It's been two quarters since I've taken this class so it's a little fuzzy but I can remember most of the important details. I think I did get the top grade in the class but I'll be as objective as possible.

Professor Roberts is a FAST talker. If you are someone who feels intimidated by fast talkers this class is definitely not for you. If you know a lot of the stuff beforehand, it will definitely help you understand what he's saying.

Midterm: (Only took a midterm cuz CORONA)

TBH a lot of the concepts are rehashes of ECON 1. If you've never taken ECON 1 or you don't have a firm grasp of ECON concepts you are in for a rollercoaster of confusion. On the midterm people got some disastrous grades because they weren't 100% sure about some basic concepts. The midterm was curved up, though, because people got some awful grades. There is also extra credit on the midterm. (I think I got a 100, and then my grade was boosted to 111 from extra credit+the curve.) I just reviewed quiz problems + past midterm exams that the professor uploads.

Read the book. Go. To. Office. Hours.
I don't think anyone can say they deserved a 111 but I did come close because I intuitively knew that I would have to go to the Prof's office hours as much as I could for research exercises and problem sets because they are not well-explained SO GO.

Good luck. I felt dumb a lot of the time because I couldn't understand what the Prof was saying most of the time even when he was talking directly at me in office hours. Good guy though. He tries to be helpful. He tries.

Professor Roberts gave engaging lectures and always asked if clarification was needed for any topic he had covered. He is funny at times and you do not feel uneasy asking him questions for anything from the class material to your grade. My TA Alex Munoz was amazing and I would recommend everyone get him if you can and consider taking Professor Roberts for this class as he makes the material fairly easy to understand. The only bummer is that I was less than 0.1% away from an A+ but only got an A. Regardless, this class was amazing and it is likely you will end with an A and if not the worst you will get is an A-. Try your best and do not slack off!

I had a high level of interest about authoritarianism before this class, and while I certainly learned a lot about the topic, I felt as though the class structure inhibited my learning a bit. While the subject is a fascinating one, I felt that Professor Roberts tended to be quite disorganized and the course sometimes felt a bit chaotic at times. In a bid to address student concerns, Professor Roberts utilized two separate grading schemes: synchronous-heavy and asynchronous-heavy, each with different weights and assignments. While I certainly appreciate that Professor Roberts tried to make room for student concerns, this just ended up making the course unnecessarily convoluted. The reading load of the class is fairly moderate in comparison with other upper-div political science classes, but there are a number of research assignments, quizzes, a midterm, a final exam, a final presentation, and a final group essay which just made the course more hectic than it needed to be. These assignments were graded fairly leniently, but I felt that a lot of the minor assignments were reminiscent of busy-work.

Professor Roberts is very open to changing the format of the class/assignments, but I felt that this class just contained too many moving parts. Were the course to be simplified in favor of fewer but perhaps more substantial assignments, I feel as though the course would function a lot better. As it stands though, the disorganized nature of Professor Roberts, and the multitude of what I felt were superfluous assignments made the course a lot more tedious than it should have been.

I am a stats major so I knew everything before the course. Had I not been a stats major, I would not have been able to follow the course because the Professor has no idea what he is talking about. Plus, he doesn't understand some of the concepts he teach (standard error vs standard deviation and anova and such) so it is painstaking watching him crash and burn. If I met him outside of class, I wouldn't have noticed him.

Professor Roberts is incredibly enthusiastic and a fun professor to take a class from. I had him for PS 30 and he would show us clips from movies and have us make a game from them. He is definitely a nice guy and the class was easy as long as you pay attention.

Compared to the other Stats 10 Professors his grading is really easy. The Ta´s aren´t really helpfull because they barely speak english and aren´t familiar with the required software. Don´t go to the discussion! Just the Lab
He is really concerned about his students and wants everyone to understand the material.
I would definetely recommend him.

Took Stats 10 with him - it was his first time teaching it. His lectures were all ppt based, and though he seemed to be engaged with the class, ultimately it felt like he's just reading off the slides and not teaching the concepts. If I hadn't taken AP stats, I would not have understand most of what was presented in class.
Course had weekly hw, biweekly labs, two midterms, final - there is no curve! final grade is what it is based on score on all assignments.

Professor Roberts is a nice guy. The class is pretty easy throughout. He doesn't always seem to know what he's talking about and him and his reader have way different standards of what assignments should be like. My issue with the class is that I received 98% and above on every assignment except the midterm (which I got 93%) and the final presentation brought me down to a B+ so I was pretty disappointed in his distribution. He gives templates for how to do assignments then his reader constantly calls almost every submission "minimalist" (for everyone not just me) and gives childish comments like "sigh....this is so minimalist." Other than that, it's doable and easy.

This wasn't my favorite class I've taken (I'm not a big fan of econ), but I definitely think the previous reviews are a little extra. This class had a pretty big workload with a ton of reading each week, reading quizzes before every lecture, research memos, problem sets, and a midterm and final (which I didn't take because it was optional). However, Roberts was really understanding about how overwhelming it could be and extended the due dates for problem sets and research memos a few times. In regards to the midterm, the multiple-choice questions are pulled from the quizzes and the other section is from the sets and memos, so as long as you make a quizlet or some form of study guide AND review your assignments (assuming you do well on them), you'll do fine. Just a heads up, he is a quick lecturer, but he posts the slides online and they're really detailed so you can always go back and review! Overall, I like Roberts and the material was kinda interesting (again, not a big econ fan to begin with), just beware that the class demands a lot, but it's definitely manageable.

There will be times when you don't understand the concepts and will have to ask your classmates. Make someone your study buddy. There are weekly readings for this class with 2 quizzes every week. The exam can be hard especially if there is not enough time. Good luck