
Do you wonder why you always get the worse professor? Have you ever wondered why your friends always get cool professors? Here at CollegeTechBits, we have the answers.
So, how do you get the best professor possible for each class? Well, have you ever heard of RateMyProfessor? If you haven’t then your mind is about to be blown. If you have then you already know why this website is so valuable to a college student. RateMyProfessor is a website that collects reviews from students about their current and past professors. It then gives each professor an overall rating based on their student reviews.
If you want to master this tool and make sure you always have the best professor possible read below.
Rate My Professor: Sign Up
The sign-up page should look something like this. It will ask for an email and password to sign up for a new account. You don’t need to sign up to use the services but will gain some added perks for doing it. One is that you will be able to find your favorite professors faster instead of searching through the whole database. Another is your college will be saved so when you search for professors it will only look for professors who teach at your college.
I would recommend signing up here if you already don’t have an account.

Rate My Professor: Searching
After logging in your screen should have a search bar. It should say find a professor at whatever college you entered. Since I go to Brigham Young University then any professor I search in the box should only be teaching at my college. If you entered the wrong college or want to search professors at a different school then the link at the bottom lets you switch so you can search the college you want to see results from.
Rate My Professor: Understanding the Rating

After searching for a professor you should get a screen like this. On the left should be the overall rating out of 5 with the professor’s name. For example, on this page, Luke Howard has an overall rating of 3.9 out of 5 which is pretty good. You can also see how many ratings professor Howard has below his rating. He currently has 207 ratings which is a lot of ratings which means his numbers are fairly accurate. Sometimes you will come across newer professors who don’t have that many ratings. Be aware that their overall rating isn’t very accurate the fewer ratings they have so be cautious when deciding.
Another handy statistic you can see on the left is the would take again percent. This is how many students would take a class from that professor again. I always look for a 70% and higher when looking for a good professor because that shows that the majority of students would take a class again from that professor. If they have a 50% or lower it’s probably best to avoid that professor.
If you want to know how difficult the workload is for a given professor then the level of difficulty is a good indicator. Professor Howard has a difficulty rating of 3.5 which is higher than average (rating is out of 5). This indicator can be miss leading because this is the average rating over all of the Professor’s classes, this includes higher-level classes. The rule of thumb is to search for just your class when looking for a good indicator of difficulty.
Rate My Professor: Class Ratings
This what a class search looks like. I searched for all reviews on just MUS201. If you remembered that professor Howard’s difficulty was a 3.5 but here you can see that the difficulty is only 1 why is that? It’s because this class is very easy. Notice the quality is also a 5 for this class seems like this class is really good.
I also want you to look at the headings on each review. Each has important information on if the class has mandatory attendance, if the textbook is required, and the grade the student received for the class. Each of these are important in determining if the class is right for you.

The tags at the bottom are also important as they give little snippets of information about the class. For example, on these reviews, you can see the tags respected, test heavy, get ready to read, and clear grading criteria. These are pre-made tags that Rate My Professor makes. You can pick from these tags and add them to your review so it’s easier for other students to clearly see what the class is like.
Rate My Professor: Looking At A Bad Professor

Now that we know how to lookout for a good professor I want to briefly talk about how to look out for a bad professor. The simplest rule is if you see a lot of red RUN! This is a clear indicator that this professor should be avoided at all costs. If the professor is consistently getting bad reviews then you know that the professor probably isn’t the best fit for you. You should still look into a bad professor because you can sometimes find useful information like secret extra credit or grading procedures that the professor doesn’t share until the end of the semester. It’s always worth your time to look up a professor.
Rate My Professor: Writing a Review
You can also write your own reviews on a RateMyProfessor. If you had a professor you loved or a professor who made your life miserable let other students know. It’s very simple and easy to fill out the form. Here is a sample form I filled out on Professor Howard.


The form is very straightforward with what is required to fill it out. It gives you options to add tags to the form on the right and a little snippet for you to write a short review of the professor. Once you are finished you press the submit button and your review is posted online so everyone can see it.
RateMyProfessor is a very handle tool that every college student should know about. It will save you time and heartache if you’re able to avoid that crazy professor. If you enjoyed our guide be sure to share it with your friends so they can learn the ins and outs of RateMyProfessor.