POLS1002 Introduction to Politics (Australian National University): rated 3.1/5 overall, difficulty 2.0/5 (higher is harder), would-recommend 4.0/5 across 12 reviews collected on ANU Wall.
POLS1002 is a Australian National University course taught by the ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences in Political Science. This page brings together its handbook details and what ANU students say about it.
Review data updated 2026-10-24.
Chinese title: 政治学导论
Type: Undergraduate course
Credit points: 6
Subject area: Political Science
Faculty: ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences
Level: Undergraduate Level 1
Handbook year: 2026
The first aim of this course is to introduce students to some of the key concepts in the discipline of Political Science: power, influence, authority, legitimacy, coercion, conflict, and democracy. The second aim is to introduce the concepts and institutions of the political process.
POLS1002 has 12 scored reviews: overall 3.1/5 · usefulness 3.0 · difficulty 2.0 · would-recommend 4.0 (all out of 5; higher difficulty means harder).
Sources: 1 review by ANU students on ANU Wall (3.7/5 overall); 3 StudentVIP reviews (average 2.7 stars); 8 Reddit comments that an AI model judged to be reviewing this course (average would-recommend 3.3/5).
Student review (2026-10-13, translated): This is the kind of course where the content is a bit tough but overall pretty chill. I took it in S1 2026. There are quizzes, but they’re basically free marks.
On Reddit: "POLS1002 & POLS1005 are massive first year courses for Polisci and IR, designed to be very broad and introductory, so there is a lot of content. Most of it is fairly basic and easy to understand, but there’s just a lot to remember. Jill (Prof for 1002) is fantastic though, I had…"
On Reddit: "Andrew Banfield is the head of the School of Politics and IR and likes to brag about how high ranking ANU is in political science, but the truth is that most of that ranking is due to research published by other schools at ANU (e.g. Coral Bell School, Crawford School etc.). He t…"
The course panel on ANU Wall shows every review and discussion in full.
Q: Is POLS1002 hard?
A: Students rate POLS1002's difficulty 2.0/5 on average (higher is harder), which makes it moderately difficult.
Q: Is POLS1002 worth taking?
A: Averaged over 12 reviews: would-recommend 4.0/5, usefulness 3.0/5, overall 3.1/5.
Q: Which faculty teaches POLS1002, and when is it offered?
A: POLS1002 is taught by the ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences. Check the official handbook for the current year.
ANU Wall is an independent student community and is not affiliated with Australian National University.