Doesn't answer emails. I emailed him asking for zoom office hours when I had COVID, he responded literally 2 weeks later. His response papers are so confusing and we don't even go over them. He like also cries. Once for democracy, he is passionate at least.
Nall is very knowledgeable about American politics and has a lot of experience working on real policy stuff. He really wants his students to learn, and expect them to devout a lot of time to his course. Still, you don't need to spend more than a couple hours outside of lecture in it per week if you follow politics
Literally the worst political science professor I have ever had. It feels like he wants you to fail because the tests are so insanely unreasonable when this is supposedly equivalent to AP Gov. I have spent over 60 hours studying for the final and I am still unprepared. Midterm average was a 68% and there is way way way too much reading always.
Lots of reading yet the answers to his exams barely match what is claimed in the material. The professor was unwilling to help students with personal problems during TA strike. He creates an echo chamber classroom and tends to cry and enter moments of emotional silence if something is presented outside of his preferred political stance.
The average on our midterm was 68%, and he says the final is around the same. Lectures don't even cover what's on the midterm and he has been grading the response papers hard since the strike. Don't take this guy If u have a chance, easily the worst Poli sci professor
Clayton Nall is so well informed on everything he teaches, I find it so endearing how passionate he is about all of his lectures, it makes it easy to learn. Just understand the textbook and you should be good, the class has lots of padding in terms of grading. You can tell he wants to push his students to do better
The type of class you can never go to and still get an A in. 10/10.
I really enjoyed this class and seeing a professor be passionate about issues is refreshing to see and he really cares about what he talks about.While there were some issues, especially the midterm formatting he seems to have listened to feedback and made the final better structured.I found the material very engaging and thought it was a good class
Lots of people complain how he doesn't record lectures, but this isn't unreasonable at all. many profs don't do this and he posts all the slides and links online. response paper system was convenient and I preferred writing six short papers (500-750 words) rather than one long paper. lots of reading but you can skip out on some weeks.
He doesn't record lectures despite the fact that we are living through a global pandemic and sometimes people need access to the recordings in the event that they cannot attend class. Generally speaking, he seems to hold a weird animosity towards confusion and asking questions and often appears condescending. Also just so much reading it hurts.
Clayton is pretty rude if you're confused during lectures or if you ask questions that he thinks are "dumb". Yeah, he's one of those guys. He gives you 100-150 pages of reading per week for a GE. He doesn't record lectures either because he is personally against it. He will not make his class dual online/in-person, even during COVID.
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.
