Professor
Michael Ross
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Most Helpful Review
Spring 2018 - Professor Ross is one of the best instructors I've had at UCLA. His lectures are clear, concise, and enriching. He truly cares about his students understanding course concepts and is fairly flexible and generous with grading and assignments. Highly recommend taking this class!
Spring 2018 - Professor Ross is one of the best instructors I've had at UCLA. His lectures are clear, concise, and enriching. He truly cares about his students understanding course concepts and is fairly flexible and generous with grading and assignments. Highly recommend taking this class!
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2021 - This class was honestly not too difficult. If you are a committed student, getting an A in this class is very manageable. No textbook required because Prof. Ross provides all of them for free. Prof. Ross is overall a great professor. He is very knowledgeable in this topic as well as the whole field of political science in general. During lectures, he repeatedly asks the class if we had any questions or confusions about a topic for him to go over again. He also provides study guides, which may appear daunting, but many of the topics overlap each other. He also provided 1 point of extra credit if we completed a survey. During the midterm and finals week, the 3 TAs would host their own 2-hour long live-ZOOM call that we can join to ask any questions or further elaborations on the topics from the study guide. I found this EXTREMELY HELPFUL. [][][][][][] Grade distribution: 20% Section Participation – you get one point for attending section and another point for participating at least twice in them. 20% In-class midterm exam (6 IDs and 10 MCQs) – writing your name on the exam automatically grants you 30 “free points,” with each ID accounting for 10 points and each MCQ accounting for 1 point. 20% Take-home midterm (4 pages maximum) – Prof. Ross will send out the essay prompt the evening after you take your in-class midterm exam, and you have about 2 days to complete it. The essay wasn’t too hard, but given that we only had 2 days to complete it during midterm week, it was quite harsh since I had other exams. So you must manage your time carefully… 40% Final exam – literally the same format as the in-class midterm. It initially was supposed to have much more IDs and MCQs, but on Week 8 or 9, Prof. Ross changed his mind and kept it the same length as the in-class midterm exam. The exam is cumulative, with 30% of the Qs focusing on Weeks 1-5’s material and the remaining 70% on the latter half of the course. [][][][][][] On the first day, Prof. Ross warned us about the weekly readings being “heavy,” but it actually wasn’t too bad. For the scientific papers, which we had like 4 or 6, he advises us only to read the Abstract and its figures while skimming the rest. In general, the readings were not too long. I found the lectures overall to be very interesting. Prof. Ross normally elaborates on the main points he wants us to take away from the readings and often provides relevant events, examples, and information. He also uses slides that he would always upload at the end of class. These slides are helpful when studying for the midterm and the final exam. For section, my TA was David, and he was awesome. Usually, early in the week, David would email us a list of questions on the weekly reading to prepare us for section. As a result, it is important that you finish some of the readings BEFORE coming to each section because if you want full credit for participation, you have to participate at least twice in answering/discussing the questions. Overall, I highly recommend taking this class if you are a committed student. It’s not too hard, but you must keep up with all the material.
Fall 2021 - This class was honestly not too difficult. If you are a committed student, getting an A in this class is very manageable. No textbook required because Prof. Ross provides all of them for free. Prof. Ross is overall a great professor. He is very knowledgeable in this topic as well as the whole field of political science in general. During lectures, he repeatedly asks the class if we had any questions or confusions about a topic for him to go over again. He also provides study guides, which may appear daunting, but many of the topics overlap each other. He also provided 1 point of extra credit if we completed a survey. During the midterm and finals week, the 3 TAs would host their own 2-hour long live-ZOOM call that we can join to ask any questions or further elaborations on the topics from the study guide. I found this EXTREMELY HELPFUL. [][][][][][] Grade distribution: 20% Section Participation – you get one point for attending section and another point for participating at least twice in them. 20% In-class midterm exam (6 IDs and 10 MCQs) – writing your name on the exam automatically grants you 30 “free points,” with each ID accounting for 10 points and each MCQ accounting for 1 point. 20% Take-home midterm (4 pages maximum) – Prof. Ross will send out the essay prompt the evening after you take your in-class midterm exam, and you have about 2 days to complete it. The essay wasn’t too hard, but given that we only had 2 days to complete it during midterm week, it was quite harsh since I had other exams. So you must manage your time carefully… 40% Final exam – literally the same format as the in-class midterm. It initially was supposed to have much more IDs and MCQs, but on Week 8 or 9, Prof. Ross changed his mind and kept it the same length as the in-class midterm exam. The exam is cumulative, with 30% of the Qs focusing on Weeks 1-5’s material and the remaining 70% on the latter half of the course. [][][][][][] On the first day, Prof. Ross warned us about the weekly readings being “heavy,” but it actually wasn’t too bad. For the scientific papers, which we had like 4 or 6, he advises us only to read the Abstract and its figures while skimming the rest. In general, the readings were not too long. I found the lectures overall to be very interesting. Prof. Ross normally elaborates on the main points he wants us to take away from the readings and often provides relevant events, examples, and information. He also uses slides that he would always upload at the end of class. These slides are helpful when studying for the midterm and the final exam. For section, my TA was David, and he was awesome. Usually, early in the week, David would email us a list of questions on the weekly reading to prepare us for section. As a result, it is important that you finish some of the readings BEFORE coming to each section because if you want full credit for participation, you have to participate at least twice in answering/discussing the questions. Overall, I highly recommend taking this class if you are a committed student. It’s not too hard, but you must keep up with all the material.
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2021 - I'm really glad I took this class, but it was definitely challenging at times. No homework except for weekly reading, usually 2-4 articles that take a few hours total a week. The grade breakdown was 40% midterm, 40% final, and 20% participation (aka showing up to discussion every week). This made the tests super stressful!! But he does provide a study guide (that's kinda vague and long) for both exams a week or so in advance. You have to have a good understanding of the key terms AND all the readings, which is a lot of info to memorize. That being said, the class averages were high and I personally was super happy with my scores. My TA David was dope, and Prof. Ross' lectures were engaging. I liked how his slides were simple and easy to follow, but I would suggest jotting down notes when he's talking for extra info to help with the midterm/final. Ross is clearly very knowledgable about the subject! Overall, this was a somewhat challenging class but totally manageable if you're someone who can stay on track by yourself (especially with reading).
Fall 2021 - I'm really glad I took this class, but it was definitely challenging at times. No homework except for weekly reading, usually 2-4 articles that take a few hours total a week. The grade breakdown was 40% midterm, 40% final, and 20% participation (aka showing up to discussion every week). This made the tests super stressful!! But he does provide a study guide (that's kinda vague and long) for both exams a week or so in advance. You have to have a good understanding of the key terms AND all the readings, which is a lot of info to memorize. That being said, the class averages were high and I personally was super happy with my scores. My TA David was dope, and Prof. Ross' lectures were engaging. I liked how his slides were simple and easy to follow, but I would suggest jotting down notes when he's talking for extra info to help with the midterm/final. Ross is clearly very knowledgable about the subject! Overall, this was a somewhat challenging class but totally manageable if you're someone who can stay on track by yourself (especially with reading).
Most Helpful Review
Prof. Ross is organized and approachable. Lectures are straightforward, but be warned, he uses up every second of the hour and 50 minutes of class. You have to keep up with readings, trying to cram them all in last minute is near impossible. Although I received an A, this was definitely one of my harder courses. The midterm study guide and final study guide had 2 pages worth of terms that we had to know, and he only tests on about 8 of them. The major portions of the exam are short answer so you have to be able to write a decent-sized paragraph for each term. This wouldn't be hard but for the sheer volume of terms he gives and information you learn from both lectures and the readings. Part of the final is also an essay. Overall tough class, but a good grade is very attainable.
Prof. Ross is organized and approachable. Lectures are straightforward, but be warned, he uses up every second of the hour and 50 minutes of class. You have to keep up with readings, trying to cram them all in last minute is near impossible. Although I received an A, this was definitely one of my harder courses. The midterm study guide and final study guide had 2 pages worth of terms that we had to know, and he only tests on about 8 of them. The major portions of the exam are short answer so you have to be able to write a decent-sized paragraph for each term. This wouldn't be hard but for the sheer volume of terms he gives and information you learn from both lectures and the readings. Part of the final is also an essay. Overall tough class, but a good grade is very attainable.
Most Helpful Review
I took IDS 100b with him and seriously i ve never had a professor who says so much random things that dont make sense. he makes you frustrated. I m usually a good student and esp love the subject he's teaching but his tests were so irrational. What the TAs meant by concise is just say the things they think its important but dont tell you whats important. Like the previous reviews, I spent so much time memorizing the 60 terms and prepare them, but the essay on the final was so irrelevant. You just hear a bunch of people go "what??" during the final exam. if you write more than 5 lines you get points deducted. Basically the tests are designed so they can have a easy time grading. This class makes me question the value of my education at ucla and why i m spending money and effort on something so not worth my time.
I took IDS 100b with him and seriously i ve never had a professor who says so much random things that dont make sense. he makes you frustrated. I m usually a good student and esp love the subject he's teaching but his tests were so irrational. What the TAs meant by concise is just say the things they think its important but dont tell you whats important. Like the previous reviews, I spent so much time memorizing the 60 terms and prepare them, but the essay on the final was so irrelevant. You just hear a bunch of people go "what??" during the final exam. if you write more than 5 lines you get points deducted. Basically the tests are designed so they can have a easy time grading. This class makes me question the value of my education at ucla and why i m spending money and effort on something so not worth my time.
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