Ratemyprofessor has to be taken with a grain of salt of course. Over the year I have learned to read it better. Generally I look for a professor with high level of difficulty yet still with decent overall quality. Students complaining for difficulty but still praises for personality and/or skill. I have reviewed hundreds of them while helping DD to select her professors. She was lucky because we have 6 community colleges within driving distance (3 within 20 minutes), so she had a lot of choices.
I look for comments like;
“So helpful … so hard, Final from chapt 1-20 again, everything in.”
“great teacher…very demanding in her work load”
“Extremely talented and helpful. She is a bit demanding … My longest assignment easily took over 20+ hours”
because they indicate that the students will learn a lot, while being properly supported. This particular professor also grade very harshly (15% A for an art class), yet has high rating.
Or someone with “accent” and hard but still helpful like this professor, because no one is perfect;
“He is the worst chemistry teacher I have ever had. The final exam was so hard.”
"I personally didn’t do as well as I would have wanted, but he is fair. "
“Hard for me to understand his accent … Really helpful … problems are very tricky so you need to understand everything”
“nice professor. His tests are difficult … People are rude to him because he has an accent … you can learn a lot from him.”
“He makes learning chemistry interesting”
“The worst professor ive ever had … Despite his genuine desire to help you … The tests…Ridiculous”
“Chemistry is one of the hardest courses I have taken, but professor is a really great instructor. He takes the time to explain every step”
I felt confident that D would learn well from this professor, and work hard. Understood that she might not ace it, but that was a small price for learning Chemistry well.
On the other hand, remark for the OP professor like;
“won’t even post the homework until the night before it is due.”
“easy grader but his assignments are stupid.”
is someone I would not risk taking.