I literally hated this class with my guts. One time I asked Prof Bauer a question and he said "I feel like you should know how to do this"... very unhelpful. Take w another prof if u can. Also he does Mastering Physics and I HATE THAT SHIT

Dr. Bauer is a good professor, BUT I feel like most of his quizzes and exams this summer have been unnecessarily challenging. I don't consider myself to be a smart person, and this class has definitely stolen the very TINY bit of confidence in myself that I did have. I worked my ass off , studying for quizzes and still managed to fail them. Overall, I would say this is a tough class.

I took this class Spring '19 and it was very well organised. The tests weren't too hard (MT1 mean was ~70%, MT2 ~79%, Final TBA). He is very clear and uploads his super helpful, typed out lecture notes on CCLE.

Also, shoutout to possibly the best TA in the physics department, Nathan Tung - I learnt more in his two pre-final review sessions than I did with weeks of self-studying. A couple days before the final, he emailed all the enrolled students the 150-page notes that he had written up for his discussions with elaborate explanations of all the concepts. Absolute legend.

Physics:

Taking this class with Professor Bauer was a great way to end off freshman physics. He definitely has all the makings of a great professor, and he's still quite young (this was his first time teaching this class!)

One of the best things that I can't believe more professor in things like math and science don't do often at all is that he created an online forum where students could post questions about homework or tests that he, the TAs, and even other students could answer. He also posts very definitely in text topics will and won't be covered on the exams, which is great. He even went as far as to post the exact topic of each of the 9 problems on the final if we filled in enough instructor evaluations.

He also made very neat lecture notes that are pretty helpful for things like quickly going through a derivation that you might have forgotten from lecture (or reviewing quickly if you skipped lecture oof).

Oh yeah, not even to mention that he said in the beginning of the quarter that 1/3 of the the class would get an A/A-, which is ridiculously generous from my experience in the Physics department so far. The midterms were very fair (medians were 42/60 and 49/60) and the final, while more difficult (median 101/160) was still quite fair.

There is negative I must say, though, and it is that his lectures are incredibly dry. I'm not sure if it's because of his monotone voice or the room or something, but it always seems like he loses everyone's attention very quickly, especially compared to someone like Corbin. Of course he spinkles some jokes in sometimes, but those are very rare and ideally should not be the only time he really has the complete attention of the room.

Finally, his youth and friendly, casual demeanor make him really easy to approach. Also he kind of looks like Ed Sheeran lol

9/10

P.S. This will matter to literally no one after Spring 2019 but the TA for this class, Nathan Tung, was quite simply the best TA I have ever seen at UCLA. Not only was his personality great, but he was clearly smart, prepared, well-spoken, and above all, enthusiastic. His sections went above and beyond the other physics discussions I have had so far. Instead of just throwing practice problems and solutions at us, he came well prepared with a plan, and extended topics, explained things from a bit of a different angle, connected things from previous physics classes, and even brought in some cool physics toys to demonstrate with. He was so well-spoken that he almost always felt more like a professor than the actual professor did. At the end of the quarter, he released the 150-page note document to all of us, which was longer than the actual professor's notes and slightly more simply worked in my opinion. Even though he just graduated, I think he was a great example of what TAs can and should try to be.

Wonderful lecturer, highly recommended. He lecture pace is appropriate and he is very helpful to your questions. He also posts clear and detailed lecture slides so you don't have to worry if you miss a class or two. His midterms are fairly easy. The final is harder but he does give a generous curve. My suggestion to this class is that do the homework questions. Although they are not summitted, they do prepare you well for his exams.

One of the best professors all around! He was super flexible, gave fair exams, and his lectures were really great. 10/10 recommend.

Really enjoyed this professor and his course! Just be weary that he writes in chalk on the blackboard and doesn't use slides so showing up to class is kind of a must. He doesn't take attendance or clickers or anything but if you want the notes from him you should go. He does upload a notes paper to CCLE but its not the exactly same thing. His tests were straight forward and honestly I thought they were decent. It's physics so as long as you memorize the formulas and what they are for you're already halfway there. His exams were kind of just knowing how to correctly interpret and apply formulas, pretty good. Also he allowed an opt out option for the final!! (COVID 19) which was amazing and I really appreciated that. I opted out because I already had an A because the midterms were decent for me. Overall he was a funny and great professor and I really enjoyed his classes and lectures and would definitely recommend!

Not much to say about this class other than Bauer has trouble making a test that is at the correct level of difficulty. He made the first midterm way too hard and promised to make the second midterm easier but the second midterm was still hard. Then he promised to make the final easier, but because of covid-19, a lot of people opted out. Just be aware when taking his class. Other than that, nice guy. Decent lecturer.

Like other reviewers have said, Bauer cares a lot about student learning and it shows. He's very supportive of the class in general and is always active on Campuswire giving advice and communicates regularly by email. That being said, his lecture style didn't work well for me. Definitely dry and not particularly exciting, and I felt that he spent way too much time on derivations instead of examples (which is mainly how I learn). It was difficult to tell which equations were actually important for the class. I personally thought his exams were challenging because of wording and the lack of in-lecture examples. As mentioned in the other reviews, he is NOT good at judging the difficulty level of his own exams so always be wary.

TLDR; Class was manageable, and Bauer is a great person. Not the best lecturer and I wouldn't take him again, but I wouldn't be too worried about my grade if I had to.

Bauer is okay, he writes all his notes on the board, which can get a little exhausting / isn't very engaging. But Physics 5B is a genuinely easy class to work through, just do the mastering physics problems and the practice midterms / finals (though when I took this class he was still figuring out how hard to make it so the practice midterms were a gross overestimation of how easy his paper was going to be, so don't trust it, and just work hard to really get the concept if you want to do well). He was really accommodating with the shift to online, so he's an overall sweet guy. Not a bad class :)