"If people took my class because they thought that it was a grade gut and were surprised, none complained," he says.

CUE Guide

All the professors interviewed for this story say they read their CUE reviews, which provide more objective information than the Confi.

Associate Professor of Economics Aaron Tornell says the CUE Guide is important because it is a good source of information for students and tells teachers whether their classes are too boring, too difficult or too fast.

Metrick says that as economics head tutor he reads all of the CUE Guide articles for the department.

"The CUE Guide goes out of its way to make sure that it has representative comments," Metrick says. "The CUE Guide is a good way to get critical feedback."

But some professors say the CUE Guide is misleading.

"I don't think that a consumer's guide approach to courses is empirical," Nagy says. "Crack categories are not as empirical as they seem."

Levin says that the 1995-1996 CUE Guide review for "Chamber Music" does not accurately reflect his class in terms of difficulty or workload.

"Chamber Music" has a workload rating of 2.3 and a difficulty rating of 2.5, which are classic gut numbers. But Levin says these numbers do not tell the whole story.

"Listening to a piece of music is a highly elastic assignment," Levin explains, saying those who think the workload was light probably did not do the work.

Cooper Professor of Geology Paul Hoffman, who teaches Science A-37, "The Changing Surface of the Earth," says students should not interpret his classes' CUE ratings--a 3.2 difficulty and 3.1 workload--as indicators his class is easy.

"Anyone who thinks that they should take A-37 because it is an easy course would be in for a shock," Hoffman says, noting that students should not rely on old CUE reviews, as he has changed the class--known as "Rocks for Jocks"--significantly.

Toughening Up

Some students suspect that professors are inclined to make their classes harder if they learn that students are calling them guts.