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.

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!

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.

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.

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 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 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.

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!

(Took this class during the COVID era)

2 midterms, 110 points each (220 total)
Final, 180 points
Chemistry Community, 50 points
Homework (Sapling), 50 points
Class total, 500 points

Having taking AP Chem before, it definitely does help to have prior knowledge. There's some stuff that's not in AP chem (mainly quantum section) but it's not bad. Overall I'd say the class is pretty tough but if you put in the work you'll be able to succeed.

Midterms/final were multiple choice, with each question being worth anywhere from 6 to 12 points, so it's very high stakes, especially if you're shooting for a high grade (you can only miss 35 points in the whole class to get a solid A). Midterms weren't that bad, but sometimes there were dumb questions that a lot of people got wrong. In a way you kinda have to get lucky sometimes to not get those questions. Otherwise they're pretty straightforward, especially since it's multiple choice. The final was much harder, with much more of a time constraint, but not the worst if you knew the material very well. However, because a lot of students complained, he gave everyone 10 points back on the final (capped at 100%). Very generous! On top of that he "curved" grades, depending on what you got. I saw that some people had a score in the mid 80's and got a B+, an 89 and got an A-, etc. However it didn't look like he rounded up to a solid A even if you were really close (ex. 91, 92), but it's understandable. He even said the final exam average was around 80% and class average was around a B+, which I'm sure is higher than previous years.

Generally Lavelle is a pretty good professor. He is very clear on introducing topics and explaining them thoroughly. DO THE TEXTBOOK PROBLEMS!!! even though they're optional. They represent midterms and the final pretty well. Some of them will literally appear verbatim and others will just be pretty similar but having practice is super helpful in this class. I didn't go to UA sessions but from what I've heard they can be pretty helpful. UA worksheets often include problems from past exams. Shoutout to the people who share their practice worksheets with the rest of the class, mainly for the people who couldn't make the sessions : ) There is so much support available in this class with all the TA office hours, UA sessions, Chemistry Community, etc. Lavelle will bombard you with emails emphasizing this :P

Anyways just be prepared to work hard and never underestimate the exams. Good luck!

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.