Honestly, this class was definitely manageable and Prof Roberts did a great job of helping his students out. He has "labs" now, which are essentially office hours except he goes over practice problems and reviews material and any questions that students may have. Yes, he is a fast talker, but honestly it was better for me since I absolutely dislike when a professor has disengaging and slow lectures. His assignments consisted of bi-weekly problem sets and bi-weekly papers that are 2 pages (double spaced). I wouldn't call this class super easy, but definitely easy enough especially because he makes it interesting and relevant to today's economy. I enjoyed it, definitely a 10/10.

Honestly, it makes me kind of sad that Tyson gets such poor reviews. YES he is an incredibly disorganized professor and really struggles with class structure, BUT he is a really genuine guy who does care about what he is teaching. I think his lack of organization makes approaching him seem really scary, but Tyson was really eager to help when I asked questions. NO ONE WENT TO HIS OFFICE HOURS

I will admit, the homework for this class was a lot. Required about 2 hours per night to get through the required textbook excersises. I did not really need to study for the quizzes or tests as I felt like we practiced the material a lot in class and in homework + ALL TESTS ARE OPEN NOTE.

Ultimately, this class did stress me out. But I feel like a lot of the moaning and groaning about roberts comes from freshmen who won't go to office hours and expect these entry level courses.

OVERALL - probably not the best professor for this class. but its doable

While I learned a lot from this class, the midterm and final exams required so much studying that I ended up using 50+ pages to fill out his study guide for the second quarter alone. Each week you have to complete country assignments (which are mostly based on completion) that are very helpful in writing your final essay on a country you choose at the beginning of the quarter as it is related to class concepts. I got a good grade on the essay. The midterm was extremely difficult but he ended up curving so the class average was a 77. Participation is also required as every class you take a PollEv which counts for your grade based on correctness (you can sometimes get away with guessing). Professor Roberts seems kind of unhelpful in office hours and doesn't respond to the discussion board which is his "online office hours." I ended up getting a good grade, but this is because I worked very hard towards the end of the quarter. The benefits of the class was I actually learned a lot about international development, Africa, and my country, and I don't think Professor Roberts is that bad of a lecturer. He records on BruinCast so you can go back and revisit the lectures. The textbook is required to do well in the class, a lot of test material is based on it.

The topic of this class is fascinating to me, which is the reason why I like it. You would learn how international political economy works by looking at world trade, game theory, currency exchange, debt, etc. But the textbook was the most helpful, as Prof seemed to be always rushing through topics that he didn't clearly explain. Besides a midterm and a final, you have to do two short research papers. Overall, this class is not too hard if you can study without relying heavily on the professor.

This class is not necessarily hard, but it's a flipped classroom. You have to do all the learning outside of class on CourseKata and its a lot of just reading. It is basically an introductory course on R coding language and as a non stem major just looking for a quantitative reasoning GE, it wasn't the worst but I knew that it was a waste of my time (but it will get you the GE credit). I would say that it's somewhat manageable but it is very easy to fall behind. If you can manage to keep up with teaching yourself the chapters each week it isn't too hard. He has quizzes every other week 4 quizzes total. 2 are take home and 2 are in person. The quizzes aren't bad as long as you are up to date with the chapters. The homework is the worksheet/notebook that we do in lecture and the completed lectures. There's grace periods offered for both the lectures and notebooks. He doesn't take attendance but you'll have to do the notebook on your own. He also offers 2 ways to calculate your grade one favoring test takers and one favoring homework doers.
Again, if you are someone who isn't great at reading/self-teaching or keeping up with homework or prefer in-person lecturing then this is not the class for you. I wouldn't have minded the flipped classroom if the lectures were recordings or if they were videos but they're not. The professor doesn't really teach he just speed runs through the notebook during the class.

I wouldn't recommend this class unless you're really passionate about international politics, and even then I'd be reluctant to suggest it. Professor Roberts is a nice guy, but he's not a good lecturer. He breezes through his powerpoint slides making it very difficult to absorb any of the material. Every week you're expected to complete two online quizzes which require you to do his assigned readings, which can be very lengthy, dense, and difficult to understand. The midterm and final exams are difficult. Had he not allowed us to use a double-sided cheat sheet, I don't know how I would have passed the exams. He also assigns several group projects, which depending on your approach too classes you may or may not like. Overall, a really stressful class.

Don't do it unless you absolutely need to! not worth the stress

Professor Tyson was awesome! He was very easy to talk to; He offers so many opportunities to get the best grade in his class. His work was very interesting, manageable, and not at all overwhelming, which I'm super grateful for. He was always prepared, engaging, thoughtful, and funny. He cares about respect and likes when we engage in his lectures. He is always prepared when it comes to our homework assignments, giving his lectures, having opportunities to do our absolute best on tests, and more. I super recommend him!! If you want an interesting class that's not overwhelming and has so many opportunities to get the best grade, then I know you'll love his class, I would def retake it, and I recommend you do as well!! He's the best! During his class, he does zoom at the same time, so if you can't make it, you can watch it via zoom or watch it later in his canvas! Good luck! <3

I really enjoyed Prof. Roberts, his lectures were super interesting and engaging. The textbook was also very strong. The use of podcasts and other supplemental media besides the textbook really reinforce what is taught. He’s also extremely approachable and willing to explain concepts. Especially today given things like inflation and interest rates being in the news it was really cool to learn how all these things work. Subjects like exchange rates and principles of comparative advantage are clearly explained and I personally enjoyed learning from him. Am going to take another of his classes after this experience