Ever wish you could find out how hard a class was before you took it, how a teacher graded before you turned in your first essay, or what other students think about Paly teachers? Students will be able to access all this information and more at http://AboutSensei.com, a Paly student-created Web site that will be available by the summer.

The Web site will include textbook lists and distributors; grading scales; syllabuses; reviews of teaching, grading styles, and tests; and tutoring services, according to http://AboutSensei.com.

Junior Albert Chen, the creator of http://AboutSensei.com, hopes the Web site will be comprehensive and make students more prepared for their classes.

“The goal is to profile most of the teachers at Paly, and create a Web site where students can search for teachers that they want to learn more about,” Chen said. “It’s pretty much everything you ever wanted to know about teachers. You can be prepared before the class.”

Freshman Gregory Dunn agrees that the Web site would make him more prepared for his new classes.

“It is nice to know what the year ahead is going to be like, and more information can only help,” Dunn said. “AboutSensei.com would make me more relaxed in class, for I would already know everything but the information taught.”

However, Dunn says that the Web site could become too biased.

“There is the potential for students to write unnecessarily mean reviews about teachers due to problems outside the teacher’s control,” Dunn said. “I wouldn’t like some crank to exploit some flaw in my personality to an extreme for the world to see, but this could happen to a teacher on this Web site.”

Chen says that he will try to filter out extreme reviews.

“I’m going to read most of the reviews, and I’ll make sure the reviews aren’t hate mail, nor will they be love letters,” Chen said. “I want to maintain a mostly unbiased view.”

In an email sent to possible contributors, who volunteered to write reviews for the Web site, Chen specified his restrictions further.

“No libel,” Chen said. “In other words, don’t trash teachers; this isn’t a Web site for teacher hate mail.”

Additionally, contributors were told to comment only on teaching style; the difficulty and grading style of essays, tests, and labs; the homework policy; grading scale; and personality of the teacher.

Chen decided to make the Web site after younger students at Paly asked him about their new teachers.

“In the beginning of this school year, my younger friends called me up before school and started to ask me about Ms. [Carolina] Sylvestri and Mr. [Keith] Geller, and what they should look out for — general questions that any student would want to ask before taking a class,” Chen said. “After getting a call almost every day about teachers, I decided to make a Web site to store and present all this information, so everyone could access it. The rest of it just fell into place.”

Chen is optimistic about the future of http://AboutSensei.com.

“It will provide good feedback,” Chen said. “Students will be more prepared for the classes, and not feel as foreign to the teacher. Parents will know who is teaching their kid in school. What’s not to love?”

According to Chen, http://AboutSensei.com is a free service meant for Paly students only, although sophomore Emily Zheng from Gunn High School is creating a Gunn branch.

To contribute to http://AboutSensei.com, email Chen at algebraprodigy [at] gmail [dot] com.