Carney Curve

Boston College course evaluations · every published number, ranked class by class

Positions account for how many records stand behind each number, so one perfect review does not outrank a semester of them. Every score shown is the real average — only the ordering is adjusted.

Instructor record · English · Spring 2023

Aaron Dell

English · 2 evaluation records across 1 class

On this class's board
ENGL 108089th of 90 instructors Provisional
What the overall is made of
65BC evaluations2 records · weight ×1.0 · Spring 2023
60RateMyProfessors1 rating · weight ×2.0 · 0% would take again
Student reviewsno reviews — does not contribute

Sources are averaged by how much we trust each one and by how many records sit behind it, so a handful of reviews nudges the number rather than replacing it.

What the challenge rank is made of
7thMore challenging than 7% of BC instructorsranked against every one we hold
77BC — “Intellectually Challenging”2 records · raw score out of 100

Boston College's own “intellectually challenging” question — students answer it positively about courses that stretched them, so it measures intellectual challenge and NOT grading, workload or quality. Almost every BC class scores high on it, which is why it is shown as a rank rather than a score. RateMyProfessors separately rates this instructor 60 out of 100 for difficulty — that IS a difficulty measure, but it is about the person across everything they teach, not about any one class, so it is shown here rather than folded into the number above.

What the workload rank is made of
48thMore work than 48% of BC instructorsranked against every one we hold
50BC — “Workload”2 records · raw score out of 100

Boston College reports workload as one of five bands, not as a number of hours, and it does not publish what the bands mean — so this site will not translate it into hours. Higher means more work, which is not the same as worse.

Ratings from outside BC

Not evaluation data

Collected from RateMyProfessors, not from Boston College: 1 rating, 0% would take again, difficulty 60 out of 100. Difficulty is not a quality signal in either direction — a harder course is not a worse one.

Anyone can post there — no @bc.edu check and no enrolment check — so it is weighted alongside the evaluation data, never above it.

The line

All 13 items · means across 2 records
The Professor4 items
Clearly Explains MaterialThe instructor was effective at creating an understanding of difficult subject matter.
776th pctl
Available Outside of ClassThe instructor was available for help outside of class.
8310th pctl
Brings Out Your Best WorkThe instructor motivated me to do my best work.
754th pctl
Sparked My InterestThe course stimulated my interest in the subject matter.
776th pctl
The Course3 items
Well-Organized CourseThe course was well organized.
779th pctl
Clear Learning GoalsThe learning objectives for the course were clear.
712nd pctl
Useful Beyond the CourseWhat I learned is applicable beyond this course.
753rd pctl
Assignments & Feedback2 items
Assignments Help You LearnAssignments and exams contributed to my learning.
744th pctl
Meaningful FeedbackThe feedback I received on my work was meaningful.
8319th pctl
Workload, difficulty & attendanceNot ratings
WorkloadHow much work the course took outside class, on Boston College's five-band scale — the band boundaries are not published, so this is not a number of hours.
5048th pctl
Intellectually ChallengingThe course was intellectually challenging.
777th pctl
Attendance MattersAttending class was necessary to do well in this course.
768th pctl

Bar length is the rank against every comparable record we hold, not the raw score: BC's questions all have a median around 4.5, so a raw-scale bar would be nearly full on every row and would tell you nothing. Every bar is one ink colour — nothing here is graded green or red. The hatched bars are not ratings at all: a higher number on either describes a different course, not a better one. 1 of 13 questions were not reported and are left out rather than shown as zero.

Class by class

1 class · 2 sections

How each position is worked outPositions account for how many records stand behind each number, so one perfect review does not outrank a semester of them. Every score shown is the real average — only the ordering is adjusted.

ENGL 1080 Literature CoreOvr65Chal4thWork39th
On this class's board89th of 90 instructors Provisional

2 sections on record · course itself rated 62 out of 100. See the full board for ENGL 1080.

TermSecInstrCourseWork
Spring 202307726640
Spring 202335585760
All 13 items for ENGL 1080
The Professor4 items
Clearly Explains MaterialThe instructor was effective at creating an understanding of difficult subject matter.
773rd pctl
Available Outside of ClassThe instructor was available for help outside of class.
836th pctl
Brings Out Your Best WorkThe instructor motivated me to do my best work.
752nd pctl
Sparked My InterestThe course stimulated my interest in the subject matter.
771st pctl
The Course3 items
Well-Organized CourseThe course was well organized.
777th pctl
Clear Learning GoalsThe learning objectives for the course were clear.
712nd pctl
Useful Beyond the CourseWhat I learned is applicable beyond this course.
751st pctl
Assignments & Feedback2 items
Assignments Help You LearnAssignments and exams contributed to my learning.
742nd pctl
Meaningful FeedbackThe feedback I received on my work was meaningful.
8315th pctl
Workload, difficulty & attendanceNot ratings
WorkloadHow much work the course took outside class, on Boston College's five-band scale — the band boundaries are not published, so this is not a number of hours.
5039th pctl
Intellectually ChallengingThe course was intellectually challenging.
774th pctl
Attendance MattersAttending class was necessary to do well in this course.
765th pctl

Bar length is the rank against every comparable record we hold, not the raw score: BC's questions all have a median around 4.5, so a raw-scale bar would be nearly full on every row and would tell you nothing. Every bar is one ink colour — nothing here is graded green or red. The hatched bars are not ratings at all: a higher number on either describes a different course, not a better one. 1 of 13 questions were not reported and are left out rather than shown as zero.

How to read this pageScores are out of 100 — Boston College's 1–5 agreement scale, ×20, the way these numbers were printed for years. Almost every class scores high on that scale (the median is about 90), so challenge and workload are shown as a rank against every instructor we hold rather than as a score; the raw figure is in the breakdown above. Neither describes quality, and neither is ever marked better or worse anywhere on this site. A dash means the question was not reported, and is never a zero. The position printed against each class is this instructor's place on that class's own board, computed from the same records the board itself is built from.