This class ruined my mental health. I switched from being an International Relations concentration because of how horrible this course was. I would cry studying for midterms and finals. Spare yourself the utter pain of Roberts. Worst class of all time.

This review will consist of 1) my overall summary of the class, 2) an outline of the class structure, 3) the Bad parts, 4) and the Good parts of the class.
____________________1) Class Summary______________________
The class structure is disorganized and confusing due to how poorly the material is presented. Roberts rambles during lectures, does not explain key concepts clearly, and will rush through important economic and game theory concepts. Reading is moderate, but you will be swamped with weekly assignments that are unhelpful busy work. Essay assignments are relatively “easy,” but they are graded harshly, do not have a clear or consistent grading rubric, and were NEVER graded quickly (i.e. within 3 weeks). Exams were difficult, in large part because you are never told which material to focus on and because the assignments don’t really mirror what the exams are like. All that said, Roberts is a nice guy. He pushed back deadlines when he did not post an assignment on time (which happened A LOT), was understanding of student’s technical errors, and made the class easier when the class did terribly on his assignments. He’s a nice guy who knows a lot, but he just isn’t a good teacher and you will suffer as a result.
Out of all the Poli Sci professor’s I’ve taken, Roberts is the worst. Definitely not the worst in the department, but the worst that I’ve taken. I HIGHLY recommend that you save yourself a quarter-long headache and do not take a class from Roberts.
_______________2) Class Structure________________
Grading had two methods:
* Synchronous-- In-class participation: 10%, In-class Exams: 50% (Midterm 20%, Final 30%), Reading quizzes: 10%, Problem sets: 10%, Research exercises: 10%, Final paper: 10%
* Asynchronous-- In-class participation: 5%, In-class Exams: 25% (Midterm 10%, Final 15%), Reading quizzes: 15%, Out-of-class participation: 10%, Problem sets: 15%, Research exercises: 10%, Final paper: 20% (The Asynchronous method is only used if you score less than a A using the Synchronous method.)
In-class participation consists of showing up and responding to in-class polls.
Exams were open book/note/google, around 30 questions, and mostly multiple choice with about 4-5 short answer Qs thrown in. There was some extra credit on exams and the Midterm was curved because most of the class did very badly. Apparently, Roberts will curve so about ⅓ of the class gets an A. The Final is cumulative, but 80% will be on material from after the Midterm.
There are 2 Reading Quizzes a week that are due before each lecture. Qs are about the textbook and sometimes about news articles/podcasts. 3-4 of the quizzes are dropped from your grade.
Problem Sets usually deal with basic economics and game theory concepts, you are given a week to complete them, and there are 4 over the quarter. One Problem Set is dropped. If you know these concepts you’ll be fine, but if you don’t you’ll have to work with classmates because Roberts doesn’t teach the concepts well.

Research Exercises are a 2-3 page analysis of a news article using the concepts you learned in the textbook. There are 3 over the quarter and 1-2 are dropped from your grade. Beware that the grading rubric is vague, grading can take 3+ weeks, and grading is very inconsistent with few helpful comments.
The Final Paper is a 5-page version of one of the Research Exercises. You will expand/improve on one of the topics you chose for a previous exercise.
Out-of-Class Participation consists of posting a comment/Q in one of the two weekly discussion forums and posting a short 1:30 video on that week’s topic.
Readings: Basically, all you need to read is the IPE textbook by Oatley. Each chapter is 20 pages and you have to read two chapters each week (40pgs). You also have 4 chapters from Rodrik over the Quarter and several Economist articles and Podcasts to listen to each week. Skim the Rodrik chapters and only read/listen to everything else for the reading quizzes since you don’t need to memorize it for exams.
________________3) The Bad and Ugly____________________
Lectures: Roberts rambled during lectures and had intermittent polls and students “answering” questions. This made lectures hard to follow and unclear. When explaining economic and game theory concepts Roberts rushed through key concepts and didn't assign material to explain concepts set-by-step. If you know these basic concepts then you’ll be fine. If not, you’ll be lost.
Quizzes: Reading quizzes are tedious and unhelpful for studying for the exam. Also, Roberts often doesn’t post them on time.
Research Exercises: As I’ve said, they are vague, don’t help you study, and are graded harshly/with little feedback.
Exams: Roberts basically doesn’t give you a study guide or tell you what’s important material. Practice exams and quizzes are not similar to what you will encounter on the Exams. (**Note: know how to do the Problem Set Problems--those problems are tested on.)
Emails: Roberts doesn’t respond to emails very frequently. I would recommend going into his office hours instead.
Deadlines: Roberts can’t keep a deadline, he even forgot he had an upcoming assignment to post at one point. This will cause you a constant headache and stress about upcoming assignment deadlines for assignments that aren’t posted.
Grading: Grading is VERY slow, little feedback is given, and grading is inconsistent. You can get a 100% on one assignment, then 80% for writing the next assignment in the same way. Why? Only some mysterious grader in Europe can say...if they wanted to, which they don’t.
_______________4) The Good_________________
Roberts: Roberts is a very friendly guy who knows a ton about IPE… Of course, he often does a poor job explaining IPE concepts, but he tries. He tries.
Extensions and Grading: Roberts will extend deadlines on most assignments because he doesn’t post them on time. Roberts will also probably drop a couple more grades if you push him to and if a lot of the class is doing poorly (which they usually are).
Extra Credit: Roberts offers extra credit on almost every assignment. He basically has to since everyone dose really poorly on most of the assignments. He also offered a 1% grade bump if you did 10 hrs of out-of-class volunteer work.
Problem Sets: Problem sets actually do have problems you will see in the Exams. Know how to do those problems and you will do well on a good portion of the Exams.
Your classmates: Work with your classmates on problem sets and study guides.. It’s your only hope.
Google: Your only true friend when the panic sets in...

Super disorganized + doesn't actually teach the class material ( a program does). My TA taught me everything. Pretty sure Roberts is writing his own positive reviews. Roberts is "understanding" because he messes up so much during the quarter. So if that's what you're into then go for it.

Wow. This dude is inspirational in that I found out he has a PHD and now I know you don't have to be smart to go to grad school. I usually am nice to people that I think at least "try" but if you're this bad/unknowledgeable at what you're doing, you definitely need to re-evaluate your life's choices. I got an A because I studied on my own but it is a super net loss because the brain cells I lost will never be retained again.

Would not recommend this class at all. Not only was it disorganized, but the material was confusing and we had to take daily quizzes online before class. The quizzes were atrocious, and were so hard and confusing with multiple answers seeming like it could be corrected. There was a lot of reading that was mandatory since the quizzes nitpicked random facts from them, and the midterm was really hard. The only reason I got an A in this class is because the final was cancelled due to COVID-19. Otherwise, I would have probably flunked it.

I had a high level of interest about authoritarianism before this class, and while I certainly learned a lot about the topic, I felt as though the class structure inhibited my learning a bit. While the subject is a fascinating one, I felt that Professor Roberts tended to be quite disorganized and the course sometimes felt a bit chaotic at times. In a bid to address student concerns, Professor Roberts utilized two separate grading schemes: synchronous-heavy and asynchronous-heavy, each with different weights and assignments. While I certainly appreciate that Professor Roberts tried to make room for student concerns, this just ended up making the course unnecessarily convoluted. The reading load of the class is fairly moderate in comparison with other upper-div political science classes, but there are a number of research assignments, quizzes, a midterm, a final exam, a final presentation, and a final group essay which just made the course more hectic than it needed to be. These assignments were graded fairly leniently, but I felt that a lot of the minor assignments were reminiscent of busy-work.

Professor Roberts is very open to changing the format of the class/assignments, but I felt that this class just contained too many moving parts. Were the course to be simplified in favor of fewer but perhaps more substantial assignments, I feel as though the course would function a lot better. As it stands though, the disorganized nature of Professor Roberts, and the multitude of what I felt were superfluous assignments made the course a lot more tedious than it should have been.

I really wanted to like Professor Roberts. I'm sure that he's a really nice person, but this class was a hot mess. Nothing was organized, he couldn't for the life of him figure out how to use any of the technology in the room, and he was always running late. He ran through his slides too quickly where it was difficult to take notes. He would assign upwards of 100 pages of reading each class, and when someone would complain he would go on about how he has reduced the reading from previous times he's taught the class. We had a group project making a video on authoritarian regimes and it was poorly organized with no accountability for members who did nothing.
Did I learn anything from this class? No.
Would I take another class with Professor Roberts? Definitely not.

Professor Roberts kinda tried? He's a good person; I just don't think he put enough effort into... anything. He was always late to lectures, he kind of rushed through the slides without clear and concise explanations, the organization of the class was bad, and the material was confusing because of the way he presented it. Also, his quizzes were bad at first (they got better but only because he asked us to contribute to making the questions). He doesn't posting grades on time either (I got my final grades at the very last minute). Overall, the class is doable, but it's not fun and kinda confusing if you don't go to lectures. Also you HAVE to do the readings.

If you have the time and really enjoy learning about the economy I would recommend this course because that passion may help you do well. Professor Roberts was very disorganized at the beginning of the quarter but that is understandable due to the first time teaching the course online. However, I found that by talking to former classmates of his that he is generally disorganized. The professor is willing to change assignments if you talk to him about issues with any assignments such as changing the number of research exercises we had to do for the quarter. Originally, we had four but then he changed it to only one of them being graded so if you got a high grade then you did not have to do the rest.
The midterm and final were alright I did not get an A but he has two grading systems in place so I was able to get an A- due to either one of them letting me get an A. He is a nice professor but if you could take another course I would recommend it. Sometimes it felt like the professor was just repeating out of the book and it felt like those who had a background in econ had a higher chance to succeed than those who did not.

Professor Roberts gave engaging lectures and always asked if clarification was needed for any topic he had covered. He is funny at times and you do not feel uneasy asking him questions for anything from the class material to your grade. My TA Alex Munoz was amazing and I would recommend everyone get him if you can and consider taking Professor Roberts for this class as he makes the material fairly easy to understand. The only bummer is that I was less than 0.1% away from an A+ but only got an A. Regardless, this class was amazing and it is likely you will end with an A and if not the worst you will get is an A-. Try your best and do not slack off!