Let me preface this by saying that for this cluster, especially, who you have as your TA matters in terms of the grade you will end up with. However, this being said, I am purely writing this comment because of my love for Sam.

She is truly the best TA's I have had at UCLA. She cares about each and one of her students on a personal level. She always makes sure to ask everyone how they're doing, whether or not she is stressing us out too much, if her workload is too much, how our other exams were in other classes, and honestly anything else where she can gauge how her students are feeling towards the course, course material, and anything else she can do to help her students out. If you ever need help with everything, you can email her, such as extensions. She is always happy to give them to you because she never wants to stress anyone out too much.

Along what I said above, she is a relatively easy grader. I don't think anyone in the class ever got below a 88 on an essay. If I remember correctly, the grading scheme was 33% midterm, 33% participation, and 33% final. For participation, as long as you are there, even if you are not saying anything in class, she will give you 100% for it because she knows that not everyone is great at communicating to a bigger group of people and would rather listen to everyone else's opinions than give their own.

If you are taking this class, and you have the option to take Samantha Acuña, TAKE HER. You will not regret it. Also her jamboards and presentations are pretty awesome too and SUPER informative for your exams :)