The class was taught by many professors, but he specifically was a great professor. The class can be tough, it involves a lot of memorization. He never went too fast during lectures, and would allow questions to make sure we understood the material. He always invited us to eat on campus after class!

very easy A. i’m just stupid and didn’t study for the exams lol. the male professors are SUUUUUUUUPER fast tho.

(This is a review of the 1st and 2nd quarter) Overall, I was very neutral about this class. There were some parts that I really liked, and other parts that I didn't like. The class was about 1/2 biology and 1/2 policy & society. I really liked the bio aspect of the class because its important information to know, and so learning about aging, what impacts it, how to age better, and the latest research was really interesting. The guest lectures were usually pretty good, and I felt lucky to be able to learn from them (with a few exceptions.) The main components of the class consist of essays and tests.
The tests are open note and often directly from the lectures, so it was really nice to have a class that I didn't have to worry about as much in terms of midterms/finals. The essays are also usually 2-3 pages and on easy research topics, with the exception of a large project that we did in the first quarter. There are also a couple group presentations, but they aren't a huge percentage of your grade and are really short.
The parts that I didn't like about this class was the service learning and the lectures, especially first quarter. Many of the first quarter lectures were really dry and also very slow. Dr. Soroosh fits a lot of information into one lecture, while Dr. hahm and Dr. Hsu like to go painfully slow. However, many of nonbio presentations are pretty much common sense, so if you want to skip lecture on those days and just watch it from your computer I would recommend doing that, otherwise you'll be bored out of your mind.
However, my least favorite part about this class was service learning. We got paired with two random older adults that we had to talk to on zoom for an hour each week during the 2nd quarter. While I do see the benefits to this, I just don't like how they use the interaction to aid in our learning. It kinda feels like they're exploiting the older adult, since the older adults don't know that we are participating in the program as part of a class and FOR A GRADE. It was really awkward to have to explain this to my older adult. It was so awkward that I didn't tell my OTHER older adult (yeah, we have to talk to two), and she was under the assumption that I needed a mentor/grandmother figure. Furthermore, it isn't realistic for them to assume that all interaction will be over once the program is over. Both of my older adults want to keep talking every week after the program ends and are planning on taking me out to dinner. While I did enjoy talking to my older adults every week, it was a big time commitment and something that I had to put A LOT of energy into. I also feel lucky that I got paired with older adults that were semi easy to talk to. I know some people who got paired with older adults that are very hard to talk to, let alone talk to them for the entire required HOUR. Personally, I would have loved to volunteer in an elderly home and talk to multiple older adults at the same time and help out running activities and other things. Talking one on one with a stranger over zoom for a whole hour is just difficult and awkward.
HOWEVER, this class satisfied three GEs and two requirements, which was very nice come enrollment time. Basically, since you're already guarunteed a spot in the cluster, you don't have to scramble for classes or settle for shitty ones like other freshmen. It satisfies writing II and the diversity requirement. If your a prospective freshmen, I reccomend taking a cluster that satisifes GEs that your major doesn't satisfy. It will help you out a lot!

This was an interesting class as the material we learned was applicable to real life. Professor Hsu was in my opinion the best professor and lecturer out of the three. His lectures were often engaging and not as boring as those of the other two professor, and he was approachable and helpful. Overall, the class has a pretty heavy workload. A lot of reading from the textbook and there is a midterm and a final along with various types of papers, projects, and presentations. I spent a fair amount of time on this class, but at least the material wasn't too difficult to understand, the assignments just took a long time. It's a lot of work, but it isn't too hard to get an A and most of the TA's aren't very harsh with their grading.

Hsu is very engaging in his lectures. The other two professors, not so much. But the class as a whole is pretty easy as the TAs are easy in grading papers (a majority of students get 90%+ on their papers). Also I don't know if this is common every year, but this year, barely any reading was tested. I still read just in case and everyone should (there isn't a huge amount if you're keeping up properly). As for tests, they are a lot of memorization of facts and processes (as this quarter is mostly biology and a some policy). I recommend this cluster because you knock out three social science requirements (which is how many you need to complete the GE req for social science for the School of letters and sciences) and because it is overall not that hard compared to other ones I've heard of.

Fall 2018 was instructed by Drs. Hsu, Effros, and Merkin.

Not a hard course, just time-consuming given that the bulk of the work is reading and writing. From what I hear it's one of the more work-intensive clusters, but I'm okay with it since it covers all the requirements (like diversity and writing II) and GEs I need.

The exams are largely based on the lecture and discussion slides which are uploaded online the day after class. However, you will always be asked a few questions on something the lecturer stated aloud but didn't put on their slides, and on the assigned readings, so pay attention and take notes.

Overall I've probably never been more indifferent about a class; the material is dull but not intolerably irrelevant, getting a good grade is time-consuming but not difficult (given that your TA is a pretty easy grader), the professors aren't necessarily good nor bad, etc.

Winter 2019 was instructed by Drs. Hsu, Effros, and Merkin.

Instead of 2 lectures a week, you have 1 lecture plus a mandatory shift volunteering at a local assisted-living facility/adult daycare center.