I'm going to be honest with y'all. Taking Bauer during fall quarter absolutely sucked. I heard from all my friends who took him in the past that he was a pretty chill dude so I was excited to take the class. However, I guess after doing spring and summer online and having kids receive a shit ton of As that made him become a bit jaded and make the class a bit more annoying to complete. Initially, the class seems like your average physics class with discussions (10%), labs (15%), and homework (10%), and quizzes (40%). However, he attempted to mix up the class a paper that counted as a midterm (2.5%) and a final paper that was worth (12.5%). For the first paper, I'll give him a pass because it didn't really matter since it was worth so little and was supposed to be a litmus test for what he was looking for in the final paper. But the problem was that he didn't even give proper feedback to the first paper so we couldn't even learn from our mistakes coupled with the fact that we had a final and final paper in the class due just made the whole process so stressful. Not even to mention he originally had the basis of an A increased that a solid A was a 95 as well. I just feel overall he really seemed like he wanted to reduce the number of As in the class but I just felt like the addition of the papers as well as his stubbornness regarding grading as well just left a sour taste in my mouth. I'm sure in person he's a decent person to take but as for online I say just avoid him all together unless you absolutely have to.

Professor Bauer is genuinely one of the worst professors I have ever at UCLA. He had great reviews for preview Physics courses, so I was really excited to take this class with him. I really really regret my decision to take Physics with him. Since students had a past of doing well in his class, he adjusted his grade scale for this quarter to make it more difficult to get a good grade. He completely overloaded this class with work, especially compared to the other physics professors teaching the same course at the same time. He forced us to take quizzes at 9am PST every week that were graded by accuracy, and not easy whatsoever. The quizzes were not flexible to anyone if they were in a different time zone (which a lot of us are) or if they were dealing with any personal issues since we are in a pandemic and all. On top of that, he gave us additional lectures to watch to make up for lost class time since we had to miss class for HIS OWN required weekly quizzes. Additionally, we were not able to drop a low score or even miss one quiz. This was completely unfair in times like these, ESPECIALLY when comparing this class to the other sections offered for 5B simultaneously, but taught by other professors. The workload assigned during this quarter was just absolutely ridiculous and was obviously changed so that he could boast a "better grade distribution" at our cost. We had weekly Mastering Physics Assignments, Discussion, Lab, quizzes, a midterm Paper, a Final Exam, AND a Final Paper. Our average grade on the midterm paper was a 75 percent. All in all, this was a horrible experience with Dr. Bauer and I hope none of you have to experience a class with him like this in your UCLA careers. Go Bruins.

Very clear and straightforward professor

Grade breakdown:

Homework 10% (Mastering physics)
Lab 15% (Lab is a joke)

Midterm 1: 15%

Midterm 2: 20%

Final: 40%

The final was pretty hard. His first two midterms were an absolute cakewalk
Lab is an absolute joke as always for the 5 series.

My scores:

Midterm 1: 40/40
Midterm 2: 48/50

Final: 91/104

Results in an A. I'm pretty sure the distribution for this class is going to be like 20% A+ I just couldn't study hard for this final for some reason :(

TAKE THIS CLASS WITH THIS PROFESSOR OR ANY OTHER PHYSICS 5 SERIES. HE IS STRAIGHTFORWARD. HE GIVES FAIR TESTS. If you complain about this professor I don't know what to tell you.

Definitely one of the best physics professors at UCLA. Genuinely cares about his students, genuinely wants everyone to get As, genuinely a cool guy.\

Exams:
Mastering Physics 10%
Laboratory 15%
Midterm 1 15%
Midterm 2 20%
Final exam 40%

All you need to know about the exams is that the distribution for every exam was heavily skewed towards As. As long as you somewhat do the HW and you do the practice exam problems he gives, the exams should be cake.

The two midterms were essentially just homework problems while the final required a little bit more application of the material, but still pretty easy relative to most other UCLA classes, esp Physics. A lot of the Mastering Physics problems were more confusing and difficult than his exam problems. He even gave us an equation sheet for the Final of all the equations we needed that were from M1 and M2, so we only needed to memorize a few equations for the material between M2 and the Final.

Exams are no calculator, closed note, but all of the computations were quick mental math, which also helped because it gave you a hint that you weren't on the right track if the math didn't work out simply.

I had Samani for 5A and Carson for 5C, and Bauer is easily my favorite because he made the class very easy and low effort while still providing a strong base of understanding for the concepts in the class. He didn't make anything unnecessarily convoluted or difficult, it was all straight to the point. Definitely easier than Samani and way less bullshit than that class (Bauer has no quizzes, no bs discussion packets, no "team" exams, etc.). Carson for 5C was just garbage in all respects, so he was also ofc way better than Carson who just read off of the Pearson slides every lecture.

There's extra credit via Campuswire (up to .3), but you probably won't need it anyways. No clickers in lecture or Bruincast, but you should go because that is all you will need for the class. Discussions were worth it because of Sean Hensarling the TA, who was really great and always gave a little review and a few practice problems. Outside of lecture and the solid discussions each week, very little if any study time was needed for the exams.

100% take this class with Bauer. He's the best.

I love David Bauer. He also looks like Ed Sheeran so thats cool.

He is a very straightforward professor, he gives you previous quizzes and exams to practice with, as well as practice problems to study for the single midterm and final. The practice he gives is very helpful and he is a very clear lecturer and gets to the point, like others have said, the best word to describe him is "straightforward". His class isn't a cakewalk I'd assume though because the average for the midterm was a 74 and the median for the final was also near a 74. I believe he said the median grade for the entire class was an 86%. Just do the practice problems and understand how to apply concepts just a little more than plug and chug. Tip: don't ask a basic question without attempting the problem on campus wire, I've seen way too many other students get roasted by the professor for being "expected to know how to do this".

If I had to use one word to describe Dr. Bauer, it would be "straightforward."

Dr. Bauer isn't the most engaging lecturer there is, but he's still very effective at delivering the material we need in a clear manner. His tests/quizzes are very fair and straightforward, and there's substantial partial credit offered on problems as well. Homework is on MasteringPhysics and isn't too bad if you don't do it at the last minute. Lab isn't under his control, and is a complete joke, but that's just the Physics 5 series for you. Campuswire is an opportunity to earn some extra credit, and Dr. Bauer is extremely active on that as well. Discussion isn't too helpful but isn't useless either, and you don't really have to participate if you don't want to. Apart from that, there's not really much to say. Dr. Bauer isn't the best professor I've ever had, but is far from the worst. I'd take a class with him again since he's effective and fair in a class that really isn't that easy.

Let me be clear, Dr. Bauer is who you should take physics with if you have struggled in the past. He makes everything simple in his lectures, and then it is up to you to practice. The material is not too bad, and weekly quizzes (8) are challenging but not anything unfair by any means.

A lot of people were unhappy this quarter that he assigned a paper due on finals week along with our regular final, but other than that, the workload is not much besides studying. He is a chill dude, take him if you can!

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

I really liked how Professor's Bauer's taught and his quizzes and tests were very reasonable.

This is just my experience, but after taking the MCAT and having to study some of the concepts for that exam, relearning them in class was a bit weird because the difficult topics (or at least ones that were difficult for me) like fluids and optics weren't explained as in-depth as thermodynamics. Maybe this is just the way the course is set up, but I honestly reverted to my MCAT notes to review the concepts because lecture didn't do enough for me.

I would definitely take some time in addition to lecture, lab, and discussion to do practice textbook problems. The main reason why I struggled with the biweekly quizzes is that I just memorized the equations and assumed that the word problems would be straight plug and chug (which was not the case!!). I think this class is doable with Bauer, and he's not a bad professor, around average I'd say.