Super easy class. In fact, it was my easiest class this quarter but I overheard from other classmates that your experience could vary depending on your TA. My TA (Stephanie) was amazing!! She was really approachable and very responsive to questions that we had. The discussion sections were comprised of breaking up into small groups to discuss one of the week's readings, and usually 1-2 people would share with the rest of the section what they discussed. Attendance is taken both in lecture and discussion (10%). You can only be up to 15 minutes late to lecture or else you cannot sign the attendance sheet.

The course is very similar to AP Psychology but a lot of the concepts are applied to the different stages of life (adolescence, adulthood, etc.) I enjoyed learning the content and the assignments were really easy. There were only 3 writing assignments (30%), where you write a half to 1-page reflection based on a week's reading. You write one in a week of your choosing (you are limited to completing only one reflection each week), so I suggest knocking out all of them before midterms. They took me around 30 minutes to an hour each and they are essentially graded on completion. The midterm (30%) and final papers (30%) were both take-home and scenario-based essays that were around 3-4 pages each. They only took me about 2-3 hours to complete. During the final, she gives up to 5 points of extra credit (5%)

Although I personally have not interacted with Professor Demko outside of class, many students felt comfortable approaching her after class. She seemed really sweet and understanding toward students. The pace and structure of the class felt right to me and I enjoyed how we got to focus on the different stages of life throughout the quarter.

Very easy to get an A in the class, just do the work and be engaged :)

This class was one of the most frustrating experiences I have had at UCLA. Professor Demko provides almost no feedback and is extremely unorganized. The majority of the class consists of reflections that provide no feedback and a midterm and final that are graded extremely harsh. After providing no support she just bashed everyones paper for no reason and without clear expectation. She also released the midterm halfway through Week 9 AFTER the final was already distributed. In addition, the majority of the class was taught by outside professors and TAs which made it really confusing as these lectures were often not related or important to the actual content of the class. I have genuinely never had a more frustrating experience in the Public Affairs department and I wish that I had never taken this class. IF you are interested in this class I HIGHLY recommend you take it with a different professor as I have heard more positive reviews about different ones (particularly professor small). Professor Demko is not interested in student learning and is more interested in arbitrarily punishing students and destroying their confidence. She also became extremely defensive post-midterm and passive aggressive to students who desired clarity on their grades. She also just generally seems like she doesn't know what she's talking about. When I went to her office hours she referred me back to the READINGS instead of giving actual insight.

Grade breakdown:
- 10% participation/attendance
- 30% reading reflections (3 --> 10% each)
- 30% midterm paper
- 30% final paper

Pros:
- genuinely interesting content
- lectures are organized, all on slides
- readings are largely optional
- engaging guest lectures
- grading on paper explainers is pretty easy

Cons:
- midterm grading was harsh (grading was somewhat confusing, varied between TA)
- it can be hard to focus at times because lecture content is not super connected to graded assignments
- lecture/discussions are mandatory