Something very wrong here. Only 309 reviews and many sooo negative. Dr. Lavelle has had HUGE numbers of UCLA students take his classes since 1997 and they rate his lectures OUTSTANDING! He has won many teaching awards and the only way to get them at UCLA is with very strong class evals from enrolled students! If you don't believe me take a look at http://faculty.chemistry.ucla.edu/institution/personnel?personnel_id=293559 and http://www.chem.ucla.edu/dept/Faculty/lavelle/LavelleTeaching.pdf
From the above link from 2001-2010 a total of "10,741 student evaluations with an average lecture quality of 8.13 on a 1-9 scale."

I also watched his interview on teaching. Watch the entire interview and decide for yourself. Impressive and thoughtful stuff.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLqLGf3Lr8A&feature=channels

This interview was more fun: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qFNPdCLwIs

Some of the reviews on this page talk about him as oustanding and the real deal for a quality education. Read and watch the above and decide for yourself. Take his classes, work hard, enjoy the rewards!

Course taken: Chem 14A and 14 B
Professor Lavelle's lectures are quite boring due to his voice. I swear, the voice seems to have the power to put you to sleep. Lavelle's class are based on a course reader that was $40. His lecture overheads are exactly the same as those in the course reader. They are all written in CAPS, which makes it difficult and confusing for me to understand the topics. I always went to lectures and took detailed notes, but never studied them for exams and quizzes. Personally for me, the book has better explanation than his notes. There are 3 quizzes, 1 midterm, and 1 final in chem 14a. There are 2 quizzes, 1 organic worksheet, 1 midterm and 1 final for 14b. One low quiz score can be dropped and replaced with your workbook grade, so make sure to do your workbook. One thing that i like from Lavelle is that he offers so many resources. There are tons of old exams in the course reader (the only thing i find useful in there) and review sessions by him and ALL of the TAs prior to the exams. Make sure to look around or ask around for a good TA and go to his or her session. From my experience, Terry Kennair, Jennifer Casey, and Avery Sader are some of the good TAs. Go to their office hours if you have questions. Lavelle's exams are doable. However, there will always be one very difficult and tricky problem that no one (or most) can't figure it out. He gives out a lot of problems for homework, but trust me, it is nothing compare to Professor Hardinger when you get to 14C. So if you want an A in this class, make sure to do all your practice problems on a regular basis. The class requires lots of efforts, but it is definitely doable.

Dr. Lavelle is seriously one of the best professors I have had. He is VERY knowledgeable in his field and makes sure that he spends time on the fundamentals before moving on to apply them. Maybe I got lucky and synced with his learning style, but apart from attending every review session, I rarely did book problems and got easy A's in 14A and 14B. He is a great professor if you can learn in the way he presents things!

i had him for 14 A and B.
dont even have to go to his lectures.
for 14A i went to every lecture and for 14B i barely went to
any of them and i got a better grade in 14B.
read the book as much as you can. I think if you study hard, its
not that impossible to get an A. for 14A, i struggled, however,
for 14B, i actually got used to his course and teaching style,
i got a better grade with less effort. the quizzes were hard.
and midterms are OK and the finals are considered hard.

this class wasn't too hard in terms of concepts. It pretty much just expanded on the ideas in high school chem. it consisted of 3 quizzes a midterm and final. they key to getting an A in this class is do all the practice problems you can find. going to lecture isn't really necessary if you understand the concepts. dont bother buying the course reader if you don't plan on going to lecture, it only makes sense if you go because its pretty much written in code. it makes no sense whatsoever if you just try and read it. just read a little reading every other day and do the problems and you'll do fine.

I took Chem 14A with him and I liked it.
He seemed like a nice professor with a fair grading system.
Until I got my first midterm with a 65%!
The thing is, if you dont look good in the TA's eyes, you're done for. They control the class; not Lavelle. And Lavelle is actually a mean man on the inside.
I asked him a question on Virtual Office Hours, and I received a curt, rude, reply.
If you took AP Chem and are willing to study your ass off, then take Lavelle. If not, dont!
And if you cant stand rude professors and TAs, dont take Lavelle!

His lectures are essentially nap time. Don't worry too much, because if you look around, about 1/4 of the class is asleep. It's AP Chem, elaborated. Whatever you sucked at when taking AP Chem, you will suck at again. The course reader are his overheads, and if you can read and understand that (and the book), there is no reason to go to class. He bases each curve by lecture, and typically the 12pm lecture has the highest curve. It is also the most crowded lecture, because 10am and 2pm students attend it as well. He throws curve balls on the midterm and final, but the quizzes aren't too bad. TAs are important, if you have a good one. If not, the TA is useless, and go find another one. Even still, so many people take Chem 14A, so if you really need help, you could ask a friend. They would probably be more help anyway. Doing the homework is important, but you need to realize that he will complicate it on the actual test.

nothing new from ap chem...i fived that exam and have gotten A's in chem 14b and 14c but got A- with Lavelle and i thought the material was supereasy throughout the whole thing..i really don't know what happened so i have to say i think curve can go against you in lavelle's class. i thought his lectures were boring because his voice isn't the most enthusiastic. but it was overall a fun class b/c chemistry is fun in general..quizzes were seriously easy A's and midterm and final weren't too challenging.

go to lectures go to discussion get tutoring and do all the problems. to pass the class. (passing is C-)
Doesnt really help at all. for 14A he assumes that everyone has the same background in Chemistry and that everyone took A.P. Chem. in which i didnt.
so i struggled even more. We had a horrible midterm day The day after halloween. He is Hard. This is a class you need to stay on top of. no matter, what. do the workbook. those are easy points. go to lecture dont try to podcast them. youll just end up not watching it. his office hours are not usefull. But the T.A.s are. Just work reall hard. oh ya have a monster or a red Bull before his class. you tend to get sleepy

LAURENCE LAVELLE IS AN UNCARING COLD BITTER OLD MAN. He has no respect for anyone and is truly inhumane. I experienced a death in the family and he wouldn't allow me to postpone the quiz. Instead he said if I decided to leave and mourn with my family I'd have to accept a zero on the quiz. Not only so, but he is so rude and completely blew me off when I asked for a re-grade on my midterm. He cheated me out of 15 points and refused to look at my exam. He yelled and said, "You shouldn't be showing me this right now! I don't want to see this!" He wouldn't look at me and was extremely rude." Not only so, he is the worst lecturer, puts you to sleep, and cannot teach for his life. If he didn't have the course reader material in front of his face, he wouldn't know what to say. BEST ADVICE EVER: AVOID THIS MAN AT ALL COSTS. HE WILL RUIN YOUR GRADES!!!!