If you are planning to take Political Science 6 with Chad Hazelett you should be prepared for a bumpy ride. The class is billed as a intro to data analysis for political science majors but the class has elements that incorporate aspects of computer science, and coding. For the class you are required to learn R as that is the main program for which you analyze and transform data. For most north campus majors, learning how to code is like a starting to learn a new langague which you can only learn by practice. However Professor Hazelett only gives you two and a half class days to really get acquainted with R, and most of the learning is done by readings and solo/ group work. Professor Hazelett does not really lecture, believing that it is better for students to learn by active learning and groups. This means that if you are expecting lecture to clear up any questions about the R readings which you need to complete before class you are going to be disappointed. It is very easy to get lost by the second day of class because of how confusing it is to learn R plus the weird format the class is structured. In addition, starting with week two, you are placed in groups, and if you have peers that are lazy or equally lost in the course, you will get a poor grade. Overall Hazelett seems like a nice guy, and the TAs seem to try their best, but the class requires students to basically master R by midway Week 2, is absurd. The later parts of the class are more or less like a statistics class but if you don’t understand R you will not get a good grade. If you are expecting an easy class for your math/ stats requirement you should take Stats 10 , because this class expects you to becoming a competent coding student, even though most of its students are social sciences/ humanities majors.

If any Political Science majors, or anyone for that matter, is planning to take PS 6 with Professor Hazlett-- I highly advise against it. I was directed to take this class as to fulfill my statistics requirement for political science as I was told it would be easy and painless; however, upon reading the syllabus of the class I could see that was far from the case. Professor Hazlett is a firm believer in group work and the incorporation of the coding language R to understand and work through material in the class. The presentation of coding seemed daunting, but Professor Hazlett assured in the syllabus that even for the most non-experienced of the bunch, the coding aspect would not be difficult. Nevertheless, this description was ultimately deceitful and flat out incorrect. The immense amount of information that is thrown at you within the first couple days is not customary of an introductory, lower division course; and unfortunately, if you can not find your rhythm in coding with in the first few days you are going to struggle throughout the entirety of the class. The group work that predominates the course also makes the material difficult to learn, despite Professor Hazlett's group philosophy. The largest problem with this class however is not the material, but rather the complete incompetence of both the professor and the TAs. Many assignments were posted late leaving little time to do them, grades are rarely given back in order for students to know what to study, there is little time to complete assignments even when the work is divided within the group, and finally there is a complete lack of competent communication between student and teacher. I acknowledge Professor Hazlett's and the TAs flaws as it was their first time teaching this course in this fashion, but even so I highly advise against this class for anyone looking to fulfill a statistic class requirement, especially if one is not keen on group work or learning how to code.

Considering some of the other reviews here.... This class has substantially more content than the regular Stats 10 class but for those who actually want to learn 21st century skills with data analysis, I advise taking this instead. It certainly is difficult but there is a favorable curve and a LARGE amount of extra credit that can boost you up to an A. You can check the distribution; a lot of people get A's. For those wondering to take this class, you have a high chance of getting an A if you put in the work. The entire class is premised on group and in-class work rather than lengthy lectures and individual work. Instead of lectures you get group-worksheets that have to be submitted either by the end of class or by the week's section. In contrast to other classes, the professor emphasizes a contract among the group and to encourage a culture of helping each other out. Not only that but he makes it clear that if you're a shitty groupmember you will be noticed and your grade will be affected. The downsides of groupwork doesn't exactly fall on the fault of the professor, since he already did all he can. People are complaining about the lack of lectures and emphasis on worksheet work but hey I see y'all not even paying attention to lecture anyways and going online shopping ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. As mentioned in the reviews, in the first 3-4 lectures you get a big bootcamp that throws in a lot of information to you at once on how to code using R. It's stressful but we're not expected to learn all of it in one go. In fact that's kind of the whole reason why we get a large amount of practice with worksheets and problem sets. For those who are considering whether to register for class, note that you have a large amount of office hours to talk with the TAs and professor to sort everything out. Additionally one of the reviews were submitted only 2-3 weeks in which is unfair to review on the class as a whole. Now I know watchy'all thinkin: who tf is this teacher's pet? But lemme tell y'all it's clear that some of these people have never taken a south campus class. This class has the rigor of one but the curve of a north campus class. It's as if people were shocked that attending the #1 public university was going to be hard and that it had challenges? But there are definitely downsides. The grades are not uploaded consistently and you're in a permanent state of unsureness because you don't know whether what you're doing is right. Again for those wondering whether to take this class, it's a bit of work and you'll definitely struggle in the beginning but keep in touch with your TA for grade updates and the professor for help and you have a good chance of getting an A.

This content of the class is extremely difficult. The whole class consists of coding in R, which is ridiculous. in addition, there was only 2 TA's that could not accommodate the help that all the groups needed during lecture. Other than that, I do not think the TA's were all that good. They lacked in responding to emails, were often rude, and always referred us to use google for help with coding. I did not enjoy the group aspect because it involved having to accommodate everyone's schedules but without groups, I would have been more lost then I already was. The professor is a nice guy and gives extra credit and also curves the midterm/final. I would probably not recommend this class.

Chad and Jennifer (TA) were extremely accommodating and supportive this quarter. The course may be difficult for those who has zero experience with coding because this course uses R, but it is that much informative and doable.

Professor Hazlett is literally one of the best professors at UCLA. Yes, as the previous reviews stated, this class is all about self-learning, which can be a bit hectic at times, but Hazlett is extremely understanding given the current ongoing pandemic. Twice I hit rock bottom during the quarter, so I emailed him asking for an extension, and he instantly granted it to me without hesitation. I was able then to catch up and recover. For that, I am extremely grateful for his generosity. Same goes for our TA Jenny. In fact, both were extremely helpful and kind. I honestly will miss this class!

Here's some food for thought. I have to admit that the first 2 weeks was hell because we had to finish 4 chapters in total (however, after week 2, we only need to complete 1 chapter a week). Each chapter took me about 5-8 hours. We had lectures on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so I split the chapter in half and always completed the first half on Tuesdays, and the other half on Thursdays before lectures. That way, the new ideas and concepts were fresh in my head when the lectures started as we do the Jupyter Notebook assignments together.

It's honestly very hard to fail this class because all the quizzes were graded on a curve, and the lowest one gets dropped. On top of that, the quizzes and Final exam are completely open book and open notes.

Just read the chapters carefully, take good notes, create a list of R coding functions, and you should be good to go!

This class was honestly a lot easier than expected- just do the work and the readings. It CAN be a lot at times (but only if you slack), but if you plan accordingly and just did the work to the best of your ability you will be fine and get an A+!

CourseKata is a great resource to learn from!

I am unsure as to why the professor's ratings are so low. He is incredibly nice and understanding. One time he even cancelled class just to give us more time to work on our homework. If you just look at the grade distribution, more than half the class got A's and A+'s. This class is really not challenging. The workload, however, can be a lot, and this class is a self-study class. But, you are able to email him or the TAs for an extension on your readings and assignments with no explanation needed. They grant extensions without hesitation. And, if you just do the readings and assignments (graded for completion not correction) and attend lectures where the class works on the workbook together, the exams are really easy as they are literally the questions that were worked on in class workbooks. I have never, ever had any experience in coding before this class. But, I love the program R now. I am not a stem major, and I still found the class extremely easy. Also, extra credit is given on exams. On the midterm, he even gave each student a 5% grade boost to help us out. I would choose this class over stats any day. Coding is a great skill to have.

Honestly, not sure whats up with all the bad reviews for professor Hazlett, the man is an absolute legend. Sure, the class is mostly self taught, but the CourseKata textbook we use is very clear at explaining material, and all the homework gets graded on completion. The Jupytr Notebooks can be difficult at times, but prof Hazlett goes through them all during lecture and pretty much walks you through them. The midterms and final were a bit tough, but extra credit was offered with both making it a lot more manageable. I ended up finishing one of the quizes with over 100% even though I got a few questions wrong. The stats itself wasn't that bad, easier than AP Stats, and the coding was pretty elementary and you are given a cheatsheet to help you if you get stuck with a command. Jenny was an incredible TA as well, answering all questions and explaining all the material very thoroughly in section. I'd definitely take this course again and it was a great alternative to stats 10.