PLCP 3610

Great professor, interesting class. Definitely a must for any FA major.

A lot of reading, but learned a lot about China. The grading is pretty straightforward, just two tests

This class isn't too hard. The midterm and final make up basically your entire grade, and they were a lot easier than I expected them to be. The reading looks really intimidating, but I did not do all or even most of it and I still got an A in the class. However, taking good notes in lecture is very important. Being able to synthesize lecture material is very important for the tests. There are no major essay assignments, only long essays and short answer on the midterm and final. Yaping was my TA, and I highly recommend her.

If you are looking for a 3000 level politics class that doesn't require much effort this is the one to take. Go to class and take good notes and you will do fine. I probably did 10% of the readings and got an A-. One midterm and one final that are both very straightforward. Definitely don't blow off class though, Womack sporadically takes attendance. Also if you can get Marc Opper as your TA, do it. He is a cool guy and an easy grader.

This was one of the easiest classes I've taken at UVa, so if you're looking for something relatively easy, this is for you. If you don't do anything else for this class, go to lecture and take good notes. Then just read through your notes to study for the exams and you should do fine. If you've got spare time and nothing better to do, then skim the readings. This past semester, there was a guest lecturer that showed up on the midterm, but Womack referenced this in class. There was also a question on the midterm about a documentary he assigned, so make sure you watch that. Personally, I didn't think Womack was the greatest lecturer, since he talked really quietly and spent a lot of time reviewing the last class' material, taking attendance, and showing pictures. However, he has an immense amount of experience with China and knows his stuff really well, and seems to be a pretty cool guy. If you're interested in China and don't know much, this is a good class to take. Also, I had Yaping for TA, and she assigned a lot of groupwork in our discussion section, like a role play, a debate, and a group presentation. This wasn't that bad though, since this stuff counted for most of our participation grade, and she graded them pretty easily.

I went into the class being told by people in the class that none of the readings were really required and as a result did not do many of them. This semester though it appeared that the TA's and Brantly made the class slightly harder than it had been in the past. The class consists of a midterm, final, and participation in discussion section. My TA was April and she was very knowledgeable in Chinese politics and a great discussion leader, but this knowledge also made her a tough grader. The midterm and final were not hard for the most part although there were always a few questions that referenced specific texts and specific authors arguments, which made it difficult because there are roughly 150-200 pages a week with 3-4 different authors in this class alone. This means come test time you might know the material but not remember the author and get screwed. Although the class was still not too difficult and very relevant to the world we are living in today.