Not the most inspiring course but it could have been worse. Assignments were very straightforward. The group project actually comes in the form of many smaller assignments that build up across the term, which creates a nice scaffolding.

It was a very dry course on scientific thinking in the context of politics. The overall material was straightforward, albeit not that interesting per se. Certainly would be helpful to some extent.

Lectures did tend to drag on, but Weaver was actually a very good prof. No surprises on any of the assessments, and he goes out of his way to hold lengthy review sessions right before the midterm and final.

Tutorial attendance and participation are graded, and the group assignments that make up the group project have to be submitted on time to receive full marks for that week's tutorial.

Decent in-class content, terrible examination

Terrible. So much work, 10 hours of readings expected per class (not joking)

It's a content heavy course, I thought M@ talked quite fast. Despite this, we still went a few minutes overtime. Also, M@ went off topic a lot but at least that was fun. Honestly, I just copied the slides to get through the course, ask questions if you got to. Content is simple and complex at the same time, so is the homework where you kinda gotta guess the answers because there's such general instructions with specific HIDDEN criteria. Also, TA's are massive game changers. Parker Li is amazing tho. Make sure to find out who the nice TA's are so that they can regrade your work. Even if your own TA is nice, sometimes you do want another one to look over. If they agree with your own TA, then pass it onto M@, he actually marks easier than the TA's

According to M@, when zoom lectures are recorded, siri is activated within zoom. "Thank you ziri". Also, he LOVES cupcakes. Get him some and say that it was advice from someone in Fall 2020. But make sure to tell him that you like economics more than polisci, otherwise he might not accept the cupcakes

I feel that I got a decent grade for the effort I put in (minimal). Matt is a hilarious, kind, and amazing prof but he tends to get sidetracked during lectures. You'll have a great time with him but its hard to actually learn during lectures because of this. So I just ended up muting him during lectures. HW assignments were pretty hard. Midterm and final were even harder. I know a few of my friends who did terribly despite studying a lot but my dumbass somehow got a 77 while not studying at all (literally did all the homework an hour before it was due, played league during class with him muted, and didn't study for the final). So overall, i think you just need to have a certain type of thinking and understanding for this course. Reading a textbook isnt gonna help much.