GE CLUSTER 80A: Frontiers in Human Aging

This is a cluster with 80A, B and C. Ideally you stick through it for a whole year.

The class is taught by 3 teachers + guest speakers in the De Neve Plaza.

Class consists of a powerpoint and the teacher's going over the topics. The syllabus is really well organised and has assigned readings (expect like +200 pages for the quarter if you actually do it). You have access to the powerpoint after the lectures.

NO PODCAST

• 50% exams (2 midterms, one week 5 and the other finals week)

• 5% brief paper #1 - 2 pages not too bad. Did mine in 2h (my own mistake) and got maybe a B, and if you actually do it properly it's easy to get an A

• 10% brief paper #2 - 3 pages- this year it was on healthcare system and it was a pain! Took forever and hated it.

Papers need to be in APA format with scientific references, this is honestly what makes it take so long and what I hated about it.

• 5% film review - really easy and fun

• 20% elder life review project - biography on an old person (5/8 pages + 5 pages analysing the persons life according to a bunch of theories you learn in class). Honestly the interview and biography part is not to bad, but the second part seems dreadful ( about to start on it!)

• 10% participation - show up to discussion and ask questions.

Overall you talk about social theories of ageing, old people, demographics and statistics. The only biology part is immune system and cardiovascular, but they do terrible part at explaining it and for someone who is pre-med I was disappointed that we didn't actually learn about it properly. Also talked a lot about social security, Medicare, Medicaid, ect.

TA - Mike Davorean is awesome! Get him!

If you go to every lecture, listen and take notes, read the book an add this to your notes, go over the powerpoint and make sure you know what the terms on there mean you should do fine. However I found it boring! I'm currently studying for my final and I have so much reading to do that I'm not motivated. I guess if you take it and every week put in the work it's not to bad, but I clearly had better expectations for what we would learn.

Professor Hsu was the most interesting, but still what were learning are statistics about old people and ageing population, and we rush through the science part of it pretty badly.

80B consists of lecture, discussion and then service learning. You basically go into a nursing home or something and do service for 5 hours a week instead of lecture on Thursday. This part seems really exciting!

However, I'm dropping the cluster next quarter since I'm not passionate about it and it is 6 units so it limits my enrolment in other lasses andI'd rather do other GE's I'm more interested in.

80A - fulfils diversity requirement + LS GE
By the end of the year you get: the 3 Society and Culture GE's, the Life Science GE, diversity requirement and writing II.

It does knock off a lot of stuff and that's part of the reason I took it to begin with, but it's not captivating and I'd rather 'spend' my GE's on classes that I'm really interested in. But for 80A you still get two things done, so go ahead and try this and you can always drop it like me if you don't like it!

DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS, no matter u r international student or native student. This class sucks because all the three professors are boring and devoted little to students. All of them do not take responsibility for students. Additionally, avoid TA TEHRANI Zahrat, she is really strict and never smiles, and she will give you a really low score on paper even if you didn't staple it.

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.

This class is so interesting and super engaging! It was taught by Effros, Stein-Merkin, and Hsu for this quarter and overall, Stein-Merkin wasn't the most engaging, but Hsu and Effros were terrific professors. The class consists of 2 tests that make up 50% of your grade, 2 papers (5% and 10% respectively), Life review (13 page paper) 20%, partner movie project (5%), 10% participation (TB test, discussion board post, library tour). If you're interested in the policy and biology of aging, definitely take the class, the grade distribution is pretty good!

Selling 2 textbooks:
1. "Social Gerontology" 9th ed. by Hooyman & Kiyak - $60
2. "Genes, Aging, and Immortality" by Spencer - $15

Will include midterm & final study guides if bought together.

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Prof. Effros is hugely devoted to her students and DOES truly care for them, but her lectures are boring. Of the 3 cluster lecturers, she would be the one to put you to sleep. Effros is passionate about the biological aspects of aging, but she really could consider making the topic more appealing.