He gives good lectures that set you up with the equations needed to complete the homework. He was super responsive on campuswire and helped provide advice on the homework. His review sessions were also quite in-depth and gave a good idea about what would be beneficial to know for the exams. The exams are challenging, but he lets you have an equation sheet front-back which is helpful. I would prepare for the exams in this class by doing practice questions. He was also very accommodating with the TA strike and allowed our final exam to be multiple choice, it was still hard though. Overall he is a good professor, and I would suggest taking him.

Like what everyone else said in the reviews, Bauer's exams are reasonable and in my experience/opinion, I don't think he had any "curveballs" in the exam. The best way to prepare would be to consistently do the textbook problems (especially the "General Problems" section of the book) and stay caught up with the lectures and weekly homework assignments (which are just as do-able.) He also allowed us to bring a cheat sheet with a front and back side filled with anything you wanted for the midterms. The final was adjusted to be more accommodating because of the strike (as our second midterm was disrupted by strikers)––it had two components where the first component was an in-person, open-note, 12 question multiple choice exam and the other 50% was an asynchronous, Gradescope-submitted 1-page reflection on your performance on a past midterm. He did host review sessions where he ran through the equations and did problems problems that people requested but I personally didn't really find them helpful––though it was nice of him to make himself available as a resource.

Bauer's lectures were clear and straightforward as he would explain the important concepts and tell you what you would need to know for problems and the exams. He's not the most charismatic or energetic but I'd say it was much more helpful than reading the textbook (especially when it came to the wave, light, and diffraction units). He also Zoom recorded his lectures so you would be able to both see what he wrote on the board and hear what he was saying when you watched them again.

My interactions with Bauer were next to none because I didn't attend his office hours nor did I participate in Campuswire, but he seems like a chill guy. Overall, the course had a reasonable workload and fair exams––you just have to put the time into studying.

This class felt like 2-3 classes in one: the combination between the lecture, discussion, and lab, all with their own homework, was kind of overwhelming. Prof Bauer is great, but he's only like 1/3 of the class experience haha

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.

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.

Physics:

Taking this class with Professor Bauer was a great way to end off freshman physics. He definitely has all the makings of a great professor, and he's still quite young (this was his first time teaching this class!)

One of the best things that I can't believe more professor in things like math and science don't do often at all is that he created an online forum where students could post questions about homework or tests that he, the TAs, and even other students could answer. He also posts very definitely in text topics will and won't be covered on the exams, which is great. He even went as far as to post the exact topic of each of the 9 problems on the final if we filled in enough instructor evaluations.

He also made very neat lecture notes that are pretty helpful for things like quickly going through a derivation that you might have forgotten from lecture (or reviewing quickly if you skipped lecture oof).

Oh yeah, not even to mention that he said in the beginning of the quarter that 1/3 of the the class would get an A/A-, which is ridiculously generous from my experience in the Physics department so far. The midterms were very fair (medians were 42/60 and 49/60) and the final, while more difficult (median 101/160) was still quite fair.

There is negative I must say, though, and it is that his lectures are incredibly dry. I'm not sure if it's because of his monotone voice or the room or something, but it always seems like he loses everyone's attention very quickly, especially compared to someone like Corbin. Of course he spinkles some jokes in sometimes, but those are very rare and ideally should not be the only time he really has the complete attention of the room.

Finally, his youth and friendly, casual demeanor make him really easy to approach. Also he kind of looks like Ed Sheeran lol

9/10

P.S. This will matter to literally no one after Spring 2019 but the TA for this class, Nathan Tung, was quite simply the best TA I have ever seen at UCLA. Not only was his personality great, but he was clearly smart, prepared, well-spoken, and above all, enthusiastic. His sections went above and beyond the other physics discussions I have had so far. Instead of just throwing practice problems and solutions at us, he came well prepared with a plan, and extended topics, explained things from a bit of a different angle, connected things from previous physics classes, and even brought in some cool physics toys to demonstrate with. He was so well-spoken that he almost always felt more like a professor than the actual professor did. At the end of the quarter, he released the 150-page note document to all of us, which was longer than the actual professor's notes and slightly more simply worked in my opinion. Even though he just graduated, I think he was a great example of what TAs can and should try to be.

Wonderful lecturer, highly recommended. He lecture pace is appropriate and he is very helpful to your questions. He also posts clear and detailed lecture slides so you don't have to worry if you miss a class or two. His midterms are fairly easy. The final is harder but he does give a generous curve. My suggestion to this class is that do the homework questions. Although they are not summitted, they do prepare you well for his exams.

One of the best professors all around! He was super flexible, gave fair exams, and his lectures were really great. 10/10 recommend.

Really enjoyed this professor and his course! Just be weary that he writes in chalk on the blackboard and doesn't use slides so showing up to class is kind of a must. He doesn't take attendance or clickers or anything but if you want the notes from him you should go. He does upload a notes paper to CCLE but its not the exactly same thing. His tests were straight forward and honestly I thought they were decent. It's physics so as long as you memorize the formulas and what they are for you're already halfway there. His exams were kind of just knowing how to correctly interpret and apply formulas, pretty good. Also he allowed an opt out option for the final!! (COVID 19) which was amazing and I really appreciated that. I opted out because I already had an A because the midterms were decent for me. Overall he was a funny and great professor and I really enjoyed his classes and lectures and would definitely recommend!

Not much to say about this class other than Bauer has trouble making a test that is at the correct level of difficulty. He made the first midterm way too hard and promised to make the second midterm easier but the second midterm was still hard. Then he promised to make the final easier, but because of covid-19, a lot of people opted out. Just be aware when taking his class. Other than that, nice guy. Decent lecturer.