From even before the first day of class, Dr. Lavelle gives you the resources you need to get an A in this class. His style is very much where if you do not do well in the class, it is on you. His lectures are adequate; the real resources are the UA sessions and the textbook problems. He has UAs (undergrads who have aced this class) offer workshops, drop-in office hours, and step-up sessions to reteach the course content and to provide practice. Finding UA sessions that work with your learning style is what I recommend you do in the first couple of weeks.

Your grade in his class is composed of Achieve homework questions (unlimited attempts and takes less than 20 mins--great practice for exams though), Chemistry Community (Dr. Lavaelle's creation where you have to make 50 posts: questions, answers, chemistry memes, etc.), midterm 1, midterm 2, and the final exam. He also has a website where you can find all of the resources in one place, USE IT! Do the textbook problems and actually start studying at least four days before the exams. If you took AP Chem in high school you are already ahead, but if you didn't or if your AP Chem was a joke like in my school, don't sweat it because you can do well. :) Hope this helps

Good class. Should be fairly easy if you took chem in high school. The midterm was mostly just drawing lewis structures. The final was tough though, and had some tricky questions. The key to succeed is really exposing yourself to a bunch of different problems and getting in a lot of practice to deepen your understanding. He himself says that repeatedly too. His three mini tests were not bad either, it's important to practice once again so you're prepared to take on any type of problem.

I'm selling Lavelle's worked-out solutions manual of the probelms in the book which is important if you wanna get a lot of practice for the exams, as well as previous exams for cheap! Text me at (909)689-6293 if you're interested

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.

Selling 7th edition pdf version of textbook for 20$ (1/4 the price)! Regular price at UCLA store for ebook is 80$! Text me @ 2096233832
FYI: Starting 2019-2020 school year, Professor Lavelle is using 7th edition of textbook for homework so better get the book!

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.

You will definitely get an A in this class as long as you do all the required textbook problems, go to lecture and take good notes, and do the midterm /final review posted by the TA's for the course.

The class topics were harder than 14A but was still doable. Would advise on studying all topics for the midterm instead of just focusing on thermodynamics in case future midterms are like this years. Selling past tests and midterms at schoolstuffs135@gmail.com

Lavelle goes above and beyond to make every resource possible available to his students and he's proud of it. Some find it annoying when he repeatedly mentions the UA review sessions, Step-up sessions, office hours, etc, etc that are offered, but honestly, it always made me smile. He truly cares about student understanding and it shows. At the beginning of the quarter when students said they liked the music he played before lecture, he decided to DJ for us every class. He dances around and vibes; it's amazing.

Exams are proctored by your TA over Zoom. The exams are 1 hour long. Each question is worth a significant part of your grade so missing just 1 or 2 will cost you a lot of points. I did well on the 1st and 2nd midterm but the final was HARD. Content-wise I understood the final but the timing was off, and I was really pushing it to finish. The class is graded on a straight grading scale with no curving (he did give us an extra 10 points on the final but he said this wasn't common).

How to do well in this class:
- Go to the UA sessions. Personally, these were the most helpful resource for me.
- Do the assigned (but not mandatory) textbook probs because some will show up on the exams
- Listen in lecture (but watch on x1.5 speed because he almost always goes overtime by at least 10 min)

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.

Lavelle is a fun man, and he is also quite hip. He is in with the memes, and understands the importance of "exercising your mind and body". For the final lecture before winter break, Lavelle displayed a GIF of a dancing orangutan, and he too got down.
He is not at all self-absorbed or snobby, as some of the past posts have claimed. He is very proud of the many hours of helpful resources available to you, but only because he is happy to see you learning. I feel as if he is doing all he can to help us learn and understand the material (especially in an online setting).
Before taking this class, I'd heard a lot of chemistry horror stories and I am happy to declare that I did not experience this with Professor Lavelle. I recommend taking his class.