Lectures weren't useful at all. Always do the practice problems in the syllabus; do this and you will be prepared for the exams. Sometimes he has conceptual questions he may mention during the lecture though so you could go through the recorded lectures. So much stress for just this class since you can only miss 24 points for an A, but there are definitely a lot of resources. He's a nice guy!

I think Lavelle likes to boast that he has "so much support for all his students," i.e., office hours, his chemistry community, and TA supports. While all those may be true, I fear there's a lying issue underneath his class. I don't know why he brags about all this when many other professors do the same things. Additionally, his class is entirely unhelpful. He was the most boring professor I've ever had. Not only does he speak very slowly, but also very quietly, making it so that you have to concentrate with all of your attention just to hear. Many of my friends and I have stopped attending lectures and started to either just watch his lecture videos, where you can speed them up, or just read the textbook. (Tbh, they found it to be more helpful.) Additionally, his midterms and finals are multiple choice only. For his midterms, if you get 2 wrong, you immediately earn a B for the midterm. While it shouldn't be too hard if you studied and understand the materials, However, he adds trick questions. (He also likes to promote in class that some questions on the exams are from the textbook problems, but it's most likely only one or two problems from it.) Another issue I have with him is his slides. It's condensed with so much information, it's as if he just copied and pasted his notes down. (he doesn't even post his slides anywhere, so you need to get them from the lectures/ recording.)

If you took AP Chemistry in high school with a decent enough teacher, then most of this course simply rehashes that content. The only difference is a deeper dive into quantum, with formulas that go slightly beyond the scope of that course. That being said, Lavelle does a good job presenting questions in class that show you how to think about utilizing these formulas given a certain type of information. Lectures are all recorded, though attendance is recorded for discussions. Personally, I found discussions pretty helpful, and I often found myself using discussion slides to learn content, and then watched lecture recordings to supplement gaps in information. The tests are all multiple choice and are pretty straightforward. You may get 1 or 2 questions pertaining to a specific real-world example of a certain principle that was brought up once in lecture, but outside of that everything is either straightforward calculation or purely conceptual. All in all, the class felt pretty manageable.

As a freshman taking this during their first quarter in college, I wouldn't say it was the worst experience. Lavelle definitely offers a lot of support through the UA sessions and I found that I learned 10x more going to their drop-ins rather than attending his actual lectures. I ended up spending probably at least 6hr/wk at the sessions and used their worksheets posted on Chem Community to prepare for exams (he takes lots of pride in this website and the resources he offers. And I mean LOTS). This course required mainly independent studying, but doing TB problems, HW, and the worksheets was very helpful. Lectures aren't mandatory and are recorded which was nice incase you're sick or need to go back to review some of the diagrams he draws on the white board. Overall, I was still kind of disappointed to leave this class with an A-. I felt like the MTs and final were very doable, but very easy to make simple errors. 4 pts per question with no partial credit can be rough. Ended with 92.5%, hoped maybe for a round as I heard some students got, but came out unlucky. Stats below:
MT1: 87%
MT2: 93%
Final: 87% (missed 4, could only miss 3 to keep A, rip)

The way the classes are structured makes it so that the student needs to be very disciplined. Attendance and participation in lecture is completely optional and some people never show up and watch the recorded lectures. I personally learn best in person so I went to all lectures. Lavelle is a decent lecturer, nothing too special though. His homeworks are very managable and he assigns optional textbook questions per outline, which sometimes is reflected in the midterms. He has a lot of TA and UA review sessions, and even if you can't make those, their resources are all posted on Chem Comm. There are some buffer points from his homework assignments, Chem Community posts, and discussion attendances but it doesn't do too much for your grade since most of it is from your midterm and final grade. I got 93 on both midterms, 100% points on everything else, and because I got like a 71 on my final, I ended up with an 89 in the class. I fell from a 97 to an 89 which is really steep. It would have been my first B, but Lavelle rounded some people up so I ended with an A-. Bless him.

Fall 2024 - The concepts in CHEM 14A are very clear and simple to understand - with the exception of coordinate compounds and some of the quantum stuff, 14A mirrors the material taught in honors/AP Chem. Dr. Lavelle lectures extremely clearly, and goes through concepts at a relatively slow pace, making it easy to follow. However, he has a very soft voice so it's easy to fall asleep. Lectures are recorded, so attendance is optional. Discussion section participation is graded by attendance, and the TA usually summarizes the material for the week + provides practice questions (shoutout to Caleb Pike, he did a fantastic job).

Dr. Lavelle is extremely organized, and posts midterm/final and class information well in-advance with clear instructions. He also organizes A LOT of TA/UA-led sessions for further practice and reinforcing concepts. I've never been to one of those, but I've heard from friends that it is a good resource for those with lesser chemistry backgrounds.

Around 1/3 of the points available can be earned through discussion attendance, completing Achieve assignments (assigned online practice problems - similar, or slightly easier than exam questions), and posting/answering questions on Chemistry Community. Chemistry Community is an online forum (think reddit, StackExchange) created by Dr. Lavelle - usually you can get away with asking dumb questions + giving concise response if you have no questions. It is a pretty useful resource if you actually have things to ask though, and most of Lavelle's responses (which he includes in his emails) are useful. However, he is sometimes very passive aggressive and sassy to questions he deems stupid (which is funny, since posting is mandatory regardless of necessity). Also DO NOT email him - he hates student emails, and will respond extremely harshly (if at all).

There are 2 midterms (60 points each) and 1 final (120 points), mostly MCQs with an occassional T/F or 50/50. The questions themselves aren't difficult at all, and are very very straightforwards. You either know how to do it or not (no trick questions). The catch is that to earn an A, only 6 MCQs can be missed, so there's small room for error but every point really counts! He does throw in one or two questions on each that test concepts he mentioned once in lecture for 2 minutes - so make sure you're paying attention and taking notes during lecture (even when he's rambling about an experiment/biological connection that sounds extremely unimportant).

Students did the worst on Quantum unit questions (which is all of Midterm 1 and a significant chunk of the final), so I'd suggest doing more practice on those + actually understanding all of the concepts (except for Schrodinger's Equation).

Chem 14A was pretty straightforward and not challenging. Lavelle was a good lecturer and was very clear, though his voice is really soothing so it can be difficult to stay alert during class (lectures are recorded though). There are 2 midterms and 1 final for this class and they were all multiple choice, which means that if you missed one question, which is 4 points each, it could take a pretty bit hit to your grade. However, his midterms & finals are pretty easy as long as you do the assigned textbook problems. I really love how Lavelle has chemistry community because you can get all your questions answered there & receive points for it (which is worth more points than 1 midterm). The UA sessions that Lavelle organizes everyday are extremely helpful and the UAs teach you everything you need to know and they walk you through practice problems that you might expect to see on finals!! Would definitely recommend taking this class with Lavelle!

Pros:
-attendance not mandatory (and lectures recorded)
-super reasonable amount of homework
-lots of help with test prep
-lots of resources for help
Cons:
-exam grades HEAVILY influence your grade
-Dr. Lavelle is RUDE if you email him directly to ask questions
-Everything is on your own initiative; I know so many people that didn't go to lectures or review sessions and ended up failing/barely passing
-If you get a bad TA you're screwed

Don't let the other reviews intimidate you - this class is doable. I didn't take AP chem and went out every weekend (including the weekends before midterms and finals) and still got an A. My advice is to start studying for exams a week before, actually go to class, go to UA sessions, do practice problems, and review concepts (50% of exam questions are conceptual). utilize all of the review sessions and practice problems he gives you. It's very easy to do the bare minimum and get your discussion/homework points, but this will absolutely screw you when it comes to exams. Take initiative and put in the extra effort.
As for Dr. Lavelle, DO NOT let this man fool you into thinking that he isn't just another mean, egotistical prof. DO NOT ask him any questions personally, as 9/10 times he will find the questions a waste of his time and respond rudely. Ask TAs, UAs and Chemistry Community before bothering him, since he will most likely make you feel stupid for asking (trust me, I learned the hard way).
Don't get me wrong, Dr. Lavelle's lectures are easy to follow and he's good at teaching, but he is a menace to students' self esteems. This class is unforgiving if you don't do well on exams, and it crushes many pre-meds' dreams.

For my first quarter as a freshman at UCLA with no chemistry knowledge whatsoever(never took high school chem or ap chem) I truly succeeded in this class. Dr. Lavelle is so helpful with so many resources. His lectures are extremely clear and to the point which only made me more motivated to stay alert and attend. I alway went to UA sessions, did all the optional textbook problems, and participated extra in chemistry community discussions(pay attention to the ones Dr. Lavelle responds to). He is just amazing and has fueled a passion for chemistry I never thought I would have. Truly recommend taking this course, do not be afraid of not being prepared, you will learn so much you will be amazed!!!!

- This was my first quarter at ucla and this class genuinely made me excited about the rest of my time here. I didn't come in with an extremely strong background in chem (took honors chem in my sophomore year of high school) but before the quarter I spent a week or so reviewing AP chem material on khanacademy.

- The best thing Lavelle provides is sooo many resources. He gave preclass, optional content for the first couple units -- they essentially covered all of the first 3 weeks of content + several practice problems for each of them. His lectures align pretty well with the textbook, and he assigns specific textbook problems as optional homework (that you should definitely do). In addition, there are tons and tons of worksheets that UA's prepare with many more practice problems.

- His lectures are very clear in my opinion. What I really like is that almost everything he says is documented in the lecture notes, and they are clear/consice while not leaving out any important info. The midterms were both 15 question mcqs, and the final was 30 mcqs. Personally, I thought all the exams were extremely fair. For every single problem (I checked all of them after the exams), I could pinpoint exactly where in my notes the topic was discussed.

- For every 15 questions, i'd say that about 2-3 of them were directly taken from the textbook. another 5-6 were very similar to the textbook problems even if it wasn't exact. The remaining 6-7 were probably a bit on the conceptual side, but again were pretty straightforward. The questions are not meant to mislead (when more than half the class got a question wrong on the midterm, he gave everyone free points for that). The final was similar to the midterms, had many repeat questions, and overall was not meant to trick you. I will say that each question is worth a lot of points so there is not much room for error to get an A, but the questions are all very fair so it isn't as scary as it seems.

- If you take advantage of all of these online resources, I see no reason why you won't do well in the class. I am really excited to take 14B with him.