:( don't take this class if you're not motivated to work your butt off! I ended up dropping. Quizzes aren't hard however the midterm and 2nd midterm are too hard! The first midterm is graded pretty easily but the 2nd one is graded a lot harsher! His lectures put me to sleep! I dropped his class last quarter so it wouldn't ruin my grade...I had a 3.61 without that class. If you're not a poly sci major don't take it! Take another g.e.! The reading was a ridiculous amount. I'm sure he's a pretty knowledgeable professor, but if you don't have any interest in politics don't take it.

I disagree with many other reviews about Thies. I took his class the first quarter of my freshman year. I'm not a Poli Sci major (although I do like the subject) and I managed an A.

At first I was overwhelmed because of all of the negative reviews and the first week of heavy reading and weird quizzes. But it didn't take long to figure out this class.. here's what I recommend to anyone taking PS 50 with Thies:

Do the assigned reading before class (even just skimming and reading only the pages he notes as especially important). Midterm and final material comes almost exclusively from lecture, but I found it most effective to see what he talked about in lecture that was ALSO in the book and really focus on those things before tests.

Tests are essay questions where he asks a question and wants a very specific answer. Grading is tough (second midterm average was a 56) but the curve is generous.

Besides textbook reading, there is also a course reader and a lot of articles from the Economist. I opted to not buy the course reader (you only use it a few times and there is a reserve in the library). The weekly quizzes in section are based heavily on Economist articles, not textbook. Some quizzes were very specific, so if you're serious about doing well on these, refresh the week's articles before section.

Lectures are LONG (almost 2 hours) but towards the end of the quarter he starts letting us out earlier which was nice! It is kind of hard to sit through that long of a lecture, but Thies is very very smart and overall I enjoyed listening to him. Bland slides, outdated examples, but the most important thing is that he won't ask anything on a test that he hasn't talked about in lecture.

This was a really long review but I hope it helps! Overall, very effective professor. He may not be the friendliest and most approachable or exciting man, but I learned a lot.

THIS CLASS IS THE HARDEST GE I'VE EVER EXPERIENCED. OH MY. I gave it an average effort and ended up with a B-. The tests seemed easy, but he grades EXTRA hard. The only positive thing of the class is that he curves grades in the end. Pretty sure an A was 75%+. Do not take this class if you don't have a passion for political science.

Thies is a harsh grader so the test scores are really low, but it's not a big deal because he curves everyone's grades in the end so about 25% of the class gets an A.

DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS

General Review: The material isn't hard to master, however he grades from a "zero scale." This means that if he asks you a question—no matter how correct your answer is—if you do not put precisely what he has on the rubric that he gives his TA's, then the TA's can't give you full credit. You can slide by with a low B or C if you study really hard, but he hardly gives any A's. This was in large part because so many people dropped the class after the first or second midterm, so that by the time the final rolled around, there was a good 35% (could've been more actually) that had dropped, meaning the low end of the bell curve had been eliminated, thus justifying him giving people lower grades.

If you don't absolutely have to take this class, DON'T!!!

Logistics:
- 10% - Weekly 5 Question Quizzes (1-2 are dropped): These are written by the TA's and tend to be very convoluted. If you read, you may get 5 out of 5...but you may only get a 1 or 2 out of 5. Other weeks you might not read at all and get a 4 or 5 out of 5. It's nonsense.
- 40% - 2 Midterms: These are comprised of short answer and essay. DO NOT pace yourself when taking these tests, otherwise you won't have time to finish. Know your information and know everything possible he ever says about it. Know the grid he gives you on the 5 countries (and pay attention when he talks about Japan's government and its upper and lower houses).
- 40% - Final: Study hard and don't expect a stellar grade. He'll send grades out within the following two weeks after which you're going to go WOW I really should have listened to that BruinWalk review and taken this class next quarter with O'Neil (or anyone else) instead.
- 10% - Participation: You absolutely must attend every section AND make sure to talk because you can't expect any of Theis' TA's to give you a full 10% for just showing up to section, or trying to make up for it by going to office hours.
- Lecture: You really do need to either go to all lectures or do all the readings, you can't slide by half-assing either of them. Lecture notes are all you need to do well on the tests. Readings you need to do to be prepared for quizzes. They are mutually excusive, so if you don't care about the quiz portion of your grade, then you don't need to read (honestly if you just pay attention in lecture, you can get by without reading, as far as quizzes are concerned).
- Required texts: He wants you to buy his course reader ($75) and his book ($40 online copy that you can print—about that much for a hard copy from amazon). You need the course reader if you want to do all the readings for quizzes, however—unless you're a complete polisci idiot—the secondary book is a waste of money; googling what you don't know will be easier anyway.

DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS

General Review: The material isn't hard to master, however he grades from a "zero scale." This means that if he asks you a question—no matter how correct your answer is—if you do not put precisely what he has on the rubric that he gives his TA's, then the TA's can't give you full credit. You can slide by with a low B or C if you study really hard, but he hardly gives any A's. This was in large part because so many people dropped the class after the first or second midterm, so that by the time the final rolled around, there was a good 35% (could've been more actually) that had dropped, meaning the low end of the bell curve had been eliminated, thus justifying him giving people lower grades.

If you don't absolutely have to take this class, DON'T!!!

Logistics:
- 10% - Weekly 5 Question Quizzes (1-2 are dropped): These are written by the TA's and tend to be very convoluted. If you read, you may get 5 out of 5...but you may only get a 1 or 2 out of 5. Other weeks you might not read at all and get a 4 or 5 out of 5. It's nonsense.
- 40% - 2 Midterms: These are comprised of short answer and essay. DO NOT pace yourself when taking these tests, otherwise you won't have time to finish. Know your information and know everything possible he ever says about it. Know the grid he gives you on the 5 countries (and pay attention when he talks about Japan's government and its upper and lower houses).
- 40% - Final: Study hard and don't expect a stellar grade. He'll send grades out within the following two weeks after which you're going to go WOW I really should have listened to that BruinWalk review and taken this class next quarter with O'Neil (or anyone else) instead.
- 10% - Participation: You absolutely must attend every section AND make sure to talk because you can't expect any of Theis' TA's to give you a full 10% for just showing up to section, or trying to make up for it by going to office hours.
- Lecture: You really do need to either go to all lectures or do all the readings, you can't slide by half-assing either of them. Lecture notes are all you need to do well on the tests. Readings you need to do to be prepared for quizzes. They are mutually excusive, so if you don't care about the quiz portion of your grade, then you don't need to read (honestly if you just pay attention in lecture, you can get by without reading, as far as quizzes are concerned).
- Required texts: He wants you to buy his course reader ($75) and his book ($40 online copy that you can print—about that much for a hard copy from amazon). You need the course reader if you want to do all the readings for quizzes, however—unless you're a complete polisci idiot—the secondary book is a waste of money; googling what you don't know will be easier anyway.

HARDEST CLASS EVER! Thies rambles for almost two hours in class twice a week. the book isn't much help either. the best thing to do is go to class and take good lecture notes...and that's torture because he's sooo boring. I barely made a B in his class and I studied extremely hard for the whole quarter. if you need an introductory class for your major TAKE ONE OF THE OTHER PROFESSORS AND NOT THIS ONE!

Professor Thies is a good teacher. It is true that he might be arrogant and think that his is the only class that you are taking, but trust me, he gives you the tools to do well. His class was interesting but sometimes it got boring and the readings are LONG. It was torture reading until 3 am but it paid off and I got an A. Just take good notes. And by good notes I don't mean writing down everything he says, because most of it is useless, I mean writing down the tradeoffs of everything he mentions. Because everything in that class is about knowing the tradeoffs. As for the TA's get sebastian and never marcos. He was a gay little twirt (marcos). Just read, go to class, and try going to those review sessions...
It is not an easy class but then again it is very good

Professor Thies is a pretty interesting lecturer but at times I was confused by how each topic related to the others. Sometimes lectures got a bit scattered, but for the most part he followed the given outline. I ended up doing pretty well in the class so here's my advice:
1. Go to every lecture and take good notes. Every test question was at some point mentioned in class.
2. Try to get Sebastian as your TA. He went over the major concepts in a very organized and simplified way.
3. Do the reading. I focused more on the articles and less on the e-book because that was what helped on the weekly reading quizzes.
4. Remember, the whole point of this class is to compare political decisions and institutions. Therefore, focus your attention on any tradeoffs Thies mentions in class. Make sure you know all the pros and cons of the major concepts because that is what the test will ask you about.

VERY HARD GRADER!! the class consists of two midterms and a final. He gives weekly quizzes in section which consists of the smallest details in the readings . The average in both of the midterms for my class was around 50%. In the end he curves the grades, but dont expect this class to be an easy A. The lectures, can be dull if you are not interested in the subject, yet are extremely important so I wouldn't recommend to miss much.