If someone told you that you can easily pass chem14A by studying AP Chem, they are correct but not for Lavelle's course. He never post his slide on the canvas. Instead, he provides us tons of extra materials which really mess me up because it is my first time to see such a irresponsible professor. Besides, his exams are totally different from the homework he gives to us. I do not know how other people can get a score higher than B. At least I think it's extremely unfair to people who don't have a strong foundation in chemistry, since he's assuming that everyone got a five on AP Chem.

Professor Lavelle is a very chill and accommodating professor with very fair exams. His lectures and problem sets should cover all the material on the test and as long as you do those, you should be fine. The also has a group of tutors called Undergraduate Assistants working under him who provide additional lessons and office hours. These UAs are really helpful and also create worksheets filled with old exam questions. If you use all the resources and assignments he provides, there is no reason why you shouldn't do well in his class.

First off, I love Professor Lavelle. He's super funny and you can tell he's really passionate. However, my issue is with the way the class is sructured. I didn't really gain much from the lectures and found myself in other TA office hours and review sessions every week. I constantly asked questions and seemed help, but this class is just an uphill battle.

Dr. Lavelle is a very nice person. I loved how he go over each concept from the beginning, which was very helpful for me. Although his midterm have only 15 multiple choices and 25 for final, (meaning getting one wrong will cost 4 points), I thought the questions were fair enough. Overall, this class was not too bad.

I loved him. Didn't really enjoy his class while I was enrolled, but after I had chemistry with some other professors I really appreciated his class. His overall grading scale is lenient and it is very easy to pass the class, but maybe not so easy for an A

Personally, I didn't do the best in this class. My review is simply my experience in the class as a student who didn't have a strong high school chem background. With that said...

LECTURING: Dr. Lavelle is a very intelligent and passionate professor; however, there is a lack of connection between him and his students. He is so smart that he forgets to dumb things down a bit for those of us who have never heard of some terms. In my specific lecture, questions were never taken and due to Covid, we couldn't really go up and talk to him (this was my only in person class). There were times when he would be talking about a single topic for 20 mins using some word I'd never heard before and so I would just be lost because he forgot to mention what the word meant. He could also be very unclear sometimes for someone who came in with VERY basic level chem, this class was extremely challenging.
I will say, however, Lavelle is very thorough with his lectures. This is both good because you get a more thorough understanding of concepts... however this also means he has no mercy in testing you on the very little details. I HIGHLY recommend copying down every single thing on his slides rather than just summarizing because those little details will show up again! Having a 10 am lecture for chem was also rough but he does record his lectures through bruincast so you don't necessarily need to show up for lecture everyday. This is also nice because you can go back and rewatch lectures you were still confused on.

DISCUSSION SECTION: Honestly just really depends on your TA. You're allowed to attend any TA's office hours. I found that some were ofc better than others. My specific TA ran her section by going over 2-3 problems related to that week's content. She often went way too fast for me. She then began to assign problems at the beginning of the week and going over any questions we had from those assigned problems or anything else. Still, I found myself confused a lot of the time.

WORKLOAD/HW: The workload is practically non-existent, that is... the ASSIGNED workload. Dr. Lavelle provides recommended textbook problems in his syllabus. DO THEM. Trust me. I didn't before the first midterm and received a 55% (which a 50% is passing in the class HOWEVER, to me that was still an F because the grading is confusing and it only gets curved at the very end after all grades are put in... I think). The only graded work is 5 weekly posts on his chem website (chem community) and achieve weekly hw (adaptive online textbook). Additionally to that, please, I'm begging you for your own sake, do the textbook problems he recommends in the syllabus. The workload seems very light but this just requires you to manage your own studying outside of lecture which I found to be extremely difficult.

RESOURCES: TA, UA sessions (step-up), Review sessions...
On top of having lecture and discussion section, you can contact and attend any TA's office hours. Snoop around and find out which TA is best for your learning style, it doesn't necessarily have to be your own TA whose office hours you attend. Lavelle also provided A TON of extra help hours (not with him lol, but with UAs- Undergraduate Assistants). Attend UA sessions, they are extremely helpful. There's, I believe, 3 different kinds. The kind I mainly attended were step-up sessions which were designed to provide extra step by step help to students like me with a low level chem background. Before finals week, Lavelle also provides a ton of review sessions with both TAs and UAs, take advantage of this. A lot of in person sessions are either on campus or in Covel so it's close to everyone living on the hill. Take advantage of the 100s of hours Lavelle provides in review sessions.

TESTING: We had two midterms and one final. No quizzes of any sort or any other kind of testing. Each midterm consisted of 15 multiple choice questions and was non-commulative meaning that you were only tested on everything you learned between each test. So for midterm one, we only got tested on the first like 4 weeks. Midterm two we got tested on everything after the 1st midterm and before the second midterm. Because there's only 15 questions, it's very easy to get any letter grade. You can expect his exams to be extremely conceptual... which you may not expect for the first midterm so much. Study your lecture notes just as much or more than you practice applying the concepts to word problems. Like I said earlier, expect him to test you on the little details as well and the best way to learn these is to study your notes and attend help times to truly understand concepts. The final was about 24 multiple choice questions. Although the exams are definitely a little harder because he expects you to know all the details, I would definitely say his exams were fair.

GRADING: nothing's really graded except for exams and homework. No participation grade. So nothing to save your grade if you do bad on exams. Chem Community is completion points (5 a week). Achieve homework has unlimited attempts to each question with hints if needed, so basically completion (just get it done). Exams are flat grades. You score your actual score, no curve. I believe, however, that the class may be curved in the end although Lavelle states it's not (even the syllabus says that a 50% is passing).

TIPS/RECOMMENDATIONS:
Attend Office Hours, don't be scared to ask questions. My very base level knowledge of chem prevented me from asking questions because although I didn't understand, I wasn't used to not understanding... most of these students have taken higher level chem like AP chem or IB chem. Do not be ashamed, Ask your questions.
Attend UA sessions... weekly or more than that if possible depending on how you feel about the topics. Take advantage of these resources.
If you don't come from a strong high school chem background (and by that I mean, you didn't take AP chem or IB Chem) this may not be the class for you. I did extremely well in high school chem, passed the class easily with flying colors and came on to fail my first college chem midterm. If you aren't confident in your chem background, I would recommend taking Chem14AE or at least looking into it. I'm now in Chem14BE with Courey, it's only week 1 and I can already tell you, it's way better. I can actually tell you a bit about what I've learned, whereas I could not do that in 14A with Lavelle.
PERSONAL TAKE: I failed the first midterm, aced the second one (doing all the recommended textbook work) and passed the final with a C (78%) and still ended the class with a B. Somehow it works out in the end so don't let one bad exam grade discourage you... study your ass off.

Lavelle is an okay professor. His lectures were generally okay but were not enough to fully understand the material. To actually understand the material you have to attend his UA sessions (maybe 1 or 2 a week) and do his syllabus practice problems (which are optional but necessary to prepare for the tests). The sapling HW and chemistry community portions of the grade are essentially free points, so your grade is entirely based on how well you do on the 2 midterms and final.
The thing is about his tests, which in my quarter were all multiple choice, is that there is going to be maybe 1 or 2 curveball questions that you are almost guaranteed to get wrong because they are so specific. So, what you have to do is study hard enough that you will get all the doable questions right, take the L on the curveball questions, and hope you'll end with an A.

Dr. Lavelle is one of my favorite professors! He provided so many UA sessions (essentially Undergrads that make their own practice problems and review sessions) that were super helpful, especially before midterms and the final (shoutout to UA Justin). His tests were very straightforward, and there was maybe one tricky question per test. I took AP Chem in high school and did well, but he teaches the material as if you have not taken chemistry before. Definitely recommend taking this class with Dr. Lavelle.

This review may be biased because I'm pretty good at chem but this class overall isn't bad. If you have taken AP chem, that's what this class is but lowkey easier. If you did good on AP chem, you will probably be set. The lectures are super disorganized which kind of makes it hard to follow along, but the textbook is super super helpful if you are confused. If you don't understand a topic, I would read the textbook section that aligns with it. Lavelle is not the best lecturer, but he has so many resources to help out with the class. Go to the workshops, they help so much. There are 2 midterms and a final which were all multiple choice this year. Practice the textbook questions, attend workshops, and you should be set in this class.

I didn't do as well as I wanted in this class but that's totally my fault. Before this class, I did not take AP or honors chem and the last time I took chem was like 3 years ago so I completely forgot everything. Even though I didn't really like the professor I would still take it with him again but I would go to more of his UA sessions. He does offer a lot of resources to help you so it's on you to use those resources. His lectures were kind of boring sometimes and they are recorded. The homework was fairly easy and he gives you plenty of time to complete it. There are two midterms and the final. The exams did contain more conceptual questions than I expected so make sure to read the textbook and do most of the problems that he gives out. He uses some of the textbook questions on the exams so if you do them you'll probably already know the answer to some questions. Honestly, I thought I was going to get a lower grade so I'm satisfied with it but if you want to do better complete all the homework, chemistry community (easy points), complete most if not all textbook problems, attend UA sessions and I think you'll be fine just make sure to put in the work.