I took this class during covid and it was also his first quarter teaching so things might be very different in later quarters. The grade was 10% based off of hw and the rest was the two midterms and the final. If you scored lower on one of the midterms than the other midterm and the final then that test grade was dropped which thankfully took some pressure off.

The two midterms were both extremely hard. The prof tended to ask more conceptual questions that were much harder than the hw and the practice exams he gave us. During both exams I felt like I had no idea what was going on and ended up getting a raw score of about 50 both times. He curved both tests, though I'm not sure how. I and many others in the class thought that the midterms were unfair in how hard they were and felt that we were not adequately prepared for them. The prof must have received this feedback and taken into account because for the final he gave us a practice exam that was much closer to the real test. He also curved the final and the final grades (although again, I'm not sure exactly how).

Bottom line is I would recommend taking this class with this prof. Through his emails and his willingness to accept feedback for the final he showed that he cared about his students. He was very encouraging, I never went to office hours but I heard he was helpful. The time commitment for hw is very minimal--weekly problem sets that can be done if you set aside a solid chunk of time. His lectures were pretty engaging and I appreciated how he connected the topics to real-world examples and broader social science concepts. I think the fact that he was such a new professor really made him more in touch with students unlike older professors who just care about their research.