The professor gives you no guidance in terms of preparing you for the final as well as the midterm, the questions are incredibly vague and they focus one topics that are barely covered in lecture or reading. Only one or two students got an A on the midterm and final, the class average for both was around a 58, one of the worst teachers at ucsb!!

Reading is everything in this class--if you don't do the readings you will not pass. He expects a lot from the midterm and final on top of 2 papers. Although he is tough, he is very clear about what he is looking for on the exams. He recommended splitting readings with a group. You can succeed if you just read and take good notes.

One of the worst polisci professors that I have ever taken, avoid this guy at all costs. On his tests he expects very specific writers to be introduced, and even if you get the concept on the test correct and introduce a reading that relates to that concept you will still loose point because you didn't introduce the reading he arbitrarily chose.

Good luck with the vague questions and onslaught of reading unlike any professor in the UCSB polisci department that you've taken before. There are other professors in the Polisci department, do yourself a favor and avoid this guy.

The class is set up so that students fail, he expects over 120 pages of reading a week and expects you to be able to remember most of it for the midterm which comes 6 weeks in, he also will have you memorize every author and expects you to connect them to your answers while taking his tests which are already daunting, AVOID AT ALL COSTS.

Quite possibly the worst prof in the Polisci department at UCSB, the average on the midterm was 67. Also very arrogant towards students. He expects memorization of least25 authors on each test and more than that for the final, he also is looking for very specific authors and doesn't give a study guide,final grade not reflective of what you learned.

He really is an amazing professor. I actually learned so much from his class. The work is hard but doable, go see him or your TA's they help so much! It also helps to work with a group on the readings so that you are able to get the most through notes.

Not good! Not good at all! Good luck if you enroll in any of his classes like I did.

Best IR prof at UCSB. Took 121 126 & 127 in person. His lectures are dense but v thorough and give you a comprehensive undergrad level understanding of IR. For exams+papers, be prepared to cite authors & reference key concepts that he mentions in lecture without notes. Grades based on critical thinking+applying concepts, not just effort. Great guy

Despite the number of readings assigned by Professor Strathman, hes an awesome professor. I have taken 4 classes with him, and he never fails to make me feel passionate about my field of study. He is TOUGH but in a good challenging way. If you do poorly on an exam hes usually willing to help you out if you have improved over the quarter. Great guy!

Will spend a whole lecture defining/ talking about how to use a concept to fix a problem, only to say in the last minute that this strategy is stupid and doesnt work. Then give you a final asking the right way to fix the problem when the only way you have learned about how to approach it is wrong. Never replied to my emails a/b mental health :))

Kind of wants you to read his mind. Lectures are interesting but only a quarter of the actual work is required to do well. He grades based on whether he thinks you have improved, and tests are insanely difficult.

If you like IR and are actually willing to put in the work, then Strathman's classes are the best PS classes you could take at UCSB. His tests are very difficult and heavily focused on lectures, so make sure to know them like the back of your hand. Would definitely recommend going to office hours as well, he's a really cool guy

I recommend avoiding taking his class if possible. There is a lot of reading and midterm and final are based on the reading with no study guide on what exactly from the reading should be focused on. Also there is a strict answer key to the short answer and essay questions and you are timed while doing it.

TONS of reading that are not covered by lecture or section, so you're on your own. sections consist of "games" to teach you concepts like prisoners dilemma/IR concepts, so u don't rly go over readings/material at all. grade is made up of 3 strategy brief papers, participation in section, and a final exam. lot of work for not much reward

This professor grades super super harshly. Take this class if you are willing to actively do every reading and watch every lecture.

Strathman gives 100+ pgs to read, but only 30 min worth of lecture, (both per/wk), that don't fully address readings. We were graded harshly, expected to cite most scholars/authors on tests (not open note), and quizzes ( 6 per/wk) had trick/vague questions. Class structure doesn't represent work put in nor one's mastering of material.

Strathman assigns wayyy too many readings and quizzes. Expect to sit through 100-200 pages and 6-8 quizzes per week. The readings are dense, dry, and difficult to get trudge through and remember. He then expects you to perfectly cite them on essay questions in exams. He also grades quizzes unfairly and grades op-ed assignments too harshly.

He needs to stop having so many quizzes it is so annoying theres like 10 quizzes every single week based on every single reading and lecture. It is really hard to get a good grade in this class because he grades really harshly on essays, and the only way to boost up your grade is quizzes.. which are also impossible.

I've had classes with most professors in the poli sci department and Strathman is by far the worst. He uploaded VERY short lectures that weren't much help so I basically had to teach myself the course material. We also had to complete many quizzes every week which kinda sucked. He's also a very tough grader who didn't give any helpful feedback.

They are other POLS professors at UCSB, and I would not recommend taking classes taught by professor Strathman.

HOLY COW! He assigns the most reading than any prof ever at UCSB! There was around 300 pages a week of dense academic journals. I guess if you want to spend countless hours every week reading this would be the class for you. Very cool guy and interesting lectures but if you don't read you won't pass.

Strathman is very passionate in IR, and it shows. His lectures are very interesting. But he falls short in the grading department. For the midterm and final he expected you to know all the readings and be able to readily cite them in order to get credit, but he did not make that known to us before the midterm.

Prof Strathman is very knowledgeable on Foreign Policy but makes his classes impossible to pass. You'll have about 100-200 pages of dense reading per week, lectures that are hard to follow, and no study guide for any of the tests. He looks for specific answers to his tests that he doesn't explicitly voice, and the TA's never know what's going on