Fall 2026

Elections and Voting Behavior

POLISCI 305 examines the psychological and social drivers of voting behavior, current electoral trends, and the role of voters in governance.

offering recorded3–4 credits
Recorded instructors · Fall 2026 Barry Burden4.1/5Emily MatthewsJoshua Juarez

Summary

1 / 7

Historical reviewers found coursework not too difficult, requiring attendance and attention for good grades.

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
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All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

Sophomore standing

  • Sophomore standing
POLISCI 305

This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree
  • Sophomore standing

Professors

Fall 2026

Barry Burden

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 4.44/5 from 25 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2022: 3.31 GPA, 63.3% A/AB (n=98 letter grades); Fall 2022: 3.37 GPA, 63.2% A/AB (n=95 letter grades); Fall 2024: 3.53 GPA, 81.2% A/AB (n=117 letter grades).

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

No reviews exist for current instructor Barry Burden. Historical reviews for Andrew Trexler describe engaging lectures, accessible office hours, and straightforward exams. Reviewers found the coursework manageable with consistent attendance and noted the value of working with election data.

ANDREW TREXLER is recorded teaching in Fall 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

BARRY CHRISTOPHER BURDEN is recorded teaching in Fall 2018, Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Fall 2024. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Fall 2026

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Classroom Instruction113 / 1126
DIS 302Classroom Instruction16 / 170
DIS 303Classroom Instruction17 / 170
DIS 304Classroom Instruction17 / 170
DIS 305Classroom Instruction18 / 171
DIS 306Classroom Instruction17 / 172
DIS 307Classroom Instruction17 / 173
DIS 532Classroom Instruction11 / 00

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records
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Student experience

the class

Historical reviews for Andrew Trexler describe engaging lectures and straightforward exams, though no current reviews exist for Barry Burden.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2022: 3.37 GPA, 63.2% A/AB (n=95 letter grades); Fall 2024: 3.53 GPA, 81.2% A/AB (n=117 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.64 GPA, 87.5% A/AB (n=80 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Historical reviewers found coursework not too difficult, requiring attendance and attention for good grades.

Historical students found working with actual election data interesting and helpful discussion sections.

Topics

  • Psychological and social components of voting behavior
  • Current electoral trends
  • Role of voters in the governing process

Grades

Latest available · Fall 2025— not enough history to project Fall 2026.

average GPA
A / AB grades
letter grades
Instructor

Grade distribution · % of letter grades

A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

Grades over time

Through Fall 2025

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Fall 2025 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1320 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

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Selected offering source records
POLISCI 305 · Fall 2026

Elections and Voting Behavior

Recorded 2026-09-07
Raw records 
[
  {
    "run_id": "20260907T155543-ce3781c4",
    "semester": "1272",
    "observed_at": "2026-09-07 15:55:43.033547+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1272:778:015950",
    "course_id": "POLISCI 305",
    "course_uid": "course_05b7f9272e4beaf2ac3733db",
    "term_id": "1272",
    "source_course_id": "015950",
    "source_subject_id": "778",
    "title": "Elections and Voting Behavior",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 4,
    "typically_offered": "Fall, Spring, Summer"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
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Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-09-07

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
nvidia/Qwen3.6-35B-A3B-NVFP4
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "nvidia/Qwen3.6-35B-A3B-NVFP4",
  "model_revision": "1355db6a052410cfd62085d94b58866fd0f2c3c5",
  "task_version": "14",
  "output_id": "37075d709d6e25db20949c952820cd0a0bb84ffc9f9f16283a059de2f09b5319",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "e243353dcb7d79b7247ced91d69443ef4c2a6349",
  "observed_at": "2026-09-07 15:55:43.033547+00:00"
}