Tough class... Lavelle can be a good lecturer, but his exams can be very tough, and often ask for much more than what he goes over during class. Get a lot of practice in, and use the problems in the book to do it and check your answers in the solutions manual.

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For starters: I'm not a big fan of chemistry, and my study habits are complete garbage. So, take everything I say with a grain of salt. I barely scraped by in this class, and a lot of that was my fault. However,

TESTS: Will probably fuck you over. Often poorly written, include mistakes, and overall inconsistent over time. Definitely fight for points, because every point counts. Test 1 is usually very easy, Test 2 is usually a bit harder but not impossible. However, expect the unexpected because sometimes he'll get a lil sneaky and mix things up (the previous year might have gotten a much easier exam than you end up with)

FINAL: If we had taken Lavelle's typical 3-hour paper final, I probably would have *barely* scraped by with a C- , and that's optimistic. Part of that is that I'm not great at chemistry, but everyone seems to agree that his finals are rough.

LECTURE: Lavelle's a funny guy. I really like him, and his lectures were very well organized and clear. However, you could get away with not going because he posts very detailed learning outcomes and explains before each test which ones you'll be expected to know.

RESOURCES: Lavelle provides a lot of resources. USE THEM. He organizes hours and hours of step-up sessions, workshops, and review sessions, and I definitely should have gone to more. The UAs were amazing (shoutout to Lyndon <3 )

HOMEWORK: Very small part of your grade, five problems a week, graded for completion rather than accuracy, and all answers are in the student solutions manual. HOWEVER, do every single assigned problem. This is the biggest study resource you have. Questions will appear verbatim on the exam, and many other questions are loosely based on homework questions. If you can do the homework problems quickly without making mistakes, you're golden. If your schedule doesn't allow you to attend the review sessions, this can definitely save you. The solutions manual is detailed enough that you can teach yourself how to solve problems with enough practice. I slacked off on doing additional homework problems, and my grade definitely suffered because of it.

OVERALL: Lavelle is great, and if you really need a solid base in chemistry for your major/career, I think the rigor of this course will benefit you in the long run. However, I've heard some other chem professors have easier classes, so I'd look into that if you don't want to be challenged.

This class is definitely harder than Chem 14A and involves a more thorough understanding in physics more than chemistry. Lavelle's thoughtful poetry and flexing on chemistry community makes this class tolerable somewhat.

Harder than 14A for sure, but still pretty easy. If you do all the homework questions and the review questions the UAs provide this class should not be too hard. Of course the questions are worded harder than they should and there is some promotion of chem community, but the tests and class itself are not hard if you put in some effort. If not there really are a lot of resources available. I really like how the test questions are really straightforward. Now, Lavelle is an alright lecturer but it gets a bit dry. He loves explaining the conceptual parts of chemistry but not really showing enough of the harder examples that would be helpful.

OVERALL: I had Dr. Lavelle for Chem 14A as well, and I found this class to be a bit more challenging just because of the scope of the concepts - thermodynamics, electrochemistry, kinetics, etc - which are what most life science students tend to find more difficult. It definitely helps to have a solid background in chemistry (such as having taken AP Chemistry or equivalent in high school), but not necessary to do well in this class. I would recommend that you take advantage of all the review sessions, Step-Up Sessions, and office hours offered; I really appreciate the UAs for all their contributions in helping us students succeed.

LECTURES: Although in my opinion, Lavelle is not the most engaging lecturer, he does go out of his way to organize lots of review sessions before midterms and finals. He also does not upload slides or Bruincasts on CCLE (he has his own website), so if possible I would recommend getting a coursereader from previous years from upperclassmen.

HOMEWORK: Homework consists of 5 HW problems from the textbook and 5 Chemistry Community posts each week. Like many other reviewers have said, I would also definitely recommend doing ALL the homework problems. It's a lot of work, and time-consuming, but it would have been impossible for me to do well on tests solely based on what we covered in lecture.

EXAMS: For our year, at least, the first midterm heavily covered Acid and Base/Chemical Equilibria rather than Thermodynamics/Thermochemistry, which is what most people studied for. So, when preparing for midterms and finals, I would recommend going over every topic at least once because you never know which concept will be heavily emphasized by Dr. Lavelle.

His exam problems are relatively straightforward but can be worded in a very confusing manner, so don't be afraid to ask a TA or UA for clarifications. Everyone studies differently, but for me, my studying consisted of going over homework problems, skimming over my notes on confusing concepts, asking questions on Chemistry Community whenever needed (I know some people disliked Chemistry Community, but I thought it was a really helpful resource), and attending UA sessions. I also read the textbook, which was a little extra, so I don't think it's all that necessary unless you're super confused about a topic.

Dr. Lavelle's finals are always the most challenging, but this year due to the COVID-19 fiasco, we had ours online on CCLE - around 30 MCQs scaled to 180 points (some MCQs were worth 14 points, which was a little scary), all of them very fair and doable.

Shout out to Matthew Tran and Lyndon Bui, their sessions were especially helpful!

Also, if you would like access to past exams/notes as preparation, shoot an email to *************! The notes/past exams are free, I just want to help new students succeed :)

Best of luck with the class!

I definitely felt like the material for this class was harder than in 14A. There's so much material to cover that even though Lavelle tries really hard to get through everything, oftentimes you will have to do a lot of work outside of class. My biggest piece of advice is to do every single homework problem assigned. It may seem like a lot but it's honestly the best way to study, hands-down. On the midterm, 2/8 problems were just homework problems with different numbers, so they were easy points if you did them beforehand. You should also go to the huge midterm and final review sessions, because 1) free practice problems that mirror the exam 2) a step-by-step solution is worked out for each problem. They used to be done by Lyndon (a legendary UA god bless), but the other UAs are honestly underrated and will most definitely do an amazing job taking over for him in future years. Overall, this class is definitely doable as long as you stay on top of your work and take advantage of Lavelle's extensive outside resources.

Another quarter, and the last quarter with icon DJ Lavelle...

Professor Lavelle is someone you can feel is super passionate about his class. However, his tests are insanely tough. The midterm was a ~joke~ but at least his class is easy to pass (same as 14A, only need 250 points to pass the class). Final was made easier due to special circumstances, though it was a shame he had to cancel all of his review sessions (the review sessions carried me through 14A).

Online discussion: 50 points
Weekly homework: 50 points
Test 1: 50 points
Midterm: 120 points
Test 2: 50 points
Final: 180 points
=>500 points total (need 250 to pass with a C)

Overall, bearable class. Professor Lavelle is a humorous guy and cares about his students, often ending his lectures with reminders to have fun but be safe and healthy. I enjoyed his poetry times and jokes at the end of lectures, but I'm glad it's finally over.

Compared to 14A, you definitely need to put a lot more work to get a good grade in this class as the concepts are more math based and are less dependent on pure memorization. Lavelle's tests are pretty straightforward (mainly since they are made by the TAs) but the midterm will definitely screw you over. Make sure you do chem community+ the homework problems, they'll act as padding for your grade. Best way to study is to do as many practice problems as possible, whether in the textbook or online. Lastly, just wanted to shout out ochem tutor on youtube and covid19, wouldn't have clinched an A without them!

His class is definitely tough. The material in 14B is harder than 14A too. He only provides you with the basics and expects you to have a lot of prior knowledge. We got saved by COVID 19 since he gave an online final that was definitely a lot easier than the final we were supposed to take. He has 2 tests, a midterm, and a final. I'd suggest taking 14B with someone else if you can.