Angela Santiago is part of the GradeGuru marketing team and an NYU student majoring in International Business & Marketing.

As if a Finance midterm isn’t enough to have you stressing out… How about searching through  your classnotes to find the one midterm review sheet for use on the exam (which you spent the entire night preparing) and then realizing a few minutes before the exam that you forgot it at home! Of course the first thought that comes to mind is “THIS IS HOPELESS!”

Yet instead of dwelling on the bad luck I logged on to GradeGuru not thinking that there would actually be notes specific to my class and that particular test. Thankfully I found a review sheet for my exact class so I printed it out just in time!!! And while the midterm review sheet usually is more like a security blanket and most of the preparation comes from the actual writing up of the review sheet, having something I could refer to if need be was better than nothing!

GradeGuru founder Emily Sawtell was recently featured on Tech Talk with Craig Peterson on Boston radio where she discussed the GradeGuru concept and the original research that went into GradeGuru to help students. Emily also discussed the new functions that are currently being integrated into the site to increase site collaboration and real time sharing.

Check out Emily’s segment on Tech Talk: GradeGuru on Tech Talk with Craig Peterson

About Tech Talk’s Craig Peterson: Craig Peterson, host of Tech Talk, is among the top 200 Computer and Internet Consultants in the United States with over 30 years of marketing, design, implementation and security experience. His radio show takes place every Saturday from Noon to 3pm in Boston.

Today The Spectrum - the Independent Student Newspaper at Buffalo University, published an article titled “Cash for your note stash”. The Spectrum staff writer discusses how students at Buffalo University are using GradeGuru to earn rewards for their notes, the perks of using GradeGuru and the role GradeGuru Campus Ambassadors have in informing classmates about the benefits of GradeGuru.

“Grade “A” notes taken last semester may be worth a hefty penny, now that GradeGuru.com has turned quality note taking into a profitable business.”

“Kim [Bri] became a campus ambassador for GradeGuru through an internship program at UB. Campus ambassadors are top note sharers on the site and work within their universities to promote this new way of studying.”

“It’s a community that feeds off itself,” Sawtell said. “Campus ambassadors are telling friends about it and spreading the word.”

“I like it because it’s so easy to search on,” Kim said. “You just put the class name and hundreds of notes will come up … you can search it, click it, download it and bam.”

Ben Nangeroni is an International Business major at UDel, a GradeGuru brand manager and a contributing editor for our blog.

University of Delware students are finding that GradeGuru offers them the opportunity to reap in more benefits for their notes than just good grades. This week student editor Chelsea Caltuna from The UD Review published an article titled,  “Web site swaps class notes for cash”

“Students could be getting more out of their note-taking than just higher test scores. GradeGuru.com, a new Web site created by the education company McGraw-Hill, allows students across the country to upload and share their class notes and get paid for them.”

“It rewards you for going to class,” sophomore EJ Ekhatosaid. “I think the site is a great idea because it spreads class notes around and makes them more available to everyone.”

“After students upload their notes, GradeGuru uses a formula based on the thoroughness and relevance of the notes to determine how many points the student receives.”

We know filling out surveys can be a bit annoying, so that’s why we’re offering you the chance to win $50 and/or an Apple MacBook for taking 10 minutes to participate in ours (your odds for winning are good, promise!)*

This is how it works:

1. Click here and complete the survey (you must be a registered GradeGuru user)
2. We will give $50 to 1 out of every 100 respondents, so your chances of winning are pretty high. Awards will be given out starting now through November 10, 2009.
3. This questionnaire is part of a 3-part survey study. We will be sending out the other 2 surveys at the end of this semester and the end of the academic year. Upon completing the third survey, you will be eligible to win an Apple MacBook. This machine will be in the hands of one lucky student by July 10, 2010.

The goal of this survey is to better understand your study needs and behaviors, allowing us to develop new tools and applications to best meet your academic needs.

Thank you!

Kaylin Dalrymple is a Junior at The University of Illinois. Kaylin is majoring Communications with a concentration in Advertising.  Kaylin is a Brand Director at Illinois and a contributing author to our blog.



We all know that Facebook and Twitter are super efficient tools for keeping up our friends and acquaintances.  But what a lot of people are not aware of yet is that Facebook, and other social networking sites like Twitter and YouTube, are starting to be used for educational purposes.  I am currently taking a Twitter marketing class and the professor periodically sends out tweets regarding upcoming class information. Given the general direction of business communication, it is unsurprising that a class in the College of Business here at the University of Illinois is using Web 2.0 technology. Using social platforms to update students and connect them to relevant information is brilliant. I check my Facebook and Twitter accounts more often than I would like to admit, and the following academic related updates have been very helpful:

1. Reminders about an assignment I forgot to even start on
2. Notes on GradeGuru that are relevant to my upcoming mid-terms
3. Articles that could give me some background information

According to a recent article in The Guardian, there is a lot of debate in the United Kingdom over proposed plans to change the curriculum of schools to include Web 2.0 technology.  This shows how important it is for our generation, who grew up with the Internet but not with tools like Facebook and Twitter, to learn about and to embrace these sites, as our future careers will most likely deal with them in some way.

Some professors and other educators have even gotten creative in how they teach their courses.  For example, there are many fake “historical figures” accounts on Twitter, and the tweets tell you something about history. Take one of Abraham Lincoln’s latest tweet for example, “The enemy is crossing his wounded over the river in flats, without saying why he does not stop it.”  The tweet of course referring to Lincoln’s congratulatory order to the battle of Gettysburg. I admit, I googled the phrase on the tweet but I learned something new today! Whether we like it or not, social media for academic and learning purposes is here to stay. So the next time someone tells you to get off Facebook, make sure they know, you’re just investing in your future!

Click here to watch the video
LINK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9VX-l51EBA

Nicole Saren is a Junior at University of Miami majoring in Business Management, International Finance and Marketing. Nicole is a GradeGuru Ambassador at UM and a contributing author to our blog.

Miami Hurricanes live for game day. We spend Monday through Friday anxiously awaiting the next chance we get to be banded with neon orange and take in the sight of “J12” jerseys filling Landshark Stadium. This year in particular is an excellent time for a ‘Canes fan as we now have an experienced football team that just achieved a top-10 ranking for the first time since December of 2005. Going into the season unranked, we jumped right to #20 after beating FSU on their own turf 38-34. Next, a home game victory against the 14th ranked Georgia Tech shot us straight up to #9. This past week, we dropped down to #17 after a loss to Virginia Tech. Nevertheless, our team shows enormous potential and ‘Canes fans see this as no more than a helpful reality check. We still want to go all the way.

So how do students with such a passion for football find more time to enjoy it amidst the endless homework and studying? GradeGuru is exactly the answer they’ve been looking for. Instead of spending hours rummaging through messy, scribbled notes, they can quickly log onto GradeGuru, search for a course, and find a top student’s nicely organized notes. This can significantly reduce work time for both regular students and members of the football team.

So just how does such a dedicated player balance schoolwork with practice, meetings, play memorization, and everything else he does to prepare for the games? “I mean it’s not a challenge at all. I’m here for school and football so I know what I have to do”, sophomore wide receiver LaRon Byrd said. “That’s where all my focus is at—trying to be one of the best student athletes in the country. All the other stuff is side distractions. When you are focused on accomplishing a goal and you have dreams that you want to obtain, then there is no challenge at all. It’s all about being committed to what you are doing.”

Sophomore offensive lineman Tyler Horn adds, “It’s tough. Football is a job, but you’ve got to remember that if you don’t get your schoolwork done, then you can’t get out on the field. So getting your schoolwork done is sort of an extra incentive to play.” For any student, especially athletes, GradeGuru is a highly valuable resource. “GradeGuru helps because a lot of times we don’t get the chance to study as much or get to talk to teachers about a certain subject, so it’s helpful having students who understand the material better lend out their notes for help,” said Tyler.

We have optimized our note reader to make it easier to share, rate and comment on notes:

1. You can now share each note on Facebook, Digg, Twitter and other platforms by clicking on the SHARE button in the upper bar of the note reader.
2. Each note has it’s own URL that can be shared (our next step will be to make the URL cleaner with www.gradeguru.com/username/fielname – this is in the works)
3. We have brought the rating to the top
4. We added a link to the contributor’s profile at the top – click View other notes by angela_s
5. You can now see file details (e.g. school, course, textbook, professor, year level, etc) above the note reader by click on Show file details rather than having to go to another page.

Add ratings and comments above note reader:

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