NO. DO NOT TAKE. I took this class my first year, second quarter as a GE and it was the worst mistake of my life. Professor Thies is the most confusing and in my opinion, most boring lecturer in the history of the world. This class consisted of recorded lectures twice a week (Monday and Wednesday). Monday was asynchronous and by 11 am we had to have watched the recorded lectures and done a lecture quiz and read all the material and done notes so we could do well on the reading quiz as well. Often times it wouldn't matter if you'd completed extensive notes on the lectures and readings because the questions were so difficult and obscure that there was no way to make an informed decision. Wednesday was the same as Monday but we also have to go in person to "Wednesday Live" where Thies expands on some topic and basically rambles on and on, all while expecting participation and discussion. After class he would post a prompt about something said during Wednesday Live and if you weren't in attendance you weren't even allowed to attempt a response even though you need 5/9 attended for a possible 10 points. The grade scale was the most confusing thing ever and even the TAs could offer little guidance as to what Thies was talking about. My TA (Michael Simpson) was super helpful, though, and really worked to make sure we understood everything. He offered so much help and as much advice as he could and was probably the only reason I understood any single topic in the class. The overall themes and materials were interesting, but Thies makes the class so unbearable you'll wish you would have dropped when you had the chance and would have taken literally ANY OTHER CLASS. Please, for the love of god, do not take this class if you want to end the quarter with any shroud of mental stability or even a piece of your soul left in tact. The essays, which make up a large chunk of the overall grade are difficult beyond belief increasingly so, and take SO much time (combined over 30 HOURS OF STRAIGHT WORK for only 3 essays). For only 3 essays, that's quite literally INSANE!! They also had really weird turn in times of noon - why not 11:59 like a normal person??? I cannot warn against this class enough. DO YOURSELF A FAVOR AND DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE EVEN CONSIDER THIS CLASS. STAY AWAY!!!!!!!

Micheal Thies is a silly little man who hates students. SAVE YOURSELF!!!!! Everything in this class is beyond difficult for no reason. RUN AWAY AND KEEP YOURSELF SANE. Will be checking into a mental institution after this class. If you take this class as a GE you're just as silly as professor. Bad. Very bad. The material is interesting but it is not worth your time I promise you.

Definitely the hardest pre req I had to take as a Pol Sci major. Way too much work for a lower div. There were weekly lecture and reading quizzes (usually 2 each) and a weekly response paper. No midterm but three big project type essays and a final. The worst part about this class was how confusing the grading was. Thies graded quizzes on a flattened curve (which I won’t explain here but it’s just annoying) which actually ended up helping me but the entire quarter you never really knew what your grade was because Bruin learn couldn’t compute the correct percentages and stuff. I took this with three other classes and I was slammed. The only thing that kept me going was how interesting it was. Wouldn’t recommend if you’re looking for an easy GE or easy A. Far better options out there.

Bad. Listen to the reviews. So bad. Very bad.

Do not take this as a GE. I took this as a GE to see what Polisci was like and I hated it. The work is very difficult and the grading is super harsh.

The content from the lectures and readings themselves were actually fun to learn and easy to understand. However, when the professor applies real-world concepts (and there were A LOT OF THEM), everything becomes incredibly complex. I remembered asking the professor for clarity pertaining to some concept and he replied by asking me a question that I did not know the answer to; he made me rewatch the video lecture to figure it out. I'm glad that my TA was able to help me understand the concepts applied to a real-world setting, but I still struggled. Even though I took 70+ notes for the class, I didn't do too well on some reading quizzes, I didn't do too well on the midterm, and I definitely did not do well on the 3 papers. I believe I got 1 C and 2 Ds. The extra credit assignments were somewhat helpful. I was kinda surprised that I passed the class. Overall the course itself is not too bad, but, again, the professor made everything complex to fully understand the course. DM me (via email: *************) if you need reading and lecture notes for the class. They are $6 each. I still have my 3 papers for anyone that needs reference for WHAT NOT TO DO. They are $4 each.

I first need to talk about participation. It's worth a total of 15% of the total grades. He expects you to talk every second during discussions. For those people, who just don't have a good conversation and are shy this is a total nightmare. I talked at least 4-5 times each discussion bringing up ideas and points but still ended up getting an 80% on the participation section. Attendance is mandatory! There are always at least 50-80 pages of reading each week alone with 1hr and a half lecture videos, in order to score an A on the quizzes. There are 3 papers and it's very tedious work. I don't recommend it if you don't have to take the class.

Don't take this class.

This is without a doubt the absolute worst class that I have taken in my three years at UCLA. The workload gives me the thought that Theis truly does not consider other potential classes one might be taking and the grading is some of the harshest I have seen for any class. Nobody got above a C during the 2019 Fall Quarter Final. This is not indicative of an issue within the students, but rather the professor. The papers given to you throughout the course require more time than what is given to complete with the several hours if not days of research and then articulation of said information, and the midterms make you question whether youve actually been learning what you're supposed to in this class. I cannot say I have had a negative experience with Theis, he has always been a stand up guy when I've interacted with him, despite the fact I hate this class with a burning passion. AVOID THIS CLASS AT ALL COSTS, IT IS NOT WORTH THE SAKE OF YOUR MENTAL HEALTH AND SANITY.

Idek where to start, but this is one of the hardest classes I have taken at UCLA. I'm a stem major and took this as a GE, but Professor Thies purposely makes some questions on tests or essays extremely challenging in order to make sure that the kids who get A's KNOW the subject. As an introductory class, this should not be case. It should introduce topics that aren't to crazy to comprehend, but by Thies structuring activities this way, he makes it very hard to do well. I wouldn't take this class as a GE