If you’re a student, then you’ve probably heard of Chegg before. This is an incredibly useful online learning service that can help students with their schoolwork in more ways than one. For one thing, Chegg allows users to buy or rent out their textbooks, whether they’re secondhand or brand-new. Not only that, but it also has a subscription service that you can become a member of if you need assistance with writing, math, and homework.
The slew of features doesn’t end there, though. Chegg also has a flashcard app that you can utilize for free. Students who are already thinking about internships or considering getting a scholarship can also benefit from Chegg, as the platform lists these down along with financial advice to fit every student’s needs.
Some may think that these features aren’t seamless and unified under one app, and truth be told, it’s completely understandable why they’d feel this way. This is because some of Chegg’s features are only available on the website itself, while others can be accessed through its respective apps. Nevertheless, the various services and Chegg as a whole can be extremely useful no matter what kind of student you are, especially those who are struggling with math.
In this review, we’ll lay down our honest thoughts about Chegg, as well as discuss its limitations, payment plans, refund policy, and a lot more.
Getting Started
When you’re first creating a Chegg account, you need to be specific as to whether you’re a student or a teacher. If you’re a student, you need to indicate your level i.e., whether you’re in high school or college, among other details such as your year and which college or university you go to. That being said, it doesn’t seem like someone from the Chegg team verifies the information you type in.
In fact, you can use your regular email instead of a .edu email when signing up. You can even use your Apple, Google, or Facebook account as a way of authentication if you don’t want to sign up manually. Once you’ve created your account, you’ll see that there are different sections in Chegg. You’ll find sections related to:
- Books;
- Writing;
- Math Solver;
- Money;
- Study;
- Flashcards;
- Internships; and
- Scholarships.
The platform used to have a tutoring marketplace in the past as well, but it seems that Chegg is slowly phasing that feature out as of this year. That being said, many people have debated as to whether Chegg and other sites like it are ethical or fair. Specifically, would you be able to call it cheating if you paid Chegg’s subscription service just so you can gain access to answers for schoolwork?
Well, it completely depends on your perspective. Consider this: if students are using Chegg to amplify the learning experience so they can understand their lessons even more, then we can view this as something positive.
Are There Any Limitations?
When you’re a Chegg user, you can basically access nearly everything the platform has to offer—both on the website and on any of its companion apps. These companion apps include Chegg eReader, Chegg Study, Chegg Prep or Flashcards, and Chegg Math Solver.
For the Math Solver, you can simply take a photo of the mathematical equation you’re having a difficult time with and upload it onto the app. Doing so means that you’re asking help from others to find the solution and that you don’t want to find the answer yourself manually on your calculator.
That being said, a Chegg representative has confirmed that those users who are paying for the subscription can only register two devices simultaneously. If you have more than two devices, this could pose as a potential hassle for you, although two is definitely better than one. On one of Chegg’s Help pages, it explains there how you can easily register and unregister devices as you see fit. However, note that you can only remove and replace a device once every 30 days.
While being able to register up to two devices seems reasonable enough, many Chegg users were disappointed to find this limitation because they weren’t aware of it in the first place. As such, many users have accidentally locked themselves out of their accounts because of this accident.
Of course, we understand that Chegg implements this policy to avoid password-sharing among students, but this may prove to be challenging for those students who may be using school-issued devices or library computers to do any of their work. It would be great if the Chegg team was able to create a workaround so that the learning service can become a more accessible platform to its users.
Chegg’s Payment Plans
When you initially sign up for Chegg, you don’t have to immediately subscribe to the service. In fact, you can access some of its features for free, including the listings containing information about internships and scholarships, as well as the flashcard app and the section for money advice. You can even have a free taste of the more service-oriented features like Chegg Writing and Chegg Math Solver—but for the most part, these features are fully available for a price.
If you want, you can buy an individual service for $9.95-$19.95 a month, but you can also buy it in a bundle for $19.95 a month.
Here’s a quick breakdown of all the different subscription plans:
Math Solver
The Math Solver service only costs $9.95 a month, and it allows you to submit various math problems onto the site. In return, you’ll receive an answer to the problem or equation, along with a solution and explanation of how you can reach that answer for yourself. This can come extremely handy for those students who have linear algebra, algebra, calculus, and the like.
If you’re a free user, you can still use the Math Solver, but only three problems a day. Not only that, but you won’t be able to receive the same detailed explanation of how to reach the answer as in the paid subscription. Paid subscribers also gain access to a graphing calculator, while free users don’t.
Chegg Study
Chegg Study costs $14.95 a month, and it gives you access to a database containing answers to all the questions found in your textbooks. If you’re stuck and you don’t know the answer to the assignment you need to pass tomorrow, you can easily look up the answers on Chegg. If the database doesn’t have the answers you’re looking for, you can also submit new questions onto the site for experts to answer. Answers can arrive between 30 minutes to 24 hours.
The experts who answer your questions are people who work for Chegg, although there’s not a lot of information about them on the US site. So, we don’t know who they are, what their educational attainments are, and what makes them qualified to answer your questions. However, Chegg’s Indian site has a section that provides information on how to become one of the experts and earn money with every question answered.
If you’re studying courses related to math, science, business, engineering, and psychology, then you’d greatly benefit from Chegg Study.
Chegg Writing
Now, if your course requires a considerable number of writing assignments, then you might be interested in Chegg Writing. It costs $9.95 a month and it includes a proofreading service, a plagiarism checker, grammar and spell checks, as well as a tool that can help you make the correct citations and save them for future reference.
With Chegg Writing, you can submit up to 15 papers within a month with as many as 3,000 words each. Then, an expert will go through your draft and provide useful feedback that can help make your paper even better. The turnaround time for this is typically around 24 hours. Once you upload your paper onto the site, it will automatically be added to the service’s plagiarism database.
Of course, if you’re not a paid subscriber, you only get limited suggestions and you won’t get a plagiarism check either.
Bundle, a.k.a. Study Pack
Lastly, you can get the Study Pack for $19.95 a month. This bundle offers all three services for you to freely use. If you find the need for Chegg’s various services, then it may be better to go for this bundle instead of paying for each one individually.
How Much Are the Books?
As briefly mentioned, Chegg also allows you to buy or rent textbooks. Chegg used to allow students to sell their used textbooks to the site, but they’ve long since stopped this. When you borrow a book from Chegg, the platform will already display the return date even before you seal the deal and provide your credit card. Most of the time, Chegg will let you keep the book for an entire semester or five months, and the return shipping is already included in the cost of payment, so you don’t have to worry about that.
You’re allowed to make highlights on the rental books’ pages, but you’re not supposed to write on them. If you end up deciding to just purchase the book for yourself after you’ve rented it, you can also do so. Of course, these secondhand books and rentals, unlike brand-new copies, don’t have any supplemental materials included, such as access codes, DVDs, lab manuals, etc.
Of course, the price range depends on the book you want to get, and there’s no one-fits-all price.
What Is Chegg’s Refund Policy
Chegg also has a refund policy that its users are thrilled about. Specifically, you can request for a refund within 21 days of renting or buying a book. If you want to receive a full refund (shipping not included), you need to return the textbook in the same exact condition as when you first received it. For digital books or eBooks, on the other hand, you can receive a full refund if you return the digital copy within 14 days. If you encounter any issues, you should see all the instructions you need on your Accounts page.
If you decide that Chegg isn’t for you and you want to cancel your subscription plans, you can still access the services you’ve paid for at least until the next billing date arrives. If you don’t want to fully cancel your account, you can also pause your subscription. You can go ahead and switch your membership as long as you’re within the first 30 days of paying for your annual membership.
Account Share Option
As you may have inferred from the previous points, Chegg doesn’t like it when you share your account with other people, which is why it limits its services to two registered devices only per user. If Chegg notices that you’ve been sharing your account, it will automatically suspend your account and you won’t be able to use it for a limited time.
If you don’t want this to happen to you, it’s always best to log out of your account after every use if the device you’re using isn’t your personal device. Also, make sure that you don’t register more devices than the two-device limit because this could also cause your account to be suspended, as this could suggest to Chegg that your account is being shared among others.
Conclusion
Long gone are the days when you scratch your head in confusion and knit your eyebrows together because you’re having a difficult time understanding your schoolwork. With platforms like Chegg, you can easily find all the answers you need along with a detailed explanation. This time around, you can pass your homework with a confident smile on your face because you know that you’re passing in the right answers.
Chegg can be a massive help to students, although its two-device limitation can be a hassle to those students who are simply using school-provided devices. Not only that, but you can also easily rent or buy textbooks from Chegg. If your university library doesn’t have the book you’re looking for, you may have better luck checking Chegg instead. It’s undoubtedly an incredible website, and many students thank the heavens for its existence.
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