Jeffrey Lax

Should have listened to the other reviews. Don't make the same mistake I made. save your GPA and your sanity by avoiding this class.

AVOID AT ALL COST!!! Lax will jokingly read these reviews on the first day of the class, and you might think all these bad reviews only come from the people who don't want to study and don't take the class seriously. But please, please believe me, even if you are a straight A student and the most hardworking person ever, Lax will screw you up for no reason. The grade I got in his class is the lowest I've ever received in my life, which screwed me up and prevented me from receiving honors upon graduation. Mind you, I am someone who consistently went to class, office hours with TAs and Lax himself, studied in study groups, did everything possible to make sense of the chunks of information he throws at you without any textbook or official source you can rely on. Even the TAs were confused and often gave different answers from those Lax expected. Did I remember anything from the class a month after the class ended? Definitely not, because it is not applicable to anything you will ever encounter in life. Did this class fuck up my whole life, including post-grad plans? Definitely yes. He would be joking in classes, telling you stories about his daughter, and at first, you will think he is a nice guy, and if you just put in hard work, you'll be fine. But then the end of the semester comes, and the nice, funny Lax gives grades below a B to most of the class, basically fucking everyone…

On the first day of the semester, Prof. Lax will read all of the CULPA reviews which tell you he is a terrible teacher and NOT to take this class, and by the end of the first week the class size will drop by about 50% (maybe more). However, in my opinion, this is a fantastic class, and by far one of the most interesting I've taken. Lax is a funny and engaging professor who wants you to do well. The problem sets are generally straightforward, as are the tests. He does not want to ask you questions you do not know how to answer. Also, while you will definitely have to study and spend time fully understanding the concepts, the weekly workload is very small. There is no required reading and problem sets are assigned on average only once per week. The one part of this class which could maybe be seen as a negative is that attendance is not really optional. While Prof. Lax does not track or grade how many classes you attend, there is no textbook or powerpoint for this course so it is very difficult to catch up if you miss a class. However, if you are not someone who minds attending lectures (which are interactive and super bearable), this class is not bad at all. I am a second year CC student with zero prior experience in logic, and I had no issue with any part of the course. I know some the reviews say that this class will kill your GPA, but I honestly think it will be one of my bes…

I learned a lot about governmental fragmentation and polarizations influence on policy making. It was an interesting course and had a lot to offer students focused on American government, social issues, and policy-making.

Learned about the different myths of judicial politics. Analyzed the role of precedent in judicial decision making. Analyzed the role of politics in Supreme Court decision (judicial independence theory)

Got me started thinking about dissertation plans.

I was so scared off by the mixed CULPA reviews at first that I tried avoiding Lax, but my schedule eventually forced me into taking his class, and it's become one of my favorite classes at Columbia. We focused mostly on the Supreme Court, and it was really interesting to learn about all the theories on how justices and other factors can interact with each other to shape opinions and outcomes. Lax is a very engaging lecturer (I know some professors can be annoying with their tangents, but I always found his stories about the personal lives of the Supreme Court justices and the SCOTUS gossip pretty entertaining), and he's well-aware of his faults as a lecturer (talks too fast, HORRENDOUS handwriting, a bit disorganized), but he's more than willing to go over things that the class didn't understand if you ask him to. For the most part, the content was easy enough to understand and remember, but things do get a bit complicated when he brings in diagrams and graphs to explain voting patterns, so maybe that's why people have more negative recollections of Logic of Collective Choice. Not sure how he is one-on-one, seeing as how I never managed to schedule office hours with him, but overall, he seemed like a pretty friendly and approachable guy. The TA for our semester (Ebie) was also amazing - she held very helpful review sessions outside of class time for both the midterm and the fi…

ONLY TAKE THIS IF YOU HAVE TO!!!!! Im sure Prof. Lax is reading this review out loud to you all, and laughing about how much he loves these. Don't let him scare you away. He is trying to see how bad people really want to take the class. I would summarize this class has an amalgamation of information that makes zero sense and has ZERO real world application other than teaching a class on it. It may relate to real world problems, but good luck finding anything on google to help you in this class. If Mr. Lax told us at the end of the class that he made everything up and it was just a social experiment. I would have believed him. He seems to find joy in seeing student get confused. This does not mean he is mean though. I will say that he genuinely cares about his students, but the lack of study guides makes me question that. He will give you some handouts that have what look like hieroglyphs and make no sense. He could easily have definitions of conditions in English sentence form and the class would be much easier. Also, make sure you can write down everything he says or else you have nothing to study with.

I learned, in knowledge, vast aspects about the development and continuation of institutions in American politics; what they mean, how they operate, and how they interact with their members, staff, and the populace.

A true understanding of politicization within the court through doctrinal analysis.