POL SCI 151A
African Politics: Government and Politics of Africa
Description: Lecture, three or four hours; discussion, one hour (when scheduled). Designed for juniors/seniors. Comparative study of government and politics in contemporary Africa, with special attention to state/society relations, interaction of politics and economic development, political institutions, and conflict and conflict resolution. Letter grading.
Units: 4.0
Units: 4.0
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2018 - For the most part, this course was pretty interesting and undemanding. The map quiz during Week 1 was a little harsh - yes, you will have to remember the name, location, and capital of every Subsaharan African country by then. The midterm was rough and tested us on subjects that were glossed over in class. The majority of the class bombed it. The final wasn’t too bad, though.
Fall 2018 - For the most part, this course was pretty interesting and undemanding. The map quiz during Week 1 was a little harsh - yes, you will have to remember the name, location, and capital of every Subsaharan African country by then. The midterm was rough and tested us on subjects that were glossed over in class. The majority of the class bombed it. The final wasn’t too bad, though.
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Most Helpful Review
Prof Posner is seriously one of the better professors at UCLA and one who truly cares about the information he teaches. He is very charismatic and his lectures are extremely organized. I took this class with Michael Ross' M167c and man was that helpful as many of the readings and information overlapped. I got an A in this course without doing a single reading from the phonebook that is the course reader (what a waste of money). However, I did read the novel for which you must write a 10-12 page paper. If you attend lecture (and you must attend lecture and take excellent notes...BRING A COMPUTER!) then the paper will be a piece of cake since the novel relates heavily to many of the themes in the class. I easily got an A on it. Furthermore, the map quiz at the beginning of the year is a grade booster. If you screw that up its on you. I found that websites like Sporcle were clutch in helping me memorize the countries. In conclusion, this is one of the better or more informative classes you will ever take at UCLA. I knew nothing about Africa prior to this class and now have a wealth of knowledge that is not going away soon. That's because the way that Posner teaches his material somehow makes it stick. Bring a computer to take notes, attend all the lectures, and if you can team up with a group of people and create a Google Doc to knock out the massive amount of terms needed for the midterm and final. TAKE POSNER AND TAKE THIS CLASS!
Prof Posner is seriously one of the better professors at UCLA and one who truly cares about the information he teaches. He is very charismatic and his lectures are extremely organized. I took this class with Michael Ross' M167c and man was that helpful as many of the readings and information overlapped. I got an A in this course without doing a single reading from the phonebook that is the course reader (what a waste of money). However, I did read the novel for which you must write a 10-12 page paper. If you attend lecture (and you must attend lecture and take excellent notes...BRING A COMPUTER!) then the paper will be a piece of cake since the novel relates heavily to many of the themes in the class. I easily got an A on it. Furthermore, the map quiz at the beginning of the year is a grade booster. If you screw that up its on you. I found that websites like Sporcle were clutch in helping me memorize the countries. In conclusion, this is one of the better or more informative classes you will ever take at UCLA. I knew nothing about Africa prior to this class and now have a wealth of knowledge that is not going away soon. That's because the way that Posner teaches his material somehow makes it stick. Bring a computer to take notes, attend all the lectures, and if you can team up with a group of people and create a Google Doc to knock out the massive amount of terms needed for the midterm and final. TAKE POSNER AND TAKE THIS CLASS!
Most Helpful Review
Professor Roberts is a nice guy. The class is pretty easy throughout. He doesn't always seem to know what he's talking about and him and his reader have way different standards of what assignments should be like. My issue with the class is that I received 98% and above on every assignment except the midterm (which I got 93%) and the final presentation brought me down to a B+ so I was pretty disappointed in his distribution. He gives templates for how to do assignments then his reader constantly calls almost every submission "minimalist" (for everyone not just me) and gives childish comments like "sigh....this is so minimalist." Other than that, it's doable and easy.
Professor Roberts is a nice guy. The class is pretty easy throughout. He doesn't always seem to know what he's talking about and him and his reader have way different standards of what assignments should be like. My issue with the class is that I received 98% and above on every assignment except the midterm (which I got 93%) and the final presentation brought me down to a B+ so I was pretty disappointed in his distribution. He gives templates for how to do assignments then his reader constantly calls almost every submission "minimalist" (for everyone not just me) and gives childish comments like "sigh....this is so minimalist." Other than that, it's doable and easy.
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