Professor
David Bauer
1 of 1
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2023 - Dr. Bauer tests us fairly and adjusts the difficulty of future exams according to our past performance (he aims for a B/B- median overall). The textbook, homework, and lecture all complement each other. Lectures are extremely clear, with a good amount of relevant derivations and examples. Discussion worksheets are really challenging for some reason (how many times did the binomial theorem/miscellaneous approximating assumptions crop up?), but they're only graded for completion.
Winter 2023 - Dr. Bauer tests us fairly and adjusts the difficulty of future exams according to our past performance (he aims for a B/B- median overall). The textbook, homework, and lecture all complement each other. Lectures are extremely clear, with a good amount of relevant derivations and examples. Discussion worksheets are really challenging for some reason (how many times did the binomial theorem/miscellaneous approximating assumptions crop up?), but they're only graded for completion.
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2019 - 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.
Spring 2019 - 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.
AD
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2017 - I actually had Physics 4BL with David Bauer, but he is by far the best TA I've had for any physics class. Most of the time I sent him an email, he replied within the same day, sometimes within an hour. Also, his grading is actually fair and reasonable. For 4AL, I had Eric Kramer, who was nice enough but his grading was absurd. If you want a good grade on your lab with Kramer, you HAVE to finish it early, go to his office hours, and let him correct it for you. I had a conflict with his office hours, so I missed out on this one-on-one correction. I was only marked down on the actual content of my lab maybe once or twice; a majority of what I was marked down for was "incorrect line spacing" or "not enough tick marks on the graph". I ended up with a B- because Kramer didn't like the style of my reports. This is why Bauer is MUCH better. For one, he provided us with a style guide to follow, thus avoiding these issues in the first place. Also, whenever I asked him about the formatting issues, he response was typically "___ is what you should do, but I won't mark you down for something minor." Long story short, 4AL and 4BL are difficult classes, expect to spend about 8 hours a week on your lab report, but if you have a chance to take it with Bauer, do it.
Fall 2017 - I actually had Physics 4BL with David Bauer, but he is by far the best TA I've had for any physics class. Most of the time I sent him an email, he replied within the same day, sometimes within an hour. Also, his grading is actually fair and reasonable. For 4AL, I had Eric Kramer, who was nice enough but his grading was absurd. If you want a good grade on your lab with Kramer, you HAVE to finish it early, go to his office hours, and let him correct it for you. I had a conflict with his office hours, so I missed out on this one-on-one correction. I was only marked down on the actual content of my lab maybe once or twice; a majority of what I was marked down for was "incorrect line spacing" or "not enough tick marks on the graph". I ended up with a B- because Kramer didn't like the style of my reports. This is why Bauer is MUCH better. For one, he provided us with a style guide to follow, thus avoiding these issues in the first place. Also, whenever I asked him about the formatting issues, he response was typically "___ is what you should do, but I won't mark you down for something minor." Long story short, 4AL and 4BL are difficult classes, expect to spend about 8 hours a week on your lab report, but if you have a chance to take it with Bauer, do it.
Most Helpful Review
Summer 2020 - I’ve never taken physics before, but Bauer definitely made the class as manageable as possible. He is very clear during lecture and gives many examples to solidify topics. He is also pretty active on campus wire to answer questions if you have any. We had weekly quizzes, and the difficulty varied tbh. Some were easy and some were hard, it just depends on the week, but he does give partial credit so its not all bad. He also posts practice exams that are pretty representative of the quizzes. There are no midterms, only 5 quizzes and a final exam, and he drops the lowest quiz. We had FRQs, but he removed them for 5B during session C because they took too long to grade, so I don’t think he’ll add those again. The only extra credit is through campuswire.
Summer 2020 - I’ve never taken physics before, but Bauer definitely made the class as manageable as possible. He is very clear during lecture and gives many examples to solidify topics. He is also pretty active on campus wire to answer questions if you have any. We had weekly quizzes, and the difficulty varied tbh. Some were easy and some were hard, it just depends on the week, but he does give partial credit so its not all bad. He also posts practice exams that are pretty representative of the quizzes. There are no midterms, only 5 quizzes and a final exam, and he drops the lowest quiz. We had FRQs, but he removed them for 5B during session C because they took too long to grade, so I don’t think he’ll add those again. The only extra credit is through campuswire.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2020 - 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.
Fall 2020 - 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.
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2022 - Just like for Physics 5B, Bauer was a very straightforward professor. The quizzes seemed a bit harder but maybe that's because he made them open note this quarter. He ended up giving us a free 100% on a quiz and also dropped our lowest quiz. The midterm, at least personally, I felt was a lot easier than the 5B midterm. The final was meh, definitely did not understand 2 of the 7 questions, but his generous partial credit pulled through and I still got an 85% on that final. Honestly, the class content is a lot easier than 5B and I think that reflects in his grades of this class as I put a lot less effort in this class. Bauer is a pretty decent professor and I don't have any big complaints on this class.
Winter 2022 - Just like for Physics 5B, Bauer was a very straightforward professor. The quizzes seemed a bit harder but maybe that's because he made them open note this quarter. He ended up giving us a free 100% on a quiz and also dropped our lowest quiz. The midterm, at least personally, I felt was a lot easier than the 5B midterm. The final was meh, definitely did not understand 2 of the 7 questions, but his generous partial credit pulled through and I still got an 85% on that final. Honestly, the class content is a lot easier than 5B and I think that reflects in his grades of this class as I put a lot less effort in this class. Bauer is a pretty decent professor and I don't have any big complaints on this class.
AD
1 of 1
