I really appreciate Professor Sherrer's method of giving a automatic 100 for participation for homework because it allows students to truly explore a topic and try something new without worrying about scrutinizing for perfect marks. Sherrer's recommendation and incentive to write handwritten notes for open notes is really smart. I personally enjoyed being away from my screen for once, and I was actively helping my future self by providing notes for the open note exam. I really enjoyed this course overall and hope to take another one of Sherrer's courses in the future.

grade breakdown:
discussion attendance: 10%, homework assignments: 10%, midterm exam: 25%, written assignment: 25%, final exam: 25%

class consisted of two homework assignments that felt incredibly relevant and were honestly quite enjoyable to research

my favorite class i've taken at UCLA so far, sherrer is a great lecturer and i feel as though everything i've learned is incredibly valuable, even if quite intuitive and maybe overexplained at times lol

discussions felt incredibly valuable too, i greatly appreciate my ta, conrad. i hate participating in discussions but i never felt uncomfortable to do so.

i would highly recommend this class to anyone regardless of major, the content is incredibly relevant considering today's political climate

Thomas Sherrer is an angel. He is great at explaining topics and is super nonpartisan in his explanations. The readings he posts for us are super relevant and educational. I really value that he posts up-to-date news, and has clearly engaged with the material himself. He is such a sweetheart, who is clearly passionate about his students and what he teaches. He just overall is a good dude. One of my favorite professors at UCLA. He communicates well, and wants his students to succeed. Sometimes he beats topics to death and overexplains simple topics, but he is never annoyed at questions. I will say, the PA20 material is extremely similar to PA10, which was a little annoying at times. His assignments were explained well, with clearly defined expectations, and were graded fairly. His tests were straight from the material, and incorporated readings, which made them worthwhile. This class is super easy, and his slides are made well and well organized. Overall, I would take this class again, and Thomas Sherrer deserves a raise, he is a great guy and an even better professor. 10/10 guy.