- #1
- 100
- 0
What do you guys think of the ratemyprofessors website? So many of the reviewers complain about certain professors because the material on the tests was never covered in class. Should I take this website seriously?
We had to cover 15 long chapters in 15 weeks. And while I can't say for sure who this student is, I do recall that last spring everyone who dropped the course had an extremely poor grasp of Physics II, which is the course in which circuit basics were first taught. It was knowledge that I took for granted. Too fast? Tough $hit. And as for that "long lab writeup" comment, just wait till you get to a university. Or better yet, wait till you have to write a professional paper that you want to have accepted.Course: Circuits
Date: 5/31/06
I personally could not stand him. He moved throught the material way too fast and he did a horrible job teaching it. I ended up dropping my firt class ever. Also, he made the lab writeups way too long. Try to avoid at all costs.
Yes Einstein, every course is easier to understand when you take it a second time. Especially when your first time was during a 6 week summer session.Course: Circuits
Date: 9/5/06
He was a cool guy, and seemed like he might be fun to drink a beer with or something. But as a professor..his lab write ups are extremely long. I'm a straight A student and I now attend Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and I'm taking circuits here. It's much easier to understand. Good engineer, sucky professor.
What a strange comment. It's as if this kid thinks that my "assuming students will be smart" and that having to do "massive practice problems" is somehow bad! Well, I guess it is bad if my assumption about you is mistaken, or if you don't like to do your homework. But if that's the case then I don't care about what you think anyway, and neither should anyone else. And chances are that this student didn't even attempt to ask me for help until it was too late, because I have more office hours than any instructor in the Department, and I am always happy to talk to students. (Well, just the smart ones who are willing to do their practice problems. :rofl: ).Course: Calc II
Date: 1/9/07
Very difficult course and Mattson is adjunct from RPI, so he assumes students will be smart. Isn't an amazing teacher, as are few in the math areas. However, he's very smart and knows his stuff. Asking him for help or easing of a grade is just about worthless; the best way to study is to do massive practice problems.
This was a negative review, but I don't just say, "She sucked, avoid at all costs." The anecdote I related here is a fact. Of course, you can choose to believe it or not, but that's up to you. It just means that if you take this lady's course despite my review, then I get to say "I told you so."Nice lady, but not a good teacher. She'll start a proof, spend 20 min on it, then realize that she screwed it up and must start over. Happens too often for comfort. The maddening thing is that it wouldn't happen at all if she would just prepare for class. She's a high level researcher and knows the stuff, but doesn't seem to care about class. Boo.
I liked this guy a lot. He's gotten several negative reviews for being too fast and talking above students' heads (esp in undergrad courses), but I acknowledge that he would be tough for an undergrad to take.He is The Man. He walks into class with nothing but 2 markers, and delivers the whole lecture from memory, and he does it better than most professors do with lecture notes. I can see why an undergrad wouldn't like him b/c the level of the course is much higher than I expected, but hey this is grad school. XXXXXXXXX rocks.
Exactly. It's good for that.yeah, you shouldn't use the site to see how much you'll like the class or how well you're gonna do in it. Personally, I use it to avoid profs who speak poor english, are unpunctual, etc..
I think that the site is a joke. As someone who is both an educator and a student, I can attach names and faces to several of the reviews that people have either made about me, or about professors I am currently taking. Of those who I can identify, I can tell you that there is a direct correlation between the student's grade and his opinion of the professor. Even for some of the comments whose authors I don't know, the comments are just plain stupid.
I agree the site is used by lazy students as I also attend a community college. My chemistry and physics professors had like a 2.0 rating for ease so I got all scared that I might not do well in the classes. In my chemistry class, all I did to prepare for exams was do the HW problems and study them lightly. I ended up getting over 95% on 3 of the 4 exams. In my physics class, the professor made the exams open-book and made the exam problems EXACTLY like some of the exercises/problems and EVEN EXAMPLES in the textbook, so essentially each exam, you were pretty much guaranteed at least a 50%. Yet he still got only a 2.0 for ease.
And this one for when I audited Calculus.If this as far as you need to go in math, take her. She's an easy grade. HOWEVER, if you need a good solid trig background for Calc I/II and further, take someone else. She rushes through classes and tests are easy. Don't recommend.
Obviously since they were both audits, I had no motivation to bash or give undue credit.Mr. Xxxxx has been described as making the subject difficult, but he's just showing you what it takes to make it. He's available for help often in his office. Sometimes you have to ask him to dumb it down a bit. Good teacher if you know your stuff, if you're weak in the subject, take someone else. If you do know your stuff..he'll help you excel.
Then why not go on the site to give the professor a good review? I think it can be useful if you can differientiate between a raving lazy student and someone who demonstrates specific problems with the teaching method.I agree the site is used by lazy students as I also attend a community college. My chemistry and physics professors had like a 2.0 rating for ease so I got all scared that I might not do well in the classes. In my chemistry class, all I did to prepare for exams was do the HW problems and study them lightly. I ended up getting over 95% on 3 of the 4 exams. In my physics class, the professor made the exams open-book and made the exam problems EXACTLY like some of the exercises/problems and EVEN EXAMPLES in the textbook, so essentially each exam, you were pretty much guaranteed at least a 50%. Yet he still got only a 2.0 for ease.I think that the site is a joke. As someone who is both an educator and a student, I can attach names and faces to several of the reviews that people have either made about me, or about professors I am currently taking. Of those who I can identify, I can tell you that there is a direct correlation between the student's grade and his opinion of the professor. Even for some of the comments whose authors I don't know, the comments are just plain stupid.
My story is similar. Every semester I hand out an assignment sheet with a bunch of practice problems on it. I tell the students that I don't collect or grade them, but I will do any problem in class or in office hours. The students also have access to full solution manuals in the Learning Assistance Center. I tell them that despite the fact that I don't collect homework, it still behooves them to do it anyway, because I choose my exam questions verbatim from those problem sets. My exact words to each section at the start of each semester are, "If you've done the homework, then you've done the exam." I also give them a practice exam with solutions that they can take home and try to do in 1 hour. So not only do they know the pool of questions from which I'll be drawing, but they also know the exact length and format of the exam.I agree the site is used by lazy students as I also attend a community college. My chemistry and physics professors had like a 2.0 rating for ease so I got all scared that I might not do well in the classes. In my chemistry class, all I did to prepare for exams was do the HW problems and study them lightly. I ended up getting over 95% on 3 of the 4 exams. In my physics class, the professor made the exams open-book and made the exam problems EXACTLY like some of the exercises/problems and EVEN EXAMPLES in the textbook, so essentially each exam, you were pretty much guaranteed at least a 50%. Yet he still got only a 2.0 for ease.
See, this is the kind of professor I would want. If you do the homework and master it, you will have mastered the exam. The reviews that worry me are the ones that say the exam resembled nothing from the homework nor anything covered in the lectures.My story is similar. Every semester I hand out an assignment sheet with a bunch of practice problems on it. I tell the students that I don't collect or grade them, but I will do any problem in class or in office hours. The students also have access to full solution manuals in the Learning Assistance Center. I tell them that despite the fact that I don't collect homework, it still behooves them to do it anyway, because I choose my exam questions verbatim from those problem sets. My exact words to each section at the start of each semester are, "If you've done the homework, then you've done the exam." I also give them a practice exam with solutions that they can take home and try to do in 1 hour. So not only do they know the pool of questions from which I'll be drawing, but they also know the exact length and format of the exam.
But it never fails: every time I give an exam there are some students who are shocked at this "curveball" that I've thrown at them. My current "ease" rating is 2.6!
Whenever a student says that I'm a hard professor, I have to pretend to take the complaint seriously. But inside I always wonder, "What is this kid's major malfunction???"