While Professor Sherrer is an overall great professor, be prepared for a large sum of commitment and reading in this class. He argues that due to the lack of a discussion section, course material is supplementally taught through assigned readings and articles. Your overall grade is made up of an essay, midterm, and final exam, which is honestly somewhat difficult. All in all, the class is great if you're someone super interested in the content of the way the media shapes elections, however don't take this class if you're looking for an easy poli sci upper div or don't have the time to fully commit to the course.

I took this class in the Winter of 2023, and would not take him again. He seemed nice at the beginning/middle but that changed. This class is made up of 3 homework assignments, midterm, and final (both online w/ 40 minutes each). First, the averages on the homework were good, and everyone did fairly well through the course. Second, the midterm was nice where the average was a 90%. Lastly, once everyone got to the final, the entire class average went down.
In my honest opinion, Prof. Sherrer seemed peeved at the fact that students did well on the midterm, without showing up to in person classes. He then made the final more difficult and then made the class average go from a 90% on the midterm to a B- on the final. Talking to classmates, I heard that many had a solid A to A+ grade, and many dropped to a B+; some even B-, or C+. By the way, these students are not slackers. So overall, my takeaway from this class is stay consistent with notes, for midterm/final review cumulatively even when he tells you to predominately "study week 6-10" (he snuck in content from week 4), and lastly try to go to every single class as he does also get peeved with low in-person attendance. He likes to sneak in specific info into his multiple choice questions so they aren't like broad questions at times; he references graphs.
In a nice way of putting it, is that he takes himself too seriously and felt like this exam was mean't to lower grades. From a classmates experience, I don't know how someone can go from a 98% to a B- or C+. He did not curve the exam or even try to help student's that were consistent. Talking with previous students, I found out that this isn't the first time he has gotten angry at people for not showing up to class since the zoom is intended for colds/emergencies. I think people not showing up in person (even though he had the zoom option) made him peeved; sometimes even shading students on the zoom call. So my best advise is go in person. I went in person just to minimize damage for the final but that didn't help...only like 15-20 students showed up at most. Just take good notes and put effort in.

BUT don't give him the benefit of the doubt that he will be nice, take feedback on why some of his questions are bad, or curve the grades.

I enjoyed taking this course with Professor Sherrer. He always seemed passionate about discussing the topics of each of our lectures. I recommend going to office hours early in the course and continuously asking for guidance during the course to make sure you are staying on track. Exams are exactly based on the lectures and readings provided. My only issue with this class was asking for office hours to go over an assignment and being marked down even further down on the assignment. Try to stay on the professor's good side, because he will not hesitate to mark points down on student assignments.

Very interesting class. It was mainly focused on political polarization and less on actual campaigning. I feel like the course could have addressed the latter a bit more and maybe give insight on different campaign styles, successful ads, and more practical electoral campaign knowledge. Every lecture was recorded. Professor was very chill and overall the course is insightful without being stressful.

Midterm exam: 30%
Written assignment: 20%
Homework assignment: 10%
Final Exam: 40%

Sherrer is a funny, interesting guy and a great professor. This class has one midterm, one writing assignment (short), one homework assignment (very short), and one final. Both tests are multiple choice and short answer. No textbook, all readings are posted on the website. This class is so enjoyable, I wish I could take it again and would definitely recommend it to all.

Sherrer is one of those professors where their passion for the topic shines through their lectures.

Class is comprised of readings usually about 30 pages a week, and readings are due before class. They are a good primer for what the professor is going to be talking about that day. The readings are actually interesting and are helpful in understanding the course, so don't skip them.

The grade is comprised of a midterm, written assignment, infographic assignment, and the final. As long as you pay attention in class, take good notes, and do the readings accordingly you should have no problem getting A's on the tests. As for the written assignment, this is a time when you should meet with Sherrer during his office hours, in order to get the best grade possible.

Sherrer always tried to make his slides engaging, whether it be through memorable campaign ads or Taylor Swift quotes. This is a professor who cares about the material he teaches, and overall this is a wonderful class to take if you are a poli sci major.

He is a genuinely good person and very helpful. He wants you to think about your future after graduating and provides resources to help you find a career/next steps. I would definitely take a class with him again!

One of the best POL SCI classes I've taken at UCLA so far. The main thing for me was that the content was engaging and I learned a lot of interesting things in this course. My only qualm was that this class was too early in the morning... ha!

This class is great if you just need something simple to ease your workload. Attendance is not mandatory nor necessary to ace the class. There are only three assignments, and they can be completed very quickly in one sitting.

This class was great and very interesting. Thomas Sherrer is a great lecturer and has really well prepared slides. He knew a lot about this subject and made his lectures interesting and did tell some pretty solid jokes. Overall, he was great but he is pretty slow on returning grades (it's just him and a couple of graders for the whole class so I don't blame him). Overall, there were four assignments total which comprised your grade. The two projects were pretty easy to do fine on and graded very kindly. The Party Platform assignment was definitely a little difficult because it had to include a lot of information, but still be short (200 words a section x 4 sections). The infographic was basically a free 10% on your final grade. The midterm and final weren't too difficult but there were some pretty specific questions on there which made them harder than they should have been. Overall, I recommend this for an upper div poli sci.