@arubadude I can only go by the way they teach and the way they write exams. I personally have a lot of the course materials from my and later Emory classes because I still tutor there every now and then and used to tutor a lot of people. Typically, those who write more memorization oriented exams are those who are not really prepping for the MCAT and usually these folks get higher “ease” ratings on websites such as ratemyprofessor because students at elite schools are very comfortable with more traditional and straight-forward examination formats. MCAT prep-level instructors are often those who write assignments, exams, teach, etc that a) at the basic level focus on a conceptual understanding (they aren’t just trying to expose you to a series of results so much as a process or way of thinking) b) Write exams that ask you to think outside of the box or apply at higher levels than you did in the lecture hall. Many students will view this as unfair, but that is an expectation on the MCAT and just if you want to learn real science in general. You have to be able to make connections and apply things to unfamiliar situations (which is possible if you have a memorized a solid foundation but have also come to a conceptual understanding of it) c) data and experimental analysis or design intensive assignments and exams (material that ask you to explain a phenomenon based on a series of graphs and figures or purported experimental observations), d) Reading intensive at times ( often in line with c ). This annoys students as they claim questions are tricky or convoluted, but the reality is: that is the nature of science and medicine. You must be able to read and learn on your own and either make sense of lots of information or sift through lots of it for the relevant material and then make decisions based upon it. Also, the MCAT is passage based. Another reason that this style of exam is good, but often painful is because often it teaches you how to learn things on the spot, relate them to foundational concepts you already know, and then tackle the problem.
Basically, if your STEM exams and assignments at a place like Emory (which is supposed to be educating and challenging a talented student body) have almost exclusively questions that are short, sweet and to the point (like a lot of multiple choice science exams in HS, or fill-in-the blank and true/false heavy exams) and extremely straight-forward, you will likely love your teacher because they are easier to study for and make it easy to get an A in, but they aren’t prepping you for the MCAT nor research in science. You’ll know who these profs. are because students who speak of them highly usually drop “code-words” like “fair” and “straight-forward” which is often code for: “If you memorized their notes, worked problems, or the book, it should be easy to do well”. The difference between these folks and some of the more reputable instructors at Emory is night and day and students know it. The more reputable instructors require you to go a bit further in your understanding, surface learning techniques simply don’t work as well. You have to either have deep understanding or be creative and be able to improvise on the spot to be successful even after studying properly. Also a big hint is that such instructors are often more prone to mixed reviews and the bad reviews are often associated with the difficulty of their courses or grades (basically many students are evaluating based on revenge and not quality. It takes some pretty mediocre or bad teaching for an easier instructor to get bad ratings, especially bad ratings that comment primarily on the difficulty of the course).
Also, for prospective students: one may think: “oh a reading intensive exam, well, good, I did well on the verbal portion of the SAT”…while I find it helps, usually students interested in STEM are not used to having science exams like that so get frustrated easily with things like the MCAT or more challenging instructors at their school. Students are used to it in subjects like English and the social sciences but are mostly accustomed to science tests that are fact based or ask for students to regurgitate the problem solving strategies used by the teacher (IE tests and assignments have the exact same problem types as presented in class or HW and no different). It takes many some time to get used to, but people who take better instructors will likely thank that person provided that they do decently in the course (yes, unfortunately this sometimes involves a B grade).