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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

By far the worst professor I've had at UCSB. Could barely understand her lectures as she was rambling off the slides and just mumbling the whole time. Attendance required at lecture. Dense study prep for midterms. Obscure and difficult papers(must include every reading somehow), took 15 or 20 minutes away from us during midterm for printing error.

Really just a poor lecturer with terrible policies. Mumbles and is hard to hear, incredibly vague paper prompts that make no sense, took the lecture notes down the day before the midterm, took 20 away from our 75 minute midterm because she printed the papers incorrectly (sat there waiting for her to come back as TAs just watched us), and more.

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.

I'm sure Pei-Te is very nice, however, her class...not so much. Lectures are uni-directional, never asks for questions. Slides have paragraphs of info that she skims through quickly (handwritten notes= impossible) Papers have little to no prompt and include 10 readings worth of info in 5 pages. Multiple-choice questions on tests are trivia-like.

Gets more flack than she deserves. She's a highly knowledgable and respected professor, and I think that is lost on so many students just because she is an immigrant. Her class isn't hard--she provides study guides! She does require using all the readings in the 2 short papers, but they're opinion-based so its easy if you put in an ounce of effort.

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.

Literally gave me a 0 on a midterm online because my gauchospace glitched. Was very bitter no one went to class and would upload her lecture slides for only 1-3 hours a day. Exam is just like the lecture slides. Two essays consisted of ALL readings for topics.

She takes attendance daily. Her lectures are not very engaging; she simply reads off the PowerPoint. She can be difficult to understand at times. She only leaves lecture notes up on GauchoSpace for less than 12 hours after class and then deletes them. Gives very thorough study guides; make sure to complete them.

I was really looking forward to ps161 however, I will avoid taking a class with this professor ever again. She reads off her lectures and there is no room for class discussion on important subjects. I do not recommend. She posts her slides for the day she's lectured and removes them at midnight. She is not looking to truly teach her students.

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.