This professor is very clear and good at explaining. There is barely any mandatory class homework. However, for this class you really have to put in a lot of work yourself if you don't have a strong chemistry background. The tests are very similar to the textbook problems so I suggest even if it is not mandatory to do all of the textbook problems. The lectures are asynchronous which is nice but make sure to stay on top of watching them and take notes of everything. The hardest part about it being online is that the tests are multiple choice and short so if you miss more than one question you are already at a B. Tests are also proctored on zoom with your TA. Although you need to put a lot of work into this class it is very rewarding. There are also tons and tons of resources if you are confused on anything.

Lavelle was great! Personally, I think thermochem and thermodynamics is fascinating and I really enjoyed taking this class. I had Caram for 14a and switched into Lavelle for 14b and both classes were great. However, I did take AP Chem in high school and know that people who did not take a significant amount of chem had a harder time as they were not as comfortable with the material.

I did not do the greatest, but I have always struggled with chemistry. He does offer a lot of help which is so worth going to. But I will say this, it is very possible to pass. He was very proud of himself for my quarter 98% of students passed his class. To pass, you just need 50% of all the points possible. I barely got over that and I got a C- so it doable!

Lavelle was definitely a better prof for Chem 14A. In 14B, his teaching layouts were at times confusing and didn't follow the order in the textbook. He doesn't provide students any bearing on how the midterm or final will look like through past exams or practise questions from himself, so we must prepare for everything blindly. This makes his course very time consuming because we must redo the textbook questions over again to be prepared. He does have many UAs that offer numerous sessions to help, and it's great to have such accessible guidance. A pattern I have noticed with Lavelle is that his tests and midterm are perfectly reasonable, and then he pulls out a brutal final that also tests on memorization instead of calculation, something that none of his other exams do. So beware of the final, and other than that, Lavelle isn't the worst.

When I first looked at reviews for Lavelle before taking the class, I didn't have a good opinion of him because I was just parroting off what people had said about him only caring about his metrics and the 100+ hours of chem help offered, and the success of his website chem community.
But honestly, after taking both Chem14A and Chem14B with Lavelle, that is completely false. He constantly mentions his extra help UA sessions and they are so helpful. And later in the quarter I really felt that he cared for the students as he boosted our final exam scores by 10 points when it was really hard.
His class is not a free A, but it is a very doable A if you watch lectures, go to at least 1 UA session a week, do all the textbook practice problems (he includes some in his tests).
Stats: MT1 100%, MT2 100%, Final 83%

I took this class Fall quarter of 2020 on the online format and had a terrible experience. Lavelle's lectures are clear but boring and he talks really slow. But that's not even relevant. The material feels easy/manageable during lecture and the sapling assignments. In fact, you feel like you actually understand the material! But the tests are literally the hardest tests I've ever taken. Lavelle came out and said he wrote the final to be too hard and he curved it. Still only raised my F to a D, though. Anyway, he provides a lot of study sessions with TA and LAs so definitely attend those, especially workshops. Set-ups are pretty rudimentary and not helpful for tests because the tests are anything but rudimentary. It's a shame Lavelle has been teaching here for decades and yet still thinks treating Chem 14A as a weeder is a good way to inspire undergrads, especially freshmen. He's (part of) the reason I gave up on becoming a doctor :)

While he isn't the worst teacher in the world, he definitely wasn't great. His lectures were boring as hell and made no sense. Maybe this is just a personal problem but I didn't absorb a single thing he said in lecture, I was just scrambling to write down everything on the slides. I've taken AP chemistry in high school and I did relatively well, and I feel that Lavelle really overcomplicated the material. I found the tests to be unfair, as there were plenty of questions that were never covered in the lectures. Perhaps I should've read the textbook, but there was no reason for him to make the test that hard. The homework questions were not reflective of the test questions at all, and the chemistry community posts felt more like a hassle rather than a way of learning. I will admit that he provides a lot of resources, but it's not possible to devote all of our time to attending these sessions as we have other classes to worry about. Essentially, it's just a ton of self-studying.
As a person, Lavelle seems very kind and wholesome (though I have never spoken to him). He plays music at the beginning of lectures and includes memes occasionally in his slides, but once you see your final grade in the class you won't be feeling lighthearted. I can appreciate the effort he put in to organize workshops and step-up sessions to help us learn, but at the end of the day, I feel like he doesn't really care about his students.

(Disclaimer: this class was taken online) Professor Lavelle is a very nice guy and is super passionate about chemistry. Some might say he is a bit TOO passionate about chemistry. He provides a ton of TA & LA office hours and review sessions all throughout the week to help students stay on track. You have to buy Sapling to complete the homework (which is free points) and its quite pricey. He also has a chemistry forum that you post on to ask and answer questions for free points. His midterms were multiple choice with both conceptual and problem-solving questions. The final was pretty hard and there wasn't enough time to check your answers; granted, he did curve the test up ten points. This class is not easy to get an A, but easy to pass because class total 50% is a C for him. He cares a lot about his students and really wants everybody to succeed, even if he won't stop bragging about his countless review sessions and chemistry forum.

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Easiness of class: If you took AP Chem in high school, it's mostly review. Quantum was unfamiliar to me, but it's conceptually pretty easy to understand.

Workload: There isn't much graded homework (there are weekly online assignments graded based on participation and weekly Chemistry Community Posts), but if you want to do well on the tests, I suggest that you do the recommended textbook problems which can take a lot of time.

Clarity: It's sometimes hard to follow along during Dr. Lavelle's lectures since he elaborates on the bullet points while you're trying to take notes on what's on the screen. Also, he always dims the lights, so try not to fall asleep or it'll make it very difficult to understand what's going on.

Helpfulness: Dr. Lavelle organizes a lot of resources outside of class including TA office hours and UA workshops. I highly recommend going to the UA workshops, especially in the weeks leading up to midterms/finals! Chemistry Community is also very helpful since someone is bound to have a similar question as you.

Overall: You get what you give!

General tips: Read the textbook or rewatch the recorded lectures if you don't understand something. Do the textbook problems. Chemistry Community has pretty thorough answers to most of the textbook problems. Most of his midterms/finals focus on conceptual problems, and he sometimes tests random details that he mentioned once in a lecture.