Professor

Thomas Sherrer

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4.4
Overall Ratings
Based on 49 Users
Easiness 4.3 / 5 How easy the class is, 1 being extremely difficult and 5 being easy peasy.
Workload 4.3 / 5 How light the workload is, 1 being extremely heavy and 5 being extremely light.
Clarity 4.3 / 5 How clear the professor is, 1 being extremely unclear and 5 being very clear.
Helpfulness 4.3 / 5 How helpful the professor is, 1 being not helpful at all and 5 being extremely helpful.

Reviews (49)

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POL SCI 141E
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Dec. 19, 2021
Quarter: Fall 2021
Grade: A+

This is by far the most engaging, interesting, and pertinent political science class I've taken at UCLA. "Professor" Sherrer is exceptionally talented and gives engaging and clear lectures (it's amazing to have a professor that actually speaks like a normal human being and not a robot programmed to spew out overcomplicated academic jargon, as do 90% of the tenured faculty here).

The readings for this class are fairly light and the vast majority of them were actually very interesting. I think there may have been only two or three that were boring (the majority were Washington Post or NYT articles, excerpts from a very recent/engaging book, and super cool voter psychology studies). None of the readings felt like filler or irrelevant to the course (again, credit to Sherrer for planning the class so well).

Grading is fair and is based on a midterm (30% of grade, was super easy), a short writing assignment (20%), an infographic (10%), and a final (40% of grade, very fair but marginally harder than the midterm).

Sherrer is very organized and uses very clear slides. He also recorded lecture and did not require attendance.

I highly, highly recommend this class and Prof. Sherrer in general. I wish UCLA's political science department offered more classes related to this topic.

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4 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
POL SCI 141E
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
March 21, 2021
Quarter: Winter 2021
Grade: N/A

30% midterm
40% final
15% essay 1
15% essay 2

Sherrer is pretty good he moved around assignments to be accommodating.
Covid-19 so tests were open book
however, he is a super slow grader(3+weeks) and graded stuff after p/np deadline so some people were concerned.
Did not give a ton of feedback on essays
overall he's a good professor to have

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3 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
POL SCI 141E
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Jan. 14, 2022
Quarter: Winter 2021
Grade: B

TAKE THIS CLASS, I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH BEST TEACHER IN UCLA, THIS CALSS WAS SO GOOD I CAME BACK TO MAKE A REVIEW, I HAVE NEVER DONE THIS.

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Dec. 23, 2023
Quarter: Fall 2023
Grade: A

This was def my favorite class this quarter!! Professor Sherrer is great at what he does, making this class an easy and educational experience for his students. First off, all exams (midterm and final) are open note so long as everything is handwritten, which honestly helped me retain the information better. Sometimes the questions on the exams were pulled directly from the slides, word for word, so do take good notes. I'd say around 18/20 of the questions were based on the lectures while around 1-2 were pulled from the readings so make sure to skim them over and take note of the central argument. A tip I recommend is to put a Post-it note on each page of your notes and list all of the main topics you wrote about so you can go through them quickly when taking the exam. 

There is no textbook and you don't need to pay for class materials since he provides scantrons. The midterm average was 90% and the final was around 87%!! The topics you can expect to learn about are the movements relating to race, women's rights, environment, gun violence, healthcare, education, immigration, economic inequality, barriers to policymaking like the filibuster, etc. Super interesting lectures plus he's really funny. I highly encourage attending the lectures in person (he does post the slides after) since he sometimes did state a few things that were not in the slides but were present in the exam.

There were only 3 homework assignments that consisted of making slideshows of a social problem of your choice. The first 2 assignments ranged from 250-500 words while the last assignment (a more research-intensive slideshow) was 500+ words. All of them were spaced out pretty well throughout the quarter and you had an entire week to do them. The first two assignments took me about 1 hour each while the last one took 2 hours.

Shoutout to my TA Selena, she's super chill and made my discussion section engaging. All of the discussions extend to the assigned readings and there's really no pressure to participate but if you can, you def should. Attendance is mandatory for these and is included in your grade. Loved this class and will def take another class with him!!

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POL SCI 149
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Dec. 19, 2020
Quarter: Fall 2020
Grade: A

Professor Sherrer is such a cool dude and a great teacher. He is engaging and so passionate about American politics. He had great lecture slides and encouraged us to engage in breakout room discussions with our peers every class. This helped us feel a bit more connected to each other during online school. The class was made up of two homework assignments that were full credit if submitted on time, attendance and multiple choice and short answer midterm and final. There was no textbook required and instead, he provided really interesting chapters from books he enjoyed. I would highly recommend taking this class and any class he teaches at UCLA.

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1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
POL SCI 149
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Dec. 28, 2020
Quarter: Fall 2020
Grade: N/A

Do you ever have a professor who you think, "wow, I could probably play a nice game of connect four with this guy"? Well, Thomas is one of those professors (lecturer, he insists on not being called professor). He is super chill and has a great sense of blunt humor which I found hilarious. I would 100% take his class again. Granted, he is new and the material was at times a bit unnecessary and felt like common sense, but I'm sure he will get over that soon. The homework was super easy and was graded based on completion. The tests were a bit odd and felt unrelated to the course at times, but they weren't hard. Definitely my favorite covid-era class.

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March 12, 2025
Quarter: Fall 2024
Grade: A

The class was pretty easy. I would say if you liked high school history this is basically the same thing. The professor gives readings before class which sometimes were pretty boring but they do come up on the midterm and final so you need to at least have a general understanding of them. Other than that, the midterm was easy as long as you looked over the slides again (most of the questions were pulled from the slides). I got a 100% on the midterm but the final was considerably harder. Overall, if you like history and are looking for a class that isn't too hard with a funny professor, this is the class for you!

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March 11, 2025
Quarter: Winter 2025
Grade: A

I really appreciate Professor Sherrer's method of giving a automatic 100 for participation for homework because it allows students to truly explore a topic and try something new without worrying about scrutinizing for perfect marks. Sherrer's recommendation and incentive to write handwritten notes for open notes is really smart. I personally enjoyed being away from my screen for once, and I was actively helping my future self by providing notes for the open note exam. I really enjoyed this course overall and hope to take another one of Sherrer's courses in the future.

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0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
March 9, 2025
Quarter: Winter 2025
Grade: A+

grade breakdown:
discussion attendance: 10%, homework assignments: 10%, midterm exam: 25%, written assignment: 25%, final exam: 25%

class consisted of two homework assignments that felt incredibly relevant and were honestly quite enjoyable to research

my favorite class i've taken at UCLA so far, sherrer is a great lecturer and i feel as though everything i've learned is incredibly valuable, even if quite intuitive and maybe overexplained at times lol

discussions felt incredibly valuable too, i greatly appreciate my ta, conrad. i hate participating in discussions but i never felt uncomfortable to do so.

i would highly recommend this class to anyone regardless of major, the content is incredibly relevant considering today's political climate

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0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Feb. 19, 2025
Quarter: Winter 2024
Grade: A+

super easy class and the class structure was very consistent. We had twice a week lecture and mandatory discussion sections (but my TA was super chill abt attendance). The discussion were helpful because they related class concepts to current events. class basically was about social movements from the 1950s to now--super interesting if you like history or social justice

Assignments:
a super chill research project that essentially consisted of two slideshows. open note midterm and final but it had to be handwritten

this is a super easy and interesting social analysis GE and diversity requirement. highly recommend!

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
POL SCI 141E
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Fall 2021
Grade: A+
Dec. 19, 2021

This is by far the most engaging, interesting, and pertinent political science class I've taken at UCLA. "Professor" Sherrer is exceptionally talented and gives engaging and clear lectures (it's amazing to have a professor that actually speaks like a normal human being and not a robot programmed to spew out overcomplicated academic jargon, as do 90% of the tenured faculty here).

The readings for this class are fairly light and the vast majority of them were actually very interesting. I think there may have been only two or three that were boring (the majority were Washington Post or NYT articles, excerpts from a very recent/engaging book, and super cool voter psychology studies). None of the readings felt like filler or irrelevant to the course (again, credit to Sherrer for planning the class so well).

Grading is fair and is based on a midterm (30% of grade, was super easy), a short writing assignment (20%), an infographic (10%), and a final (40% of grade, very fair but marginally harder than the midterm).

Sherrer is very organized and uses very clear slides. He also recorded lecture and did not require attendance.

I highly, highly recommend this class and Prof. Sherrer in general. I wish UCLA's political science department offered more classes related to this topic.

Helpful?

4 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
POL SCI 141E
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Winter 2021
Grade: N/A
March 21, 2021

30% midterm
40% final
15% essay 1
15% essay 2

Sherrer is pretty good he moved around assignments to be accommodating.
Covid-19 so tests were open book
however, he is a super slow grader(3+weeks) and graded stuff after p/np deadline so some people were concerned.
Did not give a ton of feedback on essays
overall he's a good professor to have

Helpful?

3 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
POL SCI 141E
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Winter 2021
Grade: B
Jan. 14, 2022

TAKE THIS CLASS, I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH BEST TEACHER IN UCLA, THIS CALSS WAS SO GOOD I CAME BACK TO MAKE A REVIEW, I HAVE NEVER DONE THIS.

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
PUB AFF 10
Quarter: Fall 2023
Grade: A
Dec. 23, 2023

This was def my favorite class this quarter!! Professor Sherrer is great at what he does, making this class an easy and educational experience for his students. First off, all exams (midterm and final) are open note so long as everything is handwritten, which honestly helped me retain the information better. Sometimes the questions on the exams were pulled directly from the slides, word for word, so do take good notes. I'd say around 18/20 of the questions were based on the lectures while around 1-2 were pulled from the readings so make sure to skim them over and take note of the central argument. A tip I recommend is to put a Post-it note on each page of your notes and list all of the main topics you wrote about so you can go through them quickly when taking the exam. 

There is no textbook and you don't need to pay for class materials since he provides scantrons. The midterm average was 90% and the final was around 87%!! The topics you can expect to learn about are the movements relating to race, women's rights, environment, gun violence, healthcare, education, immigration, economic inequality, barriers to policymaking like the filibuster, etc. Super interesting lectures plus he's really funny. I highly encourage attending the lectures in person (he does post the slides after) since he sometimes did state a few things that were not in the slides but were present in the exam.

There were only 3 homework assignments that consisted of making slideshows of a social problem of your choice. The first 2 assignments ranged from 250-500 words while the last assignment (a more research-intensive slideshow) was 500+ words. All of them were spaced out pretty well throughout the quarter and you had an entire week to do them. The first two assignments took me about 1 hour each while the last one took 2 hours.

Shoutout to my TA Selena, she's super chill and made my discussion section engaging. All of the discussions extend to the assigned readings and there's really no pressure to participate but if you can, you def should. Attendance is mandatory for these and is included in your grade. Loved this class and will def take another class with him!!

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
POL SCI 149
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Fall 2020
Grade: A
Dec. 19, 2020

Professor Sherrer is such a cool dude and a great teacher. He is engaging and so passionate about American politics. He had great lecture slides and encouraged us to engage in breakout room discussions with our peers every class. This helped us feel a bit more connected to each other during online school. The class was made up of two homework assignments that were full credit if submitted on time, attendance and multiple choice and short answer midterm and final. There was no textbook required and instead, he provided really interesting chapters from books he enjoyed. I would highly recommend taking this class and any class he teaches at UCLA.

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
POL SCI 149
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Fall 2020
Grade: N/A
Dec. 28, 2020

Do you ever have a professor who you think, "wow, I could probably play a nice game of connect four with this guy"? Well, Thomas is one of those professors (lecturer, he insists on not being called professor). He is super chill and has a great sense of blunt humor which I found hilarious. I would 100% take his class again. Granted, he is new and the material was at times a bit unnecessary and felt like common sense, but I'm sure he will get over that soon. The homework was super easy and was graded based on completion. The tests were a bit odd and felt unrelated to the course at times, but they weren't hard. Definitely my favorite covid-era class.

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
PUB AFF 10
Quarter: Fall 2024
Grade: A
March 12, 2025

The class was pretty easy. I would say if you liked high school history this is basically the same thing. The professor gives readings before class which sometimes were pretty boring but they do come up on the midterm and final so you need to at least have a general understanding of them. Other than that, the midterm was easy as long as you looked over the slides again (most of the questions were pulled from the slides). I got a 100% on the midterm but the final was considerably harder. Overall, if you like history and are looking for a class that isn't too hard with a funny professor, this is the class for you!

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
PUB AFF 20
Quarter: Winter 2025
Grade: A
March 11, 2025

I really appreciate Professor Sherrer's method of giving a automatic 100 for participation for homework because it allows students to truly explore a topic and try something new without worrying about scrutinizing for perfect marks. Sherrer's recommendation and incentive to write handwritten notes for open notes is really smart. I personally enjoyed being away from my screen for once, and I was actively helping my future self by providing notes for the open note exam. I really enjoyed this course overall and hope to take another one of Sherrer's courses in the future.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
PUB AFF 20
Quarter: Winter 2025
Grade: A+
March 9, 2025

grade breakdown:
discussion attendance: 10%, homework assignments: 10%, midterm exam: 25%, written assignment: 25%, final exam: 25%

class consisted of two homework assignments that felt incredibly relevant and were honestly quite enjoyable to research

my favorite class i've taken at UCLA so far, sherrer is a great lecturer and i feel as though everything i've learned is incredibly valuable, even if quite intuitive and maybe overexplained at times lol

discussions felt incredibly valuable too, i greatly appreciate my ta, conrad. i hate participating in discussions but i never felt uncomfortable to do so.

i would highly recommend this class to anyone regardless of major, the content is incredibly relevant considering today's political climate

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
PUB AFF 10
Quarter: Winter 2024
Grade: A+
Feb. 19, 2025

super easy class and the class structure was very consistent. We had twice a week lecture and mandatory discussion sections (but my TA was super chill abt attendance). The discussion were helpful because they related class concepts to current events. class basically was about social movements from the 1950s to now--super interesting if you like history or social justice

Assignments:
a super chill research project that essentially consisted of two slideshows. open note midterm and final but it had to be handwritten

this is a super easy and interesting social analysis GE and diversity requirement. highly recommend!

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
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