Dr. Bauer was a pretty good professor.
I felt that his lectures and notes were pretty solid overall. Unlike other phyics professors who just scribble jargon down, Dr. Bauer's notes were actually pretty organized and easy to follow, albeit he wrote all of his notes using OneNote which made it a pain to go back to review his notes later.
Class was on a straight scale, but the cutoffs were pretty lenient, 60% for a C- and 75% for a B-
The class had no midterms but instead had a weekly quiz and a final, each timed, 40 minutes for the quizzes, and 3 hours for the final, so as we move back to in person classes, your experience will probably stay relatively the same.

I felt that the quizzes were a bit on the difficult side, but Dr. Bauer seemed to account for this and made the final much easier.
(He did mention that he had to do the opposite in another quarter: where he made the quizzes way too easy and had to adjust by making the final much harder, so if you feel that the quizzes are too hard or too easy, expect the final to be the opposite)

My only gripe with the class was that Dr. Bauer barely gave any example problems in lecture, if at all. This made studying for the quizzes a pain because it truly felt impossible to know exactly what we would be tested on. All it felt like you can do to prepare was do all of the practice and challenge problems he assigned to get the overall idea and hope for the best.

Overall I enjoyed the class and I managed to pull off a better grade than I expected thanks to the easier final. I didn't do very well in 1A and I was nervous moving on to 1B, but Dr. Bauer manages to teach the course in a very clear manner and I actually felt like I understood what was going on for the most part.

This is just my experience, but after taking the MCAT and having to study some of the concepts for that exam, relearning them in class was a bit weird because the difficult topics (or at least ones that were difficult for me) like fluids and optics weren't explained as in-depth as thermodynamics. Maybe this is just the way the course is set up, but I honestly reverted to my MCAT notes to review the concepts because lecture didn't do enough for me.

I would definitely take some time in addition to lecture, lab, and discussion to do practice textbook problems. The main reason why I struggled with the biweekly quizzes is that I just memorized the equations and assumed that the word problems would be straight plug and chug (which was not the case!!). I think this class is doable with Bauer, and he's not a bad professor, around average I'd say.

I really liked how Professor's Bauer's taught and his quizzes and tests were very reasonable.

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

Dr. Bauer is honestly my favorite physics professor that I've had at UCLA. His lectures are very straightforward (non-mandatory, but in-class midterms), and discussion sections are very helpful (must attend 6/quarter). Homeworks were super representative of exam content, and he even provides problem bank questions that are harder than exams so that you can check your understanding. Also, he provides so many practice exams, that it's super easy to prep for them.
I truly reccommend going to office hours; he's super engaging and will give good tips and helpful advice for exams and the class. There are some extra credit opportunities (not many, will not save your grade if you do poorly on exams, but enough to give you a buffer ~1%), but honestly the grading scale is super manageable and midterms are fair (class averages when I took it were in the 80s and 90s). He will also adjust the grading scale if needed to provide an average of 3.1 (only if the classes do poorly; will not be done to hurt your grade).
Truly, if you have to take 5A, take it with Bauer!!

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.

I did not like this class at all and i think his teaching was the main reason why. The three midterms were not too bad in a sense that they made sure you would be prepared for the final but the final was so much harder than the midterms with my lec average being a C and the other lec average being a D. I think he curved which was nice and overall I think he's a nice dude but the way he made his final was insane. There is def lots of partial credit which was a saving grace but still a hard class especially because the practice midterms and finals he posts are good as practice but def not as similar to the test because he uses completely different scenarios. Lec was recorded though which I appreciate and he only assigned weekly hw and a wrapper so the workload was super mangeable on a non test week but it was basically test week every other week starting week 4. Also, the extra credit was like .50 total so basically useless. If I could, I would not take it with him again.

I would definitely recommend taking Physics 5A with Bauer. He was approachable, and was accommodating. I took his 8am lecture which he zoomed at the same time, this meant I was able to watch through zoom, but I still attended most in person and felt that it did help. Bauer's teaching was pretty average, he used slides, but he did go through many practice problems throughout lecture, which other professors don't; he showed us how we can go about solving problems. In terms of the logistics of the class, this quarter he did 3 midterms, which may seem like a lot but I actually didn't mind because there was room for mistake. Each midterm was worth 11%, so a total of 33% and each had like around 4 questions. My lecture had easier midterms, and that meant the average was pretty high each midterm. I would say the final wasn't too bad, the average was still pretty high, around a B, which is surprising considering the stigma around physics. But yeah, I actually enjoyed the content as someone who likes math, but as a professor I would recommend taking Bauer. Also the other lecturer this quarter was pretty behind, still covering content we had finished weeks ago. He also gave three extra credit questions on the final, two asking us about how we felt of the structure of the class, and the third being what his cat's name is, which is Mrs. Business, so try to remember that. I would advise to use the textbook, but wouldn't say its too necessary since he covers the same material, especially if you already have a background in physics, at least even a little. Don't hesitate to take Bauer, he was pretty chill.

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.

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.