I must be in the minority here, but I actually liked Lavelle. His course reader outlined all of the important things we needed to know with examples, the practice exams in the back of it were definitely useful it you took the time to work through most if not all of them, specially since he's repeated some problems over the years I've noticed. The accent also helps.

My TA was definitely helpful and provided us with plenty of extra review material and even went to far as to make a jeopardy game to help us review for the final. Some of my friends' TA's weren't so helpful though.

As far as difficulty is concerned, I'm a bit biased here. My AP Chem teacher prepared us amazingly well for the exam and made sure we knew the material inside and out. Based on that, 14A seemed like a lot of review and wasn't particularly challenging. However, several of the people I knew in this class either didn't have a good foundation in chemistry, or hadn't taken chemistry at all coming in, so I can definitely see where it could be frustrating. Lavelle assumes that everyone has a decent background in the subject and sometimes glosses over things, like the gas laws which he believed to be review and didn't even cover in lecture. A running count of every time he mentioned "high school chemistry" was kept, and I remember once the week total was over 15. Given that this is the beginning chemistry class, it's a bit odd that he didn't actually go over the fundamentals, instead he assigned a bunch of problems from the textbook before class even started that we needed to review which including some basic stoic, balancing equations, etc. I heard that Scherri took the time to go over the fundamentals, but the trade off is that he rushed through the actual material near the end of the quarter. If you've never taken chem though it'd probably be better to get a strong grasp of the basics first, in which case Scherri would probably be better if you want to actually be taught the material instead of doing it yourself.

VOH is incredibly helpful, and the problems he recommends do come in handy when you need to practice the method for a type of problem, like all of the titration problems. Some of them get ridiculous by the end, but I found that most of his actual problems weren't nearly as difficult as some in the book.

This guy isn't that bad. He's okay, I hear Scerri isn't any better (but yes he is more conceptual). Either way, doesn't really matter much.

Honestly, he is a very overrated professor. I don't want to seem like I am bitter, because I got an A in both 14A and B when I took them last year.
At the time, I thought he was an amazing professor, at least compared to some of my other freshman year profs. Honestly, though, I would say he is below the university average.

Stupid class, tests and quizzes are heavily based on calculations that if you end up making a lot of careless calculating mistakes you will get screwed. It happened to me and several of my friends, you have to make sure that you don't make dumb mistakes because every point counts. I admit that I slacked off a bit in 14A because I had taken AP Chem and thought I knew everything perfectly but I ended up making silly errors on tests and it cost me. In 14B I decided to do all the homework and such, but still did not end up with an A. This is coming from somebody who has since gotten an A in Chem 14BL and A+ in Life Science 2, two classes are supposed to be "hard." So point is, even if you think you are "smart," it can be tough to get an A in this class, especially if you end up making careless calculation errors. I am more of a conceptual learner, so that screwed me. Maybe I should have taken Scerri instead, and MAYBE YOU SHOULD TOO! Just depends if you either want to do a BUNCH of homework problems to prepare for exams for NO CREDIT (Lavelle), or to do homework problems for credit that are annoying to do I hear but hey you get CREDIT. Hope my grades in this class don't end up costing me, and hopefully they don't end up costing you too.

Though Prof Lavelle is a really nice guy who means well, when it comes down to it he's a dick. I'm not sure why but he acts as if its his personal mission to deter as many people from the sciences (i.e. pre-med) as possible. And he succeeds.
Showing up to class is basically optional because 1) the class is videocasted and podcasted, which he is immensely proud of, and even when you do show up, the odds are that you will either not understand whats going on or fall asleep trying to understand. If you've already read the chapter or have some knowledge then lecture is great, otherwise you can pass.
The class is basically 3 quizzes, a midterm, and a final. Homework is optional but you should do it anyways, because theres no other way you gonna understand the material, especially when you start having to do more math based chem. The quizzes are easy but most people mess up on the first, which is ok since he drops one quiz. If youre prepared, the midterm isnt bad either, but for my year the final was a bitch. Lavelle openly said that he was not happy that the midterm average was sooo high (a B-) and so he was gonna make the final difficult, which he did by putting questions on there from the MCAT. He sent us a congratulatory email on a final average of a D-.
Overall, he's a nice guy who makes a simple beginning chem class wayyy too difficult for unknown reasons. If I had the chance, I wouldn't retake him. The best part of his class was trying to imitate his South African accent.

For most of the quarter, Chem 14a was ridiculously easy for me. I got high As on all the quizzes and the midterm without any sort of chem background (although AP Physics helped a lot for the first couple of weeks). However, the final totally fucked me over. It was about 5 times harder than anything I had ever seen for that class and so I was left unprepared, especially because I had my Math final the day before (as a side note if anyone reading this is considering taking a class with Watson, DON'T!). I got a D on the final and ended up with a B+ in the class. To be honest, I definitely could have tried a lot harder but it was a dick move of Lavelle to make the final so difficult.

Let me just start off by saying that in order to survive in Professor Lavelle's lectures, you need some sort of energy-boosting stimulant (because his lectures are very monotone and midway through, students can be seen dozing off) and two, you NEED to have a strong background in Chemistry otherwise you will fall behind. This class is full of dense concepts and quite frankly, I don't understand why any sane person would take this class for "fun" because you'll be competing with a class full of pre-meds. Personally, this class killed my freshman year and it made me want to reconsider my major.

I am a physiology major student and I found this course quite manageable. I believe that if you have a strong background in chemistry, like AP Chemistry, and you did well in the AP test, there won't be too much difficulties in this class overall. However, doing the homework and scanning through the book and course reader was very important. Furthermore, finding Lavelle in office hours are quite difficult seeing that only that like 8 people can be in the room at any given time. I would highly suggest to go see the TA's office hours for any questions, no matter how big or small. They saved my ass soo many times. Again, doing the homework is extremely important, not only does it prepare you for the quizzes that you will be getting, but also for the midterms and exams. The 2010 Fall quarter was, according to Lavelle, "The highest midterm average he has ever had in UCLA history." I believe he said it was like an 80%? Regardless, it was high. Freaked most of everyone out since we were expecting the final to be twice as hard. It was okay. At the end I got an A- in the class which was what I expected since I didn't get 97-100% in all the quizzes and tests. I got like 93-95% in all the quizzes and tests and that is considered an A- or B+. It depends more on the curve too. But let me warn you guys, taking this class is not an easy A. This is kinda like a weeder class, it tests you if you are a premed or if you should consider about taking another major...there are some students here that are hardcore premeds...like they'll scream and try to fuck you over sometimes. Just one or two of these people I've met. But there are those that I question their ability to get into UCLA (helps the curve a lot) =D

Lavelle is a decent lecturer and I feel that I learned a lot in his course.
The grading is split between three quizes, a midterm and a final.
It is not impossible to get an A in his class, I finished with an A-
You need to know that the quizzes and midterms are considerably easier than the final. Be prepared for a difficult final because it is 55% of the grade and it was a big determinant of me getting an A- instead of a high A.

fuck lavelle