Professor James is a very knowledgeable professor who knows an impressively vast amount of information related to the course. This issue I have found personally is the amount that he expects us to understand as students. He goes through his slides incredibly fast while also covering very complex topics full of jargon. Oftentimes, several classes would go over the allotted time just to cover all the concepts. The midterm and final are incredibly dense and have been the most challenging that I've experienced in the Political Science department thus far. The expectation is to memorize an outline that we could write about 1-1.5 pages for based on 15 unique questions on the study guide, with 4 questions being randomly chosen when we take the exam in person. Each "question" was composed of sometimes up to 5 different parts, about a paragraph each just to read. Essentially, if you have any type of commitment that takes a majority of your time and cannot recall your answers for all 15 questions, the final is based on how lucky you are to get the questions you're most familiar with. In my personal opinion, if you cannot attend and pay 100% attention in every single class or read at least a majority of the readings, then the amount expected to recall is simply not manageable. On top of that, for the final, he is requiring a 15 page essay due a mere 4 days before our in-person final. According to my Political Science PhD candidate TA, the reading that it is based on is very challenging and took them five to six re-reads to understand. Conceptually, the class is interesting and there are some really intriguing themes related to the Presidency. However, in my opinion, the expectations he places on us are far too high especially when compared to all the other Political Science classes I've taken which have all been manageable.

Professor James is a clear lecturer, though the slides he uploads are sometimes cluttered and overwhelming, it takes a simple few minutes to weed out the extra unneeded ones. He provides the study guides for both the midterm and final at the beginning of the quarter with all of the "IDs" that will be on the exams. There are a lot of them and it seems like a lot of extra memorization, but as you begin to understand the concepts and can connect the ideas, it becomes much easier. You can easily memorize what you need to in the weeks leading up to the exam.

This class was tough for me I cannot lie. Midterm, Final, and a 15 page final research paper that made me regret signing up for the class. I will say it is nice that there are no surprises in the class as he gives all 15 midterm/final questions up front and chooses 4 at random. He also is pretty organized with lots of slides and records lectures. Your midterm/final responses are timed and in person. They are generally a page and half for each question as there multiple parts to each question and you have to provide a very comprehensive answer with historical examples for each one. Memorizing everything was a bit challenging for me but doable. The paper is where I really struggled as it’s based off a book that I thought was hella dense and so boring. I have never spent so much time on a paper, definitely utilize your TA’s office hours to make sure you’re on the right track. By far hardest class this quarter but if this is interesting to you and you are able to memorize a lot of content and write fast for the midterm/final go for it I guess lol.

Great class!! I loved this professor; he was very kind, approachable, and taught with a lot of clarity. His lectures were straightforward and I definitely found the material to be valuable. I enjoyed this class a lot, although it did require decent effort as there are two exams, and a 15 page paper. Go to office hours!

One of the best UCLA professors by far. Very kind, approachable, lectures are clear and concise, you can tell he is very passionate about what he is teaching. TA’s are also great! Overall, I would take this class again. One tip is to stay caught up on the readings, pay attention to lectures, and manage your time well. The research paper was 15 pages so pretty long and did take a while to complete but he gives you a generous amount of time to finish it. Additionally, he gives you the study guide for the midterm and final from the beginning of the quarter. Questions are slightly hard to answer but his office hours are very helpful. Overall, he is such an amazing professor which made the topics interesting. I learned a lot from his class!

Professor James is very knowledgeable about the subject and knows how make this course interesting. If you are really interested in the American Presidency, and do not mind to put in a lot of effort, then you will earn an A. It is all about smart planning of your time, for midterm, paper and the final. Do all the readings and be honest to yourself. No pain, no gain for this instructor. I received an A+ and definitely would take James again. He does reauire a lot of work, but he is clear and straightforward. No surprises. also I am selling all the books for this course really cheap. **********

The class is hard period. And there is lots of reading. But doable class. I am also selling the books and I have study guides as well. Shoot me a txt of u want to but my books.
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i am selling the books for this class email me at *************
good price for ALL BOOKS

Selling the textbooks for cheap. Text me at ********** :)

This class was super interesting and engaging. I learned tons about the Presidency and actually enjoyed James a lot. While I think his midterm and final are very oddly structured, I somewhat understand it seeing as there are a lot of theories in this class to cover. In terms of lectures, I thought the slides made a lot of sense and were very easy to follow. I loved all the examples he put into them to to prove his points/claims. He does go very fast though and can be hard to keep up with. In terms of readings, this class was overkill as there were 5 books assigned plus many articles. To be honest, you can get through this class without reading too much though as the TA sums up a lot of the material. I also want to shout out Soonhong as being a great TA and really making this class 100x more manageable! Overall, I think this class was super interesting and I would definitely take another class with James again and would recommend this class.