How accurate is Rate My Professors?

btledfo
Thu, 27 Nov 2014 02:05:53 +0000

I agree to those saying that Rate My Professor is most accurate when:

1. There are multiple reviews (as in between the upper 50’s and 100’s, depending on your school’s size)

2. The instructor has been teaching for a good while

3. The instructor teaches a large class or a general education class that caters to a wide variety of students

For example, for almost all my Gen Ed’s and lower level science classes (Gen Chem, Bio, etc.) the RMP reviews were extremely accurate almost 80% of the time.

However, as I’ve taken much higher level classes, the reviews have gotten more sparse and varied. For example, there is a teacher I am taking for my 300-level Genetics course who has only been an instructor for a couple years. I went on RMP and all the 5 measly reviews were negative, saying her tests were “impossible” and her teaching was “non-existent.” However, I’m about to finish the course and I thought her tests were a piece of cake and, while her clarity can be off, she gets some points across very well.

So generally, when it comes to new teachers, I tend to not trust the reviews as much because new teachers starting out will eventually change the way they teach and grade over time to improve. A few angry students who probably put little effort into the class and expected a good grade to be handed to them probably aren’t the best ones to trust either.

I think it is all about attitude, really. If you come into a class, solely depending on RMP and the teacher to get you the grade you want, you’re probably going to struggle more than if you have the initiative to adapt and teach yourself, then it doesn’t matter how hard, unclear, boring, or mean your teacher is, you can still do well.