I never imagined I would be writing a review here. To get straight to the point, this class depends on your TA and classmates. I have never found Professor Bascara to be helpful. The reason I said this class depends on your TA and your classmates is because the discussion section of this class is about 2 hours long and most of the things are explained by the TA and this class is done through discussions with your classmates.

To elaborate on the problem of this class, Professor Bascara's characteristic is that the instructions for the assignments in this class are vague and he unnecessarily explains simple words in a complicated way. I don't know if he did this to everyone, but he never answered any of my questions. Moreover, if you are confused about the assignment instructions and ask a question to the TA, but the TA has no ability to answer your question or avoids answering, you will have a hard time. My TA this quarter was Ghalia, and I would like to say AVOID HER AT ALL COSTS. Next quarter is my last quarter at UCLA and Ghalia is the worst TA I've ever had. I've never seen anyone who doesn't respect her students as much as she does. I could tell a lot about her, but I'll stop it here. All I want to say is, AVOID HER AT ALL COSTS and UCLA should not hire TAs like Ghalia. Lastly, if you don't understand something and don't get an answer from the professor or TA, you'll probably ask your classmates. This is why I said this class depends on your classmates. Get to know your classmates as much as possible during section time and get help if you can. One of the things I regret most about this class is that I didn't become closer to classmates. At least in my experience, you can't expect anything from the professor in this class and there's no help you can get from the TA (Ghalia).

This class is honestly a really easy A if you just do everything.

Attendance: Not for an explicit grade but he does keep track (because if you need to be rounded he won't round you if you don't show up). I showed up for every lecture.

Essays: There are two essays that you have to write that are about 1600 words. It can take a while if you're not good at writing and honestly the prompts are a little confusing but I wrote each essay in like 6 hours and I had a good score even if it was a little jumbled. You need to score a C or above on the draft in order to have your final draft be the complete score. Otherwise if you get a C- or below on your draft it is averaged with the score of your final draft.

Group Project: You work with your discussion group to make a final project based on an issue in the Asian American community that you present in lecture in the last week. Each week you are expected to have a little progress on it and my TA would check.

Midterm: We made three questions based on a random pool of readings that were assigned throughout the quarter until then.

Final: Write one paragraph citing 3 different readings each for each group that presented their final project. For me, it was a total of 5 paragraphs.

Participation: Make sure you speak during discussion so you get your participation points. My TA also awarded active listening.

Class is doable. Just skim through all readings, listen in lecture and go to discussion. And for an A, pay more attention to the all the reading assignments.

Selling "All I asking for is my body", "Citizen 13660", and "Bone"
text/ message **********

Despite my lack of effort in the class, ASIAN AM 40W truly is an "easy A" of a GE. I am not disappointed with myself because my grade reflected my attitude and approach towards the class. Professor Bascara is an incredible professor with an engaging teaching style that includes interesting content. The class was graded by weekly one-page responses, three essays, and a final (if I remember correctly).

I am selling the NCRR textbook for $10! Email me at ************* for inquiries! Go Bruins!

Despite my lack of effort in the class, ASIAN AM 40W truly is an "easy A" of a GE. I am not disappointed with myself because my grade reflected my attitude and approach towards the class. Professor Bascara is an incredible professor with an engaging teaching style that includes interesting content. The class was graded by weekly one-page responses, three essays, and a final (if I remember correctly).

I am selling the NCRR textbook for $10! Email me at ************* for inquiries! Go Bruins!

Selling NCRR Book! Pretty much new, $15, text **********
Class was mostly just papers and a final project. Paper prompts were vague but you got graded on a draft and the final draft so usually it was easy to get an A. You do have to go to class and read the book to help you with your paper because you need evidence.

Class is initially interesting but the topics eventually become repetitive. TAs make a huge difference so try to get a good one. Overall, this class is definitely doable. Selling "All I asking for is my body", "Citizen 13660," and "Bone." Txt message me **********. If you think I already sold it, I probably still have it.

selling "aapi nexus: Asian Americans & Pacific Islanders Policy, Practice and Community" <-- Environmentalism: Expansions, connections, and Social Change for $6. Selling "
Amerasia journal: Los Angeles since 1992: Commemorating the 20th Anniversary of the Uprisings" for $6.
Both books for $12!
Text/call ********** if interested!

Bascara is very knowledgable about the material and is passionate about his students engaging in it. However, the readings he assigns are very heavy with about 4 20-30 page readings a week and his lectures don't have any structure. No powerpoints, just reading off of something the whole class without any true sense of the topic. The assigned readings for that day won't necessarily relate what will be discussed.
Readings are 'required' but I know most people including myself did not read most of them in their entirety. You'll essentially only need to read some articles to write the 2 short papers, 2-3 in-class prompts (which kinda draw from personal experiences), and final paper. There is also a final group project which can be anything related to the Filipino American experience. Will note that for ALL his papers/project, the prompts are very vague so have fun with that.
However, he grades pretty easily. But good luck trying to find out how you're doing in the class cuz he didn't post any grades until the end of the quarter. (but don't worry too much, just put in the work which isn't too much and you'll most likely get an A) He's overall really nice, but he can be hard to contact. Visit his office hours if you ever want an extension instead of emailing.
Being Filipino, it was great to be in class where I learned a lot about my culture. Interesting class, but could be better structured

You can tell that Prof Bascara just wants people to try and put effort into what he is teaching. Often, class time is filled with either an assignment we present to the whole class (individually), doing an independent assignment, or meeting with our groups for the final project (we meet very early on in the quarter or for general class assignments. Needless to say, he does not spend a huge amount of time lecturing. He kind of allows us to do the readings and learn about Pilipino through research and first hand experience (attending events).

Workload: The readings are INTENSE. As in, most people in the class will NOT be able to get through the readings. Luckily, if you at least read a few of them (deeply) you should be fine. Other than that, we have two papers and a final group project to complete. We also have to attend a Pilipino event and write about it. Most of the other assignments are completed in class.

Grading: Does not seem to grade things throughout the quarter. He does give feedback on some assignments though.

Attendance: He does take attendance every class and does not have recorded lectures. However, I noticed that he will bring his iPad to allow a student or two to join the class via zoom. Which is super nice of him. Though, I wouldn't recommend relying on this option to attend class because so much of what we do is group work, which is impossible to do on zoom.

Textbooks: He provides most of the readings for free on BruinLearn. There is one book that we need to get, but it can be found online for free.