#Real Rating

I'm going to be honest here. I was unhappy over my A-, but I am going to try to be as objective as possible. The class is not that hard, but you have to participate in the discussion (I was marked off pretty heavily). The reading is way too much (like 40-50 pages on a normal day and more on other days) and absolutely ridiculous for a GE class. Me, personally, I skipped a lot of the reading and was able to do well on the essays and midterms - except for the last essay which I guess I did not understand the prompt and my TA did not make it clear what they wanted us to answer (as you can see, pretty salty). Just show up to lectures and take notes, you will have all the info you need for the midterm, but your overall grade is super TA dependent (One of my friends had literally no idea what was going on in the class, but his TA handed out A's like Oprah we both still joke about it). As for the teachers, Fink's and Vavreck's lectures are pretty cool. Avila and Decker are a little bit less cool, but they care a lot about what they are teaching they are just hella confusing.

Summary: If you are looking for an easier cluster to take for STEM majors, take a different cluster like the violence one or the race and indigeneity one. This one ain't it. But if you like this part of history go for it, it's not too hard just a lot of time.

Taking the 60s cluster was by far one of the best decisions I made during my first year at UCLA. Although it is a six-unit class, it definitely has a very manageable workload (especially if you don't spend too long on the assigned readings). The lectures are generally very interesting, especially if you are already interested in the era's music, culture, and history. All the professors did a nice job integrating major course concepts into their respective fields (Decker—Literature, Fink—Music, Avila—History, and Vavreck—Political Science). While the assignments are the same across the board, how your papers and exams are graded is very TA-dependent. The TA I took the course with for both Fall and Winter quarters is known to be one of the stricter graders, but I still didn't have much trouble achieving an A in both quarters. So long as you manage the deadlines well (there are two papers per quarter, each around 4-5 pages), you should have no issue succeeding in this class. The cluster is also a fantastic opportunity to make friends, especially since you will be in class with the same people for your entire first year. Of all the professors, Fink's lectures stand out to me the most as undeniably the funniest and most engaging—I couldn't recommend him enough!

A fun and engaging class to start your freshman year off at the University of California, Los Angeles. Lecture was not mandatory and held on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9:30 am to 10:45 am in the De Neve Auditorium on the hill so its convenient for those living in the dormitories, although a bit early. Discussion was mandatory and varied from teaching assistant to teaching assistant. The content was interesting and manageable, although there were an excessive amount of readings in my opinion. To combat this I resorted to skimming most of the texts (sometimes even glancing at only the first and last page) and watching most of the videos at two times speed (sometimes even playing them in the background while doing other homework although I am not sure how effective of a use of my time and efforts this way...). There were easy reading assignments due every week, one paper due week six (I believe), and one final. The paper was manageable assuming you manage your time wisely, as with every class. The final was relatively simple, despite seeming like a huge deal. General review of key concepts and a more precise knowledge of the music should suffice in terms of preparation (I know there are many spotify study playlists available although the songs may differ with each iteration of the class). There was one mandatory movie viewing outside of the regular class time at the De Neve auditorium in the evening and while it is relatively easy to get an excuse it was pretty entertaining so I would recommend attending if time allows. As for Professor Fink himself, I thought he was pretty hilarious as the music expert of the panel of teachers. He always had great energy for class, even though that passion sometimes resulted in us being let out a couple minutes after our designated dismissal time.

This cluster is yearlong and SO worth it. The material is very interesting and goes super into detail about topics that were quickly skimmed over in high school. Engaging lectures about everything 60's and even includes entire lectures about music, which are extremely interesting and fresh. Lectures are NOT recorded so make sure to get notes from a friend! The midterm goes smoothly if you truly studied the material that was given to you! Make sure to stay up to date with the class readings every week and participate in discussions and it should be a smooth and fun class!

Great Class, Adam is the best TA. Mostly quarterly projects with long deadlines.

selling meridian and mla book both required for this course for cheap! text **********

This class is the main reason I was extremely stressed during the fall and winter quarters. Every Wednesday night I was staying up until 4-ish AM just to finish all the readings, which didn't even feel relevant to the lectures.

However, I felt that the class itself had very interesting material. Despite hurting both my mental health and my sleep schedule, I would take this class again because the lectures were genuinely interesting.

fink was the only good thing about this class. he is an absolute god and probably one of the funniest and most interesting professors at ucla.

Fink was definitely one of the better professors in this cluster! I thought the musicology portion of the class was harder to learn than some of the others, but he did a great job keeping lectures interesting, and he was extremely clear and often funny with everything he said. Overall, this cluster is by far the best one you can take, and I'd definitely take a GE class with Fink again in the future.

Okay honestly, compared to other clusters, this cluster is NOT that bad at all. It's perfect for STEM majors that want to knock out 4 GEs (Literary, Visual, Historical, Social) but don't want to be bored to death. Attendance is not required/taken during lecture, but the lectures aren't posted online so I recommend taking the extra step to just go every lecture so that you're not making up for it later. I took this class because it seemed like the fun cluster, with music and politics, but don't forget about the history and English aspects! Professor Decker, who teaches the Literature, Film/TV lectures is so dull, but I'm surprised I haven't fallen asleep alongside my friends. His voice is very monotone and he often goes off on unrelated tangents that stray away from what he is trying to say. He means well, but sometimes it's hard to focus on the words he says when you've just woken up. Professor Reiff is only slightly more interesting because she sometimes discusses interesting topics, but most of the time it's just a bunch of words - like full-on paragraphs - on a lecture slide and before you know it class is over and you have no recollection of what she said. The best Professors are Vavreck and Fink because they like to engage with the class with questions or opinions, they seem excited and awake, and they make jokes as best as they can. There is no final for this class, only a midterm, and the TAs usually prepare their sections pretty well with what to expect. The Literature Paper and Political Science polling paper are designed to be vague and open-ended, so just remember to specify your topic a little bit and make sure you have something to say, theme-wise. Overall, I didn't think I was going to get an A because I'm not that great at papers...and also because they never posted the grades for the assignments online....but anyway it's possible!