Bauer is a really cool prof. I've heard horror stories about other physics profs, so if you're looking to avoid that, take Bauer. He doesn't use slides, which is interesting, but writes everything out on the chalkboard. Probably not the most helpful if you're someone who annotates the powerpoint on an Ipad or something, but he writes slow enough that it's very legible and not hard to keep up with him. He is extremely reasonable and accommodating--plenty of extensions on assignments when circumstances arose or he just didn't feel like we had enough time with the material. The tests were pretty comparable in difficulty with the homework and lecture problems, so no surprises there. We also got to use a cheat sheet on the exams which was great because there's lots of formulas. I would definitely take 5A with him again, and wish he taught 5B the quarter I'm taking it.

If you took AP physics 1 or C in high school, this class is a repeat of that except a little more in-depth with fewer topics. Dr. Bauer is a great lecturer and explains the concepts very well. Someone said he reads off the slides, but that just isn't true??? I thought there was a good balance of conceptual stuff and practice problems during lecture. He's very helpful when you ask questions after class/during office hours, and it's clear he wants people who care about the class to succeed. The HW problems aren't super reflective of the exams, but it's a good start to get familiar with the material, and the problem bank and the discussion worksheets were very helpful. The past exams were significantly easier than the ones we got, but he did tell us that he was going to make the exams significantly more difficult. He also said that just doing the homework and discussion worksheets would be enough to pass the class, so if you want a better grade you need to do the textbook practice problems. Dr. Bauer recommends the University Physics textbook by Young and Freedman for additional practice (it's free on libgen), and I second that. I'd argue it's even worth to just read the concepts from that textbook instead of the life science one because the life science one explains things in such a weird roundabout way. The only downside is that University Physics goes into a lot more detail and has some calculus, so you just need to judge what's important and what you can skip. Go to office hours, either Dr. Bauer's or your TA's or both, and set aside at least a few hours every week to actually study and do practice problems. It isn't a class like the 7 series where you can just follow the lectures, study two days before the exam, and get a decent grade.

The tests were so much harder than the past examples he gave us. Thank god for the ta Thomas Marshall for actually caring about his students and wanting us to succeed. Bauer just read off his lecture slides and didn’t give that many example problems. I had to go searching for examples online and even then couldn’t find any that matched the difficulty of the tests. I will say he did curve up after the average on the second midterm was 52 percent.

The tests are 10X harder than the practice ones that he gives out.

Take Tung or Shriver or don't wait until the next quarter.

Overall a fair and decent professor. Attendance is not mandatory and lectures are recorded. Midterm averages were high Cs, maybe even a low B. I liked that the Mastering homework was not due until the end of the course, but pacing deadlines were still given. Working through Mastering problems prior to exams and writing them down on my formula sheet helped me study. I think with any physics course (including this one), problems covered during lecture will never be entirely comprehensive of every possible physics problem out there, so it's definitely helpful to utilize other sources (like the internet, I used an AP Physics prep book I found online) to find more practice problems. From my interactions with Bauer, he seems to be a nice guy who is always willing to help if you actively seek it. No complaints really.

I have never taken a physics class before Bauer, so that's just a preface to my review. I think Professor Bauer himself is very sweet and kind. However, his teaching feels tailored towards people with past experience. I worked super hard to try and do well in the class and it honestly didn't pay off until the final. I think his tests are pretty fair, but you need to do a lot of outside work to be prepared because any of his practice problems during lecture or even the homework is not even close to sufficient enough to be prepared.

Don't really need to study that much if you took AP Physics 1A in high school. The tests are fair. Bauer's lectures are recorded and are very good, I would definitely recommend watching them. Homework can be a bit heavy at times, but is reasonable.

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I don't love physics, but needed it for my major. I took it in the summer which was a great choice. Bauer was more lenient on homework than previously due to the fast nature of summer quarters. A lot of old study guides were irrelevant since we didn't have time to cover as much material in class. Listening to lectures is super important, and they're available on BruinLearn, which is helpful. Homework on mastering physics was a drag (and I used homework help sites to finish it because it was mostly busy work. Switch discussions and labs as needed to find a TA you like. Some of the TAs are fantastic, others not so much. Go to a few different TA's section and labs in the first week and move around as you see fit; it will make your whole quarter easier.

Dr. Bauer was an incredibly clear and knowledgable physics professor. He did a thorough job in explaining the content during lecture, showing applications of the content through practice problems, and answering student questions when asked. I would say that I highly recommend Dr. Bauer for Physics 5A because he was methodical in his explanations which is useful to have a strong foundation in the first physics course within the Physics 5 series.
In the summer quarter, we had 2 midterms and 1 final exam. The tests were weighted such that they determined the majority of our course grade, and they primarily involved applying the physics concepts we learned in lecture to problem-solving mathematical scenarios. The tests were definitely challenging because they involved new problem types and setups that we had not explicitly seen before in lecture or homework, but they still involved the same concepts and problem-solving strategies. Therefore, the best practice for all the exams were the lecture example problems and the Mastering Physics homework problems. Having a solid conceptual understanding of why we perform each step within a problem is essential in order to apply it into an unknown context during the exam. Dr. Bauer also hosted online review sessions before each exam to work through practice problems and answer other student questions; he also posted the exams that he administered in previous quarters as practice for us to complete.
Overall, Bauer was an incredibly helpful and clear professor who taught this course well. My only grievance about his class philosophy is that he aims for the class average to be a B/B-. For our summer session class, in the first midterm, we well exceeded his expectations (we had a B+/A- average), so he made the second midterm considerably more difficult to compensate. This feels quite unfair as we should not be punished as a class for performing well by having more difficult exams in the future.
Other than that, the exams were nothing crazy. There were definitely challenging problems but all doable if you understand the content well and studied by doing the suggested practice problems. I recommend Bauer! He was a good professor for Physics 5A.