Jessica Lo is a junior at Cornell University majoring in Operations Research and Information Engineering. Upon graduation, Jessica wishes to pursue a career in the consumer goods industry. Jessica is a GradeGuru Brand Director at Cornell University and a contributing author to our blog.

At the beginning of the semester, I noticed a lot of students handing over $60 to purchase a set of TakeNote lecture notes for their popular class. I was thinking to myself, why are students paying for a note taking service when there is a much better (and free) alternative available.

The main advantage that GradeGuru has over TakeNote is that GradeGuru is absolutely free. GradeGuru provides reliable lecture notes and great study material for a wide variety of classes, and not just those that are considered popular. From economics to computer science, you are sure to find the material that you need. And if the notes are not available for your specific class, you can also look at other students notes from another college or better yet, you can be the first to upload your notes to the site.

When you share your notes on the website, you can accumulate points toward great rewards, including cash and gift cards. If you are already taking notes for your classes, why not share it with other students? Not only will other students thank you for your efforts, but you will also be rewarded by GradeGuru. Money shouldn’t be flowing from your pocket into Takenotes for their lecture notes, but you should be the one rewarded and recognized for your great notes.

GradeGuru really provides a sharing network that allows students to share their notes, study together, build their academic reputation and earn rewards. And with the price of education rising, the last thing you need is to be spending more money on lecture notes, and GradeGuru is helping students to do just that. So, make sure to hold onto your $60 and go see what GradeGuru has to offer you. Im sure youll get more out of it than youve ever thought I definitely have.