Probably the worst professor/teacher I have had so far. His homework questions are nothing compared to his exam questions and claims to have "so many resources to do well" when these "resources" are review sessions held by people who will only give you the basics and not information Lavelle would test you on. His exam questions are incomplete, for example, in our final, the TAs had to tell us to use the actual yield that was given to us instead of the theoretical yield for two questions when in the question we're only told to use "the yield". Our midterm average was a 72% and he was actually HAPPY. Lavelle is horrible - please save yourself, your GPA, and your sanity and take someone else PLEASE.

Lavelle was an awesome professor, I would definitely recommend taking his class. He is very passionate about chemistry and very passionate about getting everyone to understand and pass his class. This being said it was still tough - this is coming from someone who did not take AP chem in high school because it was not offered.
1. Get the book!! The book helped me a lot in expanding on the concepts he talked about in class because I did not have the background knowledge most people had.
2. ALWAYS do the homework and online assessments. Lavelle takes questions from these and puts them on his exams (easy points)
3. He gives 2 tests which aren't too bad. Just make sure to study for an adequate amount of hours.
4. The final and midterm were hard and a bit tricky, but if you go to review sessions and study everything he tells you to and pay attention in class, you should be able to get by just fine.
Although I personally got a B- in the class, I feel like I learned a lot this quarter and am adequately prepared to take chem 14B unlike some of my peers who feel underprepared when taking 14A from a different professor. I highly recommend Lavelle! Its tough but its worth it!

Lavelle is honestly such a gem. I didn't learn very much in my AP Chem class in high school, but Lavelle is a great lecturer and I feel like I'm walking away from the class with a solid understanding of everything that he's taught. I used to hate chem but now I genuinely enjoy it. He provides so many resources for people to succeed, whether it be his online modules or countless hours of review sessions before exams. It's also really endearing how hard he tries to connect with his students (he plays music before every lecture and ends every lecture with a chem meme). Overall, I would definitely take this class again and am looking forward to 14B next quarter with the legend DJ LL himself.

Lavelle pretty much just reads off of his slides. They're not NOT helpful, but doesn't truly reflect the difficulty of his exams. The homework does not reflect the difficulty of the exams either, and the only true practice you'll get is from the midterm/final review packets that he posts. The midterm was very difficult and the average was around a 70% while the final had an average of 78%. My best advice is to do a LOT OF PRACTICE PROBLEMS!!! Do all the homework ones, find some online, anything. I did well in AP chem in high school but I got a little lazy knowing that this was a repeat of what I had done. This class is hard but doable. The class average this quarter was an 82%.

Selling course textbook (loose-leaf). Mint condition, in binder, used only for HW time to time. Text me at **********. Thanks!

I thought this was a very fair class. I struggled in it because I suck at Chemistry and only took one high school chem class which I didn't do well in. The small tests and exams are not too bad as long as you study for them. In my case, I fell asleep in classes and didn't pay attention, but managed to pull off my grade by studying many hours on my own (30-40 hours for final, 10 hours for small tests, 25 hours for midterm). I can't say much about the lectures, but Lavelle does provide a ton of review session with practice problems and practice tests that help a lot.

Tips:
1) Do all the homework problems as he using some of them on the final/midterm
2) Go to review sessions or at least do the practice problems given out
3) Pay attention (he told us to draw cisplatin on the final and I was dumb lucky that that was the only 5 minutes I paid attention in that class)

TLDR: Lavelle's 14A is a manageable course for those with some previous chemistry experience, but with some tricky exams.

I'm writing a longer review because it is so important for incoming freshmen to know what they are getting into. I went into this class pretty much blind, but in hindsight it really would have helped to do some research on the mythical creature that is Lawrence Lavelle.

The content: Chem 14A is a rite of passage for every premed and pre-research major at UCLA, and for most is a straightforward physical chemistry class. This material covers stoichiometry, an introductory quantum unit, VSEPR and molecular geometry, inter-molecular forces, coordination compounds, and an introductory acid/base unit. Overall, the concepts are no more complicated than what is taught in a rigorous AP chemistry course; the hardest part is honestly staying focused on the material the entire time.

The work: This class really doesn't have THAT much work to it. I highly recommend going to lecture (as Lavelle does a fairly good job of delivering material), but there is no mandatory attendance. Homework is collected in discussion every week, but only consists of any 7 textbook problems selected from a list on the syllabus. Lavelle also expects all students participate with at least 3 questions and/or answer posts on an online message board he developed, called Chemistry Community. This was honestly the most annoying part of the class, as the interface (at least for me) was fairly glitchy and prone to erasing your posts as you submitted them, forcing you to start all over again.

The man: Lawrence Lavelle is a chemistry icon at UCLA, and for good reason. With a sporty baseball cap upon his head, Dr. Lavelle has transcended the fourth wall of meme culture, living his days as a living, breathing meme. He always has a smile on his face and likes to sprinkle in weird little motivational sayings every now and then. Lavelle delights in the basic chemistry knowledge he provides his students, so much that it crosses the line to borderline narcissism. He will take every opportunity (including on exams!) to flex about his Chemistry Community message board, despite it being an AOL knock-off with mandatory participation.

The exams: WARNING: this man is a master of sneaks. There are 3 exams hosted throughout the discussion as well-- the first exam should be a very basic overview of stoichiometry, but do not let this lull you into a false sense of security! The other two exams are much more difficult in content, and you WILL need to study to get passing grades in them.

The midterm is a tough, but fair assessment of the first 6 weeks of material. If you attend one of the LA review sessions (shoutout to Lyndon!) and study, you should have the potential to do very well.

The final was bad. It is only once you enter the final examination room that you realize that Dr. Lavelle's omnipresent smile results not from his love of chemistry, but from his delight in the absolute sneaky he waits to pull off. The final goes beyond testing direct applications of the material and turns it into something else. That shit hits differently. There are no real practice finals, so do your best to understand EVERYTHING. Some of the smallest concepts (maybe only a sentence in the notes) were responsible for entire pages in the final.

Good luck y'all.

As a student who has not taken AP Chem, he expects us to know a lot from high school. Even though he teaches very well, he skips some of the basics that people with a lower level of chemistry don't know. I wish I took him as 14B because I got stuck with Scerri, who is the worst. If you have a good background, I recommend him.

Professor Lavelle was been teaching this subject for a very long time, and it shows. His class policies and slideshows are stagnant and because he's been at it for so long, I believe a part of him understands that his lectures are not quite engaging enough to keep students' attention. Assigns lots of excess work and provides many other resources for students to get more help from

I had Lavelle for both 14A and 14B, and I liked 14A wayyy better. My high school's chemistry was really subpar and I didn't even take AP Chem, so I was worried to take this class, but it was totally fine.

Lavelle's lectures are not too helpful because he reads straight from the slides and the lectures are quite dry, but I went anyways and copied my notes straight from the slides.

My biggest advice for 14A: get your hands on old tests (many people have taken this class so it shouldn't be *too* hard to find), DO THE HOMEWORK (he puts EXACT questions from HW on the tests sometimes), and go to the LA review sessions (these practice tests are good preparation for the real tests). And if his lectures aren't helpful, try to skim the textbook (this helped me for 14A but not 14B) or look for other resources online. Also, do Chem Community and turn in HW... it's easy points.