PLAP 1010

Ceaser is a terrible lecturer. You will be bored to tears and sleep if you're lucky. His lectures are unorganized and he rambles all the time about the Founders, Jefferson, Britain etc. His book is HORRIBLE and although some of the reading is interesting, he doesn't cover it much. Don't take the class. Save your soul.

Interesting class. He wrote the book so the lecture follows the book very well. Basically like high school government. 2 easy papers, some in class quizzes and a few midterms. Good class

Heavily constitutional, uses own textbook, but all in all, relatively easy to succeed.

Very dry lecturer...if you read the book, it's the same as going to class. Sections are helpful, and Belcher does a good job of preparing you for midterms and finals.

This class looks at American politics from the point of the view of the Founders. Go to class, take notes, and skim over the readings and you will do fine.

VERY boring class. TA is what made it worthwhile. Two short papers, a quiz, midterm, and final.

Ceaser's lectures are very boring. You can tell he is VERY knowledgeable and passionate about politics, but the lecture is dry. As long as you go to discussion and do the readings, you will be fine. Very easy class with two papers, one midterm, one final.

Ceasar has a boring lecture style but I thought he was very amusing and I found myself laughing at his jokes regularly. DO THE READINGS and attend section and you'll do fine. 2 papers, 1 midterm, 1 final.

This class was a stereotypical college class; Professor Ceaser lectures without slides or much interaction with students. Even though the class can be quite boring at times, Prof. Ceaser really cares about his students and makes a lot of witty comments. Not the most riveting class but you leave feeling like you learned a lot, especially about the American Founding and American politics from the perspective of the Founders.

Class isn't too hard as many have already outlined, two short papers that are fairly easy to write, a midterm and a final. Reading is usually 50-60 pages a week and not too bad if you have a passing interest in politics/civics.

There are some general things one should be aware of though. Both the midterm and the final are multiple choice (the final also has two essays).
The midterm especially, will test you on EVERYTHING, if you haven't done the readings or come to lectures, it won't be a pleasant experience. I found the multiple choice for the final much easier, and I knew most of it not because I took the class but because I have a general interest in politics. Essays were straightforward and included stuff that was discussed in sections, to the point where if you had studied your section notes well enough, it was hard not to do well on those.

Lectures can be a bit dry. Ceaser actually cracks quite a few jokes but a lot of them involve current events stories that students don't always pay attention to, so they might not appear all that funny to everyone, I personally thought he had quite a few good ones.

Also, the general theme of this course is American politics as it relates to The Founding of the country (Declaration of Independence, the ratification of and debate over the Constitution). A lot of people may not like that and it took me until the end of the course to understand why Ceaser places such emphasis on the founding. It finally occurred to me that that this is the "why" of American politics, why the system looks like it does, why there is conflict and lethargy built into the governmental structure, why the states were granted certain powers etc. In most college intro classes to politics you would get the "what", basically, this is what the government looks like. Ceaser gets to that part as well, but by going back to The Founding, he gives students an understanding of why the political system in the United States is set up the way it is and what the results of this is.

So for this reason, I recommend the class, if only because it does a very good job of explaining the "why" of American politics, on top of that it isn't very hard and doesn't involve too much work.