This class was definitely a rollercoaster. Zaller had interesting things to say but his weekly quizzes were sometimes very difficult. It was very frustrating when I would do the readings and still do badly on quizzes which he kept insisting were easy. I remember once he said that the quiz was "extremely easy" and 50% of the class got under a 4/9. However, he does curve quizzes and did not grade too harshly on the midterm and final essays as long as you follow his format. Still, he was disorganized and this class was very stressful.

I seem to be in the minority here but I really loved Zaller and this class. I wouldn't say Zaller's lecture style is the most engaging, but I personally found his method very clear and easy to follow. He uses a lot a historical examples, graphs, and studies to explain what he is saying which helped me follow along. This was a super interesting class about the way parties formed in our country, what role they play, and even covered a little bit of the psychology of groups.

Your grade is determined by weekly quizzes and a take home essay midterm and final. A lot of people complained about the difficulty of his quizzes, but I honestly didn't find them too challenging. As long as you do the readings and take notes during his lectures, I feel they were easy to do well in. I noticed that the quizzes I didn't do well in, I sped through the readings and/or didn't pay attention in lecture the previous day. So just make sure you stay on top of that. Zaller was generous with the curves of the quizzes and he drops two 9 point quizzes or one 15 point quiz. The midterm and finals were graded fairly in my opinion, but it also kind of depends on your grader. Zaller did have an appeal process though.

Zaller himself is a quirky and funny guy, though not always on purpose. At times, he had the whole class laughing but he seemed caught of guard when that happened. He can "snap" at people at times but to be honest, I feel like he was a little bit justified because of just how much people complained about the assignments. All in all, Zaller isn't everyone's cup of tea, but the class itself isn't too difficult and he does have a lot of grace when curving and dropping assignments.

The other reviews are pretty accurate. He is super paranoid of cheating. The weekly reading quizzes stress you out and though he tells us to read for general themes and stories, his quiz questions have literally asked about a person who was mentioned for not more than 2 sentences out of hundreds of pages of reading. The midterm and final are somehow more lax, but the grading is subjective and variable. The class was bruincasted, but the lectures are dry, monotone, and not engaging. He tries to help students out and seems to genuinely care about their success and tries to curve his grades as best as he can but it always comes off as confusing, complex, and unnecessary. It's somehow kind of manageable, but definitely not a class I would want to take again and wouldn't recommend unless it's like the only one left to fulfill your requirements.

This has been one of my favorite classes here. Would absolutely recommend if you're interested in the subject. The reading can get pretty heavy, but it's pretty well selected, some can get dry/long. I'd recommend taking with a friend and splitting it/reviewing it together otherwise it'll take hours. Quizzes are easy if you are familiar with the reading, but because Zaller was paranoid about cheating, the quizzes were taken synchronously and pretty pressed for time. You can skip two of them/drop your two lowest grades.

He really emphasizes writing straight to the point, which forces you to be brief. Both the midterm and the final (24 hr essays) were expected to have absolutely no fluff if you wanted to maximize your points. He's a chiller in office hours, come with at least one question. He really wants you to do well and is retiring soon so take him while you can! Opportunities to get involved after the class exist too.

Zaller was very worried about cheating and gives very little time to complete quizzes which have very specific questions from the readings. I found the readings to be really interesting and the quizzes manageable to get a good score on if you do all the readings and take really detailed notes. This is what I did and I only missed one quiz question for the whole quarter, got a 95 on the midterm, and an A in the class. People complained a lot about Zaller but it’s really not that hard to get an A as long as you’re willing to put in the work. The professor seems tough but he’s actually really nice and passionate about what he’s teaching.

Professor Zaller is a really smart guy, but his lectures are really boring. The workload (readings) is really heavy for PS 142A, and you have to do them. He assigns weekly reading quizzes and the questions are extremely specific, so if you don't do the readings or just skim them, your grade will drop pretty quickly. Overall, I learned a fair amount about American political parties in his class, so that's cool. If you're interested in elections and political parties, by all means definitely take this class. But if you have the chance to take a different class, you'd probably be doing yourself a favor.

He is a very smart man. Look up his UCLA theory of parties. However, that being said, his lectures are very dry. They are podcasted though, so that helps because you can listen to the podcasts on a faster speed. I found his lectures to be kind of irrelevant to the midterms or finals. There is a LOT of reading and a reading quiz every week. However, the TAs grade based on if they think you read it, rather than having the exact answer. It is an easy A, but be prepared to not learn a lot and do the readings!

The material in this class is fascinating, but I found Professor Zaller's delivery in lecture to be very dry, bordering on boring sometimes. He is quick-witted and gives strong, although blunt, responses to questions from students.

The most important part of this class is the outside material – he gives weekly quizzes on the readings that are fairly easy as long as you've actually done the reading. What's more, you will need to draw heavily from the readings for your in-class midterm and final exam which take the form of a timed essay on a single question related to the course. If you do the reading and show up to class at least most of the time, you should have no problem in this course.

The central focus of the class is the UCLA theory of political parties, and Zaller spends a great deal of the class attempting to get us to agree with the theory. I found his perspective and the theory to be very interesting, which made the class one I think I will remember for a long time.

His class was great and informative overall. There was an average of 100 pages of reading per week and there was a weekly quiz on the assigned readings and a quiz on the material of the lectures every 2-3 lectures. Quizzes came out to 40% of the grade. They were graded by student graders that gave you full points if you were anywhere near the answer thought. His lectures can be boring in person as he talks quite slowly and monotone, but he doesn't mind if you leave class after the quizzes. Just watch the lecture on bruincast at 2x speed. The midterm (25% of the grade) and final (35%) are both in-class essays that are graded by including as many pieces of evidence as possible. Your paper doesn't have to be fully coherent, you just have to include 'building blocks' from a sheet that he gives you. He gave 7% of extra credit which was substantial and super helpful! I enjoyed the content of his lectures as he is very knowledgeable. The information was broken down into four categories: political parties and democracy (overview of the nature of parties and their history in the United States from 1787 to the present), parties in the electorate, parties nominations to office, and the party in the government. He tries to be bipartisan but openly admits his left of center preferences. I would recommend this class.

To be completely honest, his class is boring. And I mean it. He talks super slow and likes to walk around. However, he does offer Bruincast, and if you speed it up to 2x, his class suddenly becomes a lot more interesting.

The course material is very interesting and engaging as well. I loved the assigned readings, especially "The Righteous Mind" by Jonathan Haidt. This book is one of the most interesting books I have ever read in my life, more than how I liked Harry Potter. Honestly recommend it even if you choose not to take his class.

He actually taught us a lot, about partisanship, and how people who we think are stupid, are not actually stupid, because we are equally stupid in their eyes. All his grades are being graded by undergraduate TAs, which are not the most enlightened people. You have weekly quizzes, and if you basically write something that is close to the answer, they'll give you full grade. I mean I love it for them grading like this, but it doesn't feel good when I study so much harder than my friends but they got the same grade as I am without even reading.

My friends thought they didn't learn anything new from this class, and it can be true. However, the thing that struck me the most is how he described partisanship and analyzed both sides' resentment. I would take his class again. Preferably with the same TA and the same grading standard.