When I first looked at reviews for Lavelle before taking the class, I didn't have a good opinion of him because I was just parroting off what people had said about him only caring about his metrics and the 100+ hours of chem help offered, and the success of his website chem community.
But honestly, after taking both Chem14A and Chem14B with Lavelle, that is completely false. He constantly mentions his extra help UA sessions and they are so helpful. And later in the quarter I really felt that he cared for the students as he boosted our final exam scores by 10 points when it was really hard.
His class is not a free A, but it is a very doable A if you watch lectures, go to at least 1 UA session a week, do all the textbook practice problems (he includes some in his tests).
Stats: MT1 100%, MT2 100%, Final 83%

His class is definitely challenging, and it helps to have a solid background in AP Chemistry. The first week or so focuses on review of old Chemistry concepts, so if you haven't already taken Chemistry in the past, it's good to really use that time to catch up and do some extra outside studying before the topics get a little harder.

He has 2 tests, 1 midterm, and 1 final. The tests are on the easier side and straightforward if you did the homework and understand the lecture notes; the midterm is definitely more challenging and it's written by the TAs; the final is written by Dr. Lavelle himself and I found it to be the most challenging. Although all of the tests draw directly from the lectures/homework, I do have complaints about how vaguely worded the questions on the final can be. For instance, the final this year had typos, and the TAs had to make corrections and clarifications while we were taking it so many students had to re-do the problems all over again, which was pretty inconvenient.

Another tip for his exams: this may seem obvious, but always read the problem *thoroughly* and don't skim over it so you solve for the wrong thing! (I got a problem wrong because I mistakenly solved for the wavelength of light, not the wavelength of an electron, since I didn't fully understand the question.)

Doing all of the homework problems, not just the 5 assigned every week, is really advised, as well as going to the extra review sessions on topics you're unsure about.

All in all, it was a decent experience and I would probably take his class again.

Great class. I had Chem 14a with Lavelle also and the format was identical. I found the content more difficult than 14a, even though I got the higher grade in this class. Make sure to study for the midterm! Test 1 and 2 had very high averages, but the midterm was significantly harder. Our final was online which made it way easier than it should have been.

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(Disclaimer: this class was taken online) Professor Lavelle is a very nice guy and is super passionate about chemistry. Some might say he is a bit TOO passionate about chemistry. He provides a ton of TA & LA office hours and review sessions all throughout the week to help students stay on track. You have to buy Sapling to complete the homework (which is free points) and its quite pricey. He also has a chemistry forum that you post on to ask and answer questions for free points. His midterms were multiple choice with both conceptual and problem-solving questions. The final was pretty hard and there wasn't enough time to check your answers; granted, he did curve the test up ten points. This class is not easy to get an A, but easy to pass because class total 50% is a C for him. He cares a lot about his students and really wants everybody to succeed, even if he won't stop bragging about his countless review sessions and chemistry forum.

Easiness of class: If you took AP Chem in high school, it's mostly review. Quantum was unfamiliar to me, but it's conceptually pretty easy to understand.

Workload: There isn't much graded homework (there are weekly online assignments graded based on participation and weekly Chemistry Community Posts), but if you want to do well on the tests, I suggest that you do the recommended textbook problems which can take a lot of time.

Clarity: It's sometimes hard to follow along during Dr. Lavelle's lectures since he elaborates on the bullet points while you're trying to take notes on what's on the screen. Also, he always dims the lights, so try not to fall asleep or it'll make it very difficult to understand what's going on.

Helpfulness: Dr. Lavelle organizes a lot of resources outside of class including TA office hours and UA workshops. I highly recommend going to the UA workshops, especially in the weeks leading up to midterms/finals! Chemistry Community is also very helpful since someone is bound to have a similar question as you.

Overall: You get what you give!

General tips: Read the textbook or rewatch the recorded lectures if you don't understand something. Do the textbook problems. Chemistry Community has pretty thorough answers to most of the textbook problems. Most of his midterms/finals focus on conceptual problems, and he sometimes tests random details that he mentioned once in a lecture.

A lot of people are going to tell you how difficult this class is, but truth is they are absolutely wrong. Lavelle is honestly one of the easiest and most helpful professors I've ever had, and he really does take the extra mile to ensure his students succeed -- with boundless TA, UA, and prof office hours, coupled with his "Step-Up" program for struggling students, if you really want to succeed in this class (and you take the initiative to do so) it is more than practical. Lavelle's course is so well structured and there are no tricks/hidden gimics on any of his tests, midterms, or finals. One of the biggest suggestions I have if you take Lavelle (which you really should) is to do the homework (actually do it, trust). I started off doing all the homework problems for tests 1 and 2, and then by the third I started slackin on the homework problems just because I really understood chemistry and was getting pretty good grades; then, on the midterm, he literally puts a 15 point quest (out of 100 points) DIRECTLY (word-for-word, number-for-number) out of the textbook applied/integrative exercises section, and it was actually pretty hard so I lost a significant number of points there. But legit, if you put in the effort and take initiative, Lavelle's gonna be your best friend, and you'll most certainly get an A or A+ in this class. :) TAKE LAVELLE, HE'S DOPE!!

I took this class Fall quarter of 2020 on the online format and had a terrible experience. Lavelle's lectures are clear but boring and he talks really slow. But that's not even relevant. The material feels easy/manageable during lecture and the sapling assignments. In fact, you feel like you actually understand the material! But the tests are literally the hardest tests I've ever taken. Lavelle came out and said he wrote the final to be too hard and he curved it. Still only raised my F to a D, though. Anyway, he provides a lot of study sessions with TA and LAs so definitely attend those, especially workshops. Set-ups are pretty rudimentary and not helpful for tests because the tests are anything but rudimentary. It's a shame Lavelle has been teaching here for decades and yet still thinks treating Chem 14A as a weeder is a good way to inspire undergrads, especially freshmen. He's (part of) the reason I gave up on becoming a doctor :)

While he isn't the worst teacher in the world, he definitely wasn't great. His lectures were boring as hell and made no sense. Maybe this is just a personal problem but I didn't absorb a single thing he said in lecture, I was just scrambling to write down everything on the slides. I've taken AP chemistry in high school and I did relatively well, and I feel that Lavelle really overcomplicated the material. I found the tests to be unfair, as there were plenty of questions that were never covered in the lectures. Perhaps I should've read the textbook, but there was no reason for him to make the test that hard. The homework questions were not reflective of the test questions at all, and the chemistry community posts felt more like a hassle rather than a way of learning. I will admit that he provides a lot of resources, but it's not possible to devote all of our time to attending these sessions as we have other classes to worry about. Essentially, it's just a ton of self-studying.
As a person, Lavelle seems very kind and wholesome (though I have never spoken to him). He plays music at the beginning of lectures and includes memes occasionally in his slides, but once you see your final grade in the class you won't be feeling lighthearted. I can appreciate the effort he put in to organize workshops and step-up sessions to help us learn, but at the end of the day, I feel like he doesn't really care about his students.

His class lectures aren't as engaging as I would've liked, but they are informational. However, most of the things he cover you can learn from reading the textbooks. He does include important biological examples in lectures which are not in books. He bruincast some of his lectures but not all. He doesn't post any of his slides online, so I suggest copy all that stuff down. Most of the information are pretty straightforward. The first test was pretty easy as it was all fundamentals. For me, I did most of the hw problems, if not all, that he assigned and ended up doing well on the tests.

He organizes a lot of review sessions, and he ALWAYS mentions about them. Somehow I got a feeling that he is bragging about all his hard work. But nonetheless, I appreciate him for it. Take his class!