Ex-boyfriends teach us a lot of things. We might learn what it’s like to hurt someone, or how to get hurt. Some of us learn about video games, classic rock, or football. I learned about RateMyProfessors.com.

My now-ex went off to college when I was still in high school, and he introduced me to all the secrets that college kids know: pizza tastes better at 2 AM, noon is early, and RateMyProfessors.com is the easiest way to find easy classes.

RateMyProfessors.com (RMP) is an online database where students can submit reviews of their professors. Founded in 1999, RMP now offers reviews for over 1 million professors at 6,000 schools across the US, Canada, England, Scotland, and Wales. Anyone can post a rating, but to become a member and receive special perks, like editing old posts, one must create an account with a valid email address.

Professors are rated on a scale from 1-5 in the categories of easiness, helpfulness, clarity, and rater interest. They can also be rated separately on their attractiveness, with a chili pepper appearing by a professor’s name if he or she is deemed “hot.”

Finding easy classes hasn’t always been my chosen use for this website, but that’s certainly one of its perks. RMP is great for scoping out any kind of class you plan on taking, to get a better idea of what you might be in for. When the Course Offering Directory is released each semester, I spend some time reading through the offerings and jotting down what might be interesting—or, perhaps more importantly, what gives me Friday off. Then, with the names of the classes and their professors in hand, I head to RMP.

For required courses, the website can be helpful in preparing for the coming semester. I can enter a class on the first day armed to fight back against monotones, difficult tests, or lengthy writing assignments. I have also found RMP helpful in choosing electives, because I can select engaging teachers and fun topics.

“It’s like having an older sibling who went through the school before you,” says a University of Virginia student, who uses RMP almost every semester. “You get all the tips and tricks for choosing classes—the secrets you wouldn’t learn about otherwise.”

Well over half the ratings on the site are positive, and students can usually get a pretty good representation of what will be in store for them if they take a certain class with a certain professor. In fact, a study done by the University of Maine found that ratings on RMP were comparable to the ratings given on in-class evaluations.

Don’t get me wrong; RMP isn’t 100% accurate. I’m big on reading the comments that accompany the reviews, so I know what makes a teacher good. One of my French teachers got straight 5s across the board because her male students thought she was hot, which is great for them but won’t help me learn le subjunctif.

Overall, RMP is great. I wouldn’t decide my classes based solely on its ratings, but it’s a useful tool to supplement my decision-making. It’s nice to know ex-boyfriends are good for something.