DO NOT TAKE! If you're like me before fall quarter rushing to find any open poli sci classes pleeeaaaseeee save yourself the headache and wait till the next quarter when more open up. Before this class, I had no game theory knowledge but for some reason, the class is taught and structured like I should already know what I'm doing. I am so confused. The homework takes me hours and hours and HOURS each week and this class was supposed to be a casual lower-division course. DO. NOT. TAKE. I am a junior and Barry is the worst professor I have ever had. So so so confusing. You will regret it. SAVE YOURSELF

I really enjoyed this class. Game theory can be something where you either get it or you don’t, and the professor can be difficult to understand, but the TAs are able to make up for it. He doesn’t give out too much work, but he does give out prizes if you win one of the games in class, so study up ahead of time!

Ultimately, this class is quite useful as most PoliSci professors at this school will try to reference game theory at some point.

This class was an emotional roller coaster !! And not a fun one! The first two weeks were alright, the material and format were very different from your typical poli sci class since it’s about game theory and there pretty much no writing involved. However, as the weeks went by, the lectures started getting more and more confusing. The professor would give very little explanation of the important topics recurring in the midterm and final and extensively elaborate on random unimportant things! His lectures greatly lacked structure and clarity. He seemed to have great difficulty explaining concepts in accessible terms to anyone who doesn’t have solid knowledge and grasp of the content already. He would often over complicate even the most simple concept and leave everyone confused. I would just keep second guessing myself because of that as his explanation and examples are inconsistent. I do admit that he does seem very genuine and passionate about the topic and about teaching; sadly, I would also argue that it might be one of the reasons why he digresses so much and provides over complicated confusing explanations and loosely related examples. But you could still do alright if you happen to have a good TA. This was not my case. My TA was Max and to be honest I wouldn’t say he is a bad TA. His explanations and examples were pretty clear… at first. But he was a very absent TA. He would cancel many of our discussions and not make up for the missed material, leaving us with only the confusing explanations of the prof at hand. He was also not very responsive to email outside of class and sometimes would not attend his own office hours. On top of that, during the last discussion dedicated to review for the final he would provide very confusing answers to questions, saying that the answer key he had was wrong when it was right, using the wrong methods to solve some of the problems, and he was not listening when we were telling him that he was wrong. If you get a good TA however, this class should be fine. I started attending another TAs office hours around the end of the quarter and she was so helpful (Laura) I genuinely regret not going to her office hours earlier, maybe I could have done better in that class then. Finally the last issue with that class was the grading. They don’t use Bruinlearn but gradescope, for the weekly homework assignments only. And my TA would take for ever to grade them, thus we had no way to know where we stand in the class. The answer keys were also pretty messy and hard to understand. The midterm had almost nothing to do with the material the prof emphasized was important and mainly focused on unimportant details, he also put some of the material that was just saw in the previous lecture, which was a completely new concept that he had not fully developed yet. It took a while to get that grade back too, leaving most of us very confused about how we were doing in the class again. Finally, I have still no idea what participation grade (but then again most of us were more present than the TA himself so…) and the final grade. They said they would curve the class in a favorable way but really they did not. There was also no extra credit opportunities sadly. Overall, if u get an helpful TA, you should be fine. Otherwise, good luck lol.

I took this class for my political science pre major and I loved it. This class was very different from the other poli sci class I took because there was not really any writing or reading involved in this class. Most of it was about understanding concepts and basic math. I really liked how much it was based on logic. Also, discussion sections were very helpful for understanding the topics and felt very productive to me. Barry isn’t a great lecturer or explainer, but Max was a great TA when it came to explaining the concepts. He was unfortunately really unreliable and canceled a few sections without making up for the canceled material, and some weeks topics ended up going uncovered. The way that the professor explained things was often confusing and he spent a lot of time talking about things that don’t feel relevant to the course. However, I would say paying attention and attending lectures is very important because the midterm and final ask a lot about things he only really discusses in lecture, that you couldn’t find online or anywhere else. Overall, the lectures weren’t my favorite and my TA was unreliable but I loved the content of the course.

Do not take this class!! Barry has the most confusing, unorganized slides. He also does not teach key concepts that are on the midterm and tests. He just ranted about the most random topics that had nothing to do with the material. My TA, Josh, was 10 times more helpful than the prof. We were told we would be graded on a beneficial curve, but that wasn't the case. The TAs and professor don't grade on Bruinlearn. They use Gradescope only for homework assignments. I have no idea what I got for section attendance or on the final exam. I was fully expecting to get an A and I don't even know where I went wrong since they don't insert grades on Bruinlearn. I should've listened to the bad reviews on Bruinwalk and I wouldn't recommend taking this class at all.

I think Barry gets a bit too much hate on here for how easy this class is. Took this in the Fall of 2021 and had no big complaints with it. The course with Barry consisted of a midterm and a final, and five problem sets for your grade. Both the final and midterm he gives a study guide and practically copies the questions off of the pdfs. Problem sets are genuinely helpful and are another good source for questions as he pulls from these as well to put on the tests. Obviously, TAs can vary, but I went to all three of them at some point and all were chill with explaining the concepts or helping out, especially my main TA Michael.

Now I think most of the flak Barry gets is from how he lectures. Like most of the other reviews, he's a very genuine and caring guy, joking with us, and hearing our concerns, it's just at times he can be a bit confusing. Totally agree that he rambles on sometimes and uses a few too many personal anecdotes when lecturing but he often applies that to a concept to help better understand. Overall, while he does have a bit lacking in lecturing, this shouldn't deter you at all, and a 3.3 overall review is a crime for someone who's super nice and has a really easy class.

I took this class as one of my first ever classes at UCLA, please just don't. It's not that it's a hard class it's just your brain will combust trying to understand the concepts and trying to make sense out of it. I feel like that class is all just a blur, I can't even tell you how I solved some of the questions in that class, or what I was even solving for. I was just doing what was instructed to me by my TA. In all honesty I love Barry he is such a sweet heart, however he does get really passionate about his profession at times and yeah he'll digress. He has some of the most intresting stories though, and they're really entertaining, but unrelated to game theory. His analogies are also pretty intresting in the sense that they are also confusing. Just make sure you get help from your TA and if you really are having a hard time, just go to office hours and write down questions to ask your TA.

Barry is a very funny and memorable guy but is a poor teacher. I had to teach myself most of the material and attend office hours with my TA in order to understand everything. I didn't do very well on the midterm but managed to do well on the final and was able to get an A. I still think Barry is awesome even though the class was annoying sometimes. However, I wouldn't take this class again since it was really unorganized.

Barry is a kind and funny person; however, his lectures are awful. They utilize extremely confusing examples and you will need your TA to translate most concepts.

Professor O-Neil is one of the most kind, jovial, hilarious, and warm people you will ever meet. You will feel like he is your Uncle by the end of the quarter.
The class itself is a bit frustrating in terms of clarity. Professor often went on tangents about things like stampedes. However, the TAs do a really good job about making the actual class matieral make sense in section. Therefore, as long as you attend section you'll be okay.