It's definitely a tough class to take during your first quarter in college. It's a ton of material and you have to manage your time really well and be very efficient to avoid getting behind. It's easy to prioritize other classes with actual assignments due, but don't let this happen to you. There are tons of office hours so that's really nice and you're required to use Chemistry Community every week so you might as well ask questions that might actual help you. The down side is that his quizzes and tests are really hard even if you know the basic material. His quizzes are manageable but the timing will leave you making mistakes or having to guess. His tests are are super application based so even if you know the material and the homework questions in and out you'll still probably end up feeling like you're making an educated guess. My conceptual chemistry background was okay but my AP Chem teacher didn't even know how to use a graphing calculator so I was pretty much teaching myself all the calculations for the first time. I pulled through with a B after studying my ass off but if you're looking for a more doable class I would take Scerri for 14A.

Lavelle is an extremely unfair professor. I did not take AP Chem in high school, so I made sure I would use all the resources I could to get a good grade (I was aiming for an A or A-). His class is set up so it has 3 quizzes (40 points each), a midterm (110 points), and a final (180 points). The first quiz is usually known to be really challenging because it's a "buffer" quiz, so those who aren't serious about being pre-med will drop the course due to their bad score. This isn't really a problem because you have the opportunity to drop your lowest quiz score with the supplemental workbook in the class, so that's what I did. I got a 100% on the first quiz (because of the workbook), 93% on the second quiz, 90% on the midterm, and 75% on the third quiz, which led me to go into the final with an A/A-. After days of studying and hours of tutoring, I went into the final confident I would get a good grade, as I mastered all the material that was on previous exams and stressed in the course reader. However, Lavelle decided to change the structure of his final after 10 years, switching from mathematical to conceptual. The final was extremely unfair, and there was material on it that was barely discussed in class. The majority of the class bombed the final and it dropped almost everyone's grade that I know. Also, there wasn't even a good curve for the class. I even went up to him prior to the final and asked him if the final was going to be combined with Scerri and conceptual, and he lied to my face and said "no, where did you hear that?" and that the exam would surely be "fair". Scerri's students were comfortable with the material and got good grades in the class while Lavelle's kids suffered. I would definitely recommend taking Scerri, as his online quizzes are online and his exams are actually fair unlike Lavelle's.

I really like Lavelle. He's straightforward and clear, and if you do all the problems he assigns (textbook, workbook, practice midterms/finals), you will be prepared for the midterm/final. However, I cannot stay awake in his classes. (His voice is too soothing!) But he podcasts his lectures, so it's not a big deal. I just watch all his podcasts in my room. If you try hard, this class shouldn't be that bad. I recommend that you take him.

I have mixed feelings about Lavelle.

For one, the way he structures his class makes it so one can get a good grade if one is very good at time management. In his syllabus he lists 60+ problems in the text book for each chapter we go over, but he will never collect the problems for a homework grade. Instead, he expects you to pace yourself and do however many problems you see fit, and to check your answers in the solution guide (which is expensive as balls, along with the other materials in this class.). On one hand, if you took AP Chem in high school and had a decent teacher, most of the material (excluding the super different quantum stuff in the beginning) will be review. On the other hand, if you did not take AP Chem, it is absolutely essential that you pace yourself and do almost every homework question possible. As long as you do as many problems as you can, as well as figure out your mistakes after doing each problem, you can get a dependable low-B to low-A grade. A more valuable asset, however, is the 5 midterms and finals in the back of the course reader. Taking practice tests (spaced out, as cramming will only frustrate you) is the single best thing you can do to get a good grade in his class. Lavelle tests are notoriously tricky and expect you to have some background chem knowledge on hand that you may not think important to remember; by taking the practice tests, you are able to get a feel for what he throws at you, which is always gonna help you.

His course reader is a crutch that I don't recommend you use. I bought the thing, along with the quiz book and the laminated periodic table (perhaps the most useful of the three) and I found that the course reader made me pay less attention in class. Perhaps to appeal to the lazy student, Lavelle told us that we could take our notes straight in the course reader due to its large margins. In reality, though, his course reader was straight up the info slides he showed us in class; taking notes in it would mean you have to write sideways, diagonally, and in awkward locations just to fit your notes in. Halfway through the course, I stopped taking my notes in the course reader. I have it out in front of me for lecture in case I miss something, but now I take all my notes in my own notebook. I found that this made me more alert in class and retain information better.

In terms of his lecturing, Lavelle is actually really knowledgeable of the material. The problem is simply that if you didn't take AP Chem, there's no good way to shove all this chem material in 10 weeks and still expect you to follow along completely. Expect not to know stuff right away; it's perfectly okay as long as you seek help along the way. I personally really enjoyed Lavelle's deep probing of the material; he explained why certain things were the way they were, and made me rely less on memorization. Overall, I left the course feeling with a deeper understanding of chemistry. Also, his accent's pretty cool. Esp. the way he says "buffer" ("baffa").

I took 14A with Lavelle Fall 2015

Lavelle is a sneaky bastard.
His class was mostly fair until the final. He changed the final and made it more conceptually based for the first time in 10 years, and screwed almost every person in our class. He lied about what would be on the final to the students and to the TAs. The TAs fought on behalf of the students and apologized for the incredibly hard final, but to no avail, the curve was still rough.

I got a B in his class, although I spent a good amount of time studying. People in Scerri spent maybe half the time and got A grades.

Switch into Scerri, Lavelle is not a fair professor.

He seems really concerned but I just don't like him. He requires course reader which is really expensive along with solutions manuals and past exams. I can't imagine how much he earns just by necessitating these materials.
His exams are really random. He tells you to prepare for this and then just ask you totally different things. It is not difficult to get and A but just really annoying because you know you could do better if he just keeps his promises.
He requires people to go to his chemistry community, which I find ridiculous because it is not as helpful as he claims but still, for fame or other reasons, it just counts toward your grade.
Overall he's acceptable, but not "good", I would say.

If you take Lavelle's class, be prepared to work! Personally, I thought he was a pretty good professor. His lecturing style was easy to follow and I always thought he explained things fairly well. However, he gives the hardest tests! The best advice I can give is to visit the UA's office hours. In my experience, they were much more helpful than the TA's. I worked extremely hard in this class only to earn a B-, but I was proud of that grade because there were points in the quarter where I actually was concerned about passing.

I found Lavelle's class pretty challenging and overall recommend not taking him. He is a really nice guy, but his tests are extremely difficult. There are no easy points on his exams, every question is difficult and he doesn't believe in multiple choice. From what I've heard, Lavelle sounds harder than Scerri. But I will say some people really liked Lavelle. However, if you have to take this class with Lavelle, do all of his homework problems. Other reviewers have said this, but it's really true. Doing homework problems, watching lecture again, doing past midterms, and doing past finals will all help you. However, this class will probably take about two thirds of your time. His final was really unpredictable for Fall 2015 and not like his past ones. Overall, pretty hard professor and difficult class.

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Lavelle may seem like a kind, honest man... but don't be fooled. He will grab your social life and throw it in the trash. Lavelle had told us not to worry about a certain topic, and that we didn't need to know it. Guess what? IT WAS ON THE FINAL. Damn it Lavelle, you really tricked me. Overall, you have to work really hard to get an A.