Chegg Tutors, formerly known as InstaEDU, is one of the best online tutoring services and our pick for the top overall. In our Chegg Tutors review for 2020, we’re particularly impressed with the high quality of the tutors due to a notoriously rigorous hiring process. Chegg is widely known, and although caters to all levels of education, tends to have the majority of its students in high school or college. Chegg Tutors is also the choice of the best student loan lender Sallie Mae, which offers a college starter pack with the tutoring service to college students who enlist the help of Sallie Mae to pay for their education.
We found that Chegg Tutors is effective in helping students get better grades and perform better in class because it’s a more comprehensive approach to extra-curricular learning. Chegg Tutors is a complete package of lessons, tutoring, and learning tools to help any student, regardless of age and education level, exceed expectations.
Chegg Tutors review: Platform
Depending on the subscription you choose, students will have multiple ways to both select a tutor and then interact with them.
Getting started is easy: you can enter a subject that your child needs help with in the search box, and specific questions they have, and then a tutor will reach out to you as soon as possible. Or, you can search among tutors to find one you want to work with by browsing profiles, reading reviews of the tutors’ lessons, and evaluating a tutor’s overall rating.
Students can choose to interact with tutors by chat, audio, video, and a live whiteboard which the tutor and the student can use to collaborate.
We found pricing to be somewhat unclear, however. Lessons start at $6.95 and can be paid for as you go without a subscription, but if you opt for a subscription, you will have a predetermined number of minutes you can use, depending on the plan. We saw no mention of what happens if you need any more time beyond the allocated minutes for that plan, so a student who is seeking a lot of help should choose their plan carefully, or simply opt for a different service. This is a different way of structuring the plan options than another service like Wyzant, which starts at $35 per hour, depending on the tutor you choose. Alternatively, you can pick a service like Skooli, which offers the option to pay as you go with a set price per minute.
Chegg Tutors review: Lessons and tutoring
While searching for more information about Chegg Tutors’s services, we found it quite difficult to determine the exact structure of the tutoring service. There is an unclear delineation of services, and the tutoring possibilities are open-ended, meaning that you could opt for a specialized service, like Math Solver, or you could simply send the same math problem to a tutor for help. It’s also unclear as to how the tutors conduct lessons, and if Chegg offers guidelines to tutors on how to structure their lessons. Each session is very unique - as unique as the student and tutor pairing, so if you are unsure if Chegg Tutors is worth it, try a pay-per-lesson or pay-per-minute plan instead of a subscription.
Generally, students and parents are satisfied with Chegg Tutors. However, “lessons” are not lessons in the strictest sense of the word - chats between tutors and students don’t tend to be long and drawn-out discussions and explanations. It is universally agreed that Chegg is of better value for one-off questions that students can get help with in 10 to 15 minutes or less. In our research, we saw few people - students or parents - recommend Chegg as a long-term solution for in-depth learning. That being said, the help these students received was generally of good quality and the tutors they worked with were knowledgeable and patient.
Grades: All levels, including elementary school, and post graduate and career training programs
Price: Starting at $6.95/lesson
Subjects: Everything from reading and algebra to engineering and nursing
Programs: Lessons, tutoring, test prep, and more
Times available: Tutors available 24/7
Chegg Tutors review: Learning tools
One of the great advantages of opting for Chegg Tutors is gaining access to the many tools that assist students who may have different styles of learning. It’s not just one-on-one instruction - through Chegg Study, students who, for example, may not yet have confidence to reach out for help, can learn from videos explaining tough concepts. Chegg Math Solver can help with specific math problems that students may be stuck on (the service also has a snap-a-photo-and-send capacity). Chegg Writing focuses on checking students’ work for plagiarism and grammar mistakes. For studying, students can create digital flashcards directly on the site and use them to study for exams .
For older students, particularly those preparing to apply to college and those in college, there are a number of resources available other than just tutoring. Students can get help to prepare for standardized tests like the SATs, rent textbooks at a discounted price, and search for scholarships and internships. Although these services are not tutoring tools in the strictest sense, they will help a student build an impressive roster of achievements and experiences that will better prepare them and give them a brighter future.
With so many valuable tools, it’s easy to see the upside of opting for Chegg Tutors. However, in our research, it was hard to ignore all the concerns of parents and teachers about the possibility of cheating, whether it’s on homework or on take-home exams. If you are a parent looking for an online tutoring service, we recommend that you supervise your child’s use of Chegg Tutors to ensure fair practices.
Should I choose Chegg Tutors?
Chegg is a comprehensive solution to learning outside the classroom and makes the most of having great teachers at its service. We think that Chegg is better used as a way for students to get help with their homework, and not necessarily for a long-term solution to tutoring: if you need more in-depth and consistent help, chat-only lessons or a limited amount of minutes per tutoring plan are not necessarily the best options to choose from. Despite this, and because of all the learning tools, the talented tutors, and the student-focused pricing, we find Chegg Tutors to be a great blanket option if you’re just exploring the idea of having a tutor at your fingertips for immediate help. If you are a college student or a high school student who needs an extra boost to set you on the right path to a rewarding career (through a combination of internships, scholarships, and tutoring), Chegg Tutors is the right choice for you.
