I had read bad reviews about this professor before taking this course and was a little worried but it all turned out okay. He was a relatively interesting lecturer, my main issue with him was how consistently he would talk past the time that class ended. He once talked for 15 minutes after the scheduled end of lecture and although we were free to leave at any time I knew I’d have to come back and watch the recording to learn the material anyways so I felt like I had to stay. I wish he respected our time more, but the content of the course was decent and I didn’t think that the exams were that hard. One thing I didn't like was the pollev quizzes in class which were graded, meaning that even if you attended you lose participation points for missing questions on in class online response questions. I think these should have been completion based. There were assignments due most weekends so this class kept me busy and was not easy but I didn’t find it hard to get a good grade considering I did all the assignments. Also he says that he has labs but they are really optional office hours. I never went.

Class had a good weekly layout and I could easily navigate the materials through canvas. Class wasn't difficult, just time consuming, as long as you did readings and wrote good notes during the class lecture, you would be able to easily follow along with the topics and complete the assignments/quizzes. Professor also is very forgiving with the grading, he would drop the lowest grades in each category, quizzes, assignments, and problem sets. Midterms and final were multiple choice and were almost identical in terms of questions to the previous weekly quizzes/problem sets if you did them.

This class is not as bad as most of the other reviews claim it is. Maybe the course has changed over some time? Or the people that took this class just had a difficult time managing the workload in conjunction with their other classes? Regardless, the workload is just quite a bit of reading + reading quizzes, research projects, and problem sets. There is also a midterm and a final, both of which you get a cheat sheet for. I think this class might be time-consuming, but the readings/podcasts are decently interesting and the reading quizzes are straightforward. Roberts is a funny guy (he is late pretty often though) and you can tell he is trying to teach. However, he will go through the powerpoints kind of quickly, and sometimes it's difficult for him to explain some concepts. Both the research projects and the problem sets are also pretty easy (he goes over them both in class and during lab time). Overall, if you have time in your week to do these kinds of long readings, I would take the class, but if you are time-pressed and have trouble understanding some concepts by yourself, I would maybe consider it for a different quarter. I had fun - I guess.

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.

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.

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

This class is pretty interesting and Roberts is a really nice and funny dude. I definitely wouldn't recommend this class if you don't have a basic understanding of economics though (think Macro and/or Micro). My problem with this class is the amount of work Roberts assigns, and it's mostly busy work in my opinion. He assigns two reading quizzes per week and either a homework assignment or research report every week. The quizzes are online and open notes/book and untimed, so they are relatively easy but it can be time consuming. The research assignments were pretty easy in my opinion and graded fairly. The homework assignments are the most challenging and can vary in difficulty with some being pretty simple and some more complex.

As far as lectures go, Roberts uses PollEverywhere to grade participation, which is a really fair way to do it because a lot of people don't feel comfortable speaking in front of the class. But Roberts talks FAST. And he covers a LOT of material each lecture. I'm a transfer coming from a semester system and I feel like this class would be much better suited to that. Roberts often ran out of time and rushed through things so that I was pretty confused about the material. Also, the midterm was pretty difficult and the class average was a C. However, Roberts took the class feedback and curved it GENEROUSLY and made our final a bit easier. He's a really nice dude and if you stay on top of the homework, take good notes, and go to office hours, it's not impossible to do well in the class. I did well on all of the quizzes and homework, but the midterm and final got me an A- in the end.

Professor Tysons is the most disorganized and rushed lecturer poli sci professor I've experienced and this class was in general very poorly taught and structured. I actually found the material being taught pretty easy, but that's in part due to me having a background in econ and also because I know how this man teaches. He bases all his midterms and quizzes on the textbook, so you'll honestly have a better time just taking very detailed notes from the textbook instead of trying to pay attention to his rambles he calls lectures. It shouldn't be too difficult to succeed in this class if you just keep up with the readings and reading quizzes. The workload is also massive for this class, so be prepared for that. The midterm and final are tough because there's limited time but as I said, as long as you keep up with the readings you should be fine.