His class lectures aren't as engaging as I would've liked, but they are informational. However, most of the things he cover you can learn from reading the textbooks. He does include important biological examples in lectures which are not in books. He bruincast some of his lectures but not all. He doesn't post any of his slides online, so I suggest copy all that stuff down. Most of the information are pretty straightforward. The first test was pretty easy as it was all fundamentals. For me, I did most of the hw problems, if not all, that he assigned and ended up doing well on the tests.

He organizes a lot of review sessions, and he ALWAYS mentions about them. Somehow I got a feeling that he is bragging about all his hard work. But nonetheless, I appreciate him for it. Take his class!

I do concur that the course itself is relatively challenging. The class does not use a curve, the majority of your grade is determined by two tests (50 points each), one midterm (120 points), and final (180 points). I did AP Chem, so for me, the pace of the course is reasonable. Exams are doable, but the wording is tricky and cost you points. Yet, I still learned a lot from this class, and personally would take him again. Lavelle is a sweet person and experienced in lecturing (and yes he is a meme). Attendance matters, since he never posts his slides or bruincast the lectures; also do all the homework problems he assigns.

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TLDR: At best average, I wasn't a fan, he is overhyped and thinks too much of himself

I don't get the hype for Professor Lavelle. He is one of the worst professors in general that I've had. His lectures are rather boring and not helpful since he spends most of it deriving formulas instead of giving intuitive explanations or going over problems or even relating them to the world. The class is paced extremely slowly at the beginning but then speeds up near the end which is problematic since the beginning is a lot of review or material that is closely related to 14A. Thus material that is somewhat more manageable is dragged on over while new material is pushed through quickly. The largest problem with Professor Lavelle though is the tests. The material tends to be unclear and there are numerous curveball questions designed to stymie students. While the common claim is that it's there to separate the A's from B's, it tends to separate the A's from C's since partial credit is only given only for numerically correct steps. If your method is correct but you carry over a mistake or made a computational error, no partial credit is awarded for the work. One person read the problem wrong and solved using the wrong value with the correct method and received 0 credit. In addition, the TAs have a large influence on your grade since they grade the tests and are the ones you have to go to to try to get back partial credit. During tests, two of the TAs proctored a room and there was a question that was unsolvable without an outside number which they gave. However, the other room with the other 2 TAs refused to give out the number until the last ten minutes when it was extremely clear the value was required.

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

This class was harder than it needed to be. The content that was covered in class was a majority of review from AP Chemistry. However, the midterm and final were overtly difficult. They were phrased poorly and sometimes covered material that we did not go over in lecture. He teaches based on powerpoint presentations which he does not post later. The best way to do well in the class is to do the homework, go to lecture, and read the textbook. Even if you did not go over it specifically in class, I would still try to learn the material. Lavelle also does not do many practice problems during his lecture, so you are left dealing with calculation after. This structure can be difficult for many people. Your TA also plays a large role in your grade. For one exam, the partial credit earned on a certain question depended on your TA. Some TAs gave no partial credit while others gave 2 points back. In terms of the final, I was particularly surprised by the titration question since we barely covered the material in class. Overall, I would recommend that you take this class with Lavelle if you have a good foundation in chemistry and are comfortable self studying.

Lavelle is a great professor who always has a great lecture planned. The quizzes and exams will bite you if you don't do the work in the workbook and book practice problems. Also selling the 14A/B textbook and solution manual for lavelle. If interested email *************

Lavelle seems really nice. If you have enough patience to get through his slightly braggadocious tone in class about chem community and all the things he does that is great, you really are gonna learn a lot. All lectures were recorded which was really nice. At first tbh I was scared about him because I never really took AP chem and wasn't too hot on honors chem either in high school, but at the end of the day, he explains everything and the TAs literally go through what he explained every week. His tests (at least the first 2 midterms) were relatively straightforward if you practiced every question on Sapling and the textbook and reviewed all his slides, you're good to go. His final was harder in that it was mainly application based. It might be a lot in the beginning but don't sweat it's still easy to decipher. Yea, I would take his class again for sure and would recommend it.

Lavelle yyds! I love him. He makes everything absolutely clear in his lectures and you do not need to read even a word from the textbook. The exams are not hard. I don't know why overall he has a rating of 3.6. He should have a 5! He should have a 5.1! Very very very very very very very helpful lectures. Some concepts in AP Chem are roughly explained, but he makes all of these concepts clear. I am now taking his Chem 14B. Definitely takes his courses!
Even you are trying to find a GE, take this. I would be regretful if I does not take his course.

I despised this class so much. After I breezed through Chem 14A with Lavelle himself, I went into 14B confident that I could do well, but this class reaaaally frustrated me.
The lectures, just like 14A, were quite dry and I just copied notes straight from his slides. Most of the lectures were just deriving formulas that we were already given on tests. In hopes of actually understanding material, I went through the textbook, but the textbook is quite wordy so that wasn't too helpful.
The most frustrating part of this class was the TERRIBLE tests. I had access to last year's tests and ours were significantly harder. He would pull random conceptual questions about things we didn't cover in class, weren't in homework, or were barely linked to the topic at hand. I had MANY points taken off solely for sigfigs or small calculation errors. He would put questions that were worded weirdly just to throw us off, so read the questions carefully!
I pulled through in the final, because two of the challenging questions (adding up to ~30 points of the 200 point test) were WORD for WORD from the homework which I had done the day before the final. So make sure you 1) do the homework and 2) go to the LA review sessions. Good luck!