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

Overall, Professor Bauer was a solid professor. His lectures were fair in the sense that everything he covered was directly relevant to the exams, no surprises. If you paid attention in class, took notes, or rewatched the recorded lectures, you were pretty much set. He didn’t try to trip you up with random material, which I appreciated.

Grading Breakdown:
Discussion Participation: 2.5%
Discussion Worksheets: 2.5%
Final Exam: 35%
Homework Accuracy: 0.5%
Homework Completion: 4.5%
Labs: 15%
Midterm Error Analysis: 6%
Midterms: 32% (2 x 16%)
Midterm Reflection Surveys: 2% (2 x 1%)

About the Labs and Discussion:
Labs were run completely separately from the lecture and had nothing to do with exam success. Honestly, they didn’t reinforce the material much at all, but attendance was strict, you needed a verifiable excuse to miss one. As for discussion, it was mandatory, but you could miss up to 4 of the 12 sessions without any penalty. The worksheets were decent practice, but still a bit easier than the real exam questions.

Exams:
Difficulty-wise, it went: Final > Midterm 1 > Midterm 2.

Here were the class averages:
Midterm 1: 68.64%
Midterm 2: 76.64%
Final Exam: 70%

His practice exams were by far the best way to study, definitely more reflective of the actual test difficulty than the lecture examples. Lecture problems were usually much easier than the exams, so don’t rely on them alone. Discussion questions helped, but again, a bit easier. If you want to do well, prioritize those practice exams.

One thing I will say about the exams is that even if you knew all of the material, the questions were presented in ways you probably hadn’t seen before. So it wasn’t enough to just memorize formulas, you needed strong conceptual understanding to figure out how to set up and solve the problems under pressure.

A lot of people felt rushed during the first midterm, which had 6 questions (no multi-part sub-questions), so for the second midterm he adjusted the format to just 5 questions, one of which was purely conceptual and didn’t require calculations. Both midterms were 50 minutes long. The final exam was 3 hours and had 10 questions. Another thing to keep in mind is that not all questions were weighted equally, some were worth as little as 4 points, while others were worth up to 16, so time management and prioritizing were key.

One thing I really appreciated is that if you had a question during the exam, Professor Bauer was genuinely helpful. Obviously, he couldn’t walk you through the problem, but he would try his best to guide you in the right direction and answer your question honestly. He was very approachable and wanted you to succeed.

Final Thoughts:
Don’t just brush off topics that confuse you. If something doesn’t make sense, ask about it right away because the material builds on itself fast. Falling behind even a little bit can make the next topic even harder to grasp.

This class is very manageable if you put in the work. Seriously practice, practice, practice. If you do the homework, show up to lecture, and grind through the practice exams, you should be in good shape.

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.

Professor Bauer is objectively a good lecturer, but this quarter a lot of students had problems with test difficulty compared to difficulty of homework and lecture problems. Personally, I had to put in a lot of time out of class to do the practice problems and homework extra practice, but I think that's what really helped prepare me for exams tho. Also classes are broadcasted on zoom during lecture time, and recorded as well to watch after (no required attendance)

Grading scheme this quarter had extra credit built in:

5% homework
5% discussion
15% lab
17.5% Midterm 1
17.5% Midterm 2
35% Final
5% Midterm Reflections

With the midterm reflections we were able to get back 3% on our midterm scores which honestly was very generous towards those heavy weighted categories.

If you ask clarifying questions he will answer. My best advice is to be engaged in class. Physics doesn't come natural to me whatsoever. I had to show up everyday and put in the work but it is possible.

Professor Bauer has well-organized lectures, and the class material is easy to access, with the slides always posted before class/ the recording of lecture also posted ASAP. The slides (in combination with paying attention while he's explaining them) are easy to understand, and he works out practice problems in lecture as you go, which is helpful. In office hours or after class, Bauer is approachable and clearly happy to help if you are confused or have questions. Also, I liked his lecture style, and he seems to care a lot about student success/ has altered the structure of the class in response to feedback before, which is nice.
For test difficulty, it appears to vary between quarters, but he will curve up if needed, and alter the difficulty of midterm II/ the final accordingly (he will not curve down). I found the tests to be very reasonable, and the homework + extra practice problems Bauer provides from the textbook or writes are good preparation. You don't have to worry about derivatives, and are given an equation sheet with everything relevant on it for all of the tests, which is convenient, so you just have to worry about correctly understanding/ applying equations, and can easily know what's actually relevant to study.
I had never taken any physics before, but found the class to be very doable and easy to follow. The reviews saying you need to have a physics background to follow the class/ that he doesn't explain his slides should have gone to lecture more maybe, as neither is true haha

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.