According to website ratemyprofessor.com, biology instructor Lester Scharlin is a “mean” instructor who can be talked into “giving you the grade you want.” But then again, he is also “respectful and personable” and “cares for the students as much as the student cares for his class.”

Regardless of which set of opinions are true, students should understand these ratings are merely testimonials, based on the relationships (or lack thereof) that students had with instructors, as well as the responsibility a student takes into his or her studies, not only on an instructor’s teaching skills. Students should not blindly take these opinions as absolute fact.

Just because a professor is labeled as “boring” or “hard” may not necessarily mean that they are. In fact, a professor could do everything in his or her power to make learning more comprehensible for the class, such as repetitively emphasizing office hours, giving study aids and extra credit assignments.

But if a student doesn’t take the time or the effort to assume responsibility for a class by studying, doing assignments or even showing up at all, it’s not surprising that the student will receive a lower grade.

Playing the blame game, students who fail to take responsibility for their low grade may often deem it acceptable to bash instructors on a website, ranting and raving about the instructor’s “faults.”

An instructor labeled as “fun” with a “great personality” or even “hot” may not actually know how to teach. Most of the time, students using these sites are looking for instructors who will give them an entertaining lecture, a min-imum amount of assignments and an easy A. Just because an instructor is “fun” doesn’t mean the student is learning anything; in fact, it may mean that the instructor does not know how to teach and is actually using his or her personality, charm and good looks to cover up that fact.

Even if testimonials are in fact accurate and an instructor is indeed the best or worst, students should be wary before they heed a rating. It would be disappointing for a student to miss out on having the greatest instructor, just because he or she is swayed by a solitary student’s immature opinion.

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Letters to the editor must be signed and must be received one week prior to publication in the Union office, Communications Room 109. Letters are subject to editing for space, libel, obscenity and disruption of the educational process.