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!

I do concur that the course itself is relatively challenging. The class does not use a curve, the majority of your grade is determined by two tests (50 points each), one midterm (120 points), and final (180 points). I did AP Chem, so for me, the pace of the course is reasonable. Exams are doable, but the wording is tricky and cost you points. Yet, I still learned a lot from this class, and personally would take him again. Lavelle is a sweet person and experienced in lecturing (and yes he is a meme). Attendance matters, since he never posts his slides or bruincast the lectures; also do all the homework problems he assigns.

Although I got a C in this class, Dr. Lavelle is a great lecturer, and a caring professor. His class is definitely challenging, and you have to do every single homework assignment and you basically have to master the concepts Lavelle teaches you like you're the freaking avatar. What I really liked about him was that he was passionate about helping students by setting up lots of review sessions, whether it's led by a TA or a UA. He does 2 exams during discussion, one midterm, and a final. I got a 90% on the first exam and everything went downhill from there haha. What I thought was unfair was that he'll make sure that his midterm and final conceptually harder than his exams and assigned homework problems. Dr. Lavelle is known for including problems on exams that are from his lectures (which are not on bruincast) and not mentioned in the homework at all. For example, on his second exam, he included a problem that asked for the difference in the number of H bonding sites in DNA between AT and GC strands (i forgot how it was formatted but it was about DNA), and my TA said that Dr. Lavelle talked about DNA during lecture, and on the final, the last question was about titration, which is not even part of the 14A curriculum at all, and he didn't assign any problems for us to practice on. Advice that I wish I should've taken: don't procrastinate on the homework problems & don't rely on the solutions manual to give you the answer instead of working it out for yourself because actually learning will help you in the long run.

Everything was alright for me up until the final. Completely blew me out of the water, especially considering how easy I thought his past exams were. I think Lavelle realized the practice tests the UAs make were being a little too helpful, and decided to up things up, only the way he did this just makes everything so ambiguous. The TAs are never on the same page about anything. A whole question on the test was dedicated to a topic many of them assured wouldn't be on the test! I also expected a little bit more from Dr. Lavelle. He's fine at teaching and offers lots of office hours, but lazy when it comes to writing the test. Both on the midterm and the final there were egregious mistakes that wasted a lot of time for everyone. On the final, the TAs pointed out a mistake, which made me cross out all my work and redo the problem, only to say 15 minutes later that their correction was a mistake! so I had to do the problem yet again. Maybe this was just a one-time thing, but it doesn't change the fact that there were plenty of examples where the TAs had to get our attention mid-exam to explain an error to us. You'd think that if roughly 1000 students were going to take an exam, you'd put a little more attention to how the questions would be perceived. I'm disappointed in my grade, mostly because it was greatly affected by the mistakes and trick questions on the final. Not impossible to get an A, especially if you pay special attention to the past exams.

(Took this class during the COVID era)

2 midterms, 110 points each (220 total)
Final, 180 points
Chemistry Community, 50 points
Homework (Sapling), 50 points
Class total, 500 points

Having taking AP Chem before, it definitely does help to have prior knowledge. There's some stuff that's not in AP chem (mainly quantum section) but it's not bad. Overall I'd say the class is pretty tough but if you put in the work you'll be able to succeed.

Midterms/final were multiple choice, with each question being worth anywhere from 6 to 12 points, so it's very high stakes, especially if you're shooting for a high grade (you can only miss 35 points in the whole class to get a solid A). Midterms weren't that bad, but sometimes there were dumb questions that a lot of people got wrong. In a way you kinda have to get lucky sometimes to not get those questions. Otherwise they're pretty straightforward, especially since it's multiple choice. The final was much harder, with much more of a time constraint, but not the worst if you knew the material very well. However, because a lot of students complained, he gave everyone 10 points back on the final (capped at 100%). Very generous! On top of that he "curved" grades, depending on what you got. I saw that some people had a score in the mid 80's and got a B+, an 89 and got an A-, etc. However it didn't look like he rounded up to a solid A even if you were really close (ex. 91, 92), but it's understandable. He even said the final exam average was around 80% and class average was around a B+, which I'm sure is higher than previous years.

Generally Lavelle is a pretty good professor. He is very clear on introducing topics and explaining them thoroughly. DO THE TEXTBOOK PROBLEMS!!! even though they're optional. They represent midterms and the final pretty well. Some of them will literally appear verbatim and others will just be pretty similar but having practice is super helpful in this class. I didn't go to UA sessions but from what I've heard they can be pretty helpful. UA worksheets often include problems from past exams. Shoutout to the people who share their practice worksheets with the rest of the class, mainly for the people who couldn't make the sessions : ) There is so much support available in this class with all the TA office hours, UA sessions, Chemistry Community, etc. Lavelle will bombard you with emails emphasizing this :P

Anyways just be prepared to work hard and never underestimate the exams. Good luck!

Lavelle was definitely a better prof for Chem 14A. In 14B, his teaching layouts were at times confusing and didn't follow the order in the textbook. He doesn't provide students any bearing on how the midterm or final will look like through past exams or practise questions from himself, so we must prepare for everything blindly. This makes his course very time consuming because we must redo the textbook questions over again to be prepared. He does have many UAs that offer numerous sessions to help, and it's great to have such accessible guidance. A pattern I have noticed with Lavelle is that his tests and midterm are perfectly reasonable, and then he pulls out a brutal final that also tests on memorization instead of calculation, something that none of his other exams do. So beware of the final, and other than that, Lavelle isn't the worst.

From even before the first day of class, Dr. Lavelle gives you the resources you need to get an A in this class. His style is very much where if you do not do well in the class, it is on you. His lectures are adequate; the real resources are the UA sessions and the textbook problems. He has UAs (undergrads who have aced this class) offer workshops, drop-in office hours, and step-up sessions to reteach the course content and to provide practice. Finding UA sessions that work with your learning style is what I recommend you do in the first couple of weeks.

Your grade in his class is composed of Achieve homework questions (unlimited attempts and takes less than 20 mins--great practice for exams though), Chemistry Community (Dr. Lavaelle's creation where you have to make 50 posts: questions, answers, chemistry memes, etc.), midterm 1, midterm 2, and the final exam. He also has a website where you can find all of the resources in one place, USE IT! Do the textbook problems and actually start studying at least four days before the exams. If you took AP Chem in high school you are already ahead, but if you didn't or if your AP Chem was a joke like in my school, don't sweat it because you can do well. :) Hope this helps

I took Chem 14A and 14B with Lavelle through covid, and I have to say I'm impressed! His classes were well organized, and although a lot of them ran longer than 50 minutes, most people just put him on 2x speed. His midterms and finals were not very difficult imo, and very similar to the textbook problems so just do those to practice. I personally read all chapters of the book and this saved me on the second midterm for 14B, but I would say you don't have to necessarily read to do well, just go over textbook problems. He gave a lot of resources to succeed! I didn't utilize TAs that much, but the workshops and review sessions with the UAs saved me a bunch of times. Go to as many as possible! I think Lavelle really adjusted well to the online format and didn't punish students for covid (unlike some professors who made their tests harder). Just beware that the tests have questions that are 10 points each or 5 points, and if you get the 5 point questions wrong, you don't get partial credit while the 10 points have partial credit for a select few answer choices. You can only lose 28-35 points to get an A (depending on total points of the course) so this was VERY stressful.

***THE TEXTBOOK EXISTS ONLINE AS A PDF DO NOT PAY FOR IT. SHAME ON PEOPLE FOR TRYING TO SELL PDFS THAT THEY DON'T EVEN OWN!***

Ok, actual review:

I took AP Chem in High School, it sucked and I learned nothing;That being said, this was not the first time I had heard of most of these concepts, so my review might not apply to you if this is your first hard chem class ever.

The rumors of this class's difficulty were. . . exaggerated, to say the least. I heard so many people call this a "weeder class" during orientation, it is not. The class average was a B without any curve. If you want to take the MCAT pick Lavelle because getting a B in this class is better than taking a dummy-easy professor for an A and getting SHAFTED down the line because you lack foundations (every graduated premed I've spoken to who took Lavelle has loved him).

Lavelle is easily the best professor I had in my first quarter. His lectures taught the material very well (except the last week or so things kinda fell apart but whatever) and he offered an INSANE amount of extra help to those who needed it. I feel like this is the clearest look I've ever had at chemistry and I feel like I understand it much better. Plus he's dank.

My TA Bradley was nice and very smart, though in general the discussion sections were pretty much just good for turning in your homework and a waste of time if you understood the concepts. The final and midterms were difficult, but actually really fair and 90% of the points were in problems practically ripped from the lectures, practice exams (offered by UAs), and homework.

I know a lot of people struggled, but I think most of the reason why is because they were adjusting to the accelerated pace and didn't really have good study habits (ie they crammed, skipped lectures, didn't take notes, didn't study along with the course, etc). This is not a weeder class, but it might be a wake up call. You'll be ok.

PS the song he plays over the speakers is Numb by Portishead, yw :p

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.