I ran into my Differential Equations professor on 17th Street. Her class is perhaps the hardest class I have taken in my life. For the four nights prior to the final exam in her class, I dreamt that I had been killed. To say it was a stressful time is an understatement.

In the semesters that have followed, I have come to appreciate her immensely. While her class was difficult, she taught us well and that has made every subsequent class a piece of cake.

My GPA suffered a little because of some of the grades I received in classes with professors like her. And while I learned more than I would have with an easier professor, the intellectual elitist in me was envious of people who got away with excellent grades handed out by professors with lower expectations.

In a few cases, it’s simply the fact that I hate doing my homework that lands me in a soup. Some of my friends who are quite hardworking never miss a single deadline and have near perfect homework scores thus beat me.

It took me a while to realize that a lot of students strategically choose their professors based on grading curves. So if you end up with a professor that goes easy on you, you end up with a significantly higher grade with the same amount of work.

This has baffled me enough to rant about it.

In some cases, the professors are excellent teachers; they’re fountains of knowledge. As one of my school friends would put it, they spill knowledge even when they sneeze. This makes them easy for students to understand when compared to professors who might be brilliant academics, but average teachers.

I completely support the idea of choosing the former over the latter.

Then there are professors who virtually hand out the answer keys. I’m sure we’ve all heard this line at some point of time in our life: “I wouldn’t pay too much attention to section 3.2. It’s not going to be on the test.”

I hated my previous college for this reason. Answer keys to the examinations were “released” on the week prior to the exams. I stood at the entrance of the administration block and almost went through with asking people who were coming to submit their applications to attend a different university. At times, I wished I had the courage to carry through.

You go to an academic institution to gain knowledge and skills, not to beat a test. Choosing a professor whose tests are easy to beat will hurt you in the long run. Besides, when looking at education as a business, the student is the customer. Why wouldn’t you want the absolute most out of college?

Stop for a moment and look at yourself. In a few years, you will be a professional in your stream. Do you want to be substandard at what you do? A good GPA will make your resume’ look prettier, no doubt. But the value of a good education is priceless.

Choose a good professor, not an easy one.