I really liked this class! I had it with Prof Hsu, Prof Soroosh, and Prof Hahm. They alternate in lecturing. I do agree that you should be interested in the topic to have a good experience in this class. The class was around half biology, but it was pretty interesting even coming from someone who has always hated bio. I had Joseph Zoller as my TA who was very well versed in the biology part, which helped a lot with comprehension. Questions were encouraged, though lecture always went pretty fast. The slides were posted afterwards though, so you could just go back and fill in the gaps. There were a few cool socials where they bought us food or cookies. I appreciate the interdisciplinary aspect of this class and the fact that there were multiple professors. I recommend taking!

This is more of a review of the cluster overall rather than just Dr. Hsu. But I will briefly overview each professor throughout. First thing is, which almost every other review has said, you really need to be interested in the content to do well in this class. Although the work itself isn't extremely difficult if you do the bare minimum (like me, who didn't do the readings and barely paid attention in lecture) it's super important to do a lot of studying before the exams. Since I took this during COVID, the exams were online and the hardest part was the time limit. It's kind of ridiculous to only give 60 minutes for 65-75 questions that are a mix of mc, t/f, and short answer. It's open note but the time constraint really prevents you from checking notes or even reviewing your answers. I kind of bombed the first exam but that's mainly because I didn't study. REALLY MEMORIZE THE LECTURE SLIDES. The textbook readings really aren't necessary but the pdf/article readings tend to be 2-3 questions on the exams. The absolute worst part about this class is communication and grading. I would definitely recommend the class if their grading wasn't driving me crazy. It takes them 5 weeks to grade a 2 page essay and they tend to submit grades last minute. And they are awful with communication and instruction. You write 3 essays first quarter and they barely give any guidance. TA is important too because some grade harder than others (mine took 2 points off bc I didn't capitalize one of my sources o_O). In terms of professors, Dr. Hsu was probably the most interesting, Merkin taught policy which is boring but she did a good job, and Whittaker taught the bio part, which is the hardest content of the class but he explained it well. Honestly this class is hit or miss. At times I was ready to drop this cluster and just take GE's but the service learning may be a benefit. Also if you want to minor in gerontology this cluster covers all its pre-reqs.

Professor Hsu was a very engaging and clear professor. Many of the concepts discussed in class are easy to relate back to "real life." He is very approachable and will answer almost any question you have and provides accessible office hours do ask anything else.
The class itself is relatively easy to manage, particularly in comparison to the other clusters. Attendance is counted for the discussions which are supposed to last two hours but typically are done in one. Cheng as a TA was fantastic as he kept the discussions fun and informative; discussions actually felt like a good use of your time.
While taking notes in class is always a good idea, the professors always post the slides from that lecture on CCLE after class so you can go back and review later.
As many mentioned, the grading system is kind of weird. The first "real assignment" is a paper on Ageism, around two pages long, which is returned around week 5. By week 10, you really only know the score from that paper and the first midterm (around 30% of the entire grade). I would not say that the grading system should deter you from taking the class though.
I would recommend taking the class if you actually have an interest in human aging. You will be provided many resources and have some pretty good professors.

As a professor, Hsu is really great. He is really engaging with his students and lectures calmly and slowly with enough detail without being boring. He’s a great guy.
As a class, it’s quite painful. The readings are doable at first but get increasingly longer as the quarter goes on to the point where I gave up reading because of how long it takes. Also, as the previous review noted, the grading is absolutely horrendous and is a huge reason as to why I would stress all the time over this class. The assignments weren’t as difficult, but when you’re waiting weeks just to get back a grade on a two to three page essay, you start getting anxious about your grade. There’s no reason why they waited until the last days before grades were due to upload the remaining 80% of assignments, most which I am definitely sure were graded some time ago (one was a presentation that was graded on the spot! and it still took them weeks to just put the grade up). The grading is super annoying but if you put in the effort and see the inquiry specialist for feedback on assignments, you should hopefully do well. The readings aren’t super important but they include a couple questions in the exams regarding them. Overall an eh class.

This is a review of Cluster 80A as a whole rather than just of Dr. Hsu. This class is actually a joke. The class has 126 students, 3 professors, 3 Teaching Fellows, and 1 Inquiry Specialist, yet they still manage to grade things unjustifiably slow. There is no reason why it should take them 6 weeks to grade one three page paper and 3 to grade a 45 question midterm. The exams aren't too bad though. Even though the assignments themselves aren't horrible, it's their grading that will kill you. I got marked down for starting a paragraph on a new page? I still don't get it. If you can, do not take this class. It is not worth the work and the hassle, you are much better off taking an easy GE, do not make the mistake I made.

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ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE. I was so excited to take this course as an incoming freshman, hoping to learn more about elderly people and generational effects. THIS CLASS WAS ENTIRELY SCIENCE -- we learned about mitochondrial buildup causing senescence of cells that results in aging. SO BORING, if you do not enjoy science do not take this class.

WORST CLASS IVE EVER TAKEN. If you would like to sit in a classroom and fall asleep from boredom to the sounds of your professors indoctrinating your political and using vague terms and refusing to explain them, then this is the class for you. I was so excited to learn about aging, elders, and generations, but instead I learned about how horrible every place that isn't L.A. is. They take FOREVER to grade your assignments. By week 10, the only thing in the grade book was a paper from week 2 and a midterm from week 5, and that one just because students begged for their scores. I had to switch to pass/no pass to protect my GPA because I had no idea what my grade would be even during finals week. I urge you, PLEASE DON'T TAKE THIS CLASS. I took the time to write this review, so I can save future freshmen from the horrible fate I suffered taking this class.

I had Paul Hsu, whose lectures were ok but extremely boring. I also had Artin Soroosh, who literally went through his slides faster than the speed of light and didn't give us a chance to take notes, and Aryun Hahm, who would go off of her slides and say random things which really threw everyone off. The class used the most vague terms and would not describe them at all.

Not to mention, this class was HIGHLY POLITICIZED. If we were not bashing one political side, we were talking smack about people who vote a certain way or people who don't live in California. If you would like to become indoctrinated and not be allowed to have a mind of your own, I recommend you take this class.

My TA was Joseph Zoller, who happened to be the worst public speaker I've ever witnessed -- he gave most of his lectures turned around with his back to the class and at one point I had to ask him to speak up because I couldn't hear his voice.

All in all, the professors really could have made this class fun but instead they made it a place of misery that I dread showing up to. I am dropping this class next quarter.

This class was fine. It was really easy to understand and follow, but I would say this class has a whole lot of information to memorize. Our midterm/finals were open note in person (mcq + fr questions), so not too bad but still hard. I think the only problem was that the class was like 2 hours and that's a long time. I feel like around 30 minutes, I zoned out. All the professors are super nice and good with communication (Soroosh, Hsu, and Hahm).

Grading Scale:
2 two-page papers - 5% each
life review paper (13 pages max) - 25%
2 exams - 25% each
discussion - 5% attendance & 5% posts
film review - 5%

Class:
I honestly just wanted a cluster and didn’t even pay attention to what the class was about when I enrolled. I was not too thrilled to find out it was about older people. However, this class is fairly interesting, at least more than I thought it was. This quarter was really biology heavy and I have no experience with biology, but I crammed before the test and did fine. It definitely changes your perspective a little on older adults, though I would say that, being in LA, the older adults here are less representative of most older adults that may be on the news or even in our own communities/towns. With that, I will say that this class is politically charged. There is a lot of content on policy and such, which I personally have no problem with. Other more close-minded individuals (ahem someone else in these reviews) have difficulty hearing other perspectives, so keep that in mind when enrolling. Overall, I don’t regret enrolling in this course (but this may weigh heavily on the fact that I did well grade-wise). However, it does mean this class is not difficult to pass if you study!

Workload:
There were two short and easy papers. The first one was less formal (since it had some reflection) so it was very easy. The second was very similar except it was more formal and about policy. These two were spaced out and we were given the assignments early on, so you have a lot of time. The bulk of the life review is an informal biography, and we are given this project early on too so just space out your assignments. Life review we were only given one week, and it was a group project so it was complicated finding times for everyone to work together, but it is graded extremely easily. Exams were online for us, but we had to be in class. They were very fair and not difficult if you studied—however, there are a lot of questions so that you cannot cheat. You are allowed three absences in discussion and must make 5 posts, but you cannot post multiple in a week.

Lectures:
Hsu - Funny guy, interesting content. No complaints with his lectures.

Soroosh - Biology lecturer; lectured the most this quarter. Good at keeping lectures interesting. He can talk very fast at times, and it can be difficult with no biology background. However, if you pay attention and review the slides or pay attention to the lecture summaries in discussion, the material isn’t too bad. He’s also great at answering questions.

Hahm - Social/Policy lecturer; lectured a lot at the end of the quarter. Often very monotone/quiet and does not follow slides as strictly. Material, however, was easy to follow. Again, just a little boring.

Grading:
This class takes foreverrr to grade. When the class ended the only thing in the gradebook were the two papers, life review (which is just graded on presentation and that grading is done on the spot but they still took weeks to upload the scores), and one exam. Everything else was only uploaded like the day before grades were due. For discussions, you can email your TAs to find out if you got full credit for posts. You can also email them for the rubrics from your papers. Exams were graded with a curve for us; for the first exam they took out two questions that were difficult but kept the points for students who got them right. Not sure about the final.

Textbook:
It can be found online, but because the textbook is interactive and the online one is a pdf, sometimes there are sections that can’t be read. However, the exams are not textbook heavy. There are maybe like 5 questions on the textbook. If anything, focus on the lectures and any other required readings that are not the textbook.

Exams:
We had one midterm and one final. However, the final was more like a second midterm (same weight and not cumulative). There were multiple choice, T/F, and short answer. The short answer questions were graded pretty easy.

Extra Credit:
We were given extra credit at the end of the quarter for completing surveys for each lecturer, our TA, and the course. There was also extra credit for answering a google form from the service learning coordinator.

My biggest advice to anyone considering taking a cluster is DO NOT do it unless you are extremely interested in the subject matter. For this class, the grade was 2 papers at 5% each, a group presentation at 5%, discussion posts at 5%, attendance at 5%, 2 midterms (open note this quarter) at 25% each, and a 13 page paper at the end of the course at 25%. The TAs are extremely slow graders and you really won't have a good idea of your grade until you actually get it. I'm not dropping the cluster because I'm afraid of how that will look on my transcript and I got an A, but this class is tedious and boring. The professors are ok, I never went to office hours or anything but they were never amazing lecturers or super approachable. They got the job done, though and most of the content made sense to me. I was not close with my TA either but she did a good job reviewing the lectures. I do think that they grade fairly and the exams aren't too bad if you have good notes from lecture and the PDF readings and have skimmed the textbook readings. Also, there are a lot of biology concepts and as a business econ major it felt like I was already expected to know them and I did not. Getting an A shouldn't be too bad if you put in the work and meet the requirements on papers.