Is Chegg Worth It For Students?

Is Chegg Worth It

Students don’t make much money and in most cases have to spend considerable amounts of money paying for tuition, books, and many more. With the introduction of educational resource platforms like Chegg and Course Hero, the question of whether these platforms are worth it gets raised quite often.

While financially the pros of using Chegg may outweigh the cons, this issue needs to be addressed from other relevant angles that could impact students one way or the other. This article will aim to address all relevant factors to consider before deciding on using Chegg and whether it’s worth it.

What Is Chegg

Chegg is a platform that provides digital and physical textbooks rentals, homework help, online tutoring, questions and answers, scholarships, and other educational resources for students. Chegg like other educational resource platforms serves as an invaluable resource to students all over the world enrolled in any college program or even at high school.

Students weren’t the only group to benefit from Chegg as tutors could also leverage the platform to make an additional income simply by answering questions and providing online tutoring. Unfortunately, that aspect of Chegg’s service popularly known as Chegg Tutors has been discontinued by the company as of early 2021.

The company still maintains its other services and students are able to leverage the platform to receive the necessary support and resources in their academics.

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Pros Of Using Chegg

1. Various Subscription Packages

Depending on your need Chegg has a subscription package perfect for you. Packages range from Chegg Writing to Chegg Study Pack, students can choose from Chegg’s multiple plans.

Subscription plans available include:

Chegg Study

  • Over 55 million Expert Q&As and Textbook Solutions
  • Guided video explanations
  • Ask up to 20 questions a month
  • Practice problems

Chegg Math Solver

  • Steps and sub-steps for equations
  • Input your custom equation
  • Graphing calculator

Chegg Writing

  • Instant citations in 7,000+ styles including APA & MLA
  • Check your paper for plagiarism & grammar mistakes
  • Receive expert proofreading for your writing within 24 hours

Chegg Study Pack

  • Access to all the other packages

2. Affordable

While a $15 or $20 per month subscription can be seen as steep for a student, the resources available on subscription make it well worth every penny. Pricing for each plan can be found below:

Chegg Study Pack

Price: $19.95

Chegg Writing

Price: 9:95 per month

Chegg Math Solver

Price: $9.95 per month

Chegg Study

Price: $14.95 per month

3. 24/7 Expert Support

Students always have access to support on Chegg as experts are readily available to provide students with the necessary support. This is invaluable as this will help students better understand their homework as opposed to simply copy-pasting solutions available on the platform.

While students may not be able to receive the necessary after-school lesson support from their professors or peers, Chegg becomes an invaluable resource that students can leverage to gain a better understanding of any challenging topics.

4. Homework Solutions

While you may not find answers to every homework on Chegg, the platform has a large database of questions provided by students. Students looking for solutions to their homework can find solutions provided by tutors and other experts on the platform.

Additionally, students can leverage the platform to verify their solutions or other approaches to solving a particular problem.

A typical example is writing code for a programming assignment. Students will be able to find other ways to write any function by leveraging some inbuilt classes and methods they didn’t know about to simplify the solution. In this case, the students learn to write even cleaner code by analyzing other solutions on the platform.

5. TextBooks

 One of the major selling points of Chegg is the affordable textbook rental service they provide. Tertiary education can be very expensive and the costs associated with purchasing the necessary study materials can be overwhelming for students and guardians.

Chegg provides students an alternative by renting them the necessary books at affordable prices. Students can save up to 90% on premium textbooks which presents a considerably high level of savings compared to the alternative.

Cons Of Using Chegg

1. School Regulations

With some students misusing Chegg, some educational institutions ban the use of the platform by their students. Access to the platform is blocked on the school’s network and students who manage to access the platform on the school network are penalized.

While such institutions may have strict regulations against the use of such platforms, it is worth noting that they are unable to track students using the platform unless they access them through the school’s network.

And although Chegg doesn’t notify schools of student activity on the platform, the company’s honor code enables them to assist schools in the case of an extensive academic integrity breach by a student.

2. Wrong Answers

While answers provided by Chegg tutors are mostly correct, some of these freelance tutors may not be professionals in a particular field. This means some answers provided by these tutors may be wrong.

Additionally, some professors and teaching assistants resort to providing wrong answers or slightly tweaked answers to identify their students who copied answers from these platforms.

3. Ethical Concerns

Chegg as a platform is an invaluable resource for students but the misuse of the platform by some students leads to ethical concerns from both teachers and students. This has led to some teachers and students doubting the ethics of any student using the platform.

4. Subscription

While the subscription plans provided on the platform are affordable, students at the tertiary education level who may not have any consistent stream of income may not be able to sustain a monthly subscription.

Is Chegg Worth It

Now we’ve looked at the pros and cons of using Chegg, let’s weigh them and see whether subscribing to the platform is worth it. Based on our assessment, the pros most definitely outweigh the cons in this case.

That said, it is necessary to ensure that your educational institution has no regulations against the use of Chegg, Course Hero, or any other educational resource platforms.

Chegg saves students up to 90% on premium textbooks using their textbook rental service. Chegg’s subscription services also enable students to access educational materials, 24/7 lesson and homework support, questions and answers, and study notes at an affordable price.

Yes. Financially it’s affordable, economically Chegg’s premium textbook rental service is a huge saving on purchasing books, and academically, the resources available on the platform on subscription serve as an invaluable supplement for learning.

While the resources available on Chegg serve to supplement lessons, students should note that simply copy-pasting answers available on the platform in your assignments is a sure way to fail any final test.

Copy-pasting answers go against their honor code and the company is willing to assist institutions should an honor code investigation be requested. It’s advisable to leverage the extensive resources available on the platform to aid in better understanding.

Is Chegg Study Pack Worth It

To put it in another way, using Chegg is in some ways like paying for a personal tutor to come to your house to help you better understand concepts, and even solve your homework.

In the case of Chegg, the teacher is the resources available on the platform and students can easily access them to aid in their studies.

Yes, Chegg’s study pack is only worth subscribing to when students leverage it as a guide to aid them to better understand their area of study. Simply copy-pasting solutions from Chegg and presenting them as your assignment would only lead to penalties for plagiarism from your institution.

Most of the solutions available on the platform include some level of explanation to help students better understand any particular concept.

Is Chegg Tutoring Worth It

While Chegg tutoring was profitable means of generating additional revenue for some tutors, Chegg Tutors service has been shut down as of 15th January 2021. Tutors still looking to make extra income can leverage other alternatives like Course Hero.

The Bottom Line

Chegg is a great study resource for students which can be leveraged to facilitate individual learning at an affordable price. With the tremendous savings on study materials Chegg presents, it’s a service worth paying for.

Akshay Vikhe

I am an aspiring Data Scientist with a huge interest in technology. I like to review courses that are genuine and add real value to student’s careers. Read my story

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