Super nice and respectful lady—very accommodating. However, she's a bad lecturer/speaker and heavily weights midterm and final. Her grading is arbitrary and unclear. Beware she grades harshly if you don't follow her format. Not the worst but not the best. Don't be scared to take her if you have to but don't expect it to be great.

Two response papers- grading criteria were unclear and all readings had to be mentioned which was quite challenging. Feedback didn't really make sense, and lectures felt long and confusing. Easy to tune out and midterm had multiple choice that focused on very specific details in the class that are super easy to brush over.

Absolutely awful class. No sections and no explanation of the "covered" topics. Grading done on the basis of something nobody understands except for her. You basically walk out of the class confused and drained.

Shes very sweet but not considerate. She goes off of only the lecture slides and sometimes gets into pointless confusing tangents. There is no section in this class so she made us do 8 " extracurricular actions" Like watch movies or go to speakers and write a one page reflection, to make up for section. Essays are easy, exams are so so.

Lectures are not easy to follow and there is LOTS of reading and LOTS of writing. Papers have literally no prompt but expect you to use all of the readings, and then grades harshly. Midterm was about the most specific things ever there's no way to remember from studying, and some things on it were literally taught at the lecture 4 days before.AVOID

Professor Lien is simply a bad polisci professor. She is hard to understand because of her accent; it is unclear what she wants students to do with their response papers. Even worse, she takes away the lecture slides before the final. Avoid at all costs!

Class is simultaneously conceptually simple and somehow still very difficult to get an A in Midterm and final asked questions that tested extremely specific trivial knowledge. Grade curving scheme arbitrarily raised some students' grades but not others. Lectures seemed scattered, trivia-based Never learned less in a class.

She is so irritating. Lecture attendance counts for your grade but all she does is read paragraphs of information off of her slides. Insanely boring. Avoid at all costs.

Boring lecture, confusing grading on tests, tons of reading. The workload isn't terrible or overwhelmingly bad, and the class is definitely doable, but I wouldn't take it unless you had to. Also every other sentence she says, "talking about" IFYKYK

Lecture and section attendance is mandatory, just make sure to take notes on the slides, and you should be fine. Bulk of the grade is two papers and a midterm/final. I honestly enjoyed the class content and found Lien's lectures to be engaging, but they could feel long sometimes.

Contrary to what a lot of students say, I really enjoyed Professor Lien and this class. She's very clear on what is expected on her tests and papers, everything is straight from lecture. The content of this class is also very interesting. Tests and papers are curved. Just make sure you attend lecture and take good notes.

deleted lecture notes before a final? so petty.

Okay! This woman knows what she's talking about and is incredibly knowledgeable. I learned a lot this quarter. Her lectures are organized and straight to the point. The midterm ended up being curved, but even so, if you put in the effort you'll do relatively well. She's also such a sweet lady and clearly passionate.

Pie-te is an amazing professor! Her lectures are interesting and her slides have the perfect amount of information. For the midterm/final she gave us study guides of what exactly would be on the exams and it made the exams a breeze! I've taken 2 of her classes and I actually learned a lot. She's a really nice lady who clearly loves what she does(:

About 50 pages of reading per week. Midterm and final are based heavily on lecture slides, which she does not post online. 2 five-page papers: each due before the midterm and final. Paper grading depends on your TA. Papers helped me actually do the readings, as they are based on them. Get ready to read!

I have quite literally never had a worse professor in my four years of undergrad. While I can certainly say that Lien is an extremely kind person, the truth is that she does not seemingly care about the performance(s) of her students which is a shame. Hardest grader I have ever had. Refuses to post or send slides. Impossible writing prompts.

Lien is organized, structured, and has neat lecture slides. It's not the most deeply enriching class but if you have good memorization skills you will do fine. She is pretty reasonable, has extra credit, and curves the tests if needed. She also gives study guides which is nice. Overall, she is a nice professor her class is just a little dull.

Pei-Te Lien is an amazing professor, and incredibly smart. Some people find it difficult to understand her but I sat close to the front and I rarely had trouble understanding her. 2 tests and 2 papers. The papers cover the readings and the tests mostly cover the lectures, but there is also a good combination. Overall, great class.

you write two essays based on the required readings. you need to do the readings to pass this class. it is fairly doable. i loved this class because i had such a helpful t.a. the midterm and final are based on lecture. essays are based on readings.

Organized lecture slides, but hard to understand some of the connections made in lecture. She lectures quietly and the TA I had was new so he wasn't helpful. Only take if you're super interested and will pay attention in class. Never used textbook. In class midterm and final; ID's and essay prompts. Heavy memorization.

It feels horrible to say this since 161 is a minority politics class but I literally could not understand a single word that Prof. Lien said in lecture. Lecture attendance is mandatory you will spend an hour and 15 minutes trying to teach yourself course material from the giant paragraphs of text on the slides.

This class was extremely interesting and I liked the way that it was organized, and Lien is responsible for shaping that structure. Succeeding on exams is very possible with adequate preparation. One thing I will say is that lectures are not good. They consist of extremely dense slides that are quickly skipped over and not usually posted IMO.

Class is kinda hard so get ready to read. I feel like she also prefaces this in her course. She gives a really detailed study guide though, which is word for word on the midterm, so bless up. Also average was like 79 for the midterm, which is B- ... i fear it is not bad bro. Hack is to save her lecture slides after class

Lien is without a doubt the worst poli sci professor I have had at UCSB. Her lectures are terrible as she is extremely difficult to follow and is not charismatic/engaging in the slightest. On the midterm, the multiple-choice questions were about hyper-specific details, and for the papers, she doesn't provide a prompt and grades super harshly.