If you want an A in the class, you're going to have to work hard. She's a fairly good teacher though. This class definitely does not have a traditional poli sci curve distribution.

Professor Johns is very passionate about politics, as can be seen in her lectures. There is a weekly paper (2-3 pages, double spaced), which you eventually get the hang of and is completely graded by your TA. So if you have a generous TA, you will get decent grades on the papers even if you write them the night before. I attended every lecture and took notes, but I did not really read the book. There is one midterm and final, and they are curved. The midterm was pretty easy- all I did was look at my notes, know all the basic definitions, and look at her past midterm. For the final, I did not study as much since I also had a chem final that day. I didn't think I would do that great because I honestly had studied very little and it was right after my chem final so I had felt pretty burnt out. I remember it being pretty difficult and I still don't know the exact grade I got on it but I somehow ended up with an A- in the class so I am guessing the curve was generous. Overall, if you are looking for a class where the workload isn't too much but you still want to learn something, then this is your class.

This class was great up until the final.
Apparently the final was curved 20 points because of how hard it was.
The midterm was doable, the weekly papers were doable, but the final destroyed my sense of self and lowered my overall grade.
The final was all essay-based and and a lot of information on it didn't seem to have been taught in class... or in the book? Both of which I attended and read religiously.
Other than that, Johns was a fantastic lecturer and I learned a lot.

she & this class is decent. should not be hard if you took a lot of gov classes in high school .. pretty easy and conceptual.. just read over your notes and attend lecture then you will get a good/decent grade on the tests // there are 7-8 policy briefs due but i find they helpful of boosting your grade.. but TA choice is important!

Liked her a lot. We had one 2-3 page policy brief due every week and one midterm and one final. Midterm was long, just know vocabulary and real life examples of them. Final was shorter, again mostly vocab... I finished in less than an hour.

I didn't put a lot of effort in this class, which is probably why I got a B+ but if you study more than 2 hours for her midterm and final you should be good!

Competent professor. Clear and organized lectures.

Frankly, this is an easy class -- either go to lecture and take notes or read the textbook, and you'll do fine.

Weekly policy briefs are a bit of a bore, but they're a bit junk of your grade and serve as nice padding.

Curiously, there was a massive curve on the final. For the midterm, go to the test bank. She preserves the structure and types of questions from past exams.

Professor Johns is a pretty great professor. Her lectures are well structured (pretty much based off the textbook), move quickly, and convey the main ideas efficiently.

To do well on the exams, attend lecture and take notes (she hits all the main points concisely for the exams), know the vocab and be able to regurgitate it, and know real world examples for the vocab/main ideas.

I'm selling the textbook (World Politics: Interests, Interactions, Institutions, 2nd Ed.) bought new for fall 2015. The book is in good condition and is unmarked.
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Leslie Johns is perhaps not the greatest professor I've ever had, but she is perfectly adequate. The material is generally pretty engaging and she does a very good job of presenting the material. It's very true what the other evaluations have said, in that she basically just outlines the book. I think it makes the class easier as I would just attend lecture and never had to open the book once. The final and midterms are easy enough, just as long as you memorize the information presented to you. You must answer the questions exactly the way it was presented to you in the lecture or in the textbook. That being said, if you attend lecture/just read the textbook and study a bit before the test, you should get A's with relative ease. There are 3-5 policy briefs that involve current events that are more interesting and they are a large part of your grade. If you get a good TA, you should get easy 100%s on these assignments and it will provide a solid bump for your grade.
Take this class, it's interesting (for me at least) and it's truly not very difficult at all.

Professor Johns is an effective, engaging professor and I thoroughly enjoyed PS20. That being said, I had a great interest in the subject matter to begin with. As was noted in other reviews, Professor Johns's lectures are pretty much outlines of the textbook chapters. However, while this meant that some of my classmates never went to lecture and did read the book, I always went to lecture (and read the book anyways, which was thoroughly redundant), because I found Professor Johns's knowledge and enthusiasm for the subject matter infectious. And, hey, who ever said being able to get through a class without opening the textbook was a bad thing?
The major flaw of the course is, as another reviewer wrote, when it comes to exams, "You might know everything for the exam, but what is more important is how well you know the book/powerpoint lectures PRESENT the material (i.e. these 4 factors are what cause preemptive war; these 3 reasons why there is so much IMF criticism)." Still, such "4 factors" or "3 reasons" will have been clearly enumerated in lecture.
Fortunately, the other form of evaluation for the course, 6 2-3 page "policy briefs", really tie the more conceptual material from lecture to real world and current events, and, in my opinion, make the class.
Overall, Poli Sci 20 was an interesting, relatively easy class. Without killing myself, I received an A+, and my interest in the subject matter only deepened.

I wouldn't bother going to her lectures. Just read the book and study the lecture notes, and you'll get an A- at the very least. She grades on a high curve, so it'll help you boost your grade.

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