BE CAREFUL ABOUT THE TA YOU PICK!!!! THEY DETERMINE YOUR GRADE!
If you love politics this class is for you..
I loved this class overall, there are 4 profs, Decker, Fink, Peris, and Vavrek. Each one is very different in teaching style and personality (some are boring and some sing and dance around). FINK IS THE BEST!! Homework is usually reading, listening to music, and occasionally watching a movie. Some topics are super engaging while others may put you to sleep in the lecture hall, but theres something for everyone! There were 3 writing assignments 2 being a midterm/final. Your TA grades your papers and they can be very picky about word choice depending on the topic (only certain TAs) and it can be the difference of an A and a B as your grade on the paper (I'm still salty about it an entire quarter later). Theres a discussion section once a week where PARTICIPATION IS SUPER IMPORTANT! Each TA does something different during section. I love this class most of the time and look forward to B (winter) and CW (spring).

About the class in general -- I LOVE the 60s cluster. It's a really dynamic and in-depth look at a genuinely fascinating period of US history. I especially enjoy getting to make connections between the arts and the politics of the period. The musicology portion is easily the most interesting part of the class -- you cannot miss Fink's lectures, just because they're so darn interesting. Vavreck and Peris do a really, really good job teaching the polisci/history parts of the class, too. Overall, the cluster has already taught me so much about how to look at history, arts, culture, politics and more in a really critical way.

Onto Prof. Decker... I'm an English major, so I thought that I would really dig the English portion of the Cluster. However, something about the way Decker teaches made the English lectures and essay writing process unbearable. He is a really knowledgeable and genuinely nice professor who clearly knows his stuff -- I just don't know how equipped he is to teach English as a GE. He's so fixated on semiotics, which is just a ridiculously overcomplicated way to teach introductory literary analysis. The English paper requirements were frustrating to me as an English major, because they took away a lot of creative and intellectual freedom. On top of that, he's unfortunately just a very dry lecturer (especially in comparison to the other three professors). I still really enjoy the Cluster, I just found myself consistently frustrated with the English portion.

This class is the main reason I was extremely stressed during the fall and winter quarters. Every Wednesday night I was staying up until 4-ish AM just to finish all the readings, which didn't even feel relevant to the lectures.

However, I felt that the class itself had very interesting material. Despite hurting both my mental health and my sleep schedule, I would take this class again because the lectures were genuinely interesting.

Took everything out of me not to drop this class. I didn't continue the cluster after completing the first quarter because it was so demanding and boring. The professor reads giant chunks of text off his slides, which you are expected to follow and take decent notes from. He seems to ramble for hours on end with very few interruptions. Discussion sections are also a fair amount of work and require participation. Difficult to get away with this class without doing the copious amounts of reading.

It took me every bone in my body to not fall asleep in this class. I thought I was the only one, but I looked around, and it was clear that it was not just me. Fink and Vavreck were the only interesting professors in this class. I don't hate Decker or this class, I just can't stand being in it. The assigned readings were boring, the lectures were boring, and the "mandatory" course reader readings were boring AND super long (they aren't actually mandatory). I thought I was doing myself a favor for taking this cluster, but now I realize how torturous it actually was. Do not take this class if you're prone to falling asleep in class or can't stand boring lectures.

If you feel like you're missing out on sleep, just go to his lectures. He makes everything he talks about boring.

Decker was the most boring professor I've had so far at UCLA. The guy goes on and on about minute details, somehow managing to drain the class of the very little 9:30AM energy we have. Warning: he's extremely rude and unhelpful if you have questions about grades. I would recommend speaking with someone else if you have questions. Overall, he gave me about 60% regret taking the cluster, but I hope winter is better.

This is definitely the best of the clusters, but Decker is by far the worst lecturer. He also probably teaches the least interesting of the four topics (the English/semantics). There's one midterm fall quarter and a final winter quarter, with four papers total. The work is pretty manageable overall, and the topic is super interesting! I would still recommend taking the cluster strictly for the other professors.

I came into this class with really high hopes and ... in some ways they were met. The reading is numerous and heavy, but usually pretty interesting. Lectures can be super engaging depending on who is teaching, but not all the professors are that way (because class is taught by four different professors, it rotates who lectures). Fink is absolutely amazing, a trip in all the best ways -- I always went to lecture if I saw him on the syllabus. Main thing to be aware of is the midterm and papers are all graded what I thought was pretty harsh. I felt like I turned in two solid A papers and a great midterm and barely scraped by with an A-. There is no final the first quarter though, which is pretty nice. The second paper is basically spoon fed to you which is also rad.

Okay honestly, compared to other clusters, this cluster is NOT that bad at all. It's perfect for STEM majors that want to knock out 4 GEs (Literary, Visual, Historical, Social) but don't want to be bored to death. Attendance is not required/taken during lecture, but the lectures aren't posted online so I recommend taking the extra step to just go every lecture so that you're not making up for it later. I took this class because it seemed like the fun cluster, with music and politics, but don't forget about the history and English aspects! Professor Decker, who teaches the Literature, Film/TV lectures is so dull, but I'm surprised I haven't fallen asleep alongside my friends. His voice is very monotone and he often goes off on unrelated tangents that stray away from what he is trying to say. He means well, but sometimes it's hard to focus on the words he says when you've just woken up. Professor Reiff is only slightly more interesting because she sometimes discusses interesting topics, but most of the time its just a bunch of words - like full-on paragraphs - on a lecture slide and before you know it class is over and you have no recollection of what she said. The best Professors are Vavreck and Fink because they like to engage with the class with questions or opinions, they seem excited and awake, and they make jokes as best as they can. There is no final for this class, only a midterm, and the TAs usually prepare their sections pretty well with what to expect. The Literature Paper and Political Science polling paper are designed to be vague and open-ended, so just remember to specify your topic a little bit and make sure you have something to say, theme-wise. Overall, I didn't think I was going to get an A because I'm not that great at papers...and also because they never posted the grades for the assignments online....but anyway it's possible!