don't arrive more than 1 second after class starts or she'll tell you to leave in front of the whole class. felt so bad for everyone today. also so disorganized. i love political science but this is one of the worst classes I've taken at UCLA. my ta was chill tho

I took this course seeing another professor (Branstetter) teaching this course and having a high rating on Bruinwalk. I assumed that that meant this class would be a rather easy lower div Poli Sci class. I also had a fair amount of interest in political theory and philosophy, so I decided to take this class to wrap up the four required lower division Poli Sci courses. I was wrong. This class was arguably one of the most confusing and difficult courses I have taken in my short time at UCLA. It's safe to assume that this will remain my least favorite class of all time throughout my entire time at UCLA, maybe even my entire time in school. She carries the attitude of someone who believes is superior to her students, she emphasizes that this course is meant to be difficult yet belittles the class for falling short of her extremely high standards. This is supposed to be an introductory class, yet she expects to write and understand political theory at an extremely high scholarly level. The assigned readings may not seem like much at first, but they catch on quickly and get overwhelmingly fast. Her lectures seemed to be organized at first, but after the first two weeks, I realized that her class was the opposite of organized. No recorded lectures, no slides on Canvas (her slides don't contain any useful info anyway just artwork she says she likes), and her lecturing method is quite confusing as she tries to incorporate student discussion which often leads to a tangent that is confusing for the rest of the students and extremely difficult to follow and take notes about. Because her slides didn't contain any useful info you needed to pay close attention to her speaking, but that itself was difficult due to her fast-talking speed, her tendency to go on tangents, and the mic cutting out/crackling at the worst moments. No recordings meant missing lectures would set you back immensely and I doubt that fellow classmates would even have useful notes that you could follow and learn the material from. This class and professor require you to focus 100% every minute which is just impossible for almost if not all students. She called the class stupid and tried to backtrack her statement and turn it into something less rude and direct, but the message was already received by all the students present. She is not a good teacher or a good speaker. If you're thinking of taking this class with her, JUST DON'T DO IT, IT IS NOT WORTH BELITTLEMENT, CONFUSION, AND STRESS! To Professor Piano, Thank you for reminding to do my course eval, as I was actually able to put some effort into it just for you :)