Worst math instructor at City College. Do not take this man.

This guy should give up department chair. He doesn't care about the students. He upgrades the math book without regard for students cost. This man should be fired, not promoted. Not to mention he is a terrible instructor.

This professor sucks. Waste of time.

Terrible teacher. You should drop this guy faster than a prom dress!

VERY unhelpful - couldn't care less attitude and lousy dept. head. Doesn't respond to queries and has to be pushed for a straight answer to anything.

DREADFUL. Doesn't get back to you when he says he will then tries to blame you. Acts asif he is the only busy person in the world. Needs to learn time management and communication skills

Agree with time management - BAD dept. head - also rude

Don't !

Mr. DeLaLama is miserable. One wonders why he is there- because it is not to teach. One leaves class more baffled than when they walked in. Precal is a crucial part of the mathematical foundation. He leaves the student with a gaping lack of understanding.

If you like math (even sort of) and want to be completely disguted of it : just take a class with this guy.

STAY AWAY!

teacher is very unhelppful and difficult

Awfull !!

He gave me nightmares. nuff said.

Don't even consider him. He assigned a project within the last two weeks of class that was extremely difficult and counted towards a huge percentage of the final grade. He sets students up for failure. Beware!

He zips through the material faster than a Prom dress comes off. His explanations jump around like a cracked out kangaroo. I managed an A but would have preferred having my teeth pulled and root canals on a daily basis compared to DeLaLama class.

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This guy is just crazy. Too much homework and very very hard tests. Don't take his class, unless you don't like sleeping.

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I asked for help and got the feeling that he didn't want to help me. I felt guilty after asking for help. I sometimes need to see things in different ways and he is easily agitated.

Bad times!

This guy may know his stuff, but it's hard to tell as he certainly doesn't communicate well. He appears frustrated and annoyed when you ask a question andseems to enjoy making people feel stupid. He is disorganized, arrogant and just plain old rude. Should NOT be teaching.

Hopeless - always late, disorganized and a 'couldn't care less' attitude. Gives teaching a bad name

Worst teacher at city. Brilliant, but simply can not teach. He is the math chair and a good friend of Dr Thomas, which is why she gets away with trashing so many of her students GPA's and writing her own reviews. Advice on the City math department; just say no to bureaucratic tyranny and go to Mesa.

Given the choice between a root canal and De La Lama's class I'll take the canal. Very difficult and does not relate to students. Don't take this guy.

Basically arrogant, full of himself and incompetent. You wait weeks for tests to be graded and he comes to class whining that he has too much to do - time for him to retire!

A useless teacher who obviously knows the subject, but just can't teach it. I wrote down all his notes, did the homework and couldn't even get a D on a single test. Only about 3 students were doing..ok in that class. He grades on a curve that was so low when I took the class, my constant Fs had me at a C grade, that is until I failed the final.

Ever wonder why City College has the WORST JC math ratings for it's profs on this site? Oh ya thats right! This F'in idiot is the math chair! Just goes to show you, once they have tenure, they never get rid of you - no matter how bad you are ...

This guys knows hes stuff, but he can't teach it!! The only way to learn is to study on your own, he can't teach at all. He can't teach and he is really hard. His test are extremely hard. AVOID him, he doesn't know how to teach and he is extremely hard, and not to mentioned lots of homework!!

dreadful - he can't teach, seems to hate people and whines constantly about his job. Why on earth he is still teaching is a mystery but even more of a mystery is why he is the department chair. What ISN'T a mystery is why San Diego City Collefe has the worst JC math dept.

DO-NOT-TAKE-HIM. You are warned.

intelligent, but he's absolutely brutal at SWC. Demands way too much out of you; you will literally cry for mercy; No retakes. Grades brutally on the quizzes and midterms. For example, he gave my friend an 8/50 on one of the quizzes, and he showed his work. You see, studying alone won't give you the grade you need. You've been warned--twice!!

I am taking this class online, as well as my other classes. He notes that he will not answer questions on the weekend, but whenever I ask a question on a weekday, it gets answered way too late. Not very helpful.

This teacher is genius but doesn't know how to communicate with students and transfer the idea to us. He explains fast and thinks that we are professors and know what he's talking about. Tests are very very hard even harder than the lecture and the H.W. DO NOT take any Calcu classes with him. He just needs to get fired. :(

Hands down the worst teacher I have ever had. He is nice and seems to know his stuff, but he is a very bad teacher. He breezes through lecture like its a course review explaining very little and doing no examples. I dropped his class after his first exam which I didn't know one question. I retook Calc III with Mimi Rasky and am now getting an A.

worst class ever. i had to take this class so I had no say in anything. he doesnt teach the online class. al you do are assignments and quizzes. i have learned nothing. i try to email him but his responses are supremely vague. i hated this class

Made promises to me at the beginning of the semester and changed them at the last second resulting in an F grade. So he wasted 4 months of my time with his class by making me think I had a chance to pass. Liar and a horrible teacher. Now I have to retake it and I'm not able to continue with other classes since they require this class as a pre-req.

This professor does not know how to teach his class. He writes a problem on the board and instead of explaining it, he asks the class what he needs to start with and so on. He will not explain it until someone guesses what to do with the problem. Trust me don't take his calculus class

Do not take his class Worst math teacher I've ever had. He definitely knows what he's talking about, but he's not good at translating it to the students. When he's explaining theories he stands there and waits for everyone to guess what we have to do next. I understand that he's trying to get us to use critical thinking, but it's not effective.

Worst teacher I have ever had in my life. DO. NOT. TAKE. HIM. he is not helpful extremely dry, I never saw him smile.

Ive never taken this class before but, judging from the reviews so far, i am reallly hesitant on whether to take his class or not.

He does a terrible job at outlining his online class and says its the "students fault not mines" that he does not know how to teach. Very rude to students in discussion threads and when emailed he gives you a jerk response. He should be FIRED! Take anyone else except him. TRUST ME!

I've completed calculus at University before and was taking this as a refresher course. This is not a person interested in teaching. Absolutely disconnected from reality. Assigns incredible amounts of homework in lieu relying on that to teach students the mechanics and application of calculus. Overall complacent in teaching calculus.

This Calculus I class was one of my worst academic experiences ever. Tests are ridiculously hard. I worked with a tutor a few times per week, and the tutor said I understood the material. But the tests contained too many questions, with too high a level of difficulty, to complete in the time allotted. Stay away unless you are a total math wiz.

Do yourself a favor a stay away!

Impossibly long homework and tests!

Awful. Just awful!

One of the hardest professors I've ever taken. If you want an A in his course you will have to put in everything you've got and then some. Would not recommend.

Horrible professor. Full of himself and encourages students to drop out of college. I got a good grade but it was only because I got tutoring. Doesn't care about students just about his ego. Some professors on here are respected even though they're hard well not this one. DON'T TAKE trust my word on this you'll regret.

Worst online class ever. Can never reach this guy. All homework and tests are done on MyMathLab Pearson. No videos, no supplemental material, no notes from him at all. Everything was posted on MML in the beginning of semester and all was graded by bots. I can easily be him and run the whole thing on MML. Facilitator? Yes. Teacher? No. Shame.

I took this class during the pandemic and I regret taking it. He's a horrible teacher who does not care about teaching, in order to pass this class you have to learn everything by yourself. When it comes to test and quizzes you are proctored and the only thing that you are allowed to use is a formula sheet with limited amount of information.

DO NOT SIGN UP FOR THIS TEACHER. He used pearson math to teach and it is absolutely terrible as someone else also mentioned.

DO NOT TAKE THIS TEACHER. It is absolutely terrible. All of it is online on MyMathLab. I was not able to reach him or find lessons.

I work for the State Agency that oversees Public Education & unfortunately this professor is a candidate for disciplinary actions, and Mesa should strongly consider an intervention. Online students deserve access to high quality education but you will not receive this from him. His grading is unnecessarily complicated, and his approach is abrasive.

His grading is overly complicated, his approach abrasive and condescending. His class announcements demonstrate his lack of respect for his students. Even with hard work & an immense amount of effort, please don't expect to be successful in his class. I am very disheartened by his pedagogy and would say that not everyone is cut out for teaching.

You get the feeling that som of these review are ... fake. This professor is hard. Hard doesn't mean bad, however in this case he is also just not nice. The problems on his exams are unreasonable. He seems very full of himself.

I didn't like this guy. He only has one volume of voice... loud. He comes off very aggressive and when I would ask a question his first response would be no before even understanding the question I ask. Do yourself a favor and take anyone else.

This professor is terrible. Not helpful and rude. On the first day of class he gave out a test of the previous class and said that if you can't do 70 percent of it you are going to fail go take a different course. I was placed in this class and can't go lower. He should help the students where they are. I should have taken a different professor.

Rude, unnecessary difficult. It always seemed that he was in a rush to leave. I would not take again

Don't take him. It's actually impressive how unorganized he is. I basically had to figure out how his mind worked to understand the lecture. Had to learn everything beforehand to not get confused with his messy lecture as well. Do yourself a favor and don't take him. His problems are ridiculous and gets pissed off easily when you can't follow along

This professor is at the end of career and you can tell. Doesn't seem to care that his students don't follow and are not doing well. Just reminds me of a grumpy old man who purposely trys to make things hard. Take someone else.

Well this was by far one of my least enjoyable classes. Professor De la Lama creates a hostile environment that discourages everyone from participating in his lectures. Crazy amounts of hw and crazy exams that are way too hard for 151. I recommend looking at reviews from USD for this guy cause it seems like there are more reviews there.

I signed up for this class with a good prof. and the department did a switch a roo. Half of class dropped after 2 weeks. I should have done the same. The mood of the class was so depressing I didn't want to come. Terrible professor I don't know how he is allowed yo teach.

Learning Calculus from this professor is like trying to drink water from a firehose. He assigns long homework assignments that are due every 2-3 days. He makes it very hard to pass the class if you do not score well on exams, but there is not enough time to learn to content on the exams because the homework assignments are nonstop. DO NOT TAKE HIM.

He doesn't even teach. This class is entirely taught by the online Pearson textbook, he has no lectures he teaches himself. Homework? Made by Pearson. Exams? Made by Pearson. Makes no effort to teach the class himself. Homework is due every two days! It's hard to learn the material when there is little time to properly understand it. DO NOT TAKE.

this man by far has been the worst professor I had in my entire college career if you genuinely love life and are happy right now avoid this class because I fell into a hole of depression after taking this class he doesn't even teach he just throws a bunch of assignments and calls it ''teaching'' he def hates all his students and himself probably

His lectures were really bad, you will get stuck for hours on end for this class. People dropped like flies after the first exam. His office hours help but he is so mean that it's hard to approach him. When I passed the class I cried myself to sleep. Genuinely if you have to take him, just wait another semester instead, it's not worth it.

Horrible teacher he grades very harsh and the workload is honestly crazy. I am going on multiple trips this summer and I have done summer courses in the past with ease during trips but I find myself behind a lot this time around. I would avoid him if possible. Try to take thise course somehwere else.

I was most frustrated with how disengaged he was from his students. Everything is done through Pearson, and he provides no additional resources to help you learn–you're entirely on your own to figure things out. His course is VERY challenging but not in a productive way. You get stuck for hours on ridiculous problems & the exams are way too loaded.

Didn't engage with us at all and you can't read his handwriting at all. Had to study in my own time. Tests are super challenging, test class averages were 40% consistently. Gives out sample exams with no answer key, so you don't know if your answer is correct.

For a class that is so aggressively managed for attendance, even online, not curving a single thing is insane. Look, I get that calc 3 is a hard class but the issue is that he doesn't do anything to help this. He isn't the worst person ever and he does offer some stuff that's actually kinda nice but for the average student this isn't it.