RateMyProfessor Vs. Reality

Colleges & Universities University of California - San Diego
1

<p>I understand that negative ratings on ratemyprofessor.com aren’t without bias, but it raises a flag if 95% of a professor’s comments are negative and many advise against taking the class. Would it be stupid to take the class, or more stupid to not take it based on poor ratings on this website? From what I know, many students who give poor ratings are angry with the course and just need to blow some steam. Besides this class, I have 3 time-consuming classes that I wouldn’t sacrifice just to work for an A in this class. </p>

<p>(the professor in question is grinstein. from the more positive ratings, he seems to be a good prof, just hard on the homework/exams. given that it’s also a physics class, the material itself is reasonably difficult, so students can’t always blame on the prof.)</p>

2

<p>I’m assuming this is for Physics E&M… I think all of the reviews for professors teaching that class are negative. It’s not an easy subject. As for the accuracy of the ratings, I’ve found that reviews for the lower-div courses (which usually have a ton of students) are more or less correct. </p>

<p>However, once you get into the upper-divs the reviews are mainly by people who either loved or hated the class (usually the latter). It’s often just the one professor who teaches the course/subject, so once the course numbers hit 100, RateMyProfessor becomes a bit irrelevant. Of course, this is for Computer Science. The other majors could be different.</p>

3

<p>I have also found the rankings on Rate My Prof to be more or less correct. They’re there for a reason, listen to them!</p>

4

<p>I use it more for hints on how the professor teaches the class and what you need to know over actually taking the class.</p>

5

<p>I’ve hated my chem professor who had a smiley face rating and liked my chem professor who had a sad face rating. The site isn’t perfect. When multiple people are saying the same thing, it’s usually accurate. When there seems to be conflicting thoughts on the professor, it’s hard to tell. Also take into account the number of ratings they have. Don’t not take a professor if they have 3 ratings and 2 of them are bad. That means little out of the hundreds of students they have taught. I trust the CAPE evaluations more, but I still use ratemyprofessor.</p>

6

<p>No need to look up ratings. Here is the fact:</p>

<p>Grinstein, Benjamin PHYS 2B W2009 Enrollment: 175<br>
A+ 1.7%<br>
A 4.0%
A- 8.0%
B+ 10.9%
B 10.9%
B- 10.9%
C+ 4.6%
C 10.9%
C- 20.6%
D 11.4%
F 6.3%</p>

<p>A meager 6% A/A+ and a whopping 38% fails.</p>

7

<p>A C- counts as not passing?</p>

8

<p>A C- is passing.</p>

9

<p>A C- is 1.7. A sub-C average will put you on academic probation.</p>

10

<p>^yikes.</p>

<p>i’ve heard 2b is pretty tough out of the whole series.
i’m taking 2a (mechanics). there are hundreds of poor ratings for 2b, and a few (more positive ones) for 2a. he’s the only one teaching next quarter, and i’m going to be optimistic… but a little troubled of the workload, as i have other classes to worry about.</p>

11

<p>where did you get those percentages from? are they available for other classes too?</p>

12

<p>can someone tell me if this scale is correct?</p>

<p>4.0 - A+, A
3.7 - A-
3.3 - B+
3.0 - B
2.7 - B- ?
2.3 - C+
2.0 - C
1.7 - C-
1.5 - D ?
1.0 - F ?</p>

13

<p>92faim</p>

<p>Here is the link with the correct grading scale, [Grading</a> System](<a href=“http://blink.ucsd.edu/instructors/academic-info/grades/system.html]Grading”>Grading System). </p>

<p>Everything you have is correct except for a D = 1.0 and a F = 0.0</p>

14

<p>A C- is passing. Getting a C- in one class wont put you on academic probabtion. As long as you average higher than a C-, a C- in one class is good enough.</p>

15

<p>^^you must average higher than a C.</p>

16

<p>^^Yea, you’re right.</p>