Dingus, Del  

Dr. Dingus is a very tough instructor. If you are reading this and have him for a lab, I'd advise you to stay after the lab is finished and ask him about the answers you got on your lab calculations for the day. If you don't, it's almost impossible to pass his lab. I ended up passing the lecture course with a C, but could have had an A if I had known about staying after lab to get the answers.

I only had Dr.Dingus for lecture, and although he was a difficult instructor I felt I learned a lot. My advice to people in his lecture is to actually study for his tests, and study hard.

I had Del Dingus for Lab. Be prepared to work your butt off if you want to pull grades. Also, if he ever gives you opportunity to do extra credit, you'd better take it and run (you'll need it later). Unfortunately, Del's words his quiz questions very poorly, and even if you ask him to clarify, he is not very helpful at all. Overall though, he tries to be fair.

Dr. Dingus's tests were really easy, at least for me. He allows up to 5 cheat sheets, but basically you need to know your material especially the math formulas if you want to finish the tests in the hour time period. I felt that his lecture was decent; I learned more from reading the book. Overall though, Dr. Dingus is a very nice to students, not boring, and is easy. From other students I also heard high marks for Halick, but he doesn't allow cheat sheets. Also, don't worry about flunking one of his tests because he allows you to replace your lowest score if you score higher on the final which is usually the case because the final not long and you have a whole three hours.

Dr. Dingus is a really nice guy. If you have a problem he will help you out. His lectures are interesting and he tries to incorporate life lessons into the material. As for him being easy as stated by someone else, they are just being cocky and were probably one of the students who spent 10 hours studying for each test~any class is "easy" if you really read all the material and study. Honestly though, he lets you have one cheat sheet, plus the previous sheets for each test- plan those well. And he curves by averaging the top 3 grades, which helps in the end. I would say take Dingus, but think about a different prof if math isn't your specialty

Dingus is a nice guy, and is willing to help. However, over half of the material discussed in the class had little to nothing to do with soils. He teaches a lot about problem solving and basic high school word problem stuff. This got old fast, as we rarely talked about soils. I took this class to learn about soils, and i basically got a high school math course. I am extremely dissapointed in the soil science department, and i hope that they step it up. I dont really know that much more about soils now than I did before the class, and that's sad.

Dr. Dingus was one of the most boring teachers I've had at Cal Poly. I barely stayed awake in class, yet still got a B in the class. My hint is to read the book; it really helps. Also, if an SI course is available and you have him for lecture, I highly recommend that you take the course. If you have to take the course, then I guess you can fight through it with Dingus, but if you can, get Hallock for lab and lecture. He's a great lecture teacher and a fair lab teacher. Though the quizzes are VERY hard in ALL soils labs, he is the most generous when it comes to grading. Take it from me, Hallock NOT Dingus.

Dr Dingus tries his best to present "boring" information in lecture. He does seem to care about the students doing well. I did not find him as helpful one on one. You should be in class every day because he gives in-class problems to do, and they can affect your grade if you are not there. Also most of the material is covered in class. I could have gotten by without purchasing the book since I was in class every day. He can be a bit absent minded at times, but he is still looking for new ways to present the material unlike many other "stuck in a rut" long time teachers. Take the SI course, it is great. I had a diff prof for lab, who made Dingus look like the best prof on campus! You just have to grit your teeth and endure lab.

Dingus is a pretty good teacher. As long as you do the homework and go to class everyday you can pull off a C. He does lots of in-class assignments and homework stuff, it's easy points if you are there and do the homework. Everyone seems to make it out to be a hard class and people seem to think Dingus is the hardest prof., honestly it's not bad at all and if you are dreading it...don't worry about it.

Dr Dingus has a lot of knowledge about soils. He is very understanding to those of his students who are very honest with him. His test can be a bit challenging, but you get a sheet of notes. I would recommend getting him for both lab and lecture. This will make learning soils a whole lot easier. Good class to take, learned a lot and had fun! Dingus is great about holding office hours and always welcomes you. If I were to take soils all over again I would chose Dingus.

Dr. Dingus comes across initially as a kindly grandfather type person. He is a nice guy but can sometimes belittle students, whether he means to or not. There were instances in which someone would ask a question about how to do something in front of the entire class and he would respond, "Well, can you multiply?". I don't think he meant to embarass anyone but he sometimes did. He is, however, very good at helping you individually, especially in his office hours. I had him for lab but would often go to him for help on calculations for lecture. Overall, a pretty good guy.

If you are taking this teacher for lab my advise is to GET THE HELL OUT. He is hard and if you are not good at math good luck passing the class. All he did in class was walk around. Sometimes when you needed his help he would be out of the room. What good is a teacher if he is not there half of the time?

He seems like a nice guy but he is one of the worst teachers at Cal Poly.

DO NOT TAKE DINGUS!!!! He's really nice guy, but the man cannot teach. If he asks the class a question and one student answers correctly he assumes the rest of the class knows it too. I went to his office hours and it was completely worthless! This class really shouldn't be hard if he had only taught the material. He gives weekly online quizzes on which asks math questions he never taught us how to solve. I read all the labs before going to lab,did my work and was only able to get a C. He's probably one of the worse teachers I've had at Poly.

Dr. Dingus is genuinely a nice professor, but really has an affinity for math/word problems. This class takes a relatively large time commitment as there is homework at least twice a week that is VERY arithmetic oriented (you'll spend a good some time staring at a homework problem trying to figure it out). However, he is more than willing to help you in office hours. Everything is fair game on exams (lectures and books), even the most minute detail, but he does allow a sheet front and back of notes. I had him for both lab and lecture and would take him for both again because he is very helpful in lab. Just to clarify, you need to take the time to do the homework and visit him in office hours if you have trouble finishing/understanding the homework because he collects it every time. I got two middle of the road B's on both mid-terms and wound up with an A in his class because I had gotten 100% on homeworks and a few extra credit points. If you have an A in the class you don't have to take the final (at least he did that for our class). At the end of the class, I really brushed up on my arithmetic, but am uncertain the extent of what I picked up on soil science. I think he relies that you are getting a lot of that in lab as well as from the reading.

All the people that wrote all those comments about getting the hell out of this class are slackers. This class wasnt that hard at all. I was scared going into the class and when I got half way through, the only thing that was tough was the midterms and those are curved anyways. As long as you go all the homework (and there is a lot) and you attend class regulary(so that you dont miss the extra credit) youll do fine. I never picked up the book, I just paid attention in class and filled up the "cheet sheets" he lets us make. And trust me, this isnt coming from a student with great grades either. I am c average all the way, and I easily landed a B in this class.

Very smart fellow, tough class, but well taught. He is a good teacher to take for lab.

Prof cried today.... What a weirdo hahahah get a grip of your life.