Kaylie Wang is an English sophomore and opinion columnist for Mustang News. The opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of Mustang Media Group.
Half way through last summer, I made the mistake of looking up my professor’s ratings.
I was sitting in a cafe with my friend while she was registering for her classes and reading professor ratings. I was already enrolled in my classes for fall quarter, but I decided to hop onto Polyratings out of curiosity. That’s when I stumbled upon a rating that described a professor as “evil evil evil evil” for a class I was already worried about taking.
These ominous four words continued to haunt me for the rest of the summer. I felt more and more anxious about the class, because I was certain I would have to suffer through a miserable quarter.
Now that the class is over, the truth is, it wasn’t that bad. It was not my favorite class, but I wish I had not read the rating beforehand. I was unnecessarily worried that my experience in the class would be the same as the experiences I read on Polyratings.
Professor and class ratings on platforms like Polyratings or Rate My Professors are complicated. They can come in handy if used wisely and the feedback from other students can help you understand what the class entails and how to succeed in it. But a bad rating shouldn’t completely deter you from taking a class both because of the under-reporting bias and the fact that people perceive the same thing in different ways.
Each student has their own learning preferences and styles, so you should not treat the ratings as the end-all, be-all that you build your entire schedule around. If your schedule is based on others’ opinions, you could miss out on classes and professors you would’ve loved.
It’s important to understand the nuances of these ratings. Here are why ratings don’t accurately describe most experiences in the class, situations where the ratings come in handy and my six tips for using the ratings.
Almost all of the reviews are either raving or ranting
Ratings often do not accurately encapsulate most students’ experience in the class according to the under-reporting bias. When giving a review is optional, only people with an extremely positive or negative experience will leave a review, according to economics professors from the Rochester Institute of Technology.
It’s easy to see this phenomenon when reading Polyratings reviews. Almost all of them are either raving or ranting. But for most classes, students just feel “meh” and don’t care enough to write a review. Relying on these skewed results can mislead you into thinking they represent every student’s perspective. In reality, you’re mainly hearing from people with extreme opinions about the class.
Try to find students who have taken the class previously and talk to them in person. This can help you understand a less extreme perspective. Plus, it gives you the opportunity to ask follow-up questions, something you can’t do with reviews written years before you enrolled.
When are professor ratings useful?
At the same time, we should not completely ignore student-written feedback, because it can provide useful advice about the class. I have agreed with plenty of reviews that perfectly hit the nail on the head.
Reviews can give you a good sense of what the class is like. Of course, professors can change their classes, but the more recent a review is, the more reliable it is. Sometimes, I find that the information in these ratings gives better advice for how to succeed in the class compared to the professor’s syllabus.
A few weeks into a class this fall, I read a professor’s ratings and learned that other students also found their lectures boring. It was validating, but also motivated me to switch up my note taking strategies to stay more engaged in class.
Truthfully, I have both dropped a class and avoided a class entirely based on the course reviews. Every single review said these classes would be very demanding, with a heavy reading workload and high expectations. Ultimately, I decided against taking these two classes because I was feeling burned out and wanted to plan a lighter quarter. I knew taking these classes would be setting myself up for failure.
I like to think this decision was “peer-reviewed,” because I came to the same conclusion after consulting the ratings, friends and classmates. Corroborating your findings about the class can help you make the best decision for yourself.
When your enrollment date for next quarter rolls around, keep these pointers in mind as you peruse Polyratings and shop for your classes. With that in mind, here are my six tips to use the ratings to your best advantage:
Kaylie’s six tips for critically reading ratings
- “Peer-review” your findings. See what is consistent in both the positive and negative reviews. If you can, ask multiple students in person about their perspective.
- Remember that everyone learns differently. What you loved about a class could be the reason a student left a one-star rating.
- Be wary of ratings that come from people who just bash the professor without providing any solid reasons. The under-reporting bias makes it seem like most students have extreme opinions, though that isn’t necessarily true.
- Look for rational reviews that can help you succeed in the class. They’re honest about how much work they put into the class and acknowledge how difficult the professor’s teaching style or class format is. This means they understood how to do well in the class, so take note of their advice.
- Old reviews are usually less accurate. Professors are constantly seeking to implement students’ constructive criticism to improve their teaching. Even the class taught last quarter could be different, especially for new professors.
- For those writing reviews: Professors are human too, so remember that leaving a scathing review does no one any good. Give future students balanced advice without making everything about the professor seem like a lost cause.