The kid who just posted about his A+ is part of the whopping 1.2% who pull off such a grade...some people are clearly far smarter than others.

Anyways...

I worked my ass off this quarter and got a B+. But honestly, when I added up all my points together, I got a 345/400. That's an 86.25%, which is practically a B+ raw score. What the eff is this? There's no freaking curve??? I'm astonished.

I've read a few of Lavelle's reviews just below me before writing this. There seems to be a common trend.

Let's get this straight. If you don't do all the work that Lavelle assigns, but doesn't grade (i.e., homework sets), then I don't know what you're expecting for a grade. Lavelle is VERY predictable. Course reader has SEVEN past midterms and finals. Problems are all straightforward if you did them + the homework sets.

I put in the necessary work. Some complain about him only going over basic stuff in class, but I don't see anything wrong with that. If you have the fundamentals he covered in class,+ did the recommended reading for each section, you'd be fine. Seriously.

Scores:
Quiz 1: 39/40
Quiz 2: 40/40
Organic Chem Worksheet: 40/40
Midterm: 109/110
Final: 163/170
Final Grade: A+

Clearly doable. Easy? It takes work, yes, but if you're willing to put that in, it's not much of a challenge at all.

It's Chemistry. If you expect with your intellect without putting a decent amount of work in, you might want to rethink taking this course until you're ready.

Best of luck to future enrollees. Take reviews saying he's bad with a grain of salt. His lectures may be a bit dull at times (I admit I've fallen asleep at times), but he does soundly cover everything, enough to make your readings through the textbook much easier.

TL;DR
Great professor, expected exam questions, do the work. Cannot stress that enough.

NO! JUST NO! DON'T TAKE THIS CLASS. YOU WILL REGRET IT. SKIP OUT A QUARTER IF YOU NEED TO, JUST DON'T TAKE 14B WITH LAVELLE! unless you want a C or a fail grade and you don't want to get into med school. then it's chill i guess...

Absolutely horrid teacher. He goes over THE MOST BASIC examples in class and then mindf**ks you when you get to the quiz/midterm/final. I would not recommend taking him for any course. I was in his class for both 14A and 14B and I somehow managed to pull off a C and B in the respective classes. Mind you, however, that this was done without going to his useless lectures. If you are unfortunate enough to take any class with this man PRAY TO GOD that you have a good TA and that he doesn't decide to f**k you too hard.

This guy is a troll.
His tests are poorly worded, so avoid him if you don't like that shit.

The overall topics in the class aren't too difficult, just gather a good study group and you should be good.

if you value your GPA, don't take lavelle's class.

His finals/midterms/quizzes have ridiculous over-the-top questions, you can't even understand what the question is ASKING.

Taking his tests, it's normal to leave whole questions blank because you have NO IDEA WHAT HE'S EVEN ASKING.

The homework problems he assigns in the book are NOTHING like what's on the test. Literally every test I've taken with him, I walked out thinking "wow... what a shit show." And I passed AP Chem and got an A too... Lavelle just likes to make tests a living hell.

Just... no. Don't take him. If you have the choice of waiting a quarter with a different professor or taking Lavelle, WAIT A QUARTER!!!

Dr. Lavelle is very mathematical. He loves to destroy his students with completely math-based questions that will mess with your mind if you are not on top of your game. If you are looking for a conceptual chemistry experience, take Scerri. Anyways, his class is pretty straightforward, but it's really difficult. The one thing that made me furious was his quizzes. The time crunch on some of his quizzes are so awful at times that the average on a quiz is a 12/40 in some classes. Dr. Lavelle's quizzes do not test you on how well you understand the material. Rather, his quizzes test you on how well you can get a higher F than the person next to you. You better focus on these quizzes and beat this time crunch or you will fail! Anyways, his midterms and finals can be hella difficult, but the good thing is that you have TIME. I wish he gave us as much time on the quizzes as he did on the midterm and final because I would have gotten an A if that was the case. Anyways, good luck to all of you!

I don't recommend this guy at all in place of Scerri. Like it has been said a thousand times, Scerri is more conceptual and Lavelle is just a ton of tedious calculation work. Although his calculations aren't very difficult, I didn't actually learn any chemistry. I just learned how to do a dozen different types of chemistry problems. There's a very high chance that this class will have you doing problems that you don't understand the meaning behind, but you'll just be on autopilot going for the grade. Unless that sounds like something you are fine with then I recommend taking this class with Scerri. Lavelle teacher the last 2 weeks of his class really well though. His introduction to organic chemistry is very nicely taught and the models he brings to class really help you to visualize the concepts. However, the remaining 8 weeks are something I wouldn't want to be around for. I just don't recommend his teaching style. If you can, take Scerri. His way of teaching just isn't the best way to learn chemistry. But if you are indeed stuck with him, I recommend just skipping lecture and reading the textbook. If you can do that, you should be able to get the concepts down and only go to lecture or read his course reader when you need problems and solutions worked out.

I took 14A with Scerri and got an A
I took 14B with Lavelle and got a B

OKAY... To ALL of you people who ALWAYS say "omg Scerri is sooo much easier than Lavelle!!!! blah blah blah..." think of it this way:

When you apply to a graduate school/medical school, they don't look at your professor for elementary chemistry, they look at your GPA. So if you can take Scerri and get the better grade, take him.
Not only that, Scerri better prepares you for the MCAT because he is far more conceptual than Lavelle.
So you are choosing between a workload-intensive class (LAVELLE) that will bore the heck out of you and only prepare you to do hours of tedious studying and book problems
OR, you can take the conceptual route with Scerri. It's easier to get the A and you don't have to waste money on a huge textbook..

Ya, you can get an A in Lavelle if you go to every lecture (or at least watch every lecture) and do all of the book problems and study A LOT...
But you can get an A a lot easier in Scerri's class.

It's your choice!

I had Chemistry 14B with Professor Lavelle.

I really liked him as person, he always had a smile on his face and seemed to really care about his students. However, I found his lectures pretty unhelpful and rarely understood what he was doing. Having never taken calculus, his derivations made NO SENSE to me and I felt as though I was wasting my time in class. I worked really hard and ended up with a B+. The midterm and final were really difficult, in my opinion. But it is possible to succeed, just as long as you put in the time and effort! Lavelle is not bad- take this professor!