Professor
John Zaller
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Most Helpful Review
If you are a Poli Sci major, you MUST take Zaller. I have never seen a professor at UCLA so passionate and truly interested in student learning. Sure, people wrote here that he is awkward and stand-offish, he's a statistician for god's sake-what do you expect. He teaches statistics and data analysis so slow, so detailed, and provides real world examples. You can tell he's a genius in his field but still can teach in a down to earth style. If you actually want to learn something and not worry about being super competitive, stress about grades, etc. take him. If you do the work reasonably well, I mean do ALL OF IT- whether it be quizzes, assignments etc.. He WILL give you the benefit of the doubt. He is not out to "screw" anyone over. Office hours are not necessary to excel but I hear good things about people how go to his office hours. I am a B+ average student who is not a suck-up or super hard studier, yet I found myself actually learning and wanting to do stuff in his class. For PS 6 Spring 2011, here was the breakdown -280 people in our class - lectures podcasted online. -4-5 T.A.'s with SO many office hours. Jesse Acevedo would do office hours at night, on weekends, etc. Rob and Stacey also wrote back e-mails within the hour. The best T.A's I've seen in any class at UCLA -5 Data Essays. These ranged from easy to super hard at the end. But if you met w/ a T.A. or even him for 5 minutes, they guided you. -Weekly quizzes. This was done online, not super hard and they are not timed. He does that so you can actually reference your notes -Midterm - 20 questions, some mathy, some just practical stuff. He even did a make-up midterm for people scoring a 75% or lower and provided 3 review sessions. -Final - 20 questions, not so much mathy, a lot of the questions were similar to the quiz questions. The only cons I could think of was that it got a little overwhelming and fast paced at the end but overall this class is good for any level of UCLA. I don't think I'll walk out of this class getting an "A", but it was worth it.
If you are a Poli Sci major, you MUST take Zaller. I have never seen a professor at UCLA so passionate and truly interested in student learning. Sure, people wrote here that he is awkward and stand-offish, he's a statistician for god's sake-what do you expect. He teaches statistics and data analysis so slow, so detailed, and provides real world examples. You can tell he's a genius in his field but still can teach in a down to earth style. If you actually want to learn something and not worry about being super competitive, stress about grades, etc. take him. If you do the work reasonably well, I mean do ALL OF IT- whether it be quizzes, assignments etc.. He WILL give you the benefit of the doubt. He is not out to "screw" anyone over. Office hours are not necessary to excel but I hear good things about people how go to his office hours. I am a B+ average student who is not a suck-up or super hard studier, yet I found myself actually learning and wanting to do stuff in his class. For PS 6 Spring 2011, here was the breakdown -280 people in our class - lectures podcasted online. -4-5 T.A.'s with SO many office hours. Jesse Acevedo would do office hours at night, on weekends, etc. Rob and Stacey also wrote back e-mails within the hour. The best T.A's I've seen in any class at UCLA -5 Data Essays. These ranged from easy to super hard at the end. But if you met w/ a T.A. or even him for 5 minutes, they guided you. -Weekly quizzes. This was done online, not super hard and they are not timed. He does that so you can actually reference your notes -Midterm - 20 questions, some mathy, some just practical stuff. He even did a make-up midterm for people scoring a 75% or lower and provided 3 review sessions. -Final - 20 questions, not so much mathy, a lot of the questions were similar to the quiz questions. The only cons I could think of was that it got a little overwhelming and fast paced at the end but overall this class is good for any level of UCLA. I don't think I'll walk out of this class getting an "A", but it was worth it.
Most Helpful Review
I took Public Opinion with him in winter 09 and I loved the class. Zaller is really smart and cares a lot about making his class fair (which to him means as many people as possible get A's-fine by me). The best part about this class was that he was always really clear about what to expect on the midterm, final, and quizzes, which made them easy to prepare for. Lectures are clear and interesting, even though a two hour class is really effing long. As people have said before, there were five reading quizzes and a lot of reading to do. You can't really get away with not doing the reading or even just skimming it because the quizzes are usually on details. But if you read carefully the quizzes are pretty easy. I am not particularly smart and definitely not studious but I got an A just by going to class and doing the reading. The material's really interesting and I feel like I learned a lot. Take this class.
I took Public Opinion with him in winter 09 and I loved the class. Zaller is really smart and cares a lot about making his class fair (which to him means as many people as possible get A's-fine by me). The best part about this class was that he was always really clear about what to expect on the midterm, final, and quizzes, which made them easy to prepare for. Lectures are clear and interesting, even though a two hour class is really effing long. As people have said before, there were five reading quizzes and a lot of reading to do. You can't really get away with not doing the reading or even just skimming it because the quizzes are usually on details. But if you read carefully the quizzes are pretty easy. I am not particularly smart and definitely not studious but I got an A just by going to class and doing the reading. The material's really interesting and I feel like I learned a lot. Take this class.
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2022 - I would not take this course with this professor again. Professor Zaller has to be one of my least favorite professors at UCLA due to his sarcastic remarks toward students and his paranoid attitude on whether or not the material he is giving us challenging enough. It always feels like you are being talked down to as a student by Zaller. He makes quizzes based on the required readings a lot more complex than needed. Questions on quizzes are confusing sometimes and not straight to the point. Lectures always feels like he is rambling instead of be concise of what is the important points to take away. I do not recommend taking this professor, avoid if possible.
Winter 2022 - I would not take this course with this professor again. Professor Zaller has to be one of my least favorite professors at UCLA due to his sarcastic remarks toward students and his paranoid attitude on whether or not the material he is giving us challenging enough. It always feels like you are being talked down to as a student by Zaller. He makes quizzes based on the required readings a lot more complex than needed. Questions on quizzes are confusing sometimes and not straight to the point. Lectures always feels like he is rambling instead of be concise of what is the important points to take away. I do not recommend taking this professor, avoid if possible.
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2019 - I loved this seminar so much, particularly because Zaller loves his work and wants other people to love it just as much as him. It did require a good amount of writing, but you were able to work with a partner and the topics were very interesting! I genuinely enjoyed taking this course and would recommend if you are interested in political parties!
Winter 2019 - I loved this seminar so much, particularly because Zaller loves his work and wants other people to love it just as much as him. It did require a good amount of writing, but you were able to work with a partner and the topics were very interesting! I genuinely enjoyed taking this course and would recommend if you are interested in political parties!
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2022 - This course was a more advanced, narrowly focused, version of his 142A course— which he offers as a prerequisite to 191C. In many ways this course is easy, you have creative freedom to form your own opinions on research papers but you need to understand his “Theory of Parties” first. The more difficult aspect of this course is found in his quizzes. He issued a weekly quiz based on lectures and readings. He takes specific passages or asks questions about individuals mentioned in the readings. There are usually 2-4 questions on each quiz and it can be multiple choice or short answer depending on what he decides. This course was overall very enjoyable and had the readings and quizzes not been like studying for a mini midterm each week I may have been able to take my time and appreciate the concepts more. If you take this course be prepared to work for your A and realize that it will probably make you apply less attention to your other ones.
Winter 2022 - This course was a more advanced, narrowly focused, version of his 142A course— which he offers as a prerequisite to 191C. In many ways this course is easy, you have creative freedom to form your own opinions on research papers but you need to understand his “Theory of Parties” first. The more difficult aspect of this course is found in his quizzes. He issued a weekly quiz based on lectures and readings. He takes specific passages or asks questions about individuals mentioned in the readings. There are usually 2-4 questions on each quiz and it can be multiple choice or short answer depending on what he decides. This course was overall very enjoyable and had the readings and quizzes not been like studying for a mini midterm each week I may have been able to take my time and appreciate the concepts more. If you take this course be prepared to work for your A and realize that it will probably make you apply less attention to your other ones.
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