Lavelle is a meme and he knows it. He will flex about Chemistry Community and his HOURS of additional support before the midterm and final. He will make random comments during class, then get an entire lecture hall to laugh for him. But underneath this meme, he is a sneaky man. He gives off the illusion that he wants to help you, then writes a final that purposefully screws you over.

If you took AP Chem in high school, the class content will feel almost like a review. But if you didn't, Lavelle's got you covered. If the lectures were confusing or boring, he organizes a lot of UA sessions and review sessions to help (I personally didn't attend UA sessions but sometimes the UAs will put their review sheets in a Google Drive folder). His damn Chemistry Community ( I swear every lecture he has to brag about the amount of views he has gotten): kinda tedious having to submit posts every week but it can be useful if you are looking for explanations for certain HW problems. Lastly, the best way to prepare for the tests is to go over textbook questions. Sapling doesn't help as much (so I wouldn't recommend studying off of Sapling), but test questions are framed like textbook questions and have similar difficulty levels.
Overall, Lavelle was pretty accommodating considering COVID and the class was not as bad as many people make it out to be. Just utilize all the resources he gives you and you should be fine.

Professor Lavelle. The most helpful and bright-spirited chemistry professor you could have. He’s got office hours, discussion sections, review sessions in Week 10 for each branch of chemistry covered - 100+ hours of review in Week 10, to be precise! Even over asynchronous lectures, he was engaging, funny, and always reviewed the fundamental concepts before building on them. And Chemistry Community is awesome for homework help! I’ll be back for Chem 14B.

Sell the totally useless course reader and workbook. $30 or best offer. Contact me at **********.

Selling 7th edition pdf version of textbook for 20$ (1/4 the price)! Regular price at UCLA store for ebook is 80$! Text me @ **********

One of the questions on his final was "draw cisplatinum" something he never even mentioned in class, then he said it was on his slides but he DOES NOT POST HIS SLIDES. That was probably the most UNFAIR class I've ever taken and i didn't even think the material was hard, he just was awful and unfair. 10/10 DO NOT RECOMMEND AVOID IF YOU CAN OR TAKE SOMEONE ELSE, don't do this to yourself.

Chem 14A was pretty straightforward and not challenging. Lavelle was a good lecturer and was very clear, though his voice is really soothing so it can be difficult to stay alert during class (lectures are recorded though). There are 2 midterms and 1 final for this class and they were all multiple choice, which means that if you missed one question, which is 4 points each, it could take a pretty bit hit to your grade. However, his midterms & finals are pretty easy as long as you do the assigned textbook problems. I really love how Lavelle has chemistry community because you can get all your questions answered there & receive points for it (which is worth more points than 1 midterm). The UA sessions that Lavelle organizes everyday are extremely helpful and the UAs teach you everything you need to know and they walk you through practice problems that you might expect to see on finals!! Would definitely recommend taking this class with Lavelle!

Pros:
-attendance not mandatory (and lectures recorded)
-super reasonable amount of homework
-lots of help with test prep
-lots of resources for help
Cons:
-exam grades HEAVILY influence your grade
-Dr. Lavelle is RUDE if you email him directly to ask questions
-Everything is on your own initiative; I know so many people that didn't go to lectures or review sessions and ended up failing/barely passing
-If you get a bad TA you're screwed

Don't let the other reviews intimidate you - this class is doable. I didn't take AP chem and went out every weekend (including the weekends before midterms and finals) and still got an A. My advice is to start studying for exams a week before, actually go to class, go to UA sessions, do practice problems, and review concepts (50% of exam questions are conceptual). utilize all of the review sessions and practice problems he gives you. It's very easy to do the bare minimum and get your discussion/homework points, but this will absolutely screw you when it comes to exams. Take initiative and put in the extra effort.
As for Dr. Lavelle, DO NOT let this man fool you into thinking that he isn't just another mean, egotistical prof. DO NOT ask him any questions personally, as 9/10 times he will find the questions a waste of his time and respond rudely. Ask TAs, UAs and Chemistry Community before bothering him, since he will most likely make you feel stupid for asking (trust me, I learned the hard way).
Don't get me wrong, Dr. Lavelle's lectures are easy to follow and he's good at teaching, but he is a menace to students' self esteems. This class is unforgiving if you don't do well on exams, and it crushes many pre-meds' dreams.

For my first quarter as a freshman at UCLA with no chemistry knowledge whatsoever(never took high school chem or ap chem) I truly succeeded in this class. Dr. Lavelle is so helpful with so many resources. His lectures are extremely clear and to the point which only made me more motivated to stay alert and attend. I alway went to UA sessions, did all the optional textbook problems, and participated extra in chemistry community discussions(pay attention to the ones Dr. Lavelle responds to). He is just amazing and has fueled a passion for chemistry I never thought I would have. Truly recommend taking this course, do not be afraid of not being prepared, you will learn so much you will be amazed!!!!

- This was my first quarter at ucla and this class genuinely made me excited about the rest of my time here. I didn't come in with an extremely strong background in chem (took honors chem in my sophomore year of high school) but before the quarter I spent a week or so reviewing AP chem material on khanacademy.

- The best thing Lavelle provides is sooo many resources. He gave preclass, optional content for the first couple units -- they essentially covered all of the first 3 weeks of content + several practice problems for each of them. His lectures align pretty well with the textbook, and he assigns specific textbook problems as optional homework (that you should definitely do). In addition, there are tons and tons of worksheets that UA's prepare with many more practice problems.

- His lectures are very clear in my opinion. What I really like is that almost everything he says is documented in the lecture notes, and they are clear/consice while not leaving out any important info. The midterms were both 15 question mcqs, and the final was 30 mcqs. Personally, I thought all the exams were extremely fair. For every single problem (I checked all of them after the exams), I could pinpoint exactly where in my notes the topic was discussed.

- For every 15 questions, i'd say that about 2-3 of them were directly taken from the textbook. another 5-6 were very similar to the textbook problems even if it wasn't exact. The remaining 6-7 were probably a bit on the conceptual side, but again were pretty straightforward. The questions are not meant to mislead (when more than half the class got a question wrong on the midterm, he gave everyone free points for that). The final was similar to the midterms, had many repeat questions, and overall was not meant to trick you. I will say that each question is worth a lot of points so there is not much room for error to get an A, but the questions are all very fair so it isn't as scary as it seems.

- If you take advantage of all of these online resources, I see no reason why you won't do well in the class. I am really excited to take 14B with him.