PLAP 3190

Unlike some politics professors who would assign superfluous amount of reading, some of which will not be even discussed or tested on, Mr. Klein rather assigns less amount of reading. The class covers the readings in depth. It is understandable that some students may be bored with the material as we are dealing with the judicial branch where the writing is often esoteric and dense. However, to do well in this class, you need to love the subject and be willing to grapple with challenging topics. It is not a hard class if you put in the effort and time. Mr. Klein is also a good lecturer so you can follow what he is saying.

Professor Klein is very knowledgeable on the subject and it's obvious he really enjoys studying the Supreme Court. He breaks down the complicated material so it's much easier to understand. Make sure you do the readings as you are tested on those.

Klein is an intelligent, nice, and fair professor. Therefore, if you go to lecture and write a sensible paper you will do well. Good intro to the American court system/social scientific research of the law.

Material was so-so. Klein isn't a bad guy but certainly not the most exciting lecturer on the planet. Very picky on tests and papers but not intolerable.

I love Klein. He is a really cool guy who cares about the material and will help you with anything. I actually enjoyed all of the readings he gave out (which are free) and the tests are not that hard. Take this class.

If you are the least bit interested in the American legal system, take this class. You will learn and discuss a lot. If anything, Klein is a good lecturer whose mastery of the subject really comes through.

Easiest politics class I took at UVA. Klein is super nice and helpful. One midterm and final, both of which are a breeze if you've been to class (I skipped a bunch too though) and did all the readings.

Klein is awesome! Super easy, really friendly, I love his class and I think he's an awesome guy. One of the best professors I've had at UVa

Your grade is broken down into 20% discussion (which is really just a 3 page paper as the entire grade), 40% open note take home midterm, and 40% open note take home final. Doing the reading is completely unncessary if you come to class and take notes, and the exams are easy because of that--except for the multiple choice. The exams are about half multiple choice and half short answer. The multiple choice on our midterm were so horribly arbitrary and vague, with each question worth 4%, that a HUGE percentage of the class got a perfect score on the short answer, but then missed the exact same multiple choice questions with the exact same wrong answer chosen, and then wound up losing 16% of our score on an exam worth 40% of our grade. There is no bouncing back from that when you're trying to get an A. The multiple choice on the final were written much better and were easy to do well on, but because Klein refused to curve the midterm or throw out the questions that decimated our grades, we pretty much got screwed over. A few lucky people guessed correctly on the 4 questions we all got wrong and wound up with As, but the rest of us got condemned to a maximum A-. Also, the 3 page paper that pretty much counts for all of your 20% discussion grade is graded incredibly harshly by Thomas for no reason. In 3 pages double spaced you're supposed to make an incredibly detailed argument, and it isn't a formal paper, and yet he docks you down all the way to a B for not writing an introduction or conclusion despite complimenting your argument. He gives no guidence whatsoever on the paper and just gives you a one sentence topic verbally without waiting for you to write it down. I learned a ton in this class and actually enjoyed it a little, but you should think hard about the grading system before you take it. You can wind up with an A as easily as you can a B.

This is one of the easiest classes I've ever taken at UVa. Klein is a nice enough guy, but just not engaging at all. Your grade is divided between 20% discussion (which is a "group" 3-page, double space paper since our TA couldn't be bothered to learn our names), and 2 take-home, open-note exams. They're multiple choice and open-ended, but both allow you to use your notes, including notes on the readings. I didn't do a single reading completely through the entire semester, and relied on the intros/conclusions of each article to take notes for the exams. I got an A- on each of the exams and many of my friends in the course did similarly. If you want to boost your politics GPA or are looking for an easy humanities credit, this might be the way to go--although you might also be dreadfully bored.