The concepts of the class are straightforward. However, Nall is a horrible lecturer. Rarely finishes lectures on time. There would be a large amount of reading, and while the concepts are easy to understand, you won't know which ones are important and will be needed for application on tests/projects. Oh, and he doesn't believe in modern technology.

Professor Nall is MEAN. He is so unfriendly and so unhelpful. He gets mad when you don't know as much about a topic as him, that he literally has a PhD in. He said himself that students should be doing 5+ hours of work outside of class for a 2 credit class. He has a condescending attitude and that makes for an unpleasant learning environment. AVOID

It's a lot of reading that you have to do. Some of them were interesting and others were a bore, but the participation in class made it far more engaging. He teaches it like a grad-school level class, so if you're interested in getting a taste of upper-level academia, I would recommend this class. Also the final paper was actually quite interesting

Good readings and good lectures. The class is really more of an interactive seminar. The policy memo project is good training for future jobs in politics and policy.

Nall is a tough professor but he is ultimately fair. The class projects are a great introduction to doing original original research.

Participation for section is required, not for lecture. No laptops allowed in lecture in 2024. Nall is very sensitive, I would not recommend him to anyone, especially taking a lower div polisci pre-req. The coursework itself is not bad, but he is just difficult to work with. Mandatory textbook is $80. Don't take unless you have to.

Nall is difficult. Its nice seeing someone so knowledgeable, but wow this class is impossibly difficult. Expect to read a ton of complex readings. On top of that, you MUST participate in the class. It's a huge part of the grade and there IS cold calling. Also, expect difficult grading on the difficult quizzes on the difficult readings.

I don't know why Nall is regarded as a difficult professor on this website, maybe he changed his approach to teaching recently. Yes, there are weekly papers, but they're more time-consuming than challenging (2 1/2 hours a week minimum should be enough). Just remember large concepts and how they relate to readings/case studies and you should be fine

Prof Nall is upfront about how difficult this class can be, but he is very nice. Do the readings for quizzes, go to office hours. We had a good TA. Engage in class discussions. I feel like he was lenient because our class was engaged and participatory. The policy memos are a useful writing skill for pols majors, do your best on these and quizzes.

PS170 was interesting but was full of many assignments that made it unmanageable in a quarter system. Two 250-word reading responses a week (not actually responses, had to apply readings in different ways), midterm, final, policy proposal, 8 pg. policy memo, attendance and participation in lecture & section on top of 100-200 pgs of reading a week.

The type of class you can never go to and still get an A in. 10/10.

He assigns more readings than any other professor I've had in poli sci, but the readings were interesting and it was easy to write the required response journal entries. Contrary to other posters, I thought he was engaging and thought-provoking, especially when the class was discussing controversial issues.

The professor did a good job at relating the readings to the lecture and contemporary or past examples. I enjoyed the type of analysis we were encouraged to engage in and I think the weekly journal entries were a good way to measure this along the way, I appreciated the feedback. I learned a lot from this class and the final paper was engaging.

Not sure what the other people were complaining about. Dude is a decent lecturer with interesting and thought-provoking material. We always had lively discussions. There are 2 projects and a reading response, yeah, but you're given more than enough time to complete them. Grading was fair.

This class is a much more reasonable class to take with Nall. The grade is made up of a midterm, final, research paper (done individually or in a group), and section participation. There is still a lot of reading to do (150-250 pages per week), similar to PS162, but it is much more manageable seeing as there aren't nearly as many assignments.

Nall is a good lecturer, but he assigns way too many readings/assignments. I understand he wanted to pack a lot into the course, but it is very difficult juggling this class within a full schedule. Assignments included: section (some assignments), 2 response papers, 2 field papers, 4-5 quizzes, and a final exam. Readings 150-200 pages per week.

Professor Nall did try to make the course a lot less demanding than I would expect a normal quarter to go, which I appreciated a lot. That being said, he assigned a ridiculous amount of reading each week, posted lectures late in the week, and provided very little explanation on assignments/exams. Overall meh experience.

Prof Nall says that he teaches this class like a graduate level course, and he isn't kidding. Every week there is at least 200-300 pages of reading, you have to write two (2 page) reading responses, 2 (10-12 page) field research projects, 4 pop quizzes, and a final. On top of all this he is incredibly condescending and is an awful lecturer.