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.

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.

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!

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.

If you are like me who is just checking a box on my DARS, don't bother taking this class. Professor Bauer is a sweet guy and he wants us to really understand what's going on behind the scenes; however, he writes out a formal derivation for every major formula unlike my current professor, professor Hauser, who is happy to let us use formulae to crack physics problems.

TLDR: You'll be fine with Professor Bauer!

After having taken Physics 1A with Professor Frieman, Physics 1B with Professor Bauer was great. Physics is physics and you should expect a certain level of rigor of course, but this class is very doable.
Homework is only Mastering Physics which I recommend doing. It was pretty close to the difficulty of the midterm questions.
In my opinion (as a non-physics master or even enjoyer), both midterms were veryyy straightforward and clear. No confusing stuff or crazy derivations. In fact, if you think about the questions hard enough, you'll see that Professor Bauer is typically giving an easy trick question. For example, you might initially think that you have to do some long calculation, etc., but in reality, the answer might be stated on the question already. Stuff like that. So I highly recommend grasping the concepts and not just doing the homework for a grade.
Attendance is required for the discussions, but you can miss two I think. The discussion worksheets were super hard, but I never encountered them on the exam or anywhere. Good thing they are graded on completion/some work shown.
My only thing is that the final was kinda hard. Like I sat there for the first 30 minutes and I was like damn I don't know what to do. Anyways, it got graded and they were pretty generous with the partial credit so I still ended with a B in the class.

His grade cutoff is very generous. A is 93, A- is 90, B+ is 85, B is 80, B- is 75, C+ is 70, C is 65, C- is 60, D+ is 55, D is 50, D- is 45, and F is <45. No curve, but I think the cutoff is good enough.

Also lol he wore the "Tax the Rich" sweater, one lecture that was funny. If the previous statement is in any way incriminating, for legal reasons, it is a joke and he never wore that.

Professor Bauer is a clear lecturer, and his lectures are pretty helpful. He spends a lot of time doing derivations and goes into depth about the material. He speaks at a good pace. He is super helpful during office hours, so if you get stuck on homework, I would recommend going, as he does a good job of working the problems out. His homework is just Mastering Physics and pretty reasonable. Required discussions, with like 2-3 dropped discussion attendances. His tests are reasonable, not the kind involving tons of derivations or tricky calculations, exams where you can expect to get 90-100% if you understand the material thoroughly. He did not curve the class, but we ended up with around 30% A+/A/A- and 35% B+/B/B-. I would probably take this class again.

Honestly, Professor Bauer is a pretty good professor and lecturer. His lectures were very clear and I think he covered the material at an appropriate pace. He also records all of his lectures and broadcasts them on zoom, so most people never came in person except for exams lol. The weekly homework is light and shouldn't take more than 2-3 hours max, but I would definitely recommend doing the optional textbook problems. The exams range in difficulty because he adjusts them based on student performance, but they are always fair. The midterms were pretty straightforward, although the final exam was a bit hard. He does not curve, but honestly, it wasn't really necessary for his exams. His discussion worksheets are hard, but they're nothing like the exams and they aren't graded based on accuracy.
Overall, I would recommend Bauer for Physics 1B!

Bauer honestly cares a lot about his students. I had him during the TA strike. His lectures are just note taking on the board, not a lot of example problems, not a lot of explanations. He doesn't lecture about how to do the problems, only the equations and where they come from. Weekly hw that you have to enroll in Pearson. He lets you have a single page cheat sheet on each midterm to fill with equations and stuff, just has to be handwritten. The midterms are HARD. Like 3 questions, abcdefg. He did give partial credit but his tests are just so hard. He doesn't go over how to solve problems at all, and he expects you to be able to solve novel problems by rearranging the equations on the spot. I struggled a lot. The final was moved to be multiple choice because of the strike, and I was able to do well due to this... he bruincasted everything my quarter, participation meant nothing. I would watch recordings online so I could pause and rewind. But he cares, a lot. He totally understood when we had a strike come through the class during a midterm. He also is doing his best. Bauer is a sweetheart, but I wish he did more practice problems during classtime. Office hours was very helpful though!

Professor Bauer is one of the sweetest STEM professors I've had at UCLA. He's truly a sweet guy who just wants you to learn some physics. He's very patient answering questions and is an approachable person. His tests, although difficult, aren't trying to trick you or screw you over. With the TA strike fall quarter, he altered the structure of the final and even included a free bonus question at the end which made me smile.

I had him for both 5A and 5B. As a disabled student professor Bauer has always been an accommodating and understanding professor. I experienced an extremely traumatic event the day before our final, and wasn't sure if I was going to make it to the exam. Professor Bauer was very understanding and offered to accommodate me for the final even though it ended up not being necessary. He also let me take a midterm on a different day for 5A when my disability was giving me a lot of trouble. I can't say enough nice things about professor Bauer. I wish I could take him for 5C but unfortunately he isn't giving it next quarter.