This class sucked the soul out of my life. Please think twice before taking this class, especially if you think it will be an Easy A for a polisci upper div fulfillment. The class consists of a midterm 30% final 30% paper (15 pages) 30% and participation/attendance in discussion 10%. This professor assigned about 5-6 books that you have to read throughout the quarter.. 10 WEEKS!! Which is insanely a lot especially if you have other classes you need to focus on. The midterm consists of 4 questions that you need to write a page - 2 pages about. He gives you the midterm and final questions upfront. For the midterm he gives you 15 questions that YOU NEED TO STUDY and he only chooses 4!!! So basically you need to study 15 one page and half to answer the questions that he will choose and for the final he gives you 20 questions that you need to study and again he only chooses 4 which he ONLY gives you an hour and 15 minutes to complete !! The final is hectic especially since there is a book you need to read to start writing your 15 page paper, and the book is a graduate level book which is SO difficult to comprehend. So meanwhile you have to study the 20-25 pages for the final, you also have to get started on your paper because its due a week before your final. No matter how much I read the books, attended class, studied the midterm/final -- I was ALWAYS behind. I would not recommend this class to my friends nor would I ever take a class with him again. Yeaaahhh, he was passionate with the way he taught and provided his lecture slides on CCLE, it was REALLY hard to keep up with this polisci class especially when my other polisci classes required me to write papers/study for tests as well!!! Please do yourself a favor and find another polisci class to fulfill your requirements. I took this class because the reviews seemed doable and I thought since I have the midterm/final questions upfront, I'll be okay. BUT I studied my ASSS off and literally did shitty and so did a lot of my friends, so SAVE YOURSELF because it is going to take SO much of your time to do this class (you will not have a social life, especially if you are taking other polisci class too)!

Class really isn't that bad everyone is just complaining. The readings aren't needed to do well in the class- which is the bulk of the work. Just listen to the lectures and participate in the discussiosn and you will be fine.

I definitely feel like this is one of the best professors in the UCLA Political Science department, the content is definitely dense and there are hundreds of slides each lecture, but you will learn something important and it is not hard to get an A. Professor James is one of the kindest people Ive ever met, and is super thoughtful. Months after the class ended he sent me emails with links to articles he thought might be of interest to me after talking about the subject in office hours during the course. I would 100% recommend this class, it will give you a great college experience, and you will learn some great stuff!

Although this class was challenging, I did enjoy taking it. Prof James is extremely knowledgeable and passionate. He read directly from the slides and went through over 100 slides per class so a lot of content was covered. He gives potential midterm and final exam questions to study but only chooses 5 of them. You are also required to write a 15-page final exam so the class is definitely a lot to take on. Ryan was my TA and was extremely helpful and honest with his students. Don't take if you don't want to put a lot of effort into this class.

Professor James is a very knowledgeable professor who knows an impressively vast amount of information related to the course. This issue I have found personally is the amount that he expects us to understand as students. He goes through his slides incredibly fast while also covering very complex topics full of jargon. Oftentimes, several classes would go over the allotted time just to cover all the concepts. The midterm and final are incredibly dense and have been the most challenging that I've experienced in the Political Science department thus far. The expectation is to memorize an outline that we could write about 1-1.5 pages for based on 15 unique questions on the study guide, with 4 questions being randomly chosen when we take the exam in person. Each "question" was composed of sometimes up to 5 different parts, about a paragraph each just to read. Essentially, if you have any type of commitment that takes a majority of your time and cannot recall your answers for all 15 questions, the final is based on how lucky you are to get the questions you're most familiar with. In my personal opinion, if you cannot attend and pay 100% attention in every single class or read at least a majority of the readings, then the amount expected to recall is simply not manageable. On top of that, for the final, he is requiring a 15 page essay due a mere 4 days before our in-person final. According to my Political Science PhD candidate TA, the reading that it is based on is very challenging and took them five to six re-reads to understand. Conceptually, the class is interesting and there are some really intriguing themes related to the Presidency. However, in my opinion, the expectations he places on us are far too high especially when compared to all the other Political Science classes I've taken which have all been manageable.

This class was tough for me I cannot lie. Midterm, Final, and a 15 page final research paper that made me regret signing up for the class. I will say it is nice that there are no surprises in the class as he gives all 15 midterm/final questions up front and chooses 4 at random. He also is pretty organized with lots of slides and records lectures. Your midterm/final responses are timed and in person. They are generally a page and half for each question as there multiple parts to each question and you have to provide a very comprehensive answer with historical examples for each one. Memorizing everything was a bit challenging for me but doable. The paper is where I really struggled as it’s based off a book that I thought was hella dense and so boring. I have never spent so much time on a paper, definitely utilize your TA’s office hours to make sure you’re on the right track. By far hardest class this quarter but if this is interesting to you and you are able to memorize a lot of content and write fast for the midterm/final go for it I guess lol.

Great class!! I loved this professor; he was very kind, approachable, and taught with a lot of clarity. His lectures were straightforward and I definitely found the material to be valuable. I enjoyed this class a lot, although it did require decent effort as there are two exams, and a 15 page paper. Go to office hours!

One of the best UCLA professors by far. Very kind, approachable, lectures are clear and concise, you can tell he is very passionate about what he is teaching. TA’s are also great! Overall, I would take this class again. One tip is to stay caught up on the readings, pay attention to lectures, and manage your time well. The research paper was 15 pages so pretty long and did take a while to complete but he gives you a generous amount of time to finish it. Additionally, he gives you the study guide for the midterm and final from the beginning of the quarter. Questions are slightly hard to answer but his office hours are very helpful. Overall, he is such an amazing professor which made the topics interesting. I learned a lot from his class!

Very straightforward class. Professor is very approachable and helpful. If you are looking for an easy pol sci class, take this one. A lot of reading ,but you don't really have to do it to pass.

Good amount of work, but it's manageable. I personally like the way he organizes exams (giving you questions in advance) but it does mean more studying. James is a good lecturer, and the class is very interesting.