This class is extremely worth it. I learned so much and the Len Schoppa is amazing at explaining concepts. There was a midterm and a final which weren't too hard if you took extensive notes from the lectures. I personally found it extremely interesting and it took it as a first-year in my first semester and ended up with an A-. If you do all the readings and keep up with the lectures, you will be able to do well. I never went to office hours because the recorded lectures were pretty self-explanatory. I loved this class, and it's the reason I want to major in foreign affairs, as well as study more about East Asia. I definitely recommend it if you're interested in an international relations class. It's the perfect level of challenging while engaging. It was my favorite class I've taken. My TA was Ruixing Cao and he wasn't the easiest grader but he gave good feedback and good explanations during the discussion questions. I made sure to type everything he would say as a good way to summarize the lectures and get a deeper understanding with better-simplified phrasing of the concepts.

Course is pretty intense for a 2000 level, especially if you don't have previous experience in IR. Professor went over the three basic IR theories at the beginning of the course and then dove into the content. There was a lot of reading, and most of it was necessary to do well on the midterm. Your grade is heavily dependent on the TA you have, and my TA, Sunggun Park, was fairly poor. He made the class unnecessarily difficult by adding in ludicrous pop quizzes and contradicting the professor in discussion on the way we were supposed to evaluate certain events. If you are interested in the material it may be worth taking, but it feels like a 3000 level workload for a 2000 level class. Don't take it with Sunggun if he is still TAing.

Tons of reading, but don't really have to do any of it because the most important ones are gone over during the lecture. The lectures were definitely really good and informative, and I felt like they prepped me for the exams. I had Alexis Yang as my TA and she was super chill. Her discussion sections were structured in the way that she would give us a google form to fill out in breakout rooms and then everyone would just discuss the answers together, but we never got through all of the questions usually. I think she was definitely a fair grader though, so I would choose her as TA again.

One of the worst classes I've taken at UVa. The content is super interesting, which is what pushed me to take it. However, the way it is taught makes it unbearable. There were so many readings that it seems as if the professor forgets we take other classes (with that in mind, I didn't do them and ended up with B+ ). I had Ruixing as a TA. He was a very strict grader and did not make his expectations clear, making writing the essays very hard.
The class was: one midterm - essay, closed notes and timed - possible topics are given beforehand; participation - presence in the discussion, talking in the discussion, and google forms; and a 50% final essay take home.
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