Lavelle's class overall was easier than expected. He goes over high school chem in the beginning to make sure we got the basics down before moving onto Quantum...that part was rough but after Midterm 1, the concepts were more understandable. Midterm 2 was lightwork!! HW assigned is around 10-20 problems and we get 1-3 weeks to do it depending on the content. His lectures can be recorded so attendance isnt mandatory. The discussions are though, but they were helpful to go to since my TA just went over syllabus problems as review. SO many resources available. I wouldn't have done so well in this class if it weren't for the TA/UA sessions offered. You can go to problem solving sessions any day of the week and even take some at the Hill! They gave very good practice for the midterms and final and I felt prepared after going to each session. You do have to do well on the tests though since they're worth a good amount of your grade (one question was worth 4pts for us, no partial credit)

Even as someone who did not take AP Chem in high school, I found Dr. Lavelle's class to be completely manageable. The first week focuses on reviewing basic chem concepts, which was definitely helpful. After that, the course moves at a very reasonable place. Lavelle provides a lot of support outside of lectures, including a 24/7 online forum, workshops and peer-learning sessions, review sessions, office ours, etc., so as long as you make the most out of these resources you should be fine.

As for the lectures themselves, attendance is not mandatory and they are recorded. I found it more helpful to watch the recordings as opposed to going to lectures so that I could take notes at my own pace. Dr. Lavelle is a very engaging lecturer but sometimes he does spend some time talking about things that are not actually required to know for 14A or part of a more advanced course. Discussion sections, however, have mandatory attendance which is part of your grade. These might vary in helpfulness depending on your TA, but I personally thought my TA was very helpful with answering questions, both about the content and about the course logistics.

There are 2 midterms and a final exam, both pretty heavily weighted. Each midterm was 15 multiple choice questions and the final was 30 multiple choice questions. Midterm 1 was very conceptual and in my opinion really challenging, but Midterm 2 was pretty light. While multiple choice kind of takes the stress off while studying, it also is a little frustrating because there is no partial credit and each wrong answer affects your overall grade a LOT. Timing is always generous on exams, so you never need to worry about not finishing on time. My advice to anyone taking this course: pay attention to the things that are emphasized in lectures because they will show up on exams, and also do all the practice problems on the syllabus because some of them show up on exams as well. Definitely also take advantage of review sessions, or at least look over the worksheets from review sessions (available on the online chemistry forum).

One thing to be cautious about--grading is pretty harsh, even with some buffer from weekly forum posts/homework/attendance. Assuming you get 100% on these categories (which is basically guaranteed as long as you do things on time), you can only afford to get 6 problems wrong on exams throughout the entire quarter if you want an A. While this is totally doable, it sucks because it means that small mistakes on midterms/finals will cost you a lot.

Overall though, I highly recommend Lavelle for Chem 14A!

For anyone that has done high school chemistry (acids bases, bonding, moles), this class is extremely easy. The only thing that might be new is the Quantum section which is all just plug-and-chug. Dr Lavelles Class is really fun, and all are recorded if you miss the in-person lectures. Only discussions are mandatory attendance. Dr Lavelle also provides many resources, his own website with questions and videos, workshops, and Chemistry Community (24/7 portal to ask and answer questions) + many questions from the textbook and on achieve for practice.

Grading:
Chemistry community (40 points) - answer 2 and ask 2 questions every week (4pts a week x10)
Discussions (40 points) - attend class thats all! (4pts x 10)
Achieve questions (50 points) - 5pts a week mathematically, but its divided based on the topic length. You have unlimited tries to do them

These 130 points are 100% guaranteed and take no time at all

Midterm 1 - 60pts
Midterm 2 - 60pts
Final - 120pts

Both midterms were very easy, and each had 15mcqs
Final has 30mcqs
In both midterms and the final, writing your name gets you 4 points (12 total)

100% Recommend this class

Lavelle is so amazing, I could say infinite things that make me think he's the goat of this school. His lectures are engaging and really applicable to life science - the whole point of taking 14a instead of 20a - and he's just such a kind and funny person. If you didn't take AP Chem, make sure to take advantage of his massive amounts of student help hours offered. If you did, then do whatever you think is necessary to make sure you grasp everything well. In terms of difficulty of tests, I'd say that they are very similar to the difficult of the Achieve and textbook problems - ie if you have no difficulty in those then you'll be fine for the midterm. This guy is the goat.

Good professor but the tests absolutely suck. No room to mess up even the trick question on the test because thats already -7%.

Workload is solid tho and lots of resources.

Lavelle was ok. His lectures started out very straightforward and decently engaging but by the end of the quarter he would go on so many tangents that it was hard to follow. He would also spend a lot of lecture explaining extraneous stuff on the whiteboard and it was hard to tell what was actually going to be tested. The midterms were fair. I kind of tanked the final but he was generous with rounding which I really appreciated. There were some questions on there that felt a little unfair—he likes to ask vague conceptual questions so be ready for that. Make sure you know how to draw Lewis Sturctures really well for the final. The most annoying thing about class is that the grading is total points based so make sure you're getting the easy points from the Achieve homework, Chemistry Community, and going to discussion. Chemistry Community is outdated and janky but he will brag about it all the time. The best thing about Lavelle is that he organizes a lot of out outside resources so my #1 tip is to GO TO STEP UP / WORKSHOP SESSIONS AND DO THE TEXTBOOK PROBLEMS IN THE SYLLABUS. Good luck! :)

Took AP Chemistry in high school, but still struggled a bit in this class.
The content includes a good amount of quantum chemistry in the first half of the quarter which made the class feel more like physics for a bit -- this is where a lot of people struggled (including me).

- Exams were multiple choice and not too many questions (around 15), but honestly they're quite difficult. Some questions were based on things Professor Lavelle mentioned once briefly in class, and a lot of the other content we learned and practiced in class weren't on the exams. Exam grades heavily impact your overall grade
- Lecture attendance isn't taken and lectures are recorded. Professor Lavelle has his own website with a bunch of content and help.
- Attendance for discussions were taken -- I personally had a TA who didn't really help us much; she just gave out a worksheet for us to complete and that was about it. I attended two other discussion sections with other TAs over the quarter, and they were fine so I guess I just didn't have the best luck when enrolling.
- There were extra credit points for completing the reviews which thankfully boosted up my grade

Dr. Lavelle should get more credit. Even if he is not an amazing lecturer, and the lectures often make me fall asleep, he makes up for it by providing a plethora of different resources. If you are struggling you can review the lectures on Bruin Learn, ask a question on his "Chemistry Community" website, or attend one of the numerous UA (undergraduate assistant) sessions that happen every day. You can tell that he really cares about the students, and he'll often drop a question on exams if most students get it incorrect. One difficulty is that it's so easy to make a mistake on a midterm, and be screwed for the quarter. Each midterm usually has 15 multiple choice questions, so if you mess up on 2, you're at a 52/60 or B for the midterm. Since you can't drop midterms and there's only one grading scheme, this becomes a little bit stressful.