Great Professor for 14A and 14B! Every Point counts though!
Selling textbook and solutions manual (Chemical Principals 5th Edition) for $120. Also have PDF version. Text me at **********

GET A DISCUSSION AS LATE IN THE WEEK AS POSSIBLE. more study time for the quizzes.

Selling Course Reader for $15!! never been used! Will include periodic table for $5!text me at ********** if interested :)

Selling Chemistry 14A course reader. New condition. Email me if you are interested in buying it! Thanks! *************

I took Chemistry 14a this quarter, and personally, I struggled a lot in it. I had almost no chemistry background coming into it. Although I did take Honors Chem and AP Chem in high school, my honors chemistry teacher was absolutely terrible, therefore making it very difficult for me in AP Chem. I was lost in AP Chem and this carried over into Chemistry 14a. Granted, I did not study nearly as much as I should have, therefore it was my own fault that I performed so poorly in the class. Personally, I think that Lavelle is a good teacher and he knows what he is talking about, and most importantly, he ENJOYS it. The man never stopped smiling throughout every lecture. He literally will walk into class everyday with a huge grin on his face, which I enjoyed immensely.
In order to be successful in this class, you must do the homework problems he assigns, and I highly suggest reading the textbook before lectures, as that makes the information a little easier to grasp, especially if you didn't have much preparation before the course. Going to office hours is also extremely helpful (again, something I didn't take advantage of and therefore suffered greatly.) I didn't like my particular TA, but I found a couple of other TAs that were FANTASTIC. Definitely go to a TA that appeals to your learning style!
Another mistake that I made was buying my textbook and materials used. Even though I saved money and the textbook/course reader were in good condition, I never received the workbook that a few of the other reviewers mentioned. Consequently, I didn't have the practice midterms/quizzes to complete, and in order to turn in my practice quiz before each actual quiz, I had to copy down the questions from a friend's workbook onto a separate paper and complete it from there. It wasn't too bad, besides being slightly annoying, until I accidentally copied down one of the wrong quizzes and received a 0. Oops. So I do suggest buying new, despite the price, because having your own workbook definitely is worth it. Plus you can always sell your textbooks/course reader next year to someone else looking for a good deal.
All in all, Lavelle is a good teacher, but you have to be willing to work hard and put effort into it, especially if you're new to chemistry or don't have much prior experience. If you do the homework, go to office hours, and attend/watch all the lectures, I think that you can be successful in this class.

It's not necessary to buy the course reader. However, buying it was beneficial to me because I could focus on extra information Lavelle was giving in his lectures, rather than worrying about copying down the notes on the overhead. Buying the workbook is important, which comes in the UCLA store bundle for reasons the reviewer below me mentioned.

I took Honors Chemistry, and then AP Chemistry in high school, so the material was fast-paced review. I received an A+ at the end of the quarter after focusing on this class and studying a lot. I can't imagine what it would have been like if I had taken the class without knowing any chemistry. If you haven't taken Chemistry in a long time, take Scerri. Lavelle is fast-paced. Also, his voice makes a lot of people fall asleep.

I have not received final grades yet, so I believe my views can be somewhat less biased. However, I did have a really great but hard Chemistry teacher in high school, so that might be very helpful for me in this class.

OK, now to the class evaluation.

Lecture: Buy the Course Reader, or at least you will need the Workbook. They are pricey to buy new (yes, $50), but they are helpful. Everything he teaches in lectures are found in the Course Reader, so you don't have to copy the lectures notes down (the Course Reader contains his lectures notes).I personally find it better to go to lecture. The lectures can be quite boring, but going to it can force you to learn something (reading the course reader alone might not be very helpful in understand everything you need to know). They are available on podcast, but often I found it boring to watch on podcast and usually procrastinated in watching the missed lectures.

Homework: You do not need to read the book, as everything you need to know is taught in lectures, but you can if you want to. But at least do the homework. You have the solution manuals (and he only assigns odd-numbered problems), so do it. They tend to get harder than the quiz/test problems, but they are sometimes very helpful.

Quizzes/Tests:
Quiz (x3): 40 points/each
Midterm: 110 points
Final: 170 points
I said that the workbook will be helpful because if you did the practice quizzes (that will be turned in to the TAs) and you add the scores of all of them, the scores will add up to 40, which means you have a "4th" quiz. The TA will then drop the lowest quiz score, either it is the lowest score on an actual quiz or the sum of the scores of the practice quizzes is low anyway that no score of an actual quiz will be dropped (so you basically have a "second" chance to get better scores). In addition, if you do pretty well on the practice quiz (and the practice practice quizzes: for each quiz, he gives a bunch of quizzes from previous years as practice (with solutions) and a practice quiz with no solution to turn in to the TA), you can do pretty well on the actual quiz.
The Course Readers contain past midterms and finals. Do all of them (or at least 3)! The formats are pretty similar, even though for my year (Fall 2013), the final is very conceptual, thus harder, than usual. Again, your scores on the practice midterms and finals should be close enough to your actual scores, given that the difficulty changes slightly.

I will not say that his class is hard or easy, but I believe you can do pretty well in this class with "minimum" work by doing homework, past quizzes/tests, (and reread the Course Reader from time to time). You can choose to read the textbook if you want, but I personally find it rather unnecessary. And if you happen to take Chem 14A in the fall, take it with him rather than Scerri because there is a high chance that he will be the only teacher for 14B in the Winter quarter (so you can get used to his teaching style), like what happens in this 2013-2014 School Year (he does not teach 14B in the Spring).

14A and 14B are not difficult courses. I'd say it was easier than the AP Chemistry exam. Lavelle is pretty good at instructing, and he has a brigade of TA's so you'll never have trouble getting a question answered. I took AP/IB Chem in high school, received A's in both courses. Just make sure to do all the assigned problems and practice the old exams, and you should be fine.

However, I find this man to be very devious and immoral. He, first of all, is NOT a professor; a distinction must be made between professors and lecturers. Professors are tenured, and do research on behalf of the institution. Lecturers are only paid to teach, thus the much less prestigious title. This explains why Lavelle teaches 3 lectures are quarter. Not in a thousand years does a real professor have that much time to teach. Yet this man slaps the title "Professor Lavelle" across his course readers. Furthermore, the very pricey lecture supplements ($90 per class) are only available at the course reader store off campus! This scumbag avoids the red tape at the UCLA bookstore so that he can jack up the prices at this off-campus operation. He teaches roughly 800 students a quarter! There is no way to avoid purchasing a lecture supplement because they come with the workbooks which are usually worth 10% of the grade. It is even more difficult to avoid taking this class, as he is often the only instructor available for incoming freshmen. This is a total trap, it must not be difficult to find good lecturers (unlike good professors), and UCLA needs to give this guy the boot. What a horrible thing to take advantage of starving college students.

In sum, 14A and 14B are fair courses, and Lavelle is an effective, albeit morally-repugnant, instructor.

Selling: Chemical Principles, 5th edition for $150 (includes actual textbook as well as solutions manual, both in great condition)

If interested, please email: *************

Lectures are podcasted, so that's a plus. His course reader and homework problems give you all the topics you need to know, so that's a plus again. He gives you every past midterm and final, so that's another plus.

People who complain about his course are just crybabies. College isn't supposed to be easier than high school, and it sure as hell does not get any easier as you persevere through your undergraduate career and possibly graduate schools (medical, dental, etc.) Don't blame the professor for your own faults for not studying enough. Scerri sure as hell is not easier too seeing how both classes give the same amount of A's and A-'s anyways.

Suck it up and take the challenge. Otherwise, you will never learn the importance of hard work and overcoming your obstacles, and that is going to be a problem for you "pre-meds" out there. UCLA already made the 14-series a cop-out for you guys, so why do you want to make it more easier then it already is?