I don't know if it is just how my brain works or something but this was the worst grade and most struggle I've ever had in any class. I got an A+ in 14A and an A in 14bl so I don't think that it is the chemistry that I am not understanding but for some reason, I can not wrap my head around the tests. He says that they will be just like the textbook but I spent hours in the library doing every single suggested problem in the textbook and went into the exams confident that I could do all of the calculations in the textbook but the midterms had 15 questions total with like 12 being conceptual and 3 being similar format to the textbook, and none of the 12 conceptual questions were really covered anywhere ( I read the textbook in detail too). Other people didn't seem to struggle too hard with this class but for some reason, no matter how much studying I did, I got two C's and an F on the final. He did scale cause I ended up with a B- which everyone says I should be grateful for but I've never struggled so hard just to get a 54 on the final. He does not give you any practice tests or indication of how he will test, and he will not show you what you got wrong. What's the point of a midterm if you can't even study the concepts you didn't understand and improve on them for the later exams? Isn't that the whole point of teaching something? To allow students to learn?? I am so salty.

I don't know if it is just how my brain works or something but this was the worst grade and most struggle I've ever had in any class. I got an A+ in 14A and an A in 14bl so I don't think that it is the chemistry that I am not understanding but for some reason, I can not wrap my head around the tests. He says that they will be just like the textbook but I spent hours in the library doing every single suggested problem in the textbook and went into the exams confident that I could do all of the calculations in the textbook but the midterms had 15 questions total with like 12 being conceptual and 3 being similar format to the textbook, and none of the 12 conceptual questions were really covered anywhere ( I read the textbook in detail too). Other people didn't seem to struggle too hard with this class but for some reason, no matter how much studying I did, I got two C's and an F on the final. He did scale cause I ended up with a B- which everyone says I should be grateful for but I've never struggled so hard just to get a 54 on the final. He does not give you any practice tests or indication of how he will test, and he will not show you what you got wrong. What's the point of a midterm if you can't even study the concepts you didn't understand and improve on them for the later exams? Isn't that the whole point of teaching something? To allow students to learn?? I am so salty.

Lavelle is a very confident lecturer and definitely thinks he is doing what is best for his students with his website, but his lectures are fairly confusing and this is accompanied by very difficult only multiple choice exams.

Even if you feel confident in your chem knowledge in the class, his exams are very tricky and usually have material that was not covered in lecture. Since exams are the only thing in the grade book aside from participation (extra credit at the end usually because he needs to curve the grades), your grade in the class in my opinion does not properly reflect how you feel about the material.

I loved Dr. Lavelle. He is so sweet and cares about student learning. However, it is unhelpful when he goes ahead. This quarter, Dr. Lavelle got like a week ahead, which was great because we got to review, but I was so behind on the textbook readings and I didn't understand what was going on in class or the discussions. This was very stressful. I think that it would have been more helpful to either follow the syllabus or structure the class to have a review week from the start.
All of the textbook readings was just a lot. If you take this class, make sure you keep up with the textbook and GO TO EVERY CLASS. This is not a class you want to get behind in. After every lecture, go home and make sure you understood everything. Go to discussion and the step-up sessions. It was hard but you can do better than I did if you make sure you keep up with everything and read the textbook. Also, Lavelle *says* his tests will be very math intensive and to do all the textbook problems, but they're really more conceptual. Don't focus on doing every single textbook problem. I would say definitely focus more on concepts and understanding what is going on and the meaning of everything.

Professor Lavelle has been one of the most engaging professors I've had here at UCLA so far. His passion for the subject is infectious, making me sometimes think if I should've majored in chemistry instead. Although I love him as a person, I do feel some things could have been done better.

1. Organization
His slides are all on a powerpoint that feels like it was made 30 years ago. It's all walls of text with a few pictures every now and then that you need to quickly grasp since Lavelle moves at a rapid pace. This course is taught under the quarter system, so I'll give Lavelle some slack, but it was sometimes an uphill battle trying to simultaneously write down notes from the powerpoint while he lectures about key concepts not found on those same powerpoints.

2. Use of Lecture Time
He would sometimes spend half the class deriving an equation we'd then use on the homework when I feel it would have been better to spend that time understanding its application and meaning. He often times lost and confused me when deriving chemistry equations.

3. Exam Contents
A lot of the midterm & final questions were conceptual based that required practically no math. It made the hours I poured into doing and studying the assigned homework problems feel a little fruitless. I say "a little fruitless" because I acknowledge that his homework problems helped reinforce the concepts in my head and let me understand it better than someone who skipped the homework, but it's a bit frustrating because his syllabus explicitly states the homework mimics what will be on the exam. That was hardly the case.

All things considered, I would still say Chem14B with Lavelle was one of the best classes I've taken so far at UCLA. I truly felt like I was learning and understanding the concepts taught in class because he gives his students so many resources to become chemistry masters. There was never a doubt in my mind that he truly cares for the well-being of his students.

It truly makes me sad I'll probably never get to take another class with him again, but I'll treasure my experience in Chem14B.

Good chemistry.

He is my favorite professor ive had so far because he is an excellent teacher with decades of experience, which many many other professors here cannot claim. He is very intelligent and there is not a single chemistry question he would be unable to answer.

However, the lectures and homework and exams did not relate. I feel like I learned more in this class than any other class I've ever taken, but the exams did not allow me to demonstrate my learning because they were based on tiny little things he said in lecture, instead of difficult chemistry/math questions that required a whole page of solving (like the homework).

This is also the hardest class I've ever taken but it is not too bad since I feel like for this class (unlike many other classes with different professors) the more you study, the better you will do.

Lavelle is funny and enjoys teaching and TAs had excellent communication with the professor which made the whole class experience ideal.

Nice guy, but exams sucked. First and second midterm was like 14 questions (All multiple choice, mostly conceptual), final was 20 or so questions (also all multiple choice). He expects 16 hours of independent study per week, which is a lot when managing other classes. Don't take this class unless you're willing to sacrifice most of your time studying for it.
Lavelle also never answers emails, and did not give clear answers to TAs about exams or otherwise. I think the average for the midterms and final were all around a C. However, the final grade was curved up and above a 50% in the class is considered a pass, which is nice.

I really loved how enthusiastic Lavelle was about chemistry. He provides so many resources such as TA office hours and UA workshops/step-up sessions to help his students. There's also chemistry community which is so nice as any question you have will be answered very quickly. I took this class the previous quarter with Scerri but dropped it as his teaching did not aid me at all. I found Lavelle's class to be much more manageable and clear. There are two midterms which are 15 questions multiple choice. There is no partial credit given which is annoying. The final was 25 mc questions. I believe you can only miss 8 questions in total on the exams if you want an A in the class (before the curve, and assuming everything else is 100%). The midterms were very conceptual. He tells you to do all the assigned textbook problems, but a good amount of the exam was conceptual and not math focused. Before the test, everyone gets the same practice question/repsondus question to test the system. This question shows up on the exam, so technically it's free points. The workload for the class is not bad, but there is a lot covered in ten weeks so make sure to study as you go along. I should have gotten a B in the class but he curved to a B+ which is very nice. Towards the last few weeks, he did offer 4 extra credit points and two respondus questions for the final, instead of one.

Lavelle has been teaching this course at UCLA for what seems like decades, and because of that he has every resource in place for students to take advantage of to prepare for exams. In other words, people have no excuse to complain about their performance because there's always some resource you never took advantage of that resulted in a poor score.

I was in the first ever iteration of the hybrid version of this class, and I can attest that it was no different from being in the class normally (especially if you're prone to skipping lecture anyway). Those in this version have access to lecture recordings and different recordings that Lavelle posts himself. Watching either of these will get you the same amount of knowledge you need for the exams. In regards to Lavelle himself, he seems like a sweet old guy who smiles a lot, dances to music at the beginning of class, and cares about student learning. He goes through topics extremely slowly and clearly to make sure that people know what they're doing but focuses on the wrong topics during lecture in my opinion. A lot of his lectures were essentially derivations of equations, which are sections that I would normally skip in a textbook if I came across them, and very little is focused on problem solving. You can also totally get away with not going to the weekly workshops. All the problems he covers are the same as what you've already seen during lecture recordings.

Tests in this class were another type of beast I have never encountered in my educational career. There are two midterms that are 15 questions each, all multiple choice. Unfortunately this means that if you miss a single one, you've already got a 93-94 percent on the exam, so there's no room for error if you want an A in this class. There are also usually a couple of trick questions in there as well. Tests were more conceptual and therefore more confusing than a math based exam, which would leave you feeling like you did well right after just to find out that you did horribly when scores came out. I also don't understand why it takes a week to see scores for a multiple choice exam taken on Canvas. The final is 25 questions long, exact same format and just as challenging. There's no true way to prepare for the questions you're going to see besides doing all 1000 problems Lavelle assigns (optionally) on his syllabus and praying your critical thinking skills are sharp enough to figure out whatever problems are thrown at you. I feel very lucky to have escaped this class with an A the way that I did (went to one UA session all quarter and skimmed the practice problems the night before the exams bc I was very short on time), there were many others who did so much more work than I did who did not fare as well. Much luck to anyone who needs to take this class and has a busy schedule.

Overall I feel like my experience in this class would have been way better if not for Lavelle's tests. When I first started in the class, I enjoyed Lavelle's teaching style, thought the homework was manageable, and enjoyed the content. However, my biggest issues began with the midterms. Lavelle recently switched so that all his exams were multiple choice. Now, I already am not a fan of multiple choice exams when it comes to chemistry. I personally prefer free response so that it allows for the opportunity for partial credit. What made Lavelle's multiple choice the worst was that they were not only largely conceptual and worded very confusingly, there were also very few questions. Midterm 1 and 2 both only had 15 questions but were each worth 60 points, while the final had 25 questions and was worth 100 points. This means each question was worth 4 points and missing even a few could add a detrimental hit to your grade. To succeed in this class takes a combination of a lot of hard work and luck. Lavelle will test on material he does not cover in lecture, so, to be honest, it is extremely helpful to read the textbook and do all the optional textbook questions he assigns. Also, Lavelle does not have office hours so I found the most helpful resource to be the UA hours. While the UAs did have sessions throughout the week to also review content, I would say only spend your time going to sessions when they are midterm or final prep based. In general I did not think all the UAs were the best at explaining the material, however since they all had Lavelle in the past they did provide good practice for the exams. The one saving grace for my grade was that Lavelle did provide an extra credit opportunity at the end of the quarter, which I am super grateful for. However keep in mind, that without the extra credit opportunity accounted for, I believe you can only miss 4 multiple choice questions across the board in order to get an A in this class. Also, when Lavelle lectured I often found he went on side tangents and discussed derivations that to me seemed useless, but he did sometimes test on these so make sure you pay attention.