succeed. He also posted old midterms and finals along with answer keys to help you prepare for the exams. The class is graded based on participation, homework, midterm, and final. Homework is pretty much a 100% if you complete it and turn it in because for Chwe, the point of the homework is not to stress out over what grade you get, but in order to practice the problems and learn the concepts. There are actually not that many concepts to learn in the class so the only way to really review is just to do problems, and Chwe gives you plenty of optional practice problems in order to study for the midterm/final.

P.S. The TA the person below me is referring to is probably Koji, he wrote the most ridiculous questions for the midterm and final...

I would not recommend this teacher for my worst enemy. Learning the material was not bad, but takin his midterm was so difficult. It was 4 questions for an 1hr. 15mins, and each question had about 4 parts each which you have to think about before you start them, and then show all work for each part. The questions were made by the TA's and each TA graded their own question, that seemed fair, but the questions they put on the test were unbeleivably difficult. A lot of people I know did not finish the exam, and there seemed to be problems with one of the TA's questions which may have had to deal with the fact that he could barely speak english. The final, very difficult and long. The final takes the full 3hrs so do not think it will take you 2hrs, 1hr 30mins, no it will take the full 3hrs and even then you are still rushing at the end. He is horrible at teaching, I feel that he is not trying to teach students but he is trying to trick them by making the material as difficult as possible. I understand when a teacher wants you to understand the concept and apply it to questions, but when your not such a great teacher you cant do that.