When I register for a course, one of the first things I do is get second opinions on the course professor, either from the Rate My Professors website or from my peers.
This type of pre-course researching has become part of my routine during the registration period. I feel the need to look up each professor and see what other students have said about them. If I see that a professor’s ratings are quite low and students found their class to be a nightmare, I try to avoid taking the course with them.
That being said, the more I have used Rate My Professors and talked to other students about their experiences, the more I’ve started to notice something interesting. Many of the positive reviews seemed to come from students who did well in the class, while the negative reviews often came from students who struggled.
On the website, there’s an option to include the grade you earned in a certain course, and by observation, students who opted for this inclusion have satisfactory grades and subsequently gave positive reviews of the professor. However, students who did not include their grades gave negative reviews of the professor.
I have noticed something similar in my own experiences as a student. Regardless of how I initially felt about a professor, my overall opinion of the course often ends up being shaped by how I performed in it.
If I did well in a class and felt confident about the material, I usually ended the semester feeling that the professor was effective and that the course was well structured. But if I struggled with the material and felt overwhelmed by the workload, it was much easier for me to feel frustrated with my professor.
A course I took a few semesters back made me look back and reflect on this pattern. The course itself was very challenging and required a lot of independent studying outside of the lectures. As finals approached and the stress began to build, I remembered thinking, “Why is this class so difficult?” and “This prof is demanding way too much from us.” The more overwhelmed I felt with the material, the more frustrated I felt toward the person teaching it. However, looking back objectively, I feel as though the professor was thorough in teaching the course. The lectures were well organized, even though the concepts were difficult to understand.
This experience made me realize how much my emotions and stress levels can influence my judgments, and I feel this may be the same for many students. When students feel anxious about exams or disappointed about their grades, those emotions can affect how they view the professor.
At the same time, it’s important to recognize that this pattern does not mean that every negative review is unfair. Sometimes professors genuinely do struggle with explaining material clearly, organizing their course effectively or even supporting students when they need help. Student feedback can be very valuable and can highlight real issues within the classroom that could make professors evaluate their teaching style and be more effective.
Overall, experiences like mine suggest our perceptions of professors are shaped not only by their teaching ability but also by our performance in their courses and our emotions throughout the semester. Recognizing this influence can help us approach course evaluations and online reviews with a more balanced perspective.
