Okay, so your juices are pumping because you just signed up for those courses that you needed, wanted, were intrigued by, or simply had-to-take-and-can’t-avoid-any-longer.

Your best planner and work schedule are meticulously worked out and you’ve budgeted monies for the increase in tuition next Fall. Your commuting plan seems reasonably dependable if the old Toyota keeps holding up. Could there be anything missing in the stew of strategies?

Why yes—could be. You could have left out a vital ingredient: your instructor.

Some students bow their heads, stop reading and insist that we’ll plow ahead no matter who or what. However; with dwindling course choices, you may not realistically have any options of course section or instructor.

Think seriously for a moment about how well you’ve done in your entire educational career when you had a instructor with whom you had a great “fit”.

Remember how the learning was intriguing, the class atmosphere was enhanced, people smiled more than dozed in class. We often looked forward to attending, exploring, being challenged, and working at our personal best. Compare that to the instructors with whom we didn’t seem to “fit”, and that contrast is dramatic—even tragic—indeed.

How does one discover an instructor with whom we’re likely to fit? Well, not by showing up the first day totally in the dark, as most of us do inexplicably. Not by scurrying around some shallow websites that claim to “rate” the instructors. Oy.

Do the raters have training, have agreed-upon criterion, an ax to grind?

Have they been edited in their comments and have they even attended or excelled in the course they’re “rating?”

Wouldn’t you demand answers to those questions if someone rated—or graded—you? Bien sur, monsieur…

Skip’em. They’re too unreliable, spongy and clearly someone else’s one-time opinion.

A far better approach: when you’re considering classes, find out the instructors’ names (Departments can usually update you when it merely lists “staff”) and visit them during their office hours.

Visit teachers during Paid Office hours, which are an ongoing contact for students with all types of questions and concerns.

“Interview” the instructor about her/his particular course: have they a syllabus you could review that includes policies for grading, absences, make-up testing, mid-terms, finals, etc.

Ask if they mostly lecture, or do small group work, or are very visually-oriented in their presentations.

Equally important, be fully prepared to list your own preferences for learning effectively and the obstacles you sometimes encounter.

Be candid, and don’t hold back; good teachers love the engagement and love to teach students who want to be there.

Remember that no one teacher fits for every student; no one student should expect to fit well with every single teacher.