I took chem 14A and 14B, and his lectures were ridiculuosly boring yet efective. For his midterms and finals you basically need to be able to complete the practice quizes in his course reader. Recommend taking him if you are willing to study, I got an A- in 14A without any trouble.

A lot of reviewers have stated that Prof. Lavelle is a caring teacher, etc, and he's just received the school's highest teaching award, but honestly I think he's just "popular" because he gives you resources (i.e. lecture guide). His lectures are pretty bland, and it's very easy to fall asleep in class due to the dulcet tones of his voice and accent, but he is not a very kind man. If you've ever gone to his office hours, you might know what I mean. If you don't know exactly what you are talking about when you go in there, he gets very curt and rude. My overall impression of office hours was that Lavelle was very arrogant, which okay, he's a brilliant mind, but still, as a professor he could be more courteous towards his students. If you talk to him before/after lecture he is seemingly nice, but seriously, he is so rude during his office hours; maybe it's because he's not in front of the entire class.

Use the course reader, it's all you need. Even if you do all the practice tests, the actual exams are going to try to challenge you (although next quarter's class will probably think your test was easy, just like how you thought all the exams in the reader were pretty easy). My final wound up being NOTHING like the previous exams, buuut I did well on the midterms so it all turned out great. Oh, and he has a retarded way of curving the class: all the lectures take the same tests/quizzes, yet each lecture had a different curve...which makes no sense. So pretty much if another lecture happened to do worse than yours, people in that lecture who got lower scores than you might end up with a better overall grade, just because they were lucky enough to be in the class that did worse.

I personally, do not like Prof. Lavelle because he came off as very arrogant/rude when other people weren't around, but it's not too hard to get an A. Just be diligent and make sure to keep up.

I took Chem 14A/B with Lavelle, and TA's are really your best friends in this class. I got a B with a TA that I never talked to and an A with a TA that I still talk to today.

That said, there are definitely some key points to remember. Lectures aren't necessary, and avoid the 10am lectures at all costs. Do all the homework problems, and understand WHY it's being solved this or that way. It's good and all to memorize the problems, but when it comes to the midterm and final, Lavelle throws a few curveballs that require some understanding of concepts. His course reader is also dead useful for old exams (which are good practice for the actual midterm and exam), but not his notes (he has a ton of weird notations). Use the textbook to understand the concepts.

Oh, and if you can, see if you can find someone's old quizzes. My friend gave me his, and some of the problems showed up in the workbook.

I took CHEM 14B and 14A with Professor Lavelle. He is very knowledgeable in the field of chemistry, and has a very thorough course reader with all of his lecture notes. In lecture, he elaborates the material pretty well, although his British accent is kind of soothing and sometimes put me to sleep. The class is pretty fair, but is fast-paced. Not recommended for those who aren't ready to compete with all the pre-meds. There wasn't a curve for my 14A class, but there was a slight one for 14B. Good luck.

dont take this professor. He screwed so many people on the final. He had a weird question that is impossible to solve.

WOW. I had a great time taking 14A and 14B with Professor Laurence Lavelle. Thank you Lavelle, I learned a lot of interesting chemistry from you. Study with friends who want good grades and secretly beat them by studying harder. The secrets of getting A's are 1) do lots of examples from the book and previous exams in your course reader 2) ask and read answered questions on his Virtual Office Hour 3) expect the unexpected on his midterm and final because his TA's are very smart and creative. If you are considering taking his classes, stop and enroll in his class now! YOU WILL LEARN A LOT OF GOOD CHEMISTRY =]. Have fun in his class. If you get B's, then my bad... you have enrolled in the wrong lecture.

14B is definitely harder than 14A. The material is much more interesting, but there are many more equations and everything is much more conceptual (stuff like expansion work, galvanic cells). There are two quizzes this time and and O-chem worksheet. The worksheet is free points. The first quiz is a time crunch and pretty difficult if you didn't study (I failed it) and the second quiz is pretty easy since kinetics is a joke. Check your workbook with knowledgeable people and its free points to cover your bad quiz. As usual, the midterm is very straightforward while the final is more conceptual. The O-chem that we learn is really easy (just naming and some conformations and mechanisms) too.

If you did well in 14A, you should do fine in 14B. Lavelle is a pro teacher and has way too many resources to complain about anything. The curve will only be around 2% though so don't rely on it (the quizzes/worksheet make everyone's averages pretty high). Pretty easy A after I picked up my slack after failing the first quiz and started to look at homework, but more work was needed than in 14A.

This class was a lot tougher than 14A in terms of the material. Although we covered less chapters than we had in 14A, there were way more concepts to learn in 14B because the areas we studied were so broad. We first did thermodynamics, electrochemistry, kinetics, and towards the end, an introduction to organic chemistry. The first midterm covered thermodynamics and some basic electrochemistry, and it was actually a pretty easy and fair test. The final, however, was a lot tougher. For this particular final, the thermodynamics questions were really easy, and the kinetics and o-chem questions were tricky, but not too bad. The electrochemistry problem was really hard, and looking at the past finals, the electrochemistry problems were usually the trickiest and toughest ones, so look out for that. There are two quizzes in this class instead of the three in 14A, and in place of the third quiz we have an organic chemistry worksheet, which is probably easier to get full credit for than the quizzes (which are actually pretty fair and not too bad). My advice is to go to lecture. A lot of people say Lavelle's lectures do not help, but I think that he actually simplifies a lot of the harder concepts and makes them easier to understand. You should definitely read the textbook and know the concepts well for the final, and of course look over homework problems (since at least one will be on the test) and go over all the past midterms and finals in preparation for the exams. For organic chemistry, you basically just need to memorize the rules for naming and keep on practicing with naming different molecules. You should get good at it with a sufficient amount of practice. And if you have trouble visualizing the molecules, use the molecule building kit. I found that to be very helpful! And not to mention that you can also use the molecule building kit on the final. :) Oh, and I know this may be tough, but REALLY try to get a good TA. That will help you so much! That's really all I have to say about the class. As for Professor Lavelle, he is such a funny and nice person. His lectures get a bit dull sometimes, but he'll throw in a few jokes to lighten things up, so it's really not too bad. Overall, I really liked a lot of the material that was taught in this course, especially the organic chemistry section, but 14B required a lot more work than 14A for sure.

Professor Lavelle seems like a very well learned and sincere individual. He is the type of professor who will keep elaborating until he gets a sense that the students understand what it is he is talking about. He is confident about his know-how in chemistry but is not cocky like Scerri. Overall a good professor, TA (Sarah) was nice too. Got a "B" with very minimal effort.

I took his this spring quarter, and yes I wasnt sastified with my grade (C). BUT he does teach well, and if you notice he repeats things so that you can understand them. The key points like any class is to go to lectures, (buy his lecture notes) and do the problems on the text ( which i didnt do and later regretted).

He is a great teacher, I recommed him to anyone who is up to doing their work. :-)