At the end of each quarter, Ohio State urges students to fill out evaluations of professors through the school’s system. But on RateMyProfessor.com, an online teacher database, students tend to be a bit more candid with their opinions.

Fortunately for OSU’s Steve Chordas III, responses to his teaching have been so favorable that he is ranked No. 7 on the website’s 25 Highest Rated Professors list.

“This guy is what other Ph.D’s at OSU should emulate,” wrote one student about the biology department’s senior lecturer. He’s a “class act, treats students fairly, and is just a happy-go-lucky kind of guy.”

Another visitor of the website wrote, “He is the only reason why I go to Bio. He is what the class needs to make it tolerable.”

In addition to comments on the website, students numerically rank each professor using a five-point scale assessing clarity, helpfulness, easiness and rater interest.

To create the top 25 list, each professor’s average rating was used, and only professors with 30 ratings or more were included, according to the website’s methodology.

For Chordas, who has been at OSU since 1999, news of his high ranking came as a surprise.

“It was quite a shock — almost unbelievable,” Chordas said. “I think of myself as an average guy, so I’m humbled by it. It’s validation that what I’m doing is reaching students.”

Chordas was Ryan Moore’s instructor for Biology 101 during Winter Quarter 2009.

“Steve was great,” said Moore, a third-year in marketing. “He surprisingly kept me awake for the full hour and 48 minutes (of the class) and he generously gave me and every other student 100 percent on the midterm.”

This “generosity” was the result of a mishap in February 2009 that left instructors without enough copies of a midterm to hand out to students. About 700 students enrolled in Biology 101 got perfect scores on the test because of the mistake.

“That was a nightmare — the worst day of my life,” Chordas said.

For years, Chordas had taken full responsibility for making exams, counting them and preparing them for students. But on that day, he relinquished his responsibility to other staff members because he said they seemed to think he didn’t trust them with the task.

Chordas realized the problem when he saw students staring at him 15 minutes into the 48-minute exam without tests in their hands.

Chordas said he thought, “Oh my gosh, I don’t think we have enough.”

As the clock ticked away, some students were nearly finished with the test while others waited to begin.

Chordas had to act quickly.

Giving everyone 100 percent “wasn’t the choice I wanted to make, but as a student it wasn’t their fault,” Chordas said. “We failed on our part, and I couldn’t punish them.”

Finally, Chordas announced that students should sign their answer sheets and everyone would receive full credit, which stirred up mixed emotions among students.

“The students were in disbelief,” Chordas said. “Some were elated and others not so much.”

He said that was the first and last time he would ever let someone else handle the task of counting exams.

Instances such as this, where every student received an A, could account for why some students do not find Chordas’ class challenging.

“The only thing I think his downfall is, is that his class is super easy,” said Alyssa Trocchio, a second-year in nursing. “I don’t think I missed one point.”

But Chordas doesn’t like to classify his course as easy.

“It’s not that it’s easy, it’s straightforward,” Chordas said. “You’re going to have the entire range of individuals, and some think it’s basic and others think it’s hard, but I don’t take (being called an easy teacher) as an insult.”

The fact that Chordas’ class is considered easy is reflective of the students, he said.

“I really, really enjoy teaching and appreciate the students who come to class,” Chordas said. “It’s a joy for me and is commendable to them. I learn something from them, and it’s a testament to OSU when you teach your teacher.

“If they can take things from my class and discuss them with a friend or roommate and say, ‘Oh yea, did you know that?’ then I feel like I have succeeded.”