I got an A. The class was hard. No joke. Course Reader all the way! Read solutions manual before quiz. Will help, I promise. Get tutoring. Study in groups. Use VOH, don't be afraid. My favorite quote from Dr. Lavelle, "How can you get an A in my class before the curve?" Toward the end of the quarter, you better know titration and ideal gas. Good luck and don't change major because of this class!

I will henceforth proceed to counter all the reviews below me that said Lavelle is a hard teacher.

***DISCLAIMER*** I took two years of highschool chemistry.. so this review may be slightly biased.
***DISCLAIMER #2*** about 3 weeks into the class I stopped attending lectures.

First of all, Lavelle recommends you to go to lectures because he says actually being there helps. I say, don't bother. If you, like me, enrolled yourself in the 10 AM class, I am warning you that there will be no seats. Part of the reason I gave up going to lecture was because EVEN THOUGH I WAS ENROLLED, I ended up sitting on the floor for... maybe 80% of all the lectures I attended. In the end, even though I was at the lecture, I couldn't really see the board, and couldn't really focus on the lecture because people kept stepping by me and I had to keep shuffling around. Just study from the book, and refer to the podcasts if you don't understand anything.
But if you're in the 12 pm or the 2 pm lecture, then by all means go to lectures. Especially when it gets to the chapter on VESPR.

This class isn't hard... you just need to put in the effort to do all the homework. Obviously this class is going to be hard to ace if you're not willing to do all the stuff he assigns, and not willing to try to work out the problems. In my opinion, if you work through all the midterms nad finals in the coursereader, you'll be fine. The test format never changes, and the degree of difficulty isn't too different. He'll occasionally quiz on obscure things, but anything in the coursereader is fair game, so people shouldn't complain if he tests something that was covered only briefly. With that said, DO ALL THE HW. particularly the 90's and 100's, because I didn't once and it was on the quiz, and I got owned on that one question. =__=;

Don't rely on the curve. I'm not quite sure how high it was, but it sure didn't help me. Then again, he probably curves more for people who didn't do as well. But just saying, don't bank on it, don't use it as an excuse to slack off during the quarter. If this course is hard in terms of anything, it is hard to catch up on.

In conclusion: Don't be freaked out by all the people who are moaning about how difficult or how terrible a teacher lavelle is. He isn't a horrible teacher. His lecture style is kind of monotonic, but he does make interesting jokes sometimes. It wasn't enough to keep me awake in class, but that's okay. I studied hard on my own, and I did very well. You can too, if you put forth the effort.

I ended up with a "B" in this class. I studied extremely hard for the Final Exam and last two quizzes and I did relatively well. I barely studied for the Midterm or first quiz and I did poorly. Thus, my overall grade of a "B" could have been an "A" potentially, but it was my own fault for not putting in the time at the beginning of the quarter. What this all means...Lavelle is a tough professor. He writes difficult exams. But, if you put the time in studying, going to lecture and section, and DOING THE HOMEWORK PROBLEMS IN A TIMELY MANNER, you will be fine.

Lavelle is a wonderful professor. A lot of students think he sucks, but one must consider the number of students that he has in each lecture. He's a very cute, old guy, and he makes himself very available to his students. Chem 14A was a challenging course, not because he's a bad professor, but because the class itself requires a lot from the students (and one must note that most of the students in this course are freshmen, fresh out of High school and not used to the "college" workload at all). If you want to succeed, make sure you do all the homework problems. I suggest that you do all the example/ self-test problems in the book as well. READ THE BOOK. Living off the course reader alone won't get you anywhere. Make sure that you are on top of things, and DONT FALL BEHIND (as most students tend to). Give yourself at least a week to study for each quiz, and I would suggest at least two weeks studying in advance for the final. If you procrastinate, you'll be overwhelmed with the amount of work and the number of hours you'll have to spend just trying to catch up.

Chem 14A kicked my butt. Lavelle's a nice guy and all, but I found myself completely lost during his lectures. It's not one of those classes where you can go into without having any knowledge of chemistry. Having zero background in chemistry, I was screwed from the start. His course reader was hard to understand. It's good to use as a review of key points, but you have to read the textbook in order to understand those key points. It's all gibberish if you don't know what you're doing. Stay on top of things because it's extremely easy to get behind. Unless if you're a science genius, it's almost impossible to master the material by cramming the night before. If you really have a deep interest in chemistry and have an aptitude for it, then you'll learn a lot.If you're looking for an easy GE to take, I suggest you stay away. I did enjoy his cheesy chem jokes though.

omg i worked my ass in the class and thought i was doing well but i ended up with a D a freaken D come on, that is so not fair. My tutor was totally irresponsible and really bad, he would take the whole class time to solve one problem an the class still corrected him.. I highly recommend to go to tutoring and try to get a good TA. your chances of talking to Lavelle and getting to know him are slim. I like chemistry but this guy made it me hate it.

I worked my butt off in this class. So there are 400 points total in this class, each quiz is 40 points(120 total for three quizzes), one midterm worth 110 points(I'm not in honors), and one final worth 170 points. I ended up with 335/400, which is an 83.75%. With the curve, I have a B+...that is not a curve in my opinion. This is very upsetting, but this is a good class if you want to learn a lot... a lot of chemistry.

There was basically no curve. don't depend on a curve!

I had Chem 14A with Professor Lavelle just this Fall and I love him! A lot of people thought that Professor Lavelle's way of teaching is hard to understand, but it was perfectly fine with me, so I guess it's up to different preferences. He has a great sense of humor and I think he should tell more chem jokes at the beginning of every lecture. As for the course, I thought it was pretty okay. Some people said that without taking AP Chem, this course would be a tad bit difficult, but I think if you work a little harder it would make up for it. I didn't take AP Chem in high school and I still understood the material so I think it would be okay. In addition, the Course Reader was only helpful in the sense that you have the lecture notes right in front of you and you don't need to copy all the information from the overhead down into a notebook or something. However, you don't really need the notes because all you need to study for you can find in the textbook itself. In addition, the Course Reader includes copies of old midterms and finals, which REALLY help when reviewing for the exams. However, I thought the Course Reader was way too expensive and it wasn't really worth the cost. You can basically get copies of the exams from friends or elsewhere. Lectures could get boring sometimes, but I still encourage you to go (instead of just watching the webcasts and podcasts) because they really do help! The key to this course, however, is doing the homework problems. I know it is tempting to not do it because the homework is not collected, but it really helps you understand the material. Plus, the problems on the midterm and final are basically very similar to the homework (also there's one question from the homework on the midterm and one question from the homework on the final). So don't fall behind on the assignments: It's a pain trying to catch up! Overall, I think Professor Lavelle is a great professor. To whoever's taking Professor Lavelle for Chem 14A next Fall (I believe), have fun and good luck!

I had Chem 14A and Chem 14-H or 89 with Lavelle Fall quarter. He is a nice guy and a teacher that wants to help you. His teaching style is mostly from the course reader and is a bit dry. He does offer a LOT of tutoring sessions for the midterms and finals, although some are more helpful than other depending on the T.A.
The advice is you SHOULD go to class; although there are a LOT of ways to circumvent this with all the webcasts, podcasts, virtual office hours and tutoring sessions he offered. For me, I went to his class until 3rd week and then quit going. If you didn't have AP Chem, then you should probably go to class. Otherwise, if you took AP Chem and did fine and can do the HW he assigns with little difficulty you should do fine. For those that haven't, it sucks but you'll probably have to put some extra work in. Lavelle also focuses a lot on concepts and how and why it works, which is interesting kind of, but not as helpful for the tests. He's pretty good and with all the help he provides MANY people do well, so put in some effort because the curves are high. I thought he was OK, but it isn't unfathomable to understand when students claim he is extremely boring/horrible or amazing.