So far this class has been fairly interesting. With my experiences with Comparative Politics I never really saw how data can be useful for explaining political phenomena, but I am beginning to see the usefulness and merit of utilizing scientific inquiry to try to explain certain phenomena.  So far I have found the reading pretty dry and difficult to understand, but when we go over it in class I understand it much better.  I think the most useful thing for me personally that we will do in this class is the group project.  Just the process of building a theory and a hypothesis so far has already taught be a lot about how difficult this sort of experimentation can be.  There are so many variables to take into account that can affect your results, and I am realizing how important it is to cover all of your bases and be aware of all these possibly confounding variables.