We Test Drive GradeGuru.com
Michael Gold
Thursday, Nov. 20, 2008Thu, Nov 20, 2008
When we opened the DP yesterday and read about the opportunity to get paid for note-taking, we were thrilled. After all, once we're done with a final, we dump all of the semester's information out of our brains to make room for the next set of classes. Wouldn't it be nice if we were rewarded long after our blue-books were handed in (you can say what you want about learning being its own reward; we'd rather have cold, hard cash)? Besides, since my degree will likely only prepare me for a career as a secretary, this would be great to list as relevant work experience.
But more than that, I was also excited that GradeGuru.com would help me with my econ problem. Okay, full disclosure: I have many econ problems, but the one that I'm most concerned about is my inability to concentrate at 10 a.m. during a class I abhor so wholeheartedly. My notes mostly consist of random graphs and doodles, plus some indecipherable words and equations. Clearly the best method to a good GPA.
My curiosity piqued, I headed over to GradeGuru.com and checked it out (you get 50 free sets of notes without registering). Here's what I found:
- Skip the basic search and head right on over to the advanced. My first search for "economics" turned up tons of results, which is great, but most of them were from Temple and Duke. I can see why this could be helpful for some other classes, but the snobbery of the Penn Econ department suggests otherwise.
- The rating system is a lie. A set of econ notes rated 4.5 stars was five pages that were about the quality of mine. Meanwhile, Jared Fries' notes (the introduction to which deserves a whole page to itself: "Some credit needs to be given to Rebecca Stein for her teaching") contained 36 pages that would basically remove my necessity to ever attend class again.
- As of now, the pickings are slim: the whole site only has 1897 sets of notes for 322 colleges, and only 290 sets for Penn. This means two things: one, the likeliness of me getting paid is higher, but also, two, GradeGuru is not going to significantly alter my ability to graduate. A shame, really.
