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.

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

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.

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!!

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.

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.

The prof is extremely clear and detailed during lectures. He’s really laid back and wants to share his passion/knowledge with you, so he’s very engaging to listen to. We only had 1 midterm (multiple choice with a couple free response questions that can be answered with a couple sentences) and 1 final (only multiple choice questions). There are 2 or so assignments where you discuss a social issue of your choice that the TAs grade but they’re super lenient, and you turn your two assignments into a final slideshow presentation. The prof assigns readings, but you’re fine not doing them as long as you attend class. The exam questions are solely based on the material discussed in class and very few will cover the readings, but the content overlaps so you can usually guess the answer on those questions. Also you get to use any handwritten notes on exams including the final! You are not allowed to print readings or typed notes, but anything written with pen and paper is fair game. The prof is honestly so chill, and he is genuinely informative about the subject so I highly recommend taking the class with him as an easy GE or a way to get extra units

Do yourself a favor and don't listen to the reviews on here. His TA's especially "Campbell" grade very harshly and horribly, they give the same generic "feedback" to all students just to have an excuse to knock off as many points as they can.His midterm and final have the most unclear questions I have ever seen.Reading the questions on his tests sounds like he doesn't even know what he wants to ask you in the first place. And if that was not bad enough he also does not record his lectures...
Would avoid at all costs

I took this class as a GE for my first quarter here at UCLA. I'm a STEM major, so keep that in mind. This was quite literally one of the easiest classes I have ever taken in my life. Not only was it easy, the content was actually very interesting and Professor Sherrer keeps it relevant to the time. You can prepare for these assignments/tests:
-Midterm (Open note)
-Final (Open note)
-One short letter (Graded extremely easy)
-Small slideshow (Graded extremely easy)
-Slightly bigger slideshow (Again, graded extremely easy)
I know hearing that a test is "open note" is intimidating because that means the exam is usually very hard...but not here. If you show up to class, you are basically guaranteed an A. The questions are very easy and very straightforward. If you quickly skim through the slides, that is more than enough studying to get a 95 or above. There are some readings assigned each week, however, Professor Sherrer always goes over it and they're pretty short/easy reads. A couple basic questions on it might pop up in exams but nothing too bad. I stopped doing the readings very early on and just showed up to class and I got an A. As long as you follow the rubric (which is really straightforward) and show up to class, it is impossible to not get an A. Overall, I would highly recommend this class as an easy GE. It is very chill and the perfect class to have. This professor is also excellent and very kind. I do recommend trying to get Lawrence as a TA! He is nice, welcoming, accommodating, and understands a student's workload. Overall, I absolutely loved this class because it was extremely manageable and I actually learned something useful.

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!